Hecuba (399-418)

Not if you will listen to those who are wiser than you.

Be sure I will never willingly relinquish my child.

Well, be equally sure I will never go away and leave her here.

Mother, listen to me; and you, son of Laertes, make allowance for a parent’s natural wrath. My poor mother, do not fight with our masters.

Will you be thrown to the ground, be roughly thrust aside and wound your aged skin, and in unseemly fashion be torn from me by youthful arms? This you will suffer; but do not, for it is not right for you. No, my dear mother! give me your beloved hand,

and let me press your cheek to mine; for never again, but now for the last time, shall I behold the dazzling sun-god’s orb. Take my last farewells now. O mother, my mother! I pass beneath the earth.

O my daughter, I am still to live and be a slave.

Unwedded I depart, never having tasted the married joys that were my due!

Yours, my daughter, is a piteous lot, and sad is mine also.

There in Hades’ courts shall I lie apart from you.