Stasimon 1
[Episode]
To minister at Achilles’ tomb has been appointed her.
Hecuba
Woe is me! I the mother of a dead man’s slave! What custom, what ordinance is this among Hellenes, friend?
265
Talthybius
Count your daughter happy; it is well with her.
Hecuba
What wild words are these? Please tell me, is she still alive?
Talthybius
Her fate is one that sets her free from trouble.
270
Hecuba
And what of the wife of Hector skilled in arms, sad Andromache? declare her fate.
Talthybius
She too was a chosen prize; Achilles’ son took her.
whose hair is white with age, who need to hold a staff to be to me a third foot, whose servant am I to be?
275
Talthybius
Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has taken you to be his slave.
Hecuba
Oh, oh! Now smite the close-shorn head!
tear your cheeks with your nails! Ah me! I have fallen as a slave to a treacherous foe I hate, a monster of lawlessness,
280
one that by his double tongue has turned against us all that once was friendly in his camp, changing this for that and that for this again. Oh weep for me, you Trojan women! Lost and ill-fated!
285
Ah woe! a victim to a most unhappy lot!
290
Chorus Leader
Your fate, royal mistress, now you know; but for me, what Helene or Achaean is master of my destiny?
Talthybius
Go, servants, and bring Cassandra forth to me here
at once, that I may place her in our captain’s hands, and then conduct to the rest of the chiefs the captives each has had assigned. Ha! what is the blaze of torches there within? What are they doing? Are they firing the chambers,
295
because they must leave this land and be carried away to Argos? Are they setting themselves aflame in their longing for death? Truly the free bear their troubles in cases like this with a stiff neck. Open up! lest their deed, which suits them well
300
but finds small favor with the Achaeans, bring blame on me.
305
Hecuba
It is not that they are setting anything ablaze, but my child Cassandra, frenzied maid, comes rushing wildly here.
