Homer, Iliad 6.404-432
[Hektor] smiled when he looked on his child in silence,
But Andromache stood near him, shedding tears.
She took his hand in hers and spoke, naming him,
“Husband, you’re wasting your strength–and you don’t pity
Your infant child or unlucky wife who will soon become
Your widow. The Greeks are going to kill you soon,
All of them attacking one after another. It would be better
For me to have die once I lose you. There’ll be no comfort at all
Once you have met your fate, only pain.
I don’t have a father or queen mother,
Glorious Achilles killed my father on that day
When he sacked the well-populated city of the Kilikians,
High-towered Thebes. He murdered Eetion,
But he didn’t strip him of his weapons, since he felt shame in his heart.
Instead he burned him with all of his fancy arms
And heaped a burial mound up over him then the nymphs
Those mountain daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, planted elm trees in it.
I had seven brothers in my home.
They all went down to Hades’ realm in a single day.
Over the oxen with their shambling feet and the white sheep.
My mother–who was queen under forested Plakos,
He lead away with the rest of their possessions,
But he released her, after accepting incalculable ransom,
Only for dark-arrowed Artemis to strike her down in her father’s halls.
So Hektor, you are my father and queen mother,
My brother too, as well as my strong husband.
Take pity on me now and stay here on the wall,
Don’t orphan your son and make a widow of your wife.”
ἤτοι ὃ μὲν μείδησεν ἰδὼν ἐς παῖδα σιωπῇ·
᾿Ανδρομάχη δέ οἱ ἄγχι παρίστατο δάκρυ χέουσα,
ἔν τ’ ἄρα οἱ φῦ χειρὶ ἔπος τ’ ἔφατ’ ἔκ τ’ ὀνόμαζε·
δαιμόνιε φθίσει σε τὸ σὸν μένος, οὐδ’ ἐλεαίρεις
παῖδά τε νηπίαχον καὶ ἔμ’ ἄμμορον, ἣ τάχα χήρη
σεῦ ἔσομαι· τάχα γάρ σε κατακτανέουσιν ᾿Αχαιοὶ
πάντες ἐφορμηθέντες· ἐμοὶ δέ κε κέρδιον εἴη
σεῦ ἀφαμαρτούσῃ χθόνα δύμεναι· οὐ γὰρ ἔτ’ ἄλλη
ἔσται θαλπωρὴ ἐπεὶ ἂν σύ γε πότμον ἐπίσπῃς
ἀλλ’ ἄχε’· οὐδέ μοι ἔστι πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ.
ἤτοι γὰρ πατέρ’ ἁμὸν ἀπέκτανε δῖος ᾿Αχιλλεύς,
ἐκ δὲ πόλιν πέρσεν Κιλίκων εὖ ναιετάουσαν
Θήβην ὑψίπυλον· κατὰ δ’ ἔκτανεν ᾿Ηετίωνα,
οὐδέ μιν ἐξενάριξε, σεβάσσατο γὰρ τό γε θυμῷ,
ἀλλ’ ἄρα μιν κατέκηε σὺν ἔντεσι δαιδαλέοισιν
ἠδ’ ἐπὶ σῆμ’ ἔχεεν· περὶ δὲ πτελέας ἐφύτευσαν
νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο.
οἳ δέ μοι ἑπτὰ κασίγνητοι ἔσαν ἐν μεγάροισιν
οἳ μὲν πάντες ἰῷ κίον ἤματι ῎Αϊδος εἴσω·
πάντας γὰρ κατέπεφνε ποδάρκης δῖος ᾿Αχιλλεὺς
βουσὶν ἐπ’ εἰλιπόδεσσι καὶ ἀργεννῇς ὀΐεσσι.
μητέρα δ’, ἣ βασίλευεν ὑπὸ Πλάκῳ ὑληέσσῃ,
τὴν ἐπεὶ ἂρ δεῦρ’ ἤγαγ’ ἅμ’ ἄλλοισι κτεάτεσσιν,
ἂψ ὅ γε τὴν ἀπέλυσε λαβὼν ἀπερείσι’ ἄποινα,
πατρὸς δ’ ἐν μεγάροισι βάλ’ ῎Αρτεμις ἰοχέαιρα.
῞Εκτορ ἀτὰρ σύ μοί ἐσσι πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ
ἠδὲ κασίγνητος, σὺ δέ μοι θαλερὸς παρακοίτης·
ἀλλ’ ἄγε νῦν ἐλέαιρε καὶ αὐτοῦ μίμν’ ἐπὶ πύργῳ,
μὴ παῖδ’ ὀρφανικὸν θήῃς χήρην τε γυναῖκα·
λαὸν δὲ στῆσον παρ’ ἐρινεόν, ἔνθα μάλιστα
ἀμβατός ἐστι πόλις καὶ ἐπίδρομον ἔπλετο τεῖχος.
τρὶς γὰρ τῇ γ’ ἐλθόντες ἐπειρήσανθ’ οἱ ἄριστοι
ἀμφ’ Αἴαντε δύω καὶ ἀγακλυτὸν ᾿Ιδομενῆα
ἠδ’ ἀμφ’ ᾿Ατρεΐδας καὶ Τυδέος ἄλκιμον υἱόν·
ἤ πού τίς σφιν ἔνισπε θεοπροπίων ἐ¿ εἰδώς,
ἤ νυ καὶ αὐτῶν θυμὸς ἐποτρύνει καὶ ἀνώγει.
