POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be-- HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape? POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners. HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance. POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die. HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear. POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house. HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness. POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe. AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills. POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee. AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence? POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest. AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth? POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken. AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island, since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country, and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from these toils. CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless. * * * * * NOTES ON HECUBA * * * * [1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil. [2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses the word δορυ. See Hippol. 988. [3] τριταιος properly signifies _triduanus_; here it is used for τριτος, the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275. Πως δ' ου, τριταιαν γ' ουσ' ασιτος ‛ημεραν: [4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed Musgrave's note. "σκολιω, σκιμπωνι (_for which Porson directs_ σκιπωνι,) Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis usum præstabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, σκολιον σκιμπωμα vocat." [5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. κοπις, ‛ο ‛ρητωρ, και εμπειρος, ‛ο ‛υπο πολλων πραγματων κεκομμενος. In the Index to Lycophron κοπις is translated _scurra_. [6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great quantity of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. Β. 872. ‛Ος και χρυσον εχων πολεμον δ' ιεν ηϋτε κουρη. PORSON.