Agamemnon, Polymestor, Hecuba, chorus.

Aga.  I came having heard the clamor:  for Echo, the mountain’s daughter, did not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a disturbance.  But did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen beneath the Grecian spear, this tumult might have caused no little terror.

Poly.  O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard thy voice), seest thou what I am suffering?

Aga.  Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine eyes sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood?  And who hath slain these thy children?  Sure, whoe’er it was, felt the greatest rage against thee and thy sons.

Poly.  Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me—­nay, not destroyed me, but more than destroyed me.

Aga.  What sayest thou?  Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms?  Hast thou, Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?

Poly.  Ah me! what wilt thou say?  Is she any where near me?  Show me, tell me where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear piecemeal and mangle her body.

Aga.  What ho! what are you doing?

Poly.  By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon her.

Aga.  Forbear.  And having banished this barbarous deed from thy thoughts, speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective turns, I may decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these ills.

Poly.  I will speak then.  There was a certain youth, the youngest of Priam’s children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father Priam sent to me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging[20] the capture of Troy.  Him I put to death.  But for what cause I put him to death, with what policy and prudent forethought, now hear.  I feared, lest the boy being left an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of Troy, and again people the city.  And lest the Greeks, having discovered that one of the sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an expedition against the Phrygian land, and after that should harass and lay waste the plains of Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors of the Trojans, under which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring.  But Hecuba, when she had discovered her son’s death, by such treachery as this lured me hither, as about to tell me of treasure belonging to Priam’s family concealed in Troy, and introduces me alone with my sons into the tent, that no one else might know it.  And I sat, having reclined on the centre of the couch; but many Trojan damsels, some from the left hand, and others from the right, sat round me, as by an intimate friend, holding in their hands the Edonian looms, and praised these robes, looking at them in the light; but others, beholding with admiration my Thracian spear, deprived me of my double ornament.