THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

CHORUS (singing)
strophe
Woe and tribulation were made my lot in life, soon as ever Paris
felled his beams of pine in Ida's woods, to sail across the heaving
main in quest of Helen's hand, fairest bride on whom the sun-god
turns his golden eye.
antistrophe
For here beginneth trouble's cycle, and, worse than that, relentless
fate; and from one man's folly came a universal curse, bringing death
to the land of Simois, with trouble from an alien shore. The strife the
shepherd decided on Ida 'twixt three daughters of the blessed gods,
epode
brought as its result war and bloodshed and the ruin of my home;
and many a Spartan maiden too is weeping bitter tears in her halls
on the banks of fair Eurotas, and many a mother whose sons are
slain, is smiting her hoary head and tearing her cheeks, making her
nails red in the furrowed gash.
MAID
(entering excitedly, attended by bearers bringing in a covered corpse)
Oh! where, ladies, is Hecuba, our queen of sorrow, who far surpasses all
in tribulation, men and women both alike? None shall wrest the crown
from her.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
What now, thou wretched bird of boding note? Thy evil tidings never
seem to rest.
MAID
'Tis to Hecuba I bring my bitter news; no easy task is it for mortal
lips to speak smooth words in sorrow's hour.
LEADER
Lo! she is coming even now from the shelter of the tent, appearing just
in time to hear thee speak.
(HECUBA comes out of the tent.)
MAID
Alas for thee! most hapless queen, ruined beyond all words of mine to
tell; robbed of the light of life; of children, husband, city reft; hopelessly
undone!