Hecuba (875-890)

For what remains—take heart—I will arrange everything well.

How? what will you do? will you take a sword in your old hand and slay the barbarian, or do you have drugs or some means to aid you? Who will take your part? Where will you procure friends?

Sheltered beneath these tents is a crowd of Trojan women.

Do you mean the captives, the booty of the Hellenes?

With their help I will punish my murderous foe.

How are women to master men?

Numbers are a fearful thing, and joined to craft a desperate foe.

True; still I have a mean opinion of the female race.

What? did not women slay the sons of Aegyptus, and utterly clear Lemnos of men? But let it be thus; put an end to our conference, and send this woman for me safely through the army.

To a servant And you are to draw near my Thracian friend and say, Hecuba, once queen of Ilium, summons you, on your own business no less than hers, your children too, for they also must hear what she has to say. The servant goes out. Defer awhile, Agamemnon,