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Chorus
Sing me, Muse, a tale of
Troy
, a funeral dirge in strains unheard as yet, with tears;
for now I will uplift for
Troy
a piteous chant, telling how I met my doom and fell a wretched captive to the Argives by reason of a four-footed beast that moved on wheels, when
Achaea
’s sons left at our.gates that horse,
515
loud rumbling to the sky, with its trappings of gold and its freight of warriors; and our people cried out as they stood upon the rocky citadel,
Up now, you whose toil is over,
520
and drag this sacred image to the shrine of the Zeus-born maiden, goddess of our
Ilium
! Forth from his house came every youth and every grey-head too; and with songs of joy
525
they took the fatal snare within.
530
Sing me, Muse, a tale of
Troy
, a funeral dirge in strains unheard as yet, with tears;
for now I will uplift for
Troy
a piteous chant, telling how I met my doom and fell a wretched captive to the Argives by reason of a four-footed beast that moved on wheels, when
Achaea
’s sons left at our.gates that horse,
515
loud rumbling to the sky, with its trappings of gold and its freight of warriors; and our people cried out as they stood upon the rocky citadel,
Up now, you whose toil is over,
520
and drag this sacred image to the shrine of the Zeus-born maiden, goddess of our
Ilium
! Forth from his house came every youth and every grey-head too; and with songs of joy
525
they took the fatal snare within.
530
Chorus
Dardania’s ruin, a welcome gift to be to her, the virgin queen of deathless steeds; and with nooses of cord they dragged it, as it had been a ship’s dark hull, to the stone-built
535
temple of the goddess Pallas, and set it on that floor so soon to drink our country’s blood. But, as they labored and made merry, came on the pitchy night; loud the Libyan flute was sounding,
540
and Phrygian songs awoke, while maidens beat the ground with airy foot, uplifting their glad song; and in the halls a blaze of torchlight shed its flickering shadows
545
on sleeping eyes.
550
Dardania’s ruin, a welcome gift to be to her, the virgin queen of deathless steeds; and with nooses of cord they dragged it, as it had been a ship’s dark hull, to the stone-built
535
temple of the goddess Pallas, and set it on that floor so soon to drink our country’s blood. But, as they labored and made merry, came on the pitchy night; loud the Libyan flute was sounding,
540
and Phrygian songs awoke, while maidens beat the ground with airy foot, uplifting their glad song; and in the halls a blaze of torchlight shed its flickering shadows
545
on sleeping eyes.
550
Chorus
In that hour around the house I was singing as I danced to that maiden of the hills, the child of Zeus;
when there rang along the town a cry of death which filled the homes of
Troy
, and babies in terror clung about their mothers’ skirts,
555
as forth from their ambush came the warrior-band, the handiwork of maiden Pallas. Soon the altars ran with Phrygian blood, and desolation reigned over every bed where young men lay beheaded,
560
a glorious crown for
Hellas
won, for her, the nurse of youth, but for our Phrygian fatherland a bitter grief.
565
In that hour around the house I was singing as I danced to that maiden of the hills, the child of Zeus;
when there rang along the town a cry of death which filled the homes of
Troy
, and babies in terror clung about their mothers’ skirts,
555
as forth from their ambush came the warrior-band, the handiwork of maiden Pallas. Soon the altars ran with Phrygian blood, and desolation reigned over every bed where young men lay beheaded,
560
a glorious crown for
Hellas
won, for her, the nurse of youth, but for our Phrygian fatherland a bitter grief.
565
The Trojan Women. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.