THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
No more, my native Ilium, shalt thou be counted among the towns
ne'er sacked; so thick a cloud of Hellene troops is settling all around,
wasting thee with the spear; shorn art thou of thy coronal of towers,
and fouled most piteously with filthy soot; no more, ah me I shall I
tread thy streets.
antistrophe 1
'Twas in the middle of the night my ruin came, in the hour when
sleep steals sweetly o'er the eyes after the feast is done. My husband,
the music o'er, and the sacrifice that sets the dance afoot now ended,
was lying in our bridal-chamber, his spear hung on a peg; with never
a thought of the sailor-throng encamped upon the Trojan shores;
strophe 2
and I was braiding my tresses 'neath a tight-drawn snood before
my golden mirror's countless rays, that I might lay me down to rest;
when lo! through the city rose a din, and a cry went ringing down
the streets of Troy, "Ye sons of Hellas, when, oh! when will ye sack
the citadel of Ilium, and seek your homes ?"
antistrophe 2
Up sprang I from my bed, with only a mantle about me, like a
Dorian maid, and sought in vain, ah me! to station myself at the holy
hearth of Artemis; for, after seeing my husband slain, I was hurried
away o'er the broad sea; with many a backward look at my city,
when the ship began her homeward voyage and parted me from
Ilium's strand; till alas! for very grief I fainted,
epode
cursing Helen the sister of the Dioscuri, and Paris the baleful
shepherd of Ida; for 'twas their marriage, which was no marriage
but a curse by some demon sent, that robbed me of my country and
drove me from my home. Oh! may the sea's salt flood ne'er carry her
home again; and may she never set foot in her father's halls!
829
(HECUBA comes out of the tent as POLYMESTOR, his children and guards
enter.)
POLYMESTOR
My dear friend Priam, and thou no less, Hecuba, I weep to see thee and
thy city thus, and thy daughter lately slain. Alas! there is naught to be
relied on; fair fame is insecure, nor is there any guarantee that weal will