144 EURIPIDES. L. 418-4 89 Pol. There in Hades' courts shall I be laid apart from thee. Hec. Ah me, what shall I do ? where shall I end my life ? Pol. Daughter of a free-born sire, a slave I am to die. Hec» Not one of all my fifty children left ! Pol. What message can I take for thee to Hector or thy aged lord ? Hec. Tell them that of all women I am the most miserable. Pol. Ah ! breast and paps that fed me with sweet food ! Hec. Woe is thee, my child, for this untimely fate ! Pol. Farewell, my mother ! farewell, Cassandra ! Hec. " Fare well ! " others do, but not thy mother, no ! Poly. Thou too, my brother Polydore, who art in Thrace, the home of steeds ! Hec. Aye, if he lives, which much I doubt; so luckless am I every way. Pol. Oh yes, he lives ; and, when thou diest, he will close thine eyes. Hec. I am dead ; sorrow has forestalled death here. Pol. Come veil my head, Odysseus, and take me hence ; for now, ere falls the fatal blow, my heart is melted by my mother's wailing, and hers no less by mine. O light of day ! for still may I call thee by thy name, though now my share in thee is but the time I take to go 'twixt this and the sword at Achilles' tomb. {^Exeunt Odysseus and Polyxena. Hec. Woe is me ! I faint ; my limbs sink under me. O my daughter, embrace thy mother, stretch out thy hand, give it me again ; leave me not childless ! Ah, friends ! 'tis my death-blow. _She swoons.] [Oh ! to see that Spartan woman, Helen, sister of the sons of Zeus, in such a plight ; for her bright eyes have caused the shameful fall of Troy's once prosperous town.^] ' These lines cannot very well belong to Hecuba, who has already fainted. Hermann assigns them to the Chorus ; Dindorf rejects them ; Paley favours the latter view.
