Andromache (0-84)

O city of Thebes,[*] glory of Asia, whence on a day I came to Priam’s princely home with many a rich and costly thing in my dower, affianced unto Hector to be the mother of his children,

I Andromache, envied name in days of yore, but now of all women that have been or yet shall be the most unfortunate[*]; for I have lived to see my husband Hector slain by Achilles, and the babe Astyanax, whom I bore my lord,

hurled from the towering battlements, when the Hellenes sacked our Trojan home; and I myself am come to Hellas as a slave, though I was esteemed a daughter of a race most free, given to Neoptolemus that island-prince,

and set apart for him as his special prize from the spoils of Troy. And here I dwell upon the boundaries of Phthia and Pharsalia’s town, where Thetis erst, the goddess of the sea, abode with Peleus apart from the world, avoiding the throng of men; wherefore the folk of Thessaly

call it the sacred place of Thetis, in honour of the goddess’s marriage. Here dwells the son of Achilles and suffers Peleus still to rule Pharsalia, not wishing to assume the sceptre while the old man lives. Within these halls have I born a boy

to the son of Achilles, my master.

Now aforetime for all my misery I ever had a hope to lead me on, that, if my child were safe, I might find some help and protection from my woes; but since my lord hath wedded that Spartan Hermione[*]

in scorn of his bondmaid’s charms, I am tormented by her most cruelly; for she saith that I by secret enchantment am making her barren and distasteful to her husband, and that I design to take her place in this house,

ousting her the rightful mistress by force; whereas I at first submitted against my will and now have resigned my place; be almighty Zeus my witness that[*] it was not of my own free will I became her rival!

But I cannot convince her, and she longs to kill me,

and her father Menelaus is an accomplice in this. E’en now is he within, arrived from Sparta for this very purpose, while I in terror am come to take up a position here in the shrine of Thetis adjoining the house, if haply it may save me from death;

for Peleus and his descendants hold it in honour as a symbol of his marriage with the Nereid. My only son am I secretly conveying to a neighbour’s house in fear for his life. For his sire stands not by my side

to lend his aid and cannot avail his child at all, being absent in the land of Delphi, where he is offering recompense to Loxias for the madness he committed, when on a day he went to Pytho and demanded of Phoebus satisfaction[*] for his father’s death,[*] if haply his prayer might avert those past sins

and win for him the god’s goodwill hereafter.

Mistress mine, be sure I do not hesitate to call thee by that name, seeing that I thought it thy right in thine own house also, when we dwelt in Troy-land: as I was ever thy friend and thy husband’s while yet he was alive,

so now have I come with strange tidings, in terror lest any of our masters learn hereof but still out of pity for thee; for Menelaus and his daughter are forming dire plots against thee, whereof thou must beware.

Ah! kind companion of my bondage, for such thou art to her, who, erst thy queen, is now sunk in misery; what are they doing? What new schemes are they devising in their eagerness to take away my wretched life?

Alas! poor lady, they intend to slay thy son, whom thou hast privily conveyed from out the house.

Ah me! Has she[*] heard that my babe was put out of her reach? Who told her? Woe is me! how utterly undone!

I know not, but thus much of their schemes I heard myself; and Menelaus has left the house to fetch him.

Then am I lost; ah, my child! those

vultures twain will take and slay thee; while he who is called thy father lingers still in Delphi.

True, for had he been here thou wouldst not have fared so hardly, I am sure; but, as it is, thou art friendless.

Have no tidings come of the possible arrival of Peleus?

He is too old to help thee if he came.

And yet I sent for him more than once.

Surely thou dost not suppose that any of thy messengers heed thee?

Why should they? Wilt thou then go for me?

How shall I explain my long absence from the house?