Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/167

 HECUBA. 155 I may be a slave and weak as well, but the gods are strong, and custom too which prevails o'er them, for by custom it is that we believe in them and set up bounds of right and wrong for our lives.^ Now if this principle, when referred to thee, is to be set at naught, and they are to escape punishment who murder guests or dare to plunder the temples of gods, then is all fairness in things human at an end. Deem this then a disgrace and show regard for me, have pity on me, and, like an artist standing back from his picture, look on me and closely scan my piteous state. I was once a queen, but now I am thy slave ; a happy mother once, but now childless and old alike, reft of city, utterly forlorn, the most wretched woman living. Ah ! woe is me ! whither wouldst thou withdraw thy steps from me ? [As Agamemnon is turning away.] My efforts then will be in vain, ah me ! ah me ! Why, oh ! why do we mortals toil, as needs we must, and seek out all other sciences, but per- suasion, the only real mistress of mankind, we take no further pains to master completely by offering to pay for the knowledge, so that any ^ man might upon occasion con- vince his fellows as he pleased and gain his point as well ? How shall anyone hereafter hope for prosperity? All those' my sons are gone from me, and I, their mother, am led away into captivity to suffer shame, while yonder I see the smoke leaping up o'er my city. Further, — though perhaps this were idly urged, to plead thy love, still will I put the case : — at thy side lies my daughter, Cassandra, the maid authority, partly on that of Matthiae and Dindorf. Paley only rejects 794 and 795, but scarcely defends the rest. ^ Paley explains this as meaning that the ordinary run of men adopt religious opinions and act on certain principles of justice and injustice, more from its being the established custom than from any real convic- tion. Nauck regards 800-801 as interpolated.
 * iV fiv, so Elmsley for Vv' y.