Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/146

134 EURIPIDES. [L. 29-119 up and down upon the billows, unwept, unburied ; but now am I hovering o'er the head of my dear mother Hecuba, a disembodied spirit, keeping my airy station these three days, ever since my poor mother came from Troy to linger here in Chersonese. Meantime all the Achaeans sit idly here in their ships at the shores of Thrace ; for the son of Peleus, even Achilles, appeared above his tomb and stayed the whole host of Hellas, as they were making straight for home across the sea, demanding to have my sister Polyxena offered at his tomb, and to receive his guerdon.* And he will obtain this prize, nor will they that are his friends refuse the gift ; and on this very day is fate leading my sister to her doom. So will my mother see two children dead at once, me and that ill-fated maid. For I, to win a grave, ah me ! will appear amid the rippling waves before her bond-maid's feet.'* Yes ! I have won this boon from the powers below, that I should find a tomb and fall into my mother's hands ; so shall I get my heart's desire ; wherefore I will go and waylay aged Hecuba, for yonder she passeth on her way from the shelter of Agamemnon's tent, terrified at my spectre. Woe is thee ! ah, mother mine ! from a palace dragged to face a life of slavery ! how sad thy lot, as sad as once 'twas blest ! Some god is now destroying thee, setting this in the balance to outweigh thy former bliss. [Ghost vanishes. Hec. Guide these aged steps, my servants, forth before the house ; support your fellow-slave, your queen of yore, ye maids of Troy. Take hold upon my aged hand, support me, guide me, lift me up ; and I will lean upon your bended arm as on a staff and quicken my halting footsteps onwards. O dazzling light of Zeus ! O gloom of night ! why am I thus ' Polyxena is said in the Greek argument to this play to have been betrothed to Achilles. " The corpse is found by a slare-girl (of. 1. 780) who had gone to fetch water.