Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/153

HECUBA. I4t US, to treat him so no more ? How now ? what will they say, if once more there comes a gathering of the host and a son- test with the foe ? " Shall we fight or nurse our lives, seeing the dead have no honours ? " For myself, indeed, though in life my daily store were scant, yet would it be all-sufficient, but as touching a tomb I should wish mine to be an object of respect, for this gratitude has long to run. Thou speakest of cruel sufferings ; hear my answer. Amongst us are aged dames and grey old men no less miserable than thou, and brides of gallant husbands reft, o'er whom this Trojan dust has closed. Endure these sorrows ; for us, if we are wrong in resolving to honour the brave, we shall bring upon ourselves a charge of ignorance ; but as for you barbarians, regard not your friends as such and pay no homage to your gallant dead, that Hellas may prosper and ye may reap the fruits of such policy. Cho. Alas ! how cursed is slavery alway in its nature,^ forced by the might of the stronger to endure unseemly treatment. Hec. Daughter, my pleading to avert thy bloody death was wasted idly on the air ; do thou, if in aught endowed with greater power to move than thy mother, make haste to use it, uttering every pleading note like the tuneful nightingale, to save thy soul from death. Throw thyself at Odysseus' knees to move his pity, and try to move him. Here is thy plea : he too hath children, so that he can feel for thy sad fate. Pol. Odysseus, I see thee hiding thy right hand beneath thy robe and turning away thy face, that I may not touch thy beard. Take heart ; thou art safe from the suppliant's god in my case, for I will follow thee, alike because I must and because it is my wish to die; for were I loth, a coward should I show myself, a woman faint of heart. Why should I prolong my days ? I whose sire was king of all the Phrygians ? —