Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/236

200 But, when Troy perished, perished Hector's soul,

And my sire's hearths were made a desolation,

And himself at the god-built altar fell

Slain by Achilles' son, the murder-stained,

Then me for that gold's sake my father's friend

Slays, and the slaughtered wretch mid sea-surge cast,

That in his halls himself might keep the gold.

Here on the beach I welter, surf-borne there

Drift on the racing waves' recoil and rush,

Tombless, unwept. O'er my dear mother's head

Now flit I, leaving tenantless my body.

This is the third day that I hover so,

Even all the time that in this Chersonese

My hapless mother tarrieth, haled from Troy.

And all the Achaians idle with their ships

Sit on the beaches of this Thracian land.

For Peleus' son above his tomb appeared,

And all the Hellenic host Achilles stayed,

Even as they homeward aimed the brine-dipt oar,

And claimed for his Polyxena my sister,

For sacrifice and honour to his tomb;

Yea, and shall win, nor of his hero-friends

Giftless shall be. And Fate is leading on

Unto her death my sister on this day.

And of two children shall my mother see

Two corpses, mine, and that her hapless daughter's.

For I, to gain a tomb, will—wretch—appear

Before her handmaid's feet amidst the surge.

For with the Lords of Death have I prevailed

'Twixt mother-hands to fall, and win a tomb.

Accomplished shall be all for which I longed.

But agèd Hecuba's sight will I avoid;

For forth of Agamemnon's tent she sets