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You swift-prowed ships, rowed to sacred Ilium over the deep dark sea, [125] past the fair havens of Hellas, to the flute's ill-omened music and the dulcet voice of pipes, [130] to the bays of Troy, alas! where you tied your hawsers, twisted handiwork from Egypt, in quest of that hateful wife of Menelaus, who brought disgrace on Castor, and on Eurotas foul reproach; who murdered [135] Priam, the father of fifty children; the cause why I, the unhappy Hecuba, have wrecked my life upon this disastrous strand. Oh that I should sit here, over against the tent of Agamemnon! [140] As a slave I am led away from my home, an old woman, while from my head the hair is piteously shorn for grief. Ah! unhappy wives of those armored sons of Troy! Ah! poor maidens, luckless brides, [145] come weep, for Ilium is now a smouldering ruin; and I, like some mother-bird that over her fledgelings screams, will begin the strain; not the same as that [150] I once sang to the gods, as I leaned on Priam's staff and beat with my foot in Phrygian time to lead the dance!

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Troy (Turkey) (2)
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    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), NAVIS
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