Book XXII

“Hector⁠—O wretched me!⁠—we both were born To sorrow; thou at Troy, in Priam’s house, And I at Thebé in Eëtion’s halls, By woody Placos. From a little child He reared me there⁠—unhappy he, and I Unhappy! O that I had ne’er been born! Thou goest down to Hades and the depths Of earth, and leavest me in thine abode, Widowed, and never to be comforted. Thy son, a speechless babe, to whom we two Gave being⁠—hapless parents!⁠—cannot have Thy loving guardianship now thou art dead, Nor be a joy to thee. Though he survive The cruel warfare which the sons of Greece Are waging, hard and evil yet will be His lot hereafter; others will remove His landmarks and will make his fields their own. The day in which a boy is fatherless Makes him companionless; with downcast eyes He wanders, and his cheeks are stained with tears. Unfed he goes where sit his father’s friends, And plucks one by the cloak, and by the robe Another. One who pities him shall give A scanty draught, which only wets his lips, But not his palate; while another boy, Whose parents both are living, thrusts him thence With blows and vulgar clamor: ‘Get thee gone! Thy father is not with us at the feast.’ Then to his widowed mother shall return Astyanax in tears, who not long since Was fed, while sitting in his father’s lap, On marrow and the delicate fat of lambs. And ever when his childish sports had tired The boy, and sleep came stealing over him, He slumbered, softly cushioned, on a couch And in his nurse’s arms, his heart at ease And satiate with delights. But now thy son Astyanax⁠—whom so the Trojans name Because thy valor guarded gate and tower⁠— Thy care withdrawn, shall suffer many things. While far from those who gave thee birth, beside The roomy ships of Greece, the restless worms Shall make thy flesh their banquet when the dogs Have gorged themselves. Thy garments yet remain Within the palace, delicately wrought And graceful, woven by the women’s hands; And these, since thou shalt put them on no more, Nor wear them in thy death, I burn with fire Before the Trojan men and dames; and all Shall see how gloriously thou wert arrayed.”