430 BC

ANDROMACHE
by Euripides

translated by E. P. Coleridge
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

ANDROMACHE
MAID OF ANDROMACHE

CHORUS OF PHTHIAN WOMEN
HERMIONE, daughter of MENELAUS and wife of Neoptolemus

MENELAUS, King of Sparta
MOLOSSUS, son of ANDROMACHE and Neoptolemus

PELEUS, father of Achilles
NURSE OF HERMIONE

ORESTES, son of Agamemnon
MESSENGER

THETIS, the goddess, wife of PELEUS
Various attendants

ANDROMACHE
ANDROMACHE

(SCENE:-Before the temple of THETIS in Thessaly.
ANDROMACHE, dressed as a suppliant, is clinging

to the altar in front of the temple. The palace
of Achilles is nearby.)

ANDROMACHE
O CITY of Thebes, glory of Asia, whence on a day I came to Priam's

princely home with many a rich and costly thing in my dower, affianced
unto Hector to be the mother of his children, I Andromache, envied

name in days of yore, but now of all women that have been or yet shall
be the most unfortunate; for I have lived to see my husband Hector

slain by Achilles, and the babe Astyanax, whom I bore my lord,
hurled from the towering battlements, when the Hellenes sacked our

Trojan home; and I myself am come to Hellas as a slave, though I was
esteemed a daughter of a race most free, given to Neoptolemus that

island-prince, and set apart for him as his special prize from the
spoils of Troy. And here I dwell upon the boundaries of Phthia and

Pharsalia's town, where Thetis erst, the goddess of the sea, abode
with Peleus apart from the world, avoiding the throng of men;

wherefore the folk of Thessaly call it the sacred place of Thetis,
in honour of the goddess's marriage. Here dwells the son of Achilles

and suffers Peleus still to rule Pharsalia, not wishing to assume
the sceptre while the old man lives. Within these halls have borne a

boy to the son of Achilles, my master. Now aforetime for all my misery
I ever had a hope to lead me on, that, if my child were safe, I

might find some help and protection from my woes; but since my lord in
scorn of his bondmaid's charms hath wedded that Spartan Hermione, I am

tormented by her most cruelly; for she saith that I by secret
enchantment am making her barren and distasteful to her husband, and

that I design to take her place in this house, ousting her the
rightful mistress by force; whereas I at first submitted against my

will and now have resigned my place; be mighty" target="_blank" title="a.万能的；全能的">almighty Zeus my witness
that it was not of my own free will I became her rival!

But I cannot convince her, and she longs to kill me, and her
father Menelaus is an accomplice in this. E'en now is he within,

arrived from Sparta for this very purpose, while I in terror am come
to take up position here in the shrine of Thetis adjoining the

house, if haply it may save me from death; for Peleus and his
descendants hold it in honour as symbol of his marriage with the

Nereid. My only son am I secretly conveying to a neighbour's house
in fear for his life. For his sire stands not by my side to lend his

aid and cannot avail his child at all, being absent in the land of
Delphi, where he is offeringrecompense to Loxias for the madness he

committed, when on a day he went to Pytho and demanded of Phoebus
satisfaction for his father's death, if haply his prayer might avert

those past sins and win for him the god's goodwill hereafter.
(The MAID OF ANDROMACHE enters.)

MAID
Mistress mine, be sure I do not hesitate to call thee by that

name, seeing that I thought it thy right in thine own house also, when
we dwelt in Troy-land; as I was ever thy friend and thy husband's

while yet he was alive, so now have I come with strange tidings, in
terror lest any of our masters learn hereof but still out of pity

for thee; for Menelaus and his daughter are forming dire plots against
thee, whereof thou must beware.

ANDROMACHE
Ah! kind companion of my bondage, for such thou art to her, who,

erst thy queen, is now sunk in misery; what are they doing? What new
schemes are they devising in their eagerness to take away my

wretched life?
MAID

Alas! poor lady, they intend to slay thy son, whom thou hast
privily conveyed from out the house.

ANDROMACHE
Ah me! Has she heard that my babe was put out of her reach? Who

told her? Woe is me! how utterly undone!
MAID

I know not, but thus much of their schemes I heard myself; and
Menelaus has left the house to fetch him.

ANDROMACHE
Then am I lost; ah, my child! those vultures twain will take and

slay thee; while he who is called thy father lingers still in Delphi.
MAID

True, for had he been here thou wouldst not have fared so
hardly, am sure; but, as it is, thou art friendless.

ANDROMACHE
Have no tidings come that Peleus may arrive?

MAID
He is too old to help thee if he came.

ANDROMACHE
And yet I sent for him more than once.

MAID
Surely thou dost not suppose that any of thy messengers heed thee?

ANDROMACHE
Why should they? Wilt thou then go for me?

MAID
How shall I explain my long absence from the house?

ANDROMACHE
Thou art a woman; thou canst invent a hundred ways.

MAID
There is a risk, for Hermione keeps no careless guard.

ANDROMACHE
Dost look to that? Thou art disowning thy friends in distress.

MAID
Not so; never taunt me with that. I will go, for of a truth a

woman and a slave is not of much account, e'en if aught befall me.
(The MAID withdraws.)

ANDROMACHE
Go then, while I will tell to heaven the lengthy tale of

lamentation, mourning, and weeping, that has ever been my hard lot;
for 'tis woman's way to delight in present misfortunes even to keeping

them always on her tongue and lips. But I have many reasons, not
merely one for tears,-my city's fall, my Hector's death, the

hardness of the lot to which I am bound, since I fell on slavery's
evil days undeservedly. 'Tis never right to call a son of man happy,

till thou hast seen his end, to judge from the way he passes it how he
will descend to that other world.