Eksodos
Polymestor
My dear friend Priam, and you no less, Hecuba, I weep to see you and your city thus, and your daughter lately slain.
Ah! there is nothing to be relied on; fair fame is insecure, nor is there any guarantee that prosperity will not be turned to woe. For the gods confound our fortunes, tossing them to and fro, and introduce confusion, so that our perplexity
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may make us worship them. But what use is it to lament these things, and make no advance ahead of trouble? If you are blaming me at all for my absence, stop a moment; I happened to be away in the very heart of Thrace when you came here; but on my return,
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just as I was starting from my home for the same purpose, your maid fell in with me, and gave me your message, which brought me here at once.
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Hecuba
Polymestor, I am held in such wretchedness that I blush to meet your eye;
for my present evil case makes me ashamed to face you who saw me in happier days, and I could not look on you with unfaltering gaze. Do not then think it ill-will towards you, Polymestor; there is another cause as well,
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I mean the custom which forbids women to meet men’s gaze.
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Polymestor
No wonder, surely. But what need do you have of me? Why did you send for me to come here from my house?
Hecuba
I wish to tell you and your children a private matter of my own; please bid
your attendants withdraw from the tent.
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Polymestor
Retire; this desert spot is safe enough. The guards go out; to Hecuba You are my friend, and this Achaean army is well-disposed to me. But you must tell me how prosperity
is to help its unlucky friends; for I am ready to do so.
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Hecuba
First tell me of the child Polydorus, whom you are keeping in your house, received from me and his father; is he alive? The rest I will ask you after that.
Polymestor
Yes, you still have a share in fortune there.
Hecuba
Well said, dear friend! how worthy of you!
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Polymestor
What next would you learn of me?
Hecuba
has he any recollection of me his mother?
Polymestor
Yes, he was longing to steal away here to you.
Hecuba
Is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
Polymestor
Safe under lock and key in my halls.
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Hecuba
Do save it, but do not desire your neighbor’s goods.
Polymestor
Not I; may I benefit by what I have, lady!
Hecuba
Do you know what I wish to say to you and your children?
Polymestor
No; your words will declare it.
Hecuba
O you who are as dear to me as you now are, there are—
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Polymestor
What is it that I and my children must learn?
Hecuba
Ancient vaults filled full of gold by Priam’s ancestors.
Polymestor
Is it this you would tell your son?
Hecuba
Certainly, through you; for you are a righteous man.
Polymestor
What need then of these children’s presence?
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Hecuba
It is better they should know it, in case of your death.
Polymestor
Well said; it is also the wiser way.
Hecuba
Then do you know where the shrine of Trojan Athena is?
Polymestor
Is the gold there? what is there to mark it?
Hecuba
A black rock rising above the ground.
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Polymestor
Is there anything else you want to tell me about the place?
Hecuba
I wish to keep safe the treasure I brought from Troy.
Polymestor
Where can it be? inside your dress, or have you hidden it?
Hecuba
It is safe among a heap of spoils within these tents.
Polymestor
Where? This is the station built by the Achaeans to surround their fleet.
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Hecuba
The captive women have huts of their own.
Polymestor
It is safe to enter? are there no men about?
Hecuba
There are no Achaeans within; we women are alone. Enter then the tent, for the Argives
are eager to set sail from Troy for home; and, when you have accomplished all that you must do, you shall return with your children to the place where you have lodged my son. Hecuba leads Polymestor and his children into the tent.
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Chorus
Not yet have you paid the penalty, but perhaps you will.