The Trojan Women (650-723)

therefore I gave up any longing to do so, and stayed within my house; nor would I admit indoors the clever gossip women love, but conscious of a heart that told an honest tale I was content. And ever would I keep a silent tongue and modest eye before my husband;

and well I knew where I might rule him, and where it was best to yield.

Report of this has reached the Achaean army, and proved my ruin; for when I was taken captive, Achilles’ son would have me

as his wife, and I must serve in the house of murderers. And if I set aside my love for Hector, and open my heart to this new lord, I shall appear a traitress to the dead, while, if I hate him, I shall incur my master’s displeasure.

And yet they say a single night removes a woman’s dislike for her husband; I despise the woman who, when she has lost her former husband, transfers her love by marrying another. Not even the horse, if parted from her stablemate,

will cheerfully draw the yoke; and animals have neither speech nor sense to help them, and are by nature man’s inferiors.

O my dear Hector, in you I found a husband amply dowered with wisdom, noble birth and fortune, a brave man and a mighty;

while you took from my father’s house a spotless bride, yourself the first to make this maiden wife. But now death has claimed you, and I am soon to sail to Hellas, a captive doomed to wear the yoke of slavery. Has not then the dead Polyxena,

for whom you wail, less evil to bear than I? I have not so much as hope, the last resource of every human heart, nor do I beguile myself with dreams of future bliss, the very thought of which is sweet.

You are in the same plight as I; your lamentations

for yourself remind me of my own sad case.

I never yet have set foot on a ship’s deck, though I have seen such things in pictures and know of them from hearsay. Now sailors, if there comes a storm of moderate force, are all eagerness to save themselves by toil;

one stands at the tiller, another sets himself to work the sheets, a third meanwhile is baling out the ship; but if tempestuous waves arise to overwhelm them, they yield to fortune and commit themselves to the driving billows. Even so I, by reason of my countless troubles,

am speechless and forbear to say a word; for this surge of misery from the gods is too strong for me. Cease, my darling child, to speak of Hector’s fate; no tears of yours can save him; honor your present master,

offering your sweet nature as the bait to win him. If you do this, you will cheer your friends as well as yourself and you shalt rear my Hector’s child to lend stout aid to Ilium, that so your children in the aftertime

may build her up again, and our city yet be established. But our talk must take a different turn; who is this Achaean servant I see coming here again, sent to tell us of some new design?

You that once were the wife of Hector, bravest of the Phrygians,

do not hate me, for I am not a willing messenger. The Danaids and sons of Pelops both command—

What is it? your prelude bodes evil news.

It is decreed your son is—how can I tell my news?

Surely not to have a different master from me?

None of all Achaea’s chiefs shall ever lord it over him.

Is it their will to leave him here, a remnant of Phrygia’s race?

I know no words to break the sorrow lightly to you.

I thank you for your consideration, unless indeed you have good news to tell.

They mean to slay your son; there is my hateful message to you.

Oh me! this is worse tidings than my forced marriage.

So spoke Odysseus to the assembled Hellenes, and his word prevails.

Oh, once again alas! there is no measure in the woes I bear.

He said they should not rear so brave a father’s son.