The Scaean gates, that issue on the field,
His spouse, the nobly-dowered Andromache,
Came forth to meet him,--daughter of the prince
Eetion, who among the woody slopes
Of Placos, in the Hypoplacian town
Of Thebe, ruled Cilicia and her sons,
And gave his child to Hector great in arms.
She came attended by a maid, who bore
A tender child--a babe too young to speak--
Upon her bosom,--Hector's only son,
Beautiful as a star, whom Hector called
Scamandrius, but all else Astyanax,--
The city's lord,--since Hector stood the sole
Defence of Troy. The father on his child
Looked with a silent smile. Andromache
Pressed to his side meanwhile, and, all in tears,
Clung to his hand, and, thus beginning, said:--

"Too brave! thy valor yet will cause thy death.
Thou hast no pity on thy tender child
Nor me, unhappy one, who soon must be
Thy widow. All the Greeks will rush on thee
To take thy life. A happier lot were mine,
If I must lose thee, to go down to earth,
For I shall have no hope when thou art gone,--
Nothing but sorrow. Father have I none,
And no dear mother. Great Achilles slew
My father when he sacked the populous town
Of the Cilicians,--Thebe with high gates.
'T was there he smote Eetion, yet forbore