1 EURIPIDES' TROJAN WOMEN PREFACE, TRANSLATION, and ...

Hector, she made me weep. She begged Neoptolemus that her child,
who breathed his last when he fell from the walls,
that child of your Hector, be granted a funeral.
In addition, she asked that instead of in cedar or stone,
he be buried in Hector’s bronze shield, the same one
his father wrapped around his own body to protect himself
and that struck terror in the Greeks. Andromache begged
that it not be hung on the wall of her new room,
where she would be bedded, as a grim reminder of her past.
She asked that I lay his dead body in your arms,
so that you might cover him with some clothing and wreaths,
from whatever is left to you, since her master’s hasty departure
prevented her from burying him herself. When you have
prepared the body, I shall heap a mound over him and
stick a spear in the earth to mark it.
Do what you have to do as quickly as possible.
One trouble I spared you: when I crossed Scamander, 1150
I washed his body in the stream and cleaned his wounds.
I’ll go and dig him a grave, so between us both
we’ll shorten the work and hasten our return home.
Hecuba
Lay Hector’s rimmed shield on the ground,
now a joyless sight and bitter for me to see.
O you Greeks who have more strength in spear than in brain,
why did you fear a child so much
that you committed this barbaric murder?
Did you think he would raise again our fallen Troy?
Did you consider yourselves so weak?
When Hector was winning, with all his allies at his side,
we still died in droves.
Now that Troy is taken, and Phrygia no more,
Do you fear this little child?
I hate the fear that comes when reason flies away.
O my best beloved, how unlucky you were in your death.
If you had grown up and died fighting for your city,
had wed, and ruled like a god, you would have been happy,
if happiness can be found in such things.
You saw all this and knew what it was in your young mind,
child, but you had no chance to experience it yourself
and never enjoyed it in your own house.
Poor sweet child, how cruelly your father’s walls,
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