A noble speech, my daughter! but there is sorrow linked with its noble sentiments. Odysseus, if you must please the son of Peleus, and avoid reproach, do not slay this maid, but lead me to Achilles’ pyre and torture me unsparingly; it was I that bore Paris , whose fatal shaft laid low the son of Thetis. Odysseus It is not your death, my lady, that Achilles’ ghost has demanded of the Achaeans, but hers. Hecuba At least then slaughter me with my child; so shall there be a double drink of blood for the earth and the dead that claims this sacrifice. Odysseus The maiden’s death suffices; no need to add a second to the first; would we did not need even this! Hecuba Die with my daughter I must and will. Odysseus How so? I did not know I had a master. Hecuba I will cling to her like ivy to an oak.