Troy." Thus much he said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then
taking by the hilt his sword decked with gold, he drew it from its
scabbard, and made signs to the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the
virgin. But she, when she perceived it,[11] uttered this speech: "O
Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die willingly; let none touch my
body; for I will offer my neck to the sword with a good heart. But, by the
Gods, let me go free while ye kill me, that I may die free, for to be
classed as a slave among the dead, when a queen, is what I am ashamed of."
But the people murmured assent, and king Agamemnon ordered the young men to
quit the virgin; [but they, soon as they heard the last words of him who
had the seat of chief authority among them, let go their hold,] and she, on
hearing this speech of her lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning
from the top of her shoulder down to her waist: and showed her breasts and
bosom beauteous, as a statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke
words the most piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou
desirest, O youth; or wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this
throat prepared." But he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of
the virgin, cuts with the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of
blood burst forth. But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall
decently, and to veil from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But
after that she breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of
the Greeks exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their
hands on the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of
pines: but he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him
that was thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit?
Hast in thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to
give to her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These
things I tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once
the most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.