Ah! my mother! how can you speak of such a dire mischance? Tell me all, mother, yes all!HecubaIt is an ill-boding rumor I tell, my child;they bring me word that sentence is passed upon your life by the Argives’ vote.

PolyxenaAlas, for your cruel sufferings, my persecuted mother! woe for your life of grief! What grievous outrage has some fiend sent on you, hateful, horrible? No more shall I your daughter share your bondage, hapless youth on hapless age attending.For you, alas! will see me, your hapless child, torn from your arms like a calf of the hills, and sent beneath the darkness of the earth with severed throat for Hades, where with the dead shall I be laid, ah me! For your unhappiness I weep with plaintive wail, mother; but for my own life, its ruin and its outrage, never a tear I shed; no, death has become to me a happier lot than life.

Chorus LeaderSee where Odysseus comes in haste, to announce some fresh command to you, Hecuba.Odysseus enters with his attendants.OdysseusLady, I think you know already the intention of the army, and the vote that has been passed; still I will declare it.