prosperity.

HECUBA. CHORUS.

HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
implore you.

CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O