So spake the matron. Hector left in haste The mansion, and retraced his way between The rows of stately dwellings, traversing The mighty city. When at length he reached The Scaean gates, that issue on the field, His spouse, the nobly-dowered Andromache, Came forth to meet him—daughter of the prince Eëtion, who, among the woody slopes Of Placos, in the Hypoplacian town Of Thebé, ruled Cilicia and her sons, And gave his child to Hector great in arms. She came attended by a maid, who bore A tender child—a babe too young to speak— Upon her bosom—Hector’s only son, Beautiful as a star, whom Hector called Scamandrius, but all else Astyanax— The city’s lord—since Hector stood the sole Defence of Troy. The father on his child Looked with a silent smile. Andromache Pressed to his side meanwhile, and, all in tears, Clung to his hand, and, thus beginning, said:—
“Too brave! Thy valor yet will cause thy death. Thou hast no pity on thy tender child, Nor me, unhappy one, who soon must be Thy widow. All the Greeks will rush on thee To take thy life. A happier lot were mine, If I must lose thee, to go down to earth, For I shall have no hope when thou art gone— Nothing but sorrow. Father have I none, And no dear mother. Great Achilles slew My father when he sacked the populous town Of the Cilicians—Thebé with high gates. ’Twas there he smote Eëtion, yet forbore To make his arms a spoil; he dared not that, But burned the dead with his bright armor on, And raised a mound above him. Mountain-nymphs, Daughters of aegis-bearing Jupiter, Came to the spot and planted it with elms. Seven brothers had I in my father’s house, And all went down to Hades in one day. Achilles the swift-footed slew them all Among their slow-paced bullocks and white sheep. My mother, princess on the woody slopes Of Placos, with his spoils he bore