ANDROMACHE.

Nos patriâ incensâ diversa per æquora vectæ
Stirpis Achilleæ fastus, juvenemque superbum
Servitio enixa tulimus: qui deinde secutus,

Ledæam Hermionem, Lacedæmoniosque hymenæos —,

VOL. 1.

VIRGIL.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

ANDROMACHE.

ATTENDANT.

CHORUS OF PHTHIAN WOMEN.

HERMIONE.

MENELAUS.

MOLOSSUS.

PELEUS.

NURSE OF HERMIONE.

ORESTES.

MESSENGER.

THETIS.

SCENE THE VESTIBULE OF THETIS' TEMPLE BETWEEN

PHTHIA AND PHARSALIA IN THESSALY.

ANDROMACHE.

ANDROMACHE.

OTHEBES (1) thou pride of Asia, from whose gate

I came resplendent with a plenteous dower,
To Priam's regal house, the fruitful Wife
Of Hector: his Andromache was erst

An envied name: but now am I more wretched
Than any woman, or already born,

Or to be born hereafter; for I saw
My husband Hector by Achilles slain,
And that unhappy son whom to my lord

I bore, Astyanax, from Troy's high towers

Thrown headlong; when our foes had sack'd the city,
Myself descended from a noble line

Of freeborn warriors, reach'd the Grecian coast,
On Neoptolemus that (2) island prince
For the reward of his victorious arms
Bestow'd: selected from the Phrygian spoils.
"Twixt Phthia and Pharsalia, in these fields,
I dwell, where Thetis from the haunts of men

(1) The Thebes here spoken of is not the famous city of that name on the banks of the Nile called Hecatompylæ, from its hundred gates, which some readers may at first sight be induced to suppose from the antient Geographers having, as Cluverius observes, taken Egypt into Asia instead of Africa; but this, which stands fourth of the nine Thebeses, enumerated by Stephanus Byzantinus, was a Cilician city of inferior note, where reigned Aetion the father of Andromache; its destruction by the Grecian arms, Homer has repeatedly mentioned in the Iliad.

(2) Scyros, the place where Neoptolemus was born, a small and inconsiderable island in the Egean sea (Exuga daps Tiêng. v. 209.) is here contemptuously alluded to: Achilles being convey'd thither by Thetis, disguised in female apparel, to prevent his going to the siege of Troy, had an amour with Deidamia daughter of Lycomedes king of the island, the fruit of which was Pyrrhus, (or as Euripides constantly calls him) Neoptolemus.

Retreating, with her Peleus erst abode.
By Thessaly's inhabitants, this spot

Is from th' auspicious nuptials of that Goddess
Call'd Thetidæum: here Achilles' son
Residing, suffers Peleus still to rule

Pharsalia's land, nor will assume the sceptre
While lives his aged grandsire. In these walls
A son, who to th' embraces of my lord
Achilles' offspring, owes his birth, I bore,
And tho' I had been wretched, a fond hope
Still cherish'd, that while yet the boy was safe
I some protection and relief might find
In my calamities; but since my lord
(Spurning my servile couch) that Spartan dame
Hermione espoused, with ruthless hate
By her am I pursued; for she pretends
That I, by drugs endued with magic power,
Administer'd in secret, make her barren
And odious to her lord, because I wish
To occupy this mansion in her stead,
And forcibly to drive her from his couch,
To which, at first I with reluctance came,
But now have left it: mighty Jove can witness
That I became the partner of his bed
Against my own consent. But she remains
Deaf to conviction, and attempts to slay me :
In this design her father Menelaus
Assists his daughter, he is now within,
And on such errand left the Spartan realm:
Fearing his rage, I near the palace take
My seat, in Thetis' temple, that the Goddess
From death may save me; for both Peleus' self,
And the descendants of that monarch, hold
This structure rear'd in memory of his wedlock
With the fair Nereid, in religious awe.
But hence, in secret, trembling for his life,
My only child have I convey'd away,

Because his noble father is not present

To aid me, and avails not now to guard

His son, while absent in the Delphic land,
To expiate there the rage with which he sought
The Pythian tripod, and from Phoebus claim'd
A reparation for his Father's death.

If haply he can deprecate the curses
Attendant on his past misdeeds, and make
The God propitious to his future days.

FEMALE ATTENDANT, ANDROMACHE.

ATTENDANT.

My Queen, for still I scruple not to use
The same respectful title, which I gave you
When we in Ilion dwelt; you and your lord
While he was living, shar'd my duteous love,
And now I with important tidings fraught
To you am come, trembling indeed lest one
Of our new rulers overhear the tale,
Yet greatly pitying your disastrous fate;
For Menelaus and his Daughter form
Dire plots against you; of these foes beware.

HECUBA.

O my dear fellow-servant, (for thou shar'st

Her bondage who was erst thy Queen, but now

Is wretched,) ha! what mean they? what fresh schemes Have they devis'd to take away my life,

Who am by woes encompass'd?

ATTENDANT.

They intend,

O miserable dame, to kill your son,

Whom privately you from this house convey'd.

HECUBA.

Are they inform'd I sent the child away? Ah me! who told them? in what utter ruin Am I involv'd!