THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



for thee, my father,* and for thee, my mother,* I 

 weep to think what manner of things ye both shall 

 suffer. Thou, my father, piteously fallen shalt lie 

 beside the altar of mighty Zeus of the Court." Mother 

 of the best of children, thee from human shape the 

 gods shall turn into a hound ** maddened over thy 

 children. Fair Polyxena,* for thee lying low near 

 to thy fatherland I shall weep but little : would 

 that someone of the Argives had slain me too with 

 thy lamented fate ! For what profit hav^e I in life 

 any more, if life but keep me for a most pitiful 

 death, and an alien soil shall cov er me ? Such things 

 for me and such a doom for King Agamemnon 

 himself doth my mistress' weave, his reward for all 

 his labours. But now take ye heed — in suffering 

 shall ye learn the truth of my words — and put away, 

 my friends, the cloud of infatuate folly. Let the 

 body of the capacious horse be rent with hatchets or 

 burnt with fire. And hiding crafty persons as it 

 does, let it perish and be greatly regretted by the 

 Danaans. And then feast ye and array you for the 

 dance, setting up mixing-bowls in honour of dear 

 liberty." ' 



So she spake ; but no one hearkened to her ; for 

 Apollo made her at once a good prophet and 

 unbelieved.'^ And her father spake and rebuked 

 her : 



' i.e. Clytemnestra who treats Cassandra as a slave. Cf. 

 Aesch. Aff. 1035 flF. 



» Horn. //. vi. 526, " if Zeus grant us to set up in our 

 halls the mixing-bowl of liberty to the everlasting gods." 



* Cassandra, daughter of Priam, obtained from Apollo 

 the gift of prophecy. But afterwards she refused to fulfil 

 the promise by which she had obtained it. Apollo avenged 

 himself bv causing her prophecies not to be believed 

 (Aesch. A(/. 120H ff.). 



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