A monologue from the enjoy by Euripides
NOTE: This monologue can be reprinted by The Performs of Euripides in British, volume. i. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. Greater london: J. M. Dent Daughters, 1920.
HECUBA: Not one
Exists, whose sorrows equal my very own, unless
You of Calamity herself would speak.
Yet hear the motive how come I clasp your knees.
If I appear to worth what I go through
I must be patient, but if not, avenge
My personal wrongs after the man whom gainst his guest
Such treachery could commit, who also, nor the gods
Of Erebus beneath, nor those who rule
In Heaven previously mentioned regarding, this vile action
Did perpetrate, een this individual with which I?fters
Partook the feast, in whom I showered every single bounty
Esteeming him the first of all my local freinds
Yet, the moment at Ilions palace with respect
He had been cared for, a deliberate scheme
Of murder building, he ruined my boy
On which he deigned not to bestow a burial place
But threw his corse into the briny deep.
Though I indeed am feeble, and a slave
However mighty are the gods, through their rules
The world is usually ruled: to get by that law we all learn
That we now have gods, and may mark the actual bounds
Of justice and injustice, if perhaps such legislation
To you transmitted, be infringed, if they will
Who destroy their guests, or care to with impious hand
To violate the altars of the gods
Unpunished scape, not any equity can be left
Amongst mankind. Deeming such basic connivance
Not worth of yourself, revere my own woes
Include pity in me, such as a painter take
Your stand to view me personally, and take notice of the number
Of my ailments, once was I a queen
But now am I a slave, in many a son
I once was wealthy, but now am i not both older
And of my children reft, without a city
Forlorn, along with all mortals the most wretched.
That band of my heroic kids is now no longer
Myself a captive, was led forth to tasks
Unseemly, and een now these eye behold
The air obscured by Ilions increasing smoke.
It would be vain maybe, were My spouse and i to located
A claim to your assistance on your love:
Yet must I speak: my own daughter, whom in Troy
Was called Cassandra, the prophetic hie
Partakes the bed, and exactly how those rapturous nights
Would you like to acknowledge, as well as to her show
Your honor for all the attached to embraces
Which in turn she bestows, O ruler, or in her stead
To me her mother? Inside the soul of man
A endearments with the night, simply by darkness veiled
Create the strongest fascination. To my tale
Today listen: will you see that out of breath, short of breath corse?
Each act of kindness which will to him is shown
Upon a kinsman with the dame you adore
Will be conferred. But , in one point my own speech
Is definitely yet deficient. By the wondrous arts
Of D? dalus, or some benignant god
Could I give voice to each provide, hand, and hair
And extremest joint, they round your knees
Should certainly cling with each other, and jointly weep
At the same time combining which has a thousand tongues.
O monarch, O thou light of Greece, comply
And expand forth that avenging adjustable rate mortgage to aid
An aged girl, though she be a factor
Of nought, O succour: for the good mans responsibility
Is to abide by the dislike behests of justice
And ever punish those who act amiss.
