So many sons—none left me any more!
Myself mid shame a spear-thrall ruin-sped;—
Yon smoke o'er Troy upsoaring in my sight!
Yet—yet—'twere unavailing plea perchance
To cast Love's shield before me—yet be it said:825
Lo, at thy very side my child is couched,
Kassandra, whom the Phrygians called the Inspired:—
Those nights of love, hath their memorial perished?
Or for the lovingkindness of the couch
What thank shall my child have, or I for her?830
For of the darkness and the night's love-spells
Cometh on men the chiefest claim for thank.
Hearken now, hearken: seest thou this dead boy?
Doing him right, to thine own marriage-kin
Shalt thou do right. One plea more lack I yet:—835
O that I had a voice in these mine arms
And hands and hair and pacings of my feet,
By art of Dædalus lent, or of a God,
That all together to thy knees might cling
Weeping, and pressing home pleas manifold!840
O my lord, mightiest light to Hellas' sons,
Hearken, O lend thine hand to avenge the aged;
What though a thing of nought she be, yet hear!
For 'tis the good man's part to champion right,
And everywhere and aye to smite the wrong.845
Chorus.
Strange, strange, how all cross-chances hap to men!
These laws shift landmarks even of friendship's ties,[1]
- ↑ The laws of right and wrong, and the obligation to avenge the blood of kin, compel Hecuba to ally herself with Agamemnon, her late enemy, against Polymestor, her late friend.
