Behold me journeying on the downward path, my hands so tightly bound with cords that they bleed. Molossus O mother, mother mine! I too share thy downward path, nestling ’neath thy wing. Andromache A cruel sacrifice! ye rulers of Phthia! Molossus Come, father! succour those thou lovest. Andromache Rest κεῖσο δὴ , Nauck. there, my babe, my darling! on thy mother’s bosom, e’en in death and in the grave. Molossus Ah, woe is me! what will become of me and thee too, mother mine? Menelaus Away, to the world below! from hostile towers ye came, the pair of you; two different causes necessitate your deaths; my sentence takes away thy life, and my daughter Hermione’s requires his; for it would be the height of folly to leave our foemen’s sons, when we might kill them and remove the danger from our house. Andromache O husband mine! I would I had thy strong arm and spear to aid me, son of Priam. Molossus Ah, woe is me! what spell can I now find to turn death’s stroke aside?