Stasimon 2
[Episode 1]
Smouldering in the smoke.
[Episode 2]
Come to me, my husband, come to me!
Hecuba
Ah, hapless wife! you call on my son who lies in the tomb.
Andromache
Your wife’s defender!
590
Hecuba
Oh, you, who before made the Achaeans grieve, eldest of the sons I bore to Priam, take me to your rest in Hades’ halls!
[Episode 3]
These great griefs—
595
Hecuba
Unhappy one, bitter these woes to bear.
595
Andromache
Our city ruined—
Hecuba
And sorrow to sorrow added.
Andromache
Through the will of angry heaven, since the day that son i.e., Paris, who had been exposed to die on account of an oracle foretelling the misery he would cause if he grew to man’s estate; but shepherds had found him on the hills and reared him. of yours escaped death, he that for a hated bride brought destruction on the Trojan citadel. There lie the gory corpses of the slain by the shrine of Pallas for vultures to carry off;
and Troy has come to slavery’s yoke.
600
Hecuba
O my country, O unhappy land—
Andromache
I weep for you now left behind.
Hecuba
Now do you behold your piteous end.
Andromache
And you, my house, where I gave birth.
Hecuba
O my children! bereft of her city as your mother is, she now is losing you. Oh, what mourning and what sorrow! . . .
oh, what endless streams of tears in our houses! The dead alone forget their griefs and never shed a tear.
605
Chorus Leader
What sweet relief to sufferers it is to weep, to mourn, lament, and chant the dirge that tells of grief!
Andromache
Do you see this, mother of that man, Hector, who once laid low in battle many a son of Argos?
610
Hecuba
I see that it is heaven’s way to exalt what men accounted nothing, and ruin what they most esteemed.
