A) Ovid, Heroides 3
Where is your careless love gone to now?
Perhaps a dismal lot still crushes the sad
and I will not find a sweeter time.
Your brave men levelled the walls of Lyrnessus.
I who was part of my father's land
have seen my dearest relative lying dead:
the sons of my mother, three brothers,
comrades in life, are today comrades in death;
my husband writhed in the bloody dirt,
his body heaving as he lay on the ground.
Though I lost so many dear to me
my loss was eased by loving you as brother,
as my husband, and as my master.

B) Iliad 19.282-302: Then Briseis like golden Aphrodite, when she saw Patroklos torn by the sharp bronze, falling around him she wailed with piercing cries. And with her hands she struck her breast and tender neck and beautiful face. And then lamenting she spoke, a woman like the goddesses: "Patroklos, most pleasing to my wretched heart, I left you alive when I went from the hut. But now returning home I find you dead, O leader of the people, So evil begets evil for me forever. The husband to whom my father and mistress mother gave me I saw torn by the sharp bronze before the city, and my three brothers, whom one mother bore together with me, beloved ones, all of whom met their day of destruction. Nor did you allow me, when swift Achilles killed my husband, and sacked the city of god-like Mynes, to weep, but you claimed that you would make me the wedded wife of god-like Achilles and that you would bring me in the ships to Phthia, and give me a wedding feast among the Myrmidons. Therefore I weep for you now that you are dead ceaselessly, you who were kind always." So she spoke lamenting, and the women wailed in response, with Patroklos as their pretext, but each woman for her own cares.

C) Iliad 6.392-432: "Dear husband," said she, "your valor will bring you to destruction; think on your infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your widow - for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you. It would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, save only sorrow [akhos]. I have neither father nor mother now. Achilles slew my father when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of the Cilicians. He slew him, but did not for very shame despoil him; when he had burned him in his wondrous armor, he raised a barrow over his ashes and the mountain nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, planted a grove of elms about his tomb [sêma]. I had seven brothers in my father's house, but on the same day they all went within the house of Hades. Achilles killed them as they were with their sheep and cattle. My mother - her who had been queen of all the land under Mount Plakos - he brought hither with the spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer - queen Artemis took her in the house of your father. Nay - Hektor - you who to me are father, mother, brother, and dear husband - have mercy upon me; stay here upon this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow.

D) Sophocles, Ajax 485-524: I have nothing left to which I can look, save you, and you are the reason. Your spear ravaged my country to nothingness, and another fate has brought down my mother and father, giving them a home in Hades in their death. What homeland, then, could I have without you? What wealth? My welfare is entirely in your hands [sôzô]. So remember me, too. A true man should cherish remembrance, if anywhere he takes some pleasure. It is kindness that always begets kindness. But whoever lets the memory of benefits seep from him, he can no longer be a noble man.

E) Ovid, Heroides 3
I swear this oath. By the bones of my husband
which, though scarcely buried, are sacred;
by the souls of my three brothers, now my gods,
who bravely died when their country died;
by your head and mine which we laid side by side
and by your sword which my family knew:
I swear that the Mycenaean king has shared
no bed with me.

F) Iliad 19.255-263: The other Achaeans sat where they were all silent and orderly to hear the king, and Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed saying, "I call Zeus the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise, but that she has remained in my tents inviolate."

G) Ovid, Heroides 3
Not only that, they tell me that when dawn breaks
you will unfurl your sails and leave me.
I fainted when I heard the awful story.
To whom will I be left when you go?
Who will comfort me when I am left alone?
May lightning strike or the earth swallow
me before the sea foams with your oars leaving
me farther and farther behind you.
If you must go, I will not burden your ships.
I follow as captive, not as wife.
My fingers know the art of working with wool.
You will take a beautiful bride, one
like Thetis, worthy of Peleus, and so
should you marry; I will be a slave
spinning out my day's work until the distaff
once full of new wool grows thin as threads
are drawn out from it.

H) Catullus 64.158-163
If it was not your heart's wish to marry me, through holding in horror the dread decrees of my stern father, yet you could have led me to your home, where as your handmaid I might have served you with labor of love, washing your shining feet with clear water, or spreading the purple coverlet over your bed.

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