Beneath Pangeum's rock, a God ador'd
By those who haunt his orgies. But ere long
To yonder Goddess of the briny waves
Shall I bear doleful tidings: for by fate
It is decreed, her offspring too shall die;
But first our sisterhood, in choral plaints,
Will sing of thee, O Rhesus, and hereafter
Achilles, son of Thetis, shall demand
Our elegiac strains, not she who slew

Thee, hapless youth, Minerva, can redeem him ;
Such an inevitable shaft is stor'd

In Phoebus' quiver. O ye pangs that rend
A mother's breast, ye toils the lot of man;
They who behold you in your real light
Will live without a progeny, nor mourn
With hopeless anguish o'er their children's tomb.

CHORUS.

[Exit the MUSE,

To bury the deceas'd with honours due, Will be his Mother's care: but if, O Hector, Thou mean'st to execute some great emprise, 'Tis now the time: for morn already dawns.

HECTOR.

Go, and this instant bid our comrades arm,
Harness the steeds: but while ye in these toils
Are busied, ye the signal must await,
Th' Etrurian trumpet's clangor; for I trust
I first shall o'er the Grecian host prevail,

Shall storm their ramparts, and then burn their fleet,
And that Hyperion's orient beams will bring
A day of freedom to Troy's valiant race.

CHORUS.

Obey the monarch: clad in glittering mail
Let us go forth, and his behests proclaim
To our associates: for that God who fights
Our battles, haply will bestow success.

RECA

B

THE TROJAN CAPTIVES.

δεδαικτο δε χαιτας

Κραατος εκ Πολιοιο· τεφρη δ' επιπεπίατο πολλῇ
Την τε απ' εσχαρεωνος αδην κατεχευαίο χερσιν,
Ολλομενο Πριαμοιο, και άστεος αιθομενοιο·
Και τα μεγα στοναχίζετ' αμφι ε δέλιον ημας
Μαψ' αεκαζομενην· ετερος δια ετέρην γειωσαν
Ηγε Τροΐαδων σφετερας επί νηας αναγκη.

QUINTUS CALABER.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

NEPTUNE.

MINERVA.

HECUBA.

CHORUS OF CAPTIVE TROJAN DAMES.

'TALTHYBIUS.

CASSANDRA.

ANDROMACHE.

MENELAUS.

HELEN.

SCENE BEFORE THE ENTRANCE OF AGAMEMNON'S TENT IN THE GRECIAN CAMP NEAR TROY.

THE TROJAN CAPTIVES.

NEPTUNE.

FROM the Ægean deep, in mazy dance
Where Nereus' Daughters glide with agile feet,
I Neptune hither come. For round the fields.
Of Ilion, since Apollo and myself

With symmetry exact rear'd many a tower,
Hewn from the solid rock; the love I bore

The city where my Phrygian votaries dwelt,

Laid waste by Greece, where smoke e'en now ascends The heavens, hath ne'er been rooted from this breast, For on Parnassus bred, the Phocian chief

Epeus, by Minerva's arts inspir'd,

Fram'd with a skilful hand, and through the gates Sent that accurs'd machine the Horse which teem'd With ambush'd javelins (1). Thro' forsaken groves,

(1) I find myself under a necessity of leaving out the two next lines of the original, on account of their consisting of a pun not calculated for being rendered into English. "Hence shall it be called by posterity "the (dugɛos) horse, on account of the hidden spears (doçu) con"tained in it." The Latin interpreters render gas, dureus, which Robert Stephens, in his Latin Thesaurus, considers as synonymous with ligneus: but Pausanias mentions a brazen statue of this Horse which he still calls Sugas as extant among the curiosities in the Acropolis or citadel of Athens. By the genealogy of Epeus, which the same writer has given us in his Corinthiaca, we are informed that his father was Panopeus the son of Phocus, whence it appears that Pyrrhus (to whom Euripides always gives the name of Neoptolemus) and Epeus, were both of them the great-grandsons of Eacus. The recollection of this circumstance adds great force to that passage of Virgil, in which, after having called Perseus aciden, he attributes to Paulus Æmilius the glory of having avenged his Trojan ancestors by his triumphs over that monarch. Pindar, in his eighth Olympic Ode, says Apollo and Neptune called in Æacus to their assistance in building Troy, and foretold that the walls he had joined with them in erecting should be overthrown in war, but not except by his posterity.

Thro' the polluted temples of the Gods,
Flow tides of crimson slaughter: at the base
Of altars sacred to Hercæan Jove,

Fell hoary Priam. But huge heaps of gold
And Phrygian plunder, to the fleet of Greece
Are sent the leaders of the host that sack'd
This city, wait but for a prosperous breeze,
That after ten years absence they their wives
And children may with joy behold. Subdu'd
By Juno Argive Goddess, and Minerva,
Who leagu'd in Phrygia's overthrow, I leave
Troy the renown'd, and my demolish'd shrines.
For when pernicious Solitude extends
O'er cities her inexorable sway,

Abandon'd are the temples of the Gods,
None comes to worship there. Scamander's banks
Re-echo many a shriek of captive Dames
Distributed by lot; th' Arcadians, some,
Some the Thessalíans gain, and some the sons
Of Theseus leaders of th' Athenian troops :
But they whom chance distributes not, remain
Beneath yon roof selected by the chiefs
Of the confederate army. Justly deem'd
A captive, among them is Spartan Helen:
And if the stranger wishes to behold
That wretched woman, Hecuba lies stretcht
Before the gate, full many are her tears,
And her afflictions many: at the tomb
Of stern Achilles her unhappy Daughter
Polyxena died wretchedly, her Lord
The royal Priam, and her Sons are slain,
That spotless Virgin too whom from his shrine
Apollo with prophetic gifts inspir'd,
Cassandra, spurning every sacred rite,

Did Agamemnon violently drag

To his adulterous bed. But, O farewell,

Thou city prosperous once; ye splendid towers,