The Tragedies of Euripides Part 6

POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave--

HEC. Shall bear me, _dost thou mean_, to the confines of the Grecian land?

POLY. --shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.

HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?

POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.

HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?

POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.

HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?

POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.

HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?

POLY. No: for, _if he had_, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have taken me.

HEC. [22]Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?

POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be--

HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?

POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.

HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.

POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Ca.s.sandra to die.

HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.

POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.

HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.

POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.

AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.

POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.

AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?

POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.

AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?

POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.

AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island, since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country, and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from these toils.

CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.

NOTES ON HECUBA

[1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil.

[2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses the word d???. See Hippol. 988.

[3] t??ta??? properly signifies _tridua.n.u.s_; here it is used for t??t??, the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.

??? d' ??, t??ta?a? ?' ??s' as?t?? ??e?a?:

[4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed Musgrave's note. "s?????, s??p??? (_for which Porson directs_ s??p???,) Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis usum praestabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, s?????? s??p?a vocat."

[5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. ??p??, ??

???t??, ?a? epe????, ?? ??p? p????? p?a?at?? ?e??e???. In the Index to Lycophron ??p?? is translated _scurra_.

[6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great quant.i.ty of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. ?.

872.

??? ?a? ???s?? e??? p??e?? d' ?e? ??te ?????. PORSON.

[7] This is the only sense that can be made of e??a?e??, and this sense seems strained: Brunck proposes e?ta???a? for e??a?e?? ?e. See Note [A].

[8] ???? is used for the _sea_ in Troades 444; as also in Iliad ?. 21, and Odyssey G. 1. and in many other pa.s.sages of Homer.

[9] The construction is ? p??e?se?? e e??a ?as??; for e?? e?e???? t??

?as??, e??a.

[10] ?e???a? for e??, not an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, ?ea ?e???a? ??p???.

[11] _When she perceived it,_ ef?as??, s????e?, e???, e???se?. _Hesych_.

[12] The G.o.ds beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the G.o.ds above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.

[13] _Whatever was due_, either on the score of friendship, or as an equivalent for his care and protection.

[14] Musgrave proposes to read p???s??a? for p?????a?: the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the paraphrast.

[15] See note on Medea 338.