Polyxena

“ Hecuba fell as though dead, and Polyxena, led by Ulysses, advanced towards the tomb, which was surrounded by the chief warriors. A dirge was sung as she mounted the funeral pile, on the summit of which the son of Achilles poured out libations from a gold cup to the manes of the hero. When the sacrificing priests stretched out their arms to seize her, she made a sign that she wished to die free and unbound, as befitted the daughter of so many kings. Then, tearing aside her robe, she bared her bosom to the blow. ”

“ When she reappears to beg for her life she is calmer, but yet supplicates with an earnestness and a sympathy touching beyond expression, for she is no heartbroken captive like Polyxena, no persecuted exile like Macaria; she is still a young, fresh, hopeful creature, strange to the woes of life, and looking forward with bright expectations to its pleasures. ”

“ Bilent (To Polyxena) .—Would the lady like to look into my apartments?
Polyxena (Frightened) .—Not at all, sir. (Walks off toward Ctibor.) I feel oppressed when I am even in sight of them.
Hannewaldt (Reads the letter with clouded face) .—Wait for me, Polyxena, in the room. (Polyxena walks away, escorted to the door by Ctibor.) Mr. Bilent, I must speak at once with the master!
Bilent.—That is impossible. If the master is entertaining himself among his mistresses, nobody must disturb him. ”

“ She is no forlorn captive like Polyxena, but a princess in the very bloom and promise of her prime, affianced to Achilles, just entering upon the sweetness of new life divined "in rich foreshadowings of the world." How can she leave it all and go forth to dust and endless darkness? Yet her father has dropped one word which in her first passion of grief seems to be unheeded. "Hellas requires this of us both, my daughter—of you as far as in you lies, and of me also, in order that she should be free." When we next behold Iphigenia, his words had borne noble fruit. ”

“ Miss Matthaei’s treatment, however subjective, is trenchant and illuminating, especially as regards the psychology of Hecuba and Odysseus, the value of Polyxena’s surrender, and the finale. But concerning the vital point, lack of dramatic unity, she has little to say, apparently only the suggestion (p. 140) that “the cumulative effect of finding the body of Polydorus after having seen Polyxena taken away is the deciding factor; otherwise the end of the play would have been simply unbelievable”. The strength of this argument is very doubtful. ”

“ And BROWNING, and HOMER, and MEREDITH, and OSCAR WILDE are with them, the fleet-footed giants of perennial youth, like unto the white-limbed Hermes, whom Polyxena once saw, and straight she hied her away to the vine-clad banks of Ilyssus, where Mr. PATER stands contemplative, like some mad scarlet thing by DVORÁK, and together they march with the perfect significance of silence through realms that are cloud-capped with the bright darkness that shines from the poet's throne amid the stars. ”

“ And thou, Polyxena! my child of sorrow, where, oh! where art thou? None of all the many sons and daughters I have born comes to aid a wretched mother. Why then raise me up? What hope is left us? Guide me, who erst trod so daintily the streets of Troy, but now am but a slave, to a bed upon the ground, nigh some rocky ridge, that thence I may cast me down and perish, after I have wasted my body with weeping. [4] Of all the prosperous crowd, count none a happy man before he die. ”

“ Polyxena.—Take my very life if you will, I cannot, I will not belong to you! (Gazing about, she sees Zuzanka and the other mistresses.) Save me! For the sake of all that is on earth, protect me! (Runs to the women who take her into their group. Rozmberk goes after her, but Zuzanka blocks the way.) ”

“ Achilles had all-honorably proposed peace; Hector demanded treason—treason to Greece and the confederates, as the sole price of young Polyxena! The reply of the indignant Greek was renewed war—and Hector fell, and Troy quailed to its base and tottered! Then Memnon buckled on his armor for Troy, and he too fell! Penthesilea, and she likewise!—and now, all her chief captains down, all her allies retired, Troy was again in her extremity, and again—peaceable and courteous as he was fierce and valiant in the field—Achilles offered terms, peace for Polyxena. ”

“ Medea, pure-souled Polyxena, wifely Alcestis, fiery-hearted Phædra, chaste and cold Hippolytus, Andromache upon her chariot a royal slave, Orestes in his agony soothed by a sister's ministrations, the sunny piety of Ion, the self-devotion of Menoikeus—intermingling perchance these pictured forms, pure, statuesque and clear as frescos from Pompeii, with choric odes and exquisite descriptions. ”

“ It is by no means so full of political allusion as the plays we have just noticed, but is perhaps for that very reason a better tragedy. It treats of the climax of Hecuba's misfortunes—the sacrifice of Polyxena at the grave of Achilles, and the murder of Polydorus, her brother, by Polymestor, his Thracian host. The chorus of Trojan women sing odes of great beauty, especially that describing the capture of Ilium (vv. 905 sqq.) . The pleading of Hecuba with Odysseus, who comes to carry off her daughter, is full of pathos, and the conduct of Polyxena places her among Euripides' leading heroines. ”

“ Where a higher necessity is at stake, even human life must not be considered, and after all, what has been lost if one young woman be the sacrifice to a cause where she may possibly become a ruler.
Scene XIII
Rozmberk, Hannewaldt, Bilent and Polyxena
Rozmberk (Entering from the room. To himself) .—I cannot resist the desire to look at her. (Polyxena enters with Bilent. Rozmberk eagerly hastens to meet her.) You are so beautiful, Miss Polyxena, that you engage the thoughts of all who are fortunate enough to be near you. Permit me to at least indicate how interested I am. ”

“ Death itself does not end his anger at the loss of Briseis, were it not that the beautiful and unhappy princess Polyxena, daughter of the once rich and powerful Priam and now a wretched slave, is sacrificed on his tomb, that the shade glutted with revenge may drink the last drop of her innocent blood; and in the lower world, when Ulysses asks him what state he prefers, Achilles answers that he "would rather be the commonest slave, but alive"! ”

“ Polyxena.—Condemned to die!
(Falls into the arms of Zuzanka, Lukan seizes Ctibor)
ACT IV
Rozmberk’s apartment as in act iii
Scene I
Polyxena, Rozmberk, Zuzanka and Kinský
Polyxena (Seriously to Rozmberk) .—Forgive him, Count; do not destroy in your wrath one who would gladly give his life for you.
Rozmberk (With icy malice) .—I take you at your word. If, as you have just said, lady, he feels this great devotion for me, he will not find it hard to die in obedience to my command. ”

“ Thou, draw nigh our Thracian guest,⁠890
Say, "Hecuba, late Queen of Ilium,
Calls thee on thy behoof no less than hers,
Thy sons withal; for these must also hear
Her words." The burial of Polyxena
Late-slaughtered, Agamemnon, thou delay:⁠895
So sister joined with brother in one flame,
A mother's double grief, shall be entombed.
Agamemnon.
So shall it be: yet, might the host but sail,
No power had I to grant this grace to thee:
But, seeing God sends no fair-following winds,⁠900
Needs must we tarry watching idle sails. ”

“ It will be accepted with the knowledge of your uncle. (Bows to Polyxena, who returns the bow as she walks away. Aside to Bilent.) Is the antechamber prepared?
Bilent.—I had it closed. The attendant has left.
Rozmberk.—Very well. (Bows to Polyxena once more, and walks off to his room.)
Hannewaldt (Takes Polyxena aside. Greatly agitated) .—No reason why you should refuse. And one thing more. I am concerned about a most important matter. If I fail to win Rozmberk for the king, then I myself will fall, and all those who depend upon me, even yourself will fall with me. ”

“ Every foul and polluting practice must therefore be purged away from marriage; that the intercourse of the irrational animals may not be cast in our teeth, as more accordant with nature than human conjunction in procreation. Some of these, it must be granted, desist at the time in which they are directed, leaving creation to the working of Providence.
By the tragedians, Polyxena, though being murdered, is [82] described nevertheless as having, when dying, taken great care to fall decently,—
“Concealing what ought to be hid from the eyes of men.” ”

“ And when Fortune turned downward the all-daring loftiness of the Trojans, so that together with the kingdom the king was undone, Hecuba, sad, wretched, and captive, when she saw Polyxena dead, and woeful descried her Polydorus on the sea-bank, frantic, barked like a dog,—to such degree had grief distraught her mind.
But neither the furies of Thebes, nor the Trojan, were ever seen toward any one so cruel, whether in goading beasts or human limbs, [1] as I saw two shades pallid and naked who, biting, were running in the way that a boar does when from the sty he breaks loose. ”

“ Rozmberk.—Then bear the consequence of your decision. (Flings open the door leading into the laboratory, which is filled with flames, and calls) Bilent! Here, take the girl! (Pushes Polyxena into the laboratory. Polyxena screams with terror, and Bilent’s laugh answers her. The door closes, the mistresses flee, shrieking with fright, Zuzanka, Eliška, and Lenka, alone remain. Rozmberk gazes after the fleeing figures, laughs and hastens through the door at the right.)
Scene XI
Zuzanka, Eliška and Lenka
(Zuzanka, trembling, clings to a chair.) ”

“ After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over against Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of the daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to their hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice. Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son of Priam's. ”

“ The sacrifice of the daughter is over, when the fate of her son is reported to the miserable mother. An old attendant has been sent to fetch water from the sea, with which Hecuba will bathe—"not for the bridal bed, but for the tomb"—the dead body of Polyxena. ”

“ Polyxena, in Euripides's Hekuba, 360, bewails her anticipated lot as a slave. A fierce master will buy her. She will have to 279knead bread for him, to sweep and weave, leading a miserable life, given as wife to some base slave. She prefers to be sacrificed at Achilles's tomb. When the Greeks were going to kill her, she asked them to keep their hands off. She would submit. Let her die free. "It would be a shame to me, royal, to be called a slave amongst the dead." In the Trojan Women the screams of the Trojan women are heard, as they are distributed by lot to their new Greek masters. ”

“ First episode.—Talthybius, the herald, enters and announces that the lots have been drawn, and reveals to each captive her destined lord: that Cassandra has fallen to Agamemnon, Andromache to Pyrrhus, Hecuba to Ulysses. At news of this her fate, Hecuba is filled with fresh lamentations, counting it an especial hardship that she should fall to the arch-enemy of her race. The herald also darkly alludes to the already accomplished fate of Polyxena,
At the tomb raised to Achilles doomed to serve. ”

“ By a truly Ionian touch, Polyxena, daughter of Priam, is sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles. It seems probable that the Iliou Persis really took up the story with the suicide of Aias (from this part of the poem a fragment is quoted in the scholia to Iliad, xi. 515) , [37] and that the poem contained the whole prowess of Neoptolemus at Troy, and the affair of the bringing back of Philoctetes from Lemnos. The prominence of Aeneas expands the hint in Iliad, xx. 307, 308, the prophecy of Poseidon that he and his children will long rule over the Trojans. ”

“ Kinský.—I am certain that she must be, unless unseen spirits have carried her away under the very eyes of those who are now on guard for me.
Zuzanka.—We will soon know. (Opens the door at the right and enters.) Nobody is here.
Kinský (Alone) .—Then a little further away, in the adjoining room! (to himself) Everything is a lottery now, and one hazardous play may yet restore to me what I have gained and lost.
(Screams from the adjoining room. Polyxena rushes out followed by Zuzanka.)
Scene III
Kinský, Zuzanka, and Polyxena
Polyxena.—Save me, save me, Lady! ”

“ A serving woman enters with the body of Polydorus; she is followed by Agamemnon who has come to see why Hecuba has not sent for Polyxena's corpse. In hopeless grief she shows her murdered son, begging his aid to a revenge and promising to exact it without compromising him. A message brings on the scene Polymestor, her son's Thracian host with his sons. In a dialogue full of terrible irony Hecuba inquires about Polydorus, saying she has the secret of a treasure to reveal. He enters her tent where is nobody but some Trojan women weaving. ”

“ And now I am a slave: this name alone Makes me in love with death—so strange it is." [Pg 6] [Later in the drama follows the account of the heroic death of Polyxena, described to the unhappy Hecuba by the herald Talthybius.]
"The whole vast concourse of the Achaian host Stood round the tomb to see your daughter die. Achilleus' son, taking her by the hand, Placed her upon the mound, and I stayed near; And youths, the flower of Greece, a chosen few, With hands to check thy heifer, should she bound, Attended. ”

“ When Troy was taken by the Greeks, Hecuba, the wife of Priam, and her daughters, Kassandra the prophetess, and Polyxena, with the other women of Troy, were made slaves, being portioned among the victors, so that Kassandra became the concubine of Agamemnon. But Polydorus, the youngest of Priam's sons, had long ere this been sent, with much treasure of gold, for safe keeping to his father's friend, Polymestor king of Thrace, so that his mother had one consolation of hope amidst her afflictions. ”