Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/60



Andromachê sitting on the steps of the altar of Thetis.

of Asian land, O town of Thebes,

Whence, decked with gold of costly bride-array,

To Priam's royal hearth long since I came

Espoused to Hector for his true-wed wife,—

I, envied in time past, Andromachê,

But now above all others most unblest

Of women that have been or shall be ever;

Who saw mine husband by Achilles slain,

Hector; the child I bare unto my lord

Hurled from the towers' height, my Astyanax,

That day the Hellenes won the plain of Troy.

Myself a slave, accounted erst the child

Of a free house, none freer, came to Hellas,

Spear-guerdon chosen out for the island-prince,

From Troy's spoil given to Neoptolemus.

Here on the marches 'twixt Pharsalia's town

And Phthia's plains I dwell, where that Sea-queen,

Thetis, with Peleus dwelt aloof from men,