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A) Euripides, Hecuba 205-210
For just as a lion's whelp of the hills is torn from its mother,
you, alas! hapless will see <..................>
your hapless young shoot
torn from your arms,
and sent beneath the darkness of the earth
with severed throat for Hades,
where with the dead shall I be laid, ah me!B) Euripides, Hecuba 342-368
POLYXENA Odysseus, I see you hiding your right hand
beneath your robe and turning away your face,
so that I may not touch your beard.
Take heart; you are safe from the suppliant's god in my case,
for I will follow you, alike because I must
and because it is my wish to die; for were I not willing,
a coward should I show myself, a woman too fond of her life [psukhê].
Why should I prolong my days? I whose sire was king
of all the Phrygians? This was the most important thing in life for me.
Then was I nursed on fair fond hopes
to be a bride for kings, the center of fierce jealousy among suitors,
to see whose home I would make my own;
and over each woman of Ida I was queen; ah me!
a maiden marked amid women and girls,
equal to a goddess, save for death alone.
But now I am a slave. That name first
makes me long for death, so strange it sounds;
and then maybe my lot might give me to some savage master,
one that would buy me for money -
me the sister of Hector and many another chief -
who would make me knead him bread within his halls,
or sweep his house or set me working at the loom,
leading a life of misery;
while some slave, bought I know not whence, will taint my maiden charms,
once deemed worthy of royalty [turannos].
No, never! Here I close my eyes upon the light,
free as yet, and dedicate myself to Hades.C) Euripides, Hecuba 444-483
CHORUS O breeze from out the deep arising,
that escorts swift,
sea-faring ships to harbors across the surging sea!
Where will you bear me, the child of sorrow?
To whose house shall I be brought,
to be his slave and chattel?
To some haven in the Dorian land,
or in Phthia, where
men say the Apidanus river, father of fairest streams,
makes the land fat and rich?or to an island home,
sent on a voyage of misery by oars that sweep the brine,
leading a wretched existence in halls
where the first-created palm
and the bay-tree put forth their sacred
shoots for dear Latona,
as a memorial of her divine child-birth?
And there with the maids of Delos
shall I hymn the golden head-band and bow
of Artemis their goddess?Or in the city of Pallas,
the home of Athena of the beauteous chariot,
shall I upon her saffron robe
yoke horses to the car,
embroidering them on my web
in brilliant varied shades,
or [shall I embroider] the race of Titans,
whom Zeus the son of Cronos lays to their unending sleep
with his bolt of flashing flame?Woe is me for my children!
Woe for my ancestors, and my country
which is falling in smouldering ruin
amid the smoke,
sacked by the Argive spear!
While I upon a foreign shore am called
a slave, leaving Asia,
Europe's handmaid,
and receiving in its place the chambers of Hades.D) Euripides, Hecuba 521-582
All Achaea's host was gathered there
in full array before the tomb to see your daughter offered;
and the son of Achilles took Polyxena by the hand
and set her on the top of the mound, while I stood near;
and a chosen band of young Achaeans
followed to hold your child and prevent her struggling...[Neoptolemus prays to Achilles]
Then seizing his golden sword by the hilt
he drew it from its scabbard, making a sign to the picked young Argive warriors
to hold the maid.
But she, when she became aware of this, uttered [sêmainô] a speech:
"O Argives, who have sacked my city!
Of my free will I die; let none lay hand on me;
for bravely will I yield my neck.
I beseech you by the gods, leave me free
when you kill me, so I may die free, for to be called
a slave among the dead fills my royal heart with shame."
At that the people shouted their applause, and king Agamemnon
bade the young men to release the maiden.
[So they set her free, as soon as they heard this last command
from him whose might was over all.]
And she, hearing her captors' words took her robe and
tore it open from the shoulder to the waist,
displaying a breast and bosom fair as a statue's;
then sinking on her knee,
one word she spoke more piteous than all the rest,
"Young prince, if it is my breast
you desire to strike, stike, or if at my neck
you wish to aim your sword, behold! that neck is bared."
Then he, both unwilling and willing in his pity for the girl,
cut with the steel the channels of her breath,
and streams of blood gushed forth; but she, even as she was dying,
took care to fall with dignity,
hiding what must be hidden from the gaze of man.
As soon as she had breathed her last through the fatal gash,
each Argive set his hand to different tasks,
some strewing leaves over the corpse
in handfuls, others bringing pine-logs
and heaping up a pyre; and he, who brought nothing,
would hear from him who did such taunts as these,
"You stand still, ignoble wretch,
with no robe or ornament to bring for the maiden?
Will you give nothing to her that showed such peerless bravery
and spirit [aristos + psukhê]?" Such is the tale I tell
about your daughter's death, and I regard you as blessed
beyond all mothers in your noble child, yet crossed in fortune more than all.E) Euripides, Hecuba 609-613
My aged handmaid, take a pitcher
and dip it in the salt sea and bring it here,
that I for the last time may wash my child,
a bride but not a bride, a virgin and not a virgin,
and lay her out - as she deserves.
An electronic text of Thucydides' The Peloponnesian Wars is available from the Perseus Project. Also available, Thomas Martin's Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander.
The Sacrifice of Polyxena