A) Euripides, Hecuba 783-785, 809-811
AGAMEMNON Woe is you for your measureless troubles [ponos, plural]!

HECUBA I am ruined; no evil [kakos] now is left, O Agamemnon.

AGAMEMNON Look you! what woman was ever born to such misfortune?

... I was once queen, but now I am your slave; a happy mother once, but now childless and old alike, without a city, utterly forlorn, the most wretched [adjective from athlos] woman living.

B) Euripides, Hecuba 905-951
No more, my native Ilium, shall you be counted among the towns never sacked; so thick a cloud of Hellene troops is settling all around, wasting you with the spear; you have been shorn of your crown of towers, and you have been blackened most piteously with filthy soot; no more, ah me! shall tread your streets.

It was in the middle of the night my ruin came, in the hour when sleep steals sweetly over the eyes after the feast is done. My husband, the music over, and the sacrifice that sets the dance afoot now ended, was lying in our bridal-chamber, his spear hung on a peg; with never a thought of the sailor-throng encamped upon the Trojan shores;

and I was braiding my tresses in a headband that bound up the hair before my golden mirror's countless rays, that I might lay me down to rest in my bed; when through the city rose a din, and a cry went ringing down the streets of Troy, "O sons of Hellas, when, oh! when will ye sack the citadel of Ilium, and seek your homes?"

Up sprang I from my bed, with only a tunic about me, like a Dorian girl, and sought in vain, ah me! to station myself at the holy hearth of Artemis; for, after seeing my husband slain, I was hurried away over the broad sea; with many a backward look at my city, when the ship began her homeward voyage and parted me from Ilium's shore; until alas! I gave way to grief [algos]

C) Euripides, Hecuba 1258-1282
HECUBA I am avenged on you; have I not cause for joy?

POLYMESTOR The joy will soon cease, in the day when ocean's flood...

HECUBA Shall convey me to the shores of Hellas?

POLYMESTOR No, but close over you when you fall from the masthead.

HECUBA Who will force me to take the leap?

POLYMESTOR Of your own accord you will climb the ship's mast.

HECUBA With wings upon my back, or by what means?

POLYMESTOR You will become a dog with bloodshot eyes.

HECUBA How do you know of my transformation?

POLYMESTOR Dionysus, our Thracian prophet, told me so.

HECUBA And did he tell you nothing of your present trouble?

POLYMESTOR No; else you would never have caught me thus by guile.

HECUBA Shall I die or live, and so complete my life on earth?

POLYMESTOR You shall die; and to your tomb shall be given a name -

HECUBA Recalling my form, or what will you tell me?

POLYMESTOR "The hapless hound's grave [sêma]," a mark for mariners."

HECUBA It is nothing to me, now that you have paid me penalty [dikê].

POLYMESTOR Further, your daughter Cassandra must die.

HECUBA I scorn the prophecy! I give it to you to keep for yourself.

POLYMESTOR Her shall the wife of Agamemnon, grim keeper of his palace, slay.

HECUBA Never may the daughter of Tyndareus do such a frantic deed!

POLYMESTOR And she shall slay this king as well, lifting high the axe.

AGAMEMNON Are you mad? Are you so eager to find sorrow?

POLYMESTOR Kill me, for in Argos there awaits you a murderous bath.

AGAMEMNON Servants, take him from my sight.

D) Aeschylus, Eumenides
But since this case has been brought here, I will select homicide judges who will be bound by oath, and I will establish this tribunal for all time. 485 Summon your witnesses, collect your arguments, and the sworn evidence to support your case [dikê]...

Comply with my decree now, people of Attica, as you judge the first trial [dikai] for bloodshed. In the future this council of jurors will always exist for the people of Aegeus. 685 And this Hill of Ares [Areopagus], which was the position and the camp of the Amazons when they came here because of a grudge against Theseus, and they invaded with their army, and built a newly-founded rival polis with high towers, and dedicated their city to Ares; the name of this rock comes from that event; 690 it is called the Hill of Ares. The townsmen's reverence for this hill - and fear, her kinsman - will prevent them from acting unjustly both day and night alike.

E) Thucydides, Peloponnesian Wars 3.82-83
The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though in a severer or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according to the variety of the particular cases. In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes…in their acts of vengeance they went to even greater lengths… Thus religion was in honor with neither party; but the use of fair phrases to arrive at guilty ends was in high reputation. … Thus every form of iniquity took root in the Hellenic countries by reason of the troubles. The ancient simplicity into which honor so largely entered was laughed down and disappeared; and society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow.

F) Odyssey 20.14-15
[Odysseus'] heart barked within him, just as a dog standing over her feeble puppies barks at strangers and is eager to fight.

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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.