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Troades
A PLAY BY SENECA, TRANSLATED BY ANNABELLE WATSON

Hecuba: Whoever trusts in royal power and rules in a great
hall, and does not fear the fickle gods
and gives a trusting spirit to happy circumstances,
let him look upon me and you, Troy: Fortune never brought
a greater documentation of how upon fragile ground
stand the arrogant
...


1
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14

Vocabulary
LINES 1-14

aula - hall
columen - summit, prop
documenta - documentation, proof
fors - fortune
levis - unjust
superbus - arrogant
vagus - wandering
eversum - overturned
pandens - spreading out
excipiens - warding off
renatum - renewed
rubens - redenning
inmiscet - mixes
catervis - hoardes
excisa - cut off
incubuit - lies

Summary
Anyone who believes in the earthly powers and doesn’t fear the changeability of the gods and
takes their happy circumstances for granted ought to look at Troy and Hecuba, and see that there
has never been a more obvious example of ruin from a fortunate place
...



LINES 15-27

Behold the walls, the lofty honours lie with charred buildings heaped up;
flames embrace the palace,
and the entire expense of the house of Assaracus fumes
...
And the sky expands
with billowing fumes; just as if it was covered with thick cloud,
the day is black and dirtied with the Trojan ash
...
Looters seize the Dardanian spoils;
the thousand ships don’t hold the plunder
...
But burning does not stop the Greeks looting
...
The greek’s can’t be satisfied due to the ten long years
...



LINES 28-40

I give the gods as evidence, adverse as they are to me (of gods),
and the cinders of my country and you, the helms of Phyrgia,
whom buried Troy covers with all its kingdom,
and your spirit —as long as you stood, Ilium stood—
and you great flocks of my children,
less mighty shades: all disasters that have happened,
Phoebus’ raving priestess foretold from her deranged mouth
evils that were all believed by a forbidding god
...

It was not the wary Ithacan that scattered fiery torches among you,
nor the Ithacan’s night-prowling companion, nor lying Sinon:
that fire is mine, you burn with my brands
...
She takes the burden of guilt and turns it into power
...
She speaks of Cassandra’s foretelling of the fall of
Troy
...
The fire that spread
the anger/anguish between them was not the Ithacan (Odysseus) of the night, or the sneaky Sinon,
but Hecuba
...

I saw the nefarious sacrilege of the murder of the king,
and a crime committed at the very altar greater than
the outrage of Ajax, when the ferocious fellow,
bending back the king’s head by the hair twisted in his cruel hand,
buried his wicked blade in a deep wound
...

Whom was not able to be pleased by savage slaughter
by a man closing on the last climacteric of mortal life,
and by the gods witnessing the scene, and a certain sanctity of
falling kingship? The famous father of so many princes,
Priam deprived of a tomb and he lacks a funeral fire,
while Troy burns
...
She speaks of the
sacrilege murder of Priam
...
Priam does not receive a sacred funeral
...

My lot is feared, I alone am feared by the Danians
...
Let Mt Ida sing
at once, the home of the skilful leader
...
An urn chooses husbands for the women of
Troy, and Hecuba calls herself a cheap reward
...
She is feared because she is the oldest and most decrepit
...
Also for Mt Ida to sing a funeral song also, the home
of the skilful leader
...

Ten times Mt Ida has grown white with snows,
ten times bared for our pyres,
and on the plains of Sigeum the reaper
has cut ten harvests in fear,
while no day has been empty of grief,
but some new reason has furnished laments
...


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83

Vocabulary
rude - undeveloped, untrained
vulgus - crowd
lugere - to mourn
iubes - order
continuis - uninterrupted
egimus - we did/have done
tetigit - touched
hospes - guest
secuit - cut
fretum - sea
pinus - pine
decies - on ten occasions
nivibus - snow
canuit - become white
nudata - lain bare
rogis - funeral pyre
trepidus - nervous
campis - plains
messor - the reaper
aristas - harvests
decimas - ten
maerore - grief
ministrat - attend (to),
fletus - weeping
leva - raise
indocile - unteachable

Summary
Nobody has not been touched by grief, it has been happening for ages anyway
...
They pledge to follow
their lady in mourning
...

"Fill your hands:
This we are allowed to have taken out of Troy”
The group arms lain bare to prepare,
drop your garments, fasten their folds around your hips,
let your bodies stand open to the extent of the womb
...

Yes, this appearance pleases
It pleases: I recognise this group as Trojan
...


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86

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88
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90
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94
95
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97
98
99

Vocabulary
solvite - let down
colla - neck
pulvere - dust
complete - fill
sumpsisse - to have taken out
remissa - relax, drop
substringe - gather
exertos - lain bare
lacertos - upper arms
pateant - stand open
velas - veil, conceal
cingat - equip
palla - palla (lady’s outer garment)
solutas - unbound
vacet - be empty
crebri - abundant
verbera - lashings
furibunda - frenzied
habitus - appearance
iterum - again, once more
luctus - grief
veteres - old
flendi - mourning
morem - style, custom
vincite - outdo

Summary
Hecuba instructs the throng
...
She is pointing
out why should they conceal their breasts if the future marriages will not be sacred, and their actual
husbands are dead
...



LINES 98-116
CHORUS:

We have loosened
our hair, torn by many a funeral;
our locks are released and free from tie,
and glowing ash has spattered our faces
...

Now, yes now must sadness reveal its strength
...

Hands, be violent,
strike my breasts with enormous blows!
I am not satisfied with the content sound:
it is Hector we mourn for
...
They are bare, the parents have dropped
...
The sea may resound and let Echo not return the words but send back all of Troy’s
painful sound, let all hear
...

Turn your grief:
for Priam pour out your tears;
Hector has this enough
...
The right hand to the arms, and the shoulders
...
All these scars were made at the funeral of
Priam, and can flow for days
...
Troy died with Hector
...



LINES 133-141
CHORUS:

Accept our grief, king of Phrygia;
accept our tears, twice-captured old man
...

After Hecuba’s offspring were carried to burial, and after that flock of princes,
Next you the father finally closed the funeral train
...


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141

Vocabulary
rector - king
bis - twice
capte - captured
semel - only once
pulsari - beaten
moenia - fortifications
pharetras - quivers
passa - suffered, underwent
partus - burial
elatos - carried
gregem - flock
postrema - Next
caesus - butchered
premis - burdern (2nd sing)
truncus - headless

Summary
They beg the Phrygian king to accept their grief
...
So many sons had died during the burial - flocks of princes, and they


LINES 142-155
HECUBA:

Turn your tears elsewhere:
the death of Priam is not for me to mourn,
Trojan Women
...


142
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14147
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150
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15153
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155

Vocabulary
imos - innermost
manes - shades
fallacem - deceitful
cernit - behold

Summary
Hecuba tells them that while they are mourning, it is of celebration (the seeming grief is just ritual)
...
His royal hands will never be tied, and will not follow in parade through
Mycenae the chariot of Agamemnon, in cuffs of gold
...

Now amongst the safe shades of the Elysian grove
he roams about, and happy among the pious souls
he looks for Hector
...


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Vocabulary
excedens - dying, passing
nemoris - wood, grove
tutis - whole
errat - wanders
interque - among
pias - pious
animas - soul
moriens - dying

Summary
They praise Priam’s good luck
...
In Elysium he seeks Hector, who like anyone dead in war, is blest to have
taken with him all his consumed things
...

CHORUS:
What is the cause of delay for the ships and the Daneans
speak up, which god closes the returning paths/routes
...
Now the Sun was grazing the highest peaks
with his rising, day had conquered the night
...

The forests shook their heads and the high wood
and the holy grove of trees with a vast crashing sound;
On Mt Ida rocks fell from broken ridges
...


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Vocabulary
ratibus - ships
moram - delay
reduces - closes
pavet - trembles
horridus - fearful
quassat - shakes
tremor - trembling
vix - scarcely
iuga - peaks
stringebat - grazing, touching
ortu - rising
caeco - obscure
mugitu - bellowing
fremens - rumbling
concussa - dragged up
fragore - crashing
tonuit - thundered
lucus - grove, wood
Idaea - of Ida
iugis - ridges
solum - only
adesse - to have been/be present
vada - streams
volvit - wished

Summary
Talthybius joins in, and addresses the long delay, no matter the Danaeans motivations
...
Talthybius claims that at sun rise the earth had suddenly
rumbled and spewed its innards, all the woods shook
...
(Are these omens of Achilles)
...

Out flashes the immense ghost of the Thessalian leader,
just as when he laid low Thracian arms
already, Troy, preparing for your doom or
when he struck down the young son of Neptune gleaming with white hair;
or when raving between the violent battle columns,
he clogged the rivers with corpses, and seeking way
slow Xanthus wandered with the bloody streams;
or when he stood the victor in the godly chariot,
and urged the reins, dragging Hector and Troy
...

Let Polyxena, betrothed to our ashes,
be sacrificed by the hand of Pyrrhus and irrigate my tomb
...
It opens up a pathway and the ghost of Achilles leaps out
from a cavern that was from Erebus
...
And least of all dragged Hector,
and thus Troy, behind his chariot
...
“Go! take away the
owed honours, you are all ungrateful
...



LINES 197-202

Having said these things he banished the daylight with deep darkness,
and as he returned to Dis and having sunk himself down
he joined with the earth coming back together
...


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Vocabulary
divisit - banished
mersus - having sunk oneself
repetens - returning
coeunte - coming together
pelagi - the open sea
ventus - wind
abiecit - dropped
minas - menace
fluctu - waves
leni - gentle
cecinit - sung
hymenaeum - hymn

Summary
When all was said, he took the daylight with him and sunk himself as the earth joined together
again
...



LINES 289-300

AGAMEMNON:
I will not allow what Pyrrhus is demanding
...

PYRRHUS:
Will the ghost of Achilles bear no prize?
AGAMEMNON:
He will bear a prize, and all will sing of him with praises,
and even undiscovered lands will hear of his great name
...

What custom is this? Since when is a human being paid
for the funeral ritual of a human being? Drag away the ill-will and
hatred of your father, who you wish to be honoured by punishment
...
Agamemnon calls Pyrrhus juvenile, he will not allow what
Pyrrhus demands
...
Pyrrhus asks if Achilles would ever be
rewarded? Agamemnon says he will be sung with praise and in lands unknown
...
When would it be human to pay for the sacrifice of a human being? He doesn’t
believe someone should be honoured by more death
...

If you refuse it and you hold her back, I will give him a greater victim,
and one worthy which Pyrrhus would give
...


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Vocabulary
tumide - arrogant one
secundarum - second (good)
extollit - exalted
increpuit - rattled
flammatum - inflamed
geris - bear (2nd sing)
aestu - heat
solus - alone
feres - bring
totiens - so often
negas - refuse
retines - hold her back
dignam - worth
nimium diu - for too long
cessat - does cease

Summary
Pyrrhus calls Agamemnon arrogant while fortunes were good, and was a coward in any actual
battled, the tyrant
...
Maybe Priam wants to
see *you* in death, Agamemnon
...
But Priam
pleaded in person: you, stricken with deep fear and lacking
courage to plead, to Ajax prayers
you sent and to the Ithacan, shut away and trembling at your foe
...


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319
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321

PYRRHUS:
Then great Hector, despising your weapons,
feared the songs of Achilles, and in such fear
there was a deep peace through the Thessalian ships
...
Pyrrhus counters that Achilles’ suppliants were also enemies
...

Agamemnon admits that Achilles did not have fear, he did sit back and let Greeks die and their
ships burn, and played the lyre
...



LINES 325-339

AGAMEMNON:
Indeed in that Thessalian squadron
there was profound peace for Hector’s father
PYRRHUS:
It is of a great king to give life to a king
...

AGAMEMNON:
And now you, in your mercy, are wanting to sacrifice a virgin on a tomb (funeral pyre)?
PYRRHUS:
Now you believe that it is criminal for virgins to be sacrificed?
AGAMEMNON:
It is fitting for a king to prefer country to children
...

AGAMEMNON:
What the law does not forbid, propriety forbids this to be done
...

AGAMEMNON:
Not at all is it decent to wish to do much whatever is allowed to one
...

AGAMEMNON:
Does Scyros give this aggressiveness to you?
PYRRHUS:
Who is deprived from the crimes of a brother

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Vocabulary
isdem - same
istis - those
rursus - later
eripuit - ripped
misericors - merciful
busto - on a tomb
immolari - to be sacrificed
praeferre - prefer
parcit - spares
impedit - impedes
fieri - to be done
iactas - utter (2nd sing)

Summary
Agamemnon agrees that there was peace, but for Priam
...
Pyrrhus says that death is more
merciful than life, Agamemnon sasses him that he must be wanting to sacrifice a virgin in this same
mercy
...
Does Agamemnon tell these things who have
suffered his rule for ten years until Pyrrhus frees them? Where does this aggression come from? It
is from the one who is deprived of brotherly crimes
...

PYRRHUS:
Yes from that very Achilles, who holds the universe
spread with his descendants through the whole kingdom of the gods—
the sea by reason of Thetis, the shades from Aeacus, the heavens from Jove
...

AGAMEMNON:
Indeed in my position I was able suppress your words and conquer your reckless
with evil
...

Rather, let the gods’ messenger Calchas be called up;
if the Fates demand, I shall agree
...


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Vocabulary
composcere - suppress
domare - conquer
potius - rather
interpres - messenger
vocetur - be called
poscunt - demand
vincla - chains
solvisti - loosened (2nd sing)
reseras - unlocks (2nd sing)
polum - sky-canopy
viscerum - entrail
fragor - crash
semitam - trail
mercede - pay, price
constant - consist of
effare - direct

Summary
Enclosed by waves, the familiar sea of Atreus and Thyestes
...
Achilles’ descendants spread through the world
by Thetis, to the shades to the heavens
...
Yet not one god dared confront him
...
But let Calchas be called up to decide whether Polyxena
ought to be killed
...
Calchas must declare the will of the gods
...
361
But in which clothing Thessalian brides are accustomed to be married in
362
or Ionians or the Mycenaeans,
363
let Pyrrhus deliver the bridge to his father:
364
thus she will be given with proper rites
...

367
Whom the fates seek, let that person fall from the tower’s height,
368
the Hectorian grandson of Priam and let him then meet his death
...

370

Vocabulary
solent - they are accustomed to
pretio - price
mactanda - needs to be sacrificed
busto - funeral mound
iugari - to be married
nurus - brides
tradat - let him give
rite - with proper rites
puppes - ships
nobilior - more noble
quaerunt - seek
turre - from the tower
nepos - grandson
Hectoreus - Hectorian
letum - death
oppetat - let him meet
velis - sails
impleat - fill
classis - fleet

Summary
The fates then intervene and give the Greeks a passage, but it must be by sacriice yet again
...
Yet the blood needed
must be more noble than Polyxena’s
...
Only then can the fleet set sail
...

As the twelve constellations fly at whirlwind speed,
as the lord of the stars hastens apace
to roll on the centuries, in the way that Hecate
hurries to run on her slanting arcs:
so we all head for death
...
As smoke from burning fires
fades away, soiling the air for a brief space;
as the leaden clouds that we saw just now
the onset of northern Boreas scatter
so this spirit, by which we are ruled, will flow away
...
The zodiac and the lord of the stars turn the centuries, just
as Hecate runs on her slanting arcs - all things die
...
When smoke
from the funeral fires fade into the heavens eccetera, our spirit fades
...

Let the greedy lay down their hopes, the anxious their fears:
greedy time and Chaos devour us
...
Taenarus, and the kingdom
under its harsh lord, and Cerberus guarding
the entrance with its unyielding gate
—hollow rumours, empty words,
a tale akin to a troubled dream
...


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408

Vocabulary
meta - turning point, winning post
ponant - lay down
spem - hope
avidi - greedy
solliciti - anxious
metum - fear
devorat - devour
chaos - chaos
individua - indivisible
noxia - poisonous, destructive
parcens - sparing
Taenara - Taenarus
aspero - harsh
limen - entrance
obsidens - inhabiting
ostio - door
vacui - empty
inania - empty, hollow
somnio - dream

Summary
There is nothing after death, death itself is nothingness, it exists in a circuit
...
Time and Chaos swallows all
...
Where are you with the
commencement of death? You are just like unborn things
...


438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450

Vocabulary
alma - nourishing, kindly
fere - almost
clarum - shining
iugum - Wain, yoke
ignota - unfamiliar
quies - quiet
fessis - weary
obrepsit - crept upon
genis - eyelids
attonitae - dazed
ultra - against
rates - ships
facibus - firebrands
furens - raging
caede - slaughter
simulato - faux, faked, feigned
intendens - directing
iubar - splendour, glory
deiectus - dejected
fletu - with tears
squalida - dirty
obtectus - covered

Summary
The kind night was almost over, and the stars had turned the bright yoke - there was an unfamiliar
silence and calmness which lead to sleep
...
Hector suddenly
appears, fresh from battle against the Argives, having attacked the Greeks with Idaean firebrands,
and raging against the ships with deathliness, the time he had brought the armour of a faked
Achilles
...



LINES 451-460

However it delights to have seen him
...

Omit your tears
...
"
Cold terror and trembling shook me from sleep,
carrying my eyes now to here and then there
forgetful of my son I miserably sought Hector
...


451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460

Vocabulary
iuvat - helps, delights
quassans - shaking
dispelle - dispel
eripe - rescue
fida - faithful
lateat - let him lay hidden
salus - salvation
omitte - omit
gemis - weep
utinam - if only
festina - hurry
amove - take away
stirpem - spawn, offspring
quocumque - wherever
gelidus - cold
tremor - trembling
excutit - shook me, awoke me
pavida - trembling
ferens - carrying
oblita - forgetful
quaesivi - I sought
fallax - deceitful
complexus - embraces
abit - slipped through

Summary
His appearance wasn’t all bad that to have seen him
...
He says to dispel
her slumbering and save their son, for with him lies their fate
...
Hide the son wherever! The cold suddenness of this shook her out of
the slumber and she looked here and there, ignoring her son, she pitifully sought Hector
...


LINES 861-875

HELEN:
Whatever marriage is dreadful and joyless,
that has miseries, slaughters, blood, groans,
Helen is worthy of its authorship
...
By my art let her be ensnared
and by my deceit let her go to ruin, the sister of Paris
...

It is a death to be hoped for, to die without fear of death
...
The generous virgin of
the Dardanian house, the god
has begun to regard the afflicted better, he prepares
to endow you with a blessed marriage
...


861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875

Vocabulary
funestus - dreadful, deathly
inlaetabilis - joyless
lamenta - miseries
caedes - slaughters
gemitus - groans
auspice - authorship
toros - unions
iubeor - I am forced
capietur - let her be ensared
fraude - deceit
concidet - let her go to ruin
levius - lighter, less harmful
reor - I deem
cessas - you cease, hesitate
coacti - forced, exhorted
generosa - generous
afflictos - afflicted
respicere - to regard
coepit - he began
dotare - to endow
sospes - safe and sound

Summary
Helen is worthy of a terrible, joyless, bloody, and groaning marriage
...
Let the bride be ensnared by Helen’s deceits, the deceit of Paris
...
Why
pause to do this? The fault of a forced crime lies with the author
...



LINES 876-887

For the greatest glory of the Pelasgian race,
to whom the wide kingdom of the Thessalian plains lies open,
seeks for you to the sanctified rites of a legitimate marriage bed
...

Take off the dirty clothes, and adorn festive ones,
forget the captive in you; smooth your wild hair,
and allow your locks to be combed by a skilled hand
...
Many have gained from captivity
...
Tethys, the sea gods, and thetis, and the calm
godliness of the wild waves will embrace you, once you are bride to Pyrrhus
...
Put down your dirty ones, put on celebratory ones
...
This fate will put you on a higher
throne
...


LINES 888-902

ANDROMACHA:
This was the one sorrow that was missing for the overturned Phrygians,
to rejoice
...
Proceed, prepare the wedding
...

Celebrate the marriage of Pyrrhus, Trojan Women,
celebrate with their worth, let it sound with tears and groans
...
The Trojan streets burn - is
this a time for marriage? Who would refuse this happiness? Who would refuse a marriage
supported by Helen? There is pestilence, misfortune for both peoples, tombs of leaders
everywhere and unburied bones
...
Go and prepare the wedding
...
Celebrate it, let it resound with
tears and groans
...
Does Andromache mourn Hector,
and does Hecuba mourn Priam: only Helen needs to
mourn for Paris in secrecy
...
Is Troy overthrown,
are the gods of the hearth overturned? It is difficult to lose one’s country,

903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912

Vocabulary
careat - lacks
ratione - reason
neget - refuses
flecti - to be turned/swayed
socios - fellow
nonnumquam - sometimes
maeroris - of suffering
tueri - keep up, care (active)
iudice - judge
infesto - enemy, hostile
passa - having suffered
graviora - harder, worse things
luget - mourn
occulte - in secrecy
lugendus - to be mourned
invisum - hateful
servitia - servitude
ferre - to bear
patior - I have endured (present historic)
iugum - yoke
captiva - captive
prostratum - overthrown
penates - gods of the hearth
perdere - to lose
grave - difficult, hard

Summary
Sadness might be stubborn and can hate even its own, Helen says she can keep up the cause
from a hostile judge, because she’s suffered worse things
...
Isn’t it harsh, hateful and grave to bear servitude,
she’s endured the Trojan yoke for ten years like a captive
...
Such a companionship
in woes consoles you: in me the victor ravages as the victim
...
Was I the cause of war
and of such disaster for Trojans? Think this to be true,
If a Spartan ship cut through your waves;
and I was plunder seized by the Phrygian sailors
a victorious goddess’ gift she gave to her judge
pardon Paris
...

Now Andromacha, with your grievings set aside a little,
turn her, scarcely my tears I am able to
hold back
...
Companionship in sorrows is what comforts you
...
It is has long been uncertain which maiden each Greek would take, but
my master took me at once, without godly consultation
...
It is not Paris’ doing
...
Set your grief aside, Andromache, pray to her,
I am too filled with grief
...

all evils are lighter than Pyrrhus as the son in law
to Priam and Hecuba
...


926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937

Vocabulary
dolos - tricks
autem - however
nectat - devises
iugis - ridges
mittenda - to be thrown
vastum - vast
volvenda - tumbling
rupes - cliffs
latere - sided
scisso - broken
levat - raises
vadosos - shallow
sinus - bays
subdolo - beneith your deceitful
vultu - appearances
tegis - you hide
gener - son-in-law
fare - tell us
exprome - reveal
deme - spare
cladibus - our sufferings
falli - being tricked
perpeti - to endure

Summary
The evil Helen cries for is so great but why does she even weep? Tell us the Ithacan tricks, and
which evils, must the virgin be thrown from the Idaean ridges or the jutting rock of the citadel? Not
from tumbling from these these into the sea that broken sided Sigeon raises, the lofty height
looking over shallow bays? Tell us what you hide beneath your deceitful faces, any evil is lighter
than having Pyrrhus as son-in-law to Priam and Hecuba
...



LINES 938-948

HELEN:
I wish that the god’s spokesman commanded me also
to severe with the sword the delayers of the hateful light,
or to fall before the tomb of Achilles by the frenzied hand
of Pyrrhus, being a companion in your fate,
pitiable Polyxena: whom to be delivered to him
to be sacrified before his ashes
in order that he might be a husband in the Elysian fields, that Achilles commands
...

She seeks fine adornments of royal clothes
and allows her hair to be touched by hand
...


938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948

Vocabulary
utinam - I wish
iuberet - he ordered
interpres - the spokesman
deum - godly
abrumpere - to sever
ense - sword
invisae - hateful
lucis - light
moras - delayers
busta - tomb
furibunda - frenzied
occidere - to fall
comitantem - being companion
tradi - to be given
cinerem - ashes
mactari - to be sacrificed
campo - field
necem - death
cultus - adornments
decoros - fine
admoveri - to be touched
patitur - she allows
putabat - she thought

Summary
Helen wishes that the godly spokesman had also commanded her to come at the delayers of
hateful light with the sword, and to die by the frenzied hand before the tomb of Achilles, being a
companion of Polyxena’s fate
...
Andromache
comments that her spirit gladly hears about the girl’s death
...
That she thought was death, this she thinks marriage
...
when he stood before the tower's
top, he turned his alert face this way and that way,
intrepid in spirit
...
He had moved the crowd and the leaders
and Ulysses himself
...


1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103

Vocabulary
spatia - spaced
late - widely
plena - area
sublimi - grand
gradu - stride
segni - slow
pergit - made his way
moenia - walls
turre - tower
acres - alert
intrepidus - fearless, intrepid
ferae - beast
saevire - savage
tollit - reared up
minas - savagely
morsus - bites
inanes - in vain
temptat - tries
tumet - swells
prensus - taken
ferox - fiercely
superbit - is proud
fatidici - prophetic
preces - prayers
concipit - devises
vatis - soothsayer
ciet - summons
sponte - accord
desiluit - leapt down

Summary
Ulysses marches through the wide space, taking with him the little boy, who made his way proudly
and quickly
...
He is compared to the young cub of a fierce beast, who
tries to be that fierce
...

Ulysses begins to develop clever words and rituals, but the boy jumps down of his own accord
...



LINES 1104-1117

ANDROMACHA:
Who is the Colchian, who is the Scythian uncertain of place
that committed this? or which tribe lacking of law touching the Caspian sea
has dared? Not even the altar of the savage Busiris
was sprinkled with the blood was of a boy,
nor did Diomedes place out the small limbs for his animals
to be eaten
...


1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117

Vocabulary
sedis - of place
commisit - comitted
tangens - touching
gens - race
iuris - edge
expers - lacking
puerilis - of a boy
aspersit - was sprinkled
feri - savage
membra - limbs
epulanda - to be eaten
gregibus - for his animals
teget - hides
artus - body
tumulo - to the tomb
praeceps - steep
reliquit - leave
disiecta - wrenched apart
elisa - smashed
signa - features
notas - traces
confudit - disfigured
imam - below
pondus - weight
silicis - stone, crag
soluta - broken
impulsu - impact
penitus - thoroughly
expresso - pushed out

Summary
Andromache asked who committed the crime? The Colchian, the nomad Scythian, savage tribes
by the Caspian sea? Not even savage Busiris had a boy killed, or did Diomedes feed one to his
animals
...
his bones strewn and smashed,
his noble fatherly features gone, his weight crashed on the ground, neck broken, and his brains
spattered everywhere
...



LINES 1117-1133

ANDROMACHA:
Even thus he is similar to his father
...
Of which its extreme edge
is beaten by the soft waves of Rhoetian way;
surrounding the turned toward side is flat plain: and erected in a soft
slope enclosing the middle space,
it rises in the habit of the theatre
...
Some regard this death as
the solution of the delay of the fleet, others rejoiced that the stock of the enemy
was cut back: a great part of the shallow crowd
hated the crime and gazed
...


1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133

Vocabulary
praeceps - headlong
flevit - wept
facinus - crime
idem - same
verberant - had beaten
vada - way
fluctu - waves
cingit - surrounding
clivo - slope
levi - soft
erecta - erected
vallis - space
crescit - rose
more - manner, habit
concursus - gathered
implevit - filled
moras - delays
solvi - resolving, solution
stirpem - stock
recidi - rescinded
levis - shallow
odit - hates
scelus - evil
spectat - watches
frequentant - attend
funus - funeral
pavidi - trembling
ruentis - ruin
vident - see
more - the custom
praecedunt - lead
faces - torches
pronuba - wife
demissa - hung down

Summary
He is familiar even now
...
The crowd
fills the shore
...



LINES 1134-1148

“Of such a way let Hermione be wed”
pray the Phrygians, “thus may filthy Helen
be returned to her man
...
She herself lowered her face
dejected in shame, but however her eyes shine brilliantly
her beauty is splendorous more than usual at its end,
as the light of Phoebus is accustomed to be sweeter
although of its falling, when the stars repeat the cycle
and the failing day is threatened by the closing in night
...


1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148

Vocabulary
nubat - let her be wed
precantur - they pray
turpis - filthy
viro - man
reddatur - let him be returned
terror - terror
utros - both
deiectos - dejected
gerit - lowered
fulgent - shone, were radiant
genae - eyes
magis solito - more than usual
decor - beauty
splendet - shone
ut - as
iamiam - although
cadentis - falling
vices - cycles
premitur - is threatened
stupet - is awestruck
decus - beauty
vagae - shifting
leto - death
obvius - open
mirantur - marvel
miserantur - feel pity

Summary
The Phrygians pray for Hermione to be wed in this way and Helen to be returned to her man
...
She lowers her face in shame, and her eyes and face shine more beautifully
than the dawning stars and the sunset
...
Her beauty moves some, her tender age moves others, her brave spirit moves all
...



LINES 1148-1157

Once she reached the height
of the steep mound, and on the high-raised
summit of his father’s burial place the young man stood
the audacious heroine did not make a backward step:
she stood facing the blow, with a stern face
...

When he concealed with his hand the blade-thrust deep inside,
with death received, unexpected blood burst forth
through the massive wound
...
Her face stuck in everyone’s mind and
Pyrrhus was reluctant but then he thrust the blade inside her and blood burst forth
...

Each group wept - but timid laments the Phrygians
did utter, the victor lamented even louder
...
The spilt gore did not remain
or flow on the uppermost ground: at once the tomb swallowed
and savagely drank down all the blood
...
Both groups wept, but for the timid laments of the Phyrgians, the
victor lamented even louder
...
The spilt gore was immediately swallowed
up and the tomb drank the blood

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