In total ruin sunk. My son! My son! son's death? Hec. Strange, inconceivable to thought, I see Horrors on horrors, woes on woes arise. Never henceforth, ah, never shall I know A day without a tear, without a groan. Ch. Dreadful, oh dreadful are the ills we suffer. Hec. Alas my son, son of a wretched mother, What hard mishap hath robb'd thee of thy life? What fate, what hand accurs'd hath wrought thy death? Att. I know not; on the wave-washed strand I found him. Hec. Cast up, or fall'n beneath the bloody spear? Att. Cast on the smooth sand by the surging wave. Hec. Ah me! now know I what my dream forbodes: The black-wing'd phantom pass'd me not; the vision Show'd to my sleeping fancy's frighted eye Ch. These visions, teach they who hath slain thy son? Hec. He, our false friend, who spurs the Thracian steed, To whom his father for protection sent him. gold? Hec. Unutterable deeds, abominable, Astonishing, unholy, horrible! Where are the laws of hospitality? Tyrant accurs'd, how hast thou gored his body, Gash'd with the cruel sword his youthful limbs, And steel'd thy heart against the sense of pity? Ch. Never on mortal head did angry heav'n Pour such a storm of miseries as on thine. But Agamemnon I behold, our lord, Advance this way: let us be silent, friends. AGAMEMNON, HECUBA, CHORUS. Aga. Why, Hecuba, dost thou delay to come, I name myself. Alas, what shall I do? Aga. Why thus lamenting dost thou turn from me? What hath been done? tell me what body this? Hec. O royal Agamemnon, at thy knees Suppliant I fall, and grasp thy conqu'ring hand, Aga. Sent to the king, to Polymnestor sent? Hec. And sent with treasures of destructive gold. Aga. By whom then dead, or by what cruel fate? Hec. By whom but this inhospitable Thracian? Hec. She found it lying on the sea-beat shore the wave. Aga. Unhappy thou, unbounded are thy woes! Hec. All woes are mine. Affliction hath no more. Aga. Alas, was ever woman born so wretched! If not, avenge me of this impious man, Thus grac'd, with fell intent he slew my son; tomb The dead, but flung him welt'ring on the wave. But we are slaves, but we perchance are weak; Yet the blest gods are strong, the law is strong Which rules e'en them; for by the law we judge That there are gods, and form our lives, the bounds Of justice and injustice mark'd distinct: Deem these deeds base then, reverence my woes, men, And bend them unreluctant to her will? Of all my sons (and I could boast such sons!) Ch. how wonderful th' events of human life, tunes I pity, nor reject thy suppliant hand; vile me. Hec. Vain is the boast of liberty in man: In aid, restrain them, nor appear to act Aga. But how? what wilt thou do? infirm with age Grasp in thy hand the sword, and stab the tyrant? Or work thy will with poisons? with what aid, What hand? Or whence wilt thou procure thee friends? Hec. Within these tents are many Trojan dames. Aga. The captives, say'st thou, prizes of the Greeks? Hec. With these will I revenge this bloody deed. Aga. How shall weak women over men prevail? Hec. Numbers are strong; add stratagem, resistless. Aga. Yet like I not this female fellowship. Hec. Were not Ægyptus' sons by women slain, The men of Lemnos all extirpated? But leave me to conduct this enterprise: Only permit this female slave to pass Safe through the army.-Go thou to the Thracian, Tell him that Hecuba, once queen of Troy, On matters that no less of good to him Import than me, would see him and his sons; It is of moment they should hear my words. Awhile, O king, the mournful rites forbear For my Polyxena, my late slain daughter; That on one pile the brother and the sister, To me a double grief, may blaze together, And mix their ashes in one common grave. Aga. Then be it so: for should the army sail, My power could not indulge thy fond request: But since the god breathes not the fav'ring gales We must perforce await a prosp'rous voyage. Success attend thee: for the general good Of individuals and of states requires That vengeance overtake th' unrighteous deed, And virtue triumph in her just reward. HECUBA, CHORUS. Chorus. Thou, then, oh natal Troy! no more I tread thy plain The spear-the spear hath rent thy pride; I perish'd at the noon of night! Rang out in choral minstrelsy. Secure we slept: that sailor band Full soon we deem'd no more should stand Which in the golden mirror's haze Flash'd its interminable rays, Bound up the tresses of my hair That I love's peaceful sleep might share. I slept; but, hark! that war shout dread, Heavens! as I passed the crowded way Their love-no love! but some dark spell, Rise, hoary sea, in awful tide, And whelm that vessel's guilty pride; Nor e'er, in high Mycene's hall, From Themis' seat, his ruthless hand Ch. He stirs, he moves his covering vest. Elect. Softly let your warblings flow; Death then indeed is near. Elect. When Phoebus gave the dire command To bathe in mother's blood his hand, By whom the father sunk in dust, Dire these deeds, but just. Orest. [waking.] O gentle Sleep, whose lenient power thus soothes Let Helen boast in peace of mighty Ilion's fall." Disease and pain, how sweet thy visit to me, FROM THE ORESTES. In this play Orestes is represented as pursued by the Furies, in punishment for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra. [ELECTRA watching over her sleeping brother; CHORUS approaching his couch. Elect. Softly! softly! fall the sound Ch. Like a reed, as soft and low! Ch. How fares it with him? Dearest, say. Ch. What say'st thou, mourner? Woe to thee, If the dewy slumber flee. Which the relentless powers of heaven impose. Who wanted thy soft aid! Blessing divine, Where have I been? Where am I? How brought hither? My late distraction blots remembrance out. Elect. What heartfelt joy to see thee thus com Elect. Now, my loved brother, hear me while Why dost thou weep, my sister? Why decline the Furies Permit thy sense thus clear and undisturbed. Orest. Hast thou aught new? If good, I thank thee for it; If ill, I have enough of ill already. Elect. Thy father's brother, Menelaus, arrives; His fleet lies anchor'd in the Nauphian bay. Orest. Comes he then? Light on our afflictions dawns; Much to my father's kindness doth he owe. Thy drooping head and hide it in thy vest? Elect. He comes; and, to confirm what now II think he would have prayed me not to plunge say, Brings Helena from Ilium's ruin'd walls. Elect. The female race of Tyndarus was born And further than in words thy virtue prove. My murdering sword in her who gave me birth, Impair thy delicate and tender health, Elect. Should I forsake thee! No; my choice And I will die with thee, or with thee live. EMPEDOCLES. [About 455 B. C.] THIS celebrated philosopher and naturalist | to have perished by a fall down the opening of was a native of Agrigentum. According to Plu- Mount Etna. tarch, he maintained that all things were produced from the principles of fire, air, water, and earth, into which they are again resolved. To these he added two other powers, Love and Discord; the former harmonizing and uniting, the latter disjoining and repelling. Empedocles also believed in a state of pre-existence or metempsychosis, declaring that he himself had pre-existed in both sexes of the human race, as well as in the bodies of birds and fishes. He is reported Of his poetical works, two epigrams are remaining, both distinguished by the use of the figure of Paronomasia or Pun. One of these has been translated by Mr. Merivale, and given in his Anthology, “not more (he says) of account of the celebrity of its author, than as an ancient specimen of this sort of writing." The pun consists in the derivation of the name "Pausanias" άлò TOV RAVELY rasarías,-only a portion of which double meaning, however, has been preserved in the translation. EPITAPH ON A PHYSICIAN. PAUSANIAS-not so named without a cause, As one who oft has given to pain a pause,— Blest son of Esculapius, good and wise, BACCHYLIDES. [About 450 B. C.] BACCHYLIDES was the nephew of Simonides, | esteemed his Pythian Odes above those of Pindar; and a native of the island of Cos. He composed. a judgment, which is justly glanced at and exhymns and odes, and was generally charac-posed by Longinus. One of his admirers, in a terized for the uniform delicacy and correctness later age, was the Emperor Julian, who is stated of his productions. He stood high in favour with by Ammianus Marcellinus to have drawn from Hiero, king of Syracuse, who is even said to have him many rules for the conduct of his own life. DRINKING. THIRSTY Comrade! wouldst thou know Bid thee reign o'er land and sea While each ship that ploughs the main, PEACE. FOR thee, sweet Peace, Abundance leads along |