mong men to be born of
generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the illustrious,
proceeds from great to greater still.

HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable dwells
grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must escape
blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of Achilles,
strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed the son of
Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.

ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady, but
that thy daughter here should die.

HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
request.

ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on another;
would that we required not even this one.

HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.

ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.

HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.

ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in knowledge.

HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.

ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.

POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend not
with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy aged
flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn by a
youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for it is
not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and grant me to
join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the last time shall
I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive my last address, O
mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.

HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.

POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought to
have obtained.

HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.

POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.

HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?

POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.

HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.

POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged husband?

HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.

POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.

HE