Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANDROMACHE: THE KINGS OF TROY, by EURIPIDES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANDROMACHE: THE KINGS OF TROY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O phoebus embattling the high wall of ilium
Last Line: Crossed over a storm, and rained down murder.
Subject(s): Troy


O PHOEBUS embattling the high wall of Ilium,
And thou of ocean, guiding behind black horses
Thy chariot on salt water,
Why have ye, in what wrath,
Given the work of your hands --
A fine work scorned, to the spear
Of war, deserting unhappy
Unhappy Troy?

Many on Simois banks were the quick chariots
Inspanned, and bloody the ungarlanded racing
That ye for mortals made there:
Dead and gone are the kings
Of Ilium, and no fire
On altar-hearth now burns,
There is no more incense smoking
In Troy for Gods.

Gone is the son of Atreus, wifely hands
Killed him, and she, requited by her children,
Suffered God's anger, dying.
The word of God prophetic turned on her,
When, out of Argos, Agamemnon's son
Trod the rich temple floors and went to be
The killer of his mother.
O God, can I trust thy word, O Phoebus?

Troy's women all through the Grecian market places
Sang lamentations for their unlucky children,
And wives must home abandon
To follow another man; it is not you
Alone on whom fell difficult grief, it is not
Your friends alone. A plague, a plague held Greece;
And to deep fields in Phrygia
Crossed over a storm, and rained down murder.





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