Polyxena: Odysseus, I See That You Are Hiding Your Right Hand

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72 EURIPIDES [342–369] Polyxena: Odysseus, I see that you are hiding your right hand underneath your cloak, and turning your face away, so I can’t touch your beard.16 355 You’re off the hook; don’t worry. I refuse to call on Zeus, Protector of Suppliants. Since I’m compelled, I’ll follow you, and also since death is what I want. If I resist I’ll be no good, in love with mere survival. 360 Why should I live? My father was the lord of all the Phrygians.17 That was my starting point. Then, I was raised on promises and hopes of royal marriage, and keen rivalry to see whose hearth and home I would belong to. 365 Unlucky me—I was the princess once, first among the women of Ida, admired among the maidens, equal to the gods in all but one respect: mortality. And now I am a slave. The name, to start with— 370 so unfamiliar!—makes me long for death. And then, I might get cruel-minded masters; whoever pays for me with silver—me, sister of Hector, and of many others!— will give me orders, tell me that I must 375 make bread, and sweep the house, and do my weaving, spending painful days under compulsion. Some paid-for slave from somewhere will defile my bed, which was prestigious once, considered a prize for rulers. No! I’m free to close 380 my eyes forever, turn from this day’s light, give my body to Hades. Go ahead, 16. In the ritual of supplication, the supplicator touched the chin and kissed the hand of the person supplicated, thereby asking for protection in the name of Zeus. Odysseus’ gesture prevents Polyxena from performing the ritual. 17. Phrygia was a kingdom in west-central Anatolia; in tragedy it is often identified with Troy. Phrygia had gold mines and was the legendary home of King Midas..

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