Part 1

‘When a man who takes a city includes in the general destruction
Temples of the high gods and tombs that honour the dead,
He is a fool; his own destruction follows him close.’ (Poseidon) Part 1

‘If you would see misery itself,
Here by the door, prostrate, shedding unmeasured tears
For griefs unmeasured, Hecabe lies.’ (Poseidon) Part 1

‘And when Menelaus’ ship
In mid-ocean rides and runs
May there fall a furious
Thunderbolt from heaven,
Blaze amidships, burn his oars and break his keel!
Fall while I, poor prisoner, sail,
Lost in weeping, farther every hour from home.’ (Chorus) Part 1

Part 2

‘Sworn to bring back the hated Helen,
The cursed wife of Menelaus,
Sparta’s shame and Castor’s ruin, her whose sin
Struck down Priam, patriarch of fifty sons,
Wrecked my life, and left me
Stranded and despairing.’ (Hecabe) Part 2

‘Come, you widowed brides of Trojan fighting-men,
Weeping mothers, trembling daughters,
Come, weep with me while the smoke goes up from Troy!’ (Hecabe) Part 2

‘Will they take us now? What have you heard? Is this our last breath of our native air?’ (The Chorus asking Hecabe about their uncertain future) Part 2

Part 3

‘Men, bring Cassandra out here at once. I must first hand her over to the General, then distribute the other women according to the draw…’ (Talthybius giving his men orders) Part 3

‘Poor creature! You are out of your mind, with all you have been through.’ (Talthybius) Part 3

‘Now I belong to a perjured impious outcast, who defies man’s law and Gods: monster of wickedness whose tongue twists straight to crooked, truth to lies, friendship to hate, mock rights and honours wrong!’ (Hecabe, when she learns she will be given to Odysseus) Part 3

‘No queen’s bed for me now: I shall lay my shrivelled body to rest on the floor, and wear faded, worn rags to match my skin and mock my royalty’ (Hecabe when she considers what her life will become when she serves in Odysseus’ palace) Part 3

Part 4

‘I shall be his death, and the ruin of his whole house; so I shall avenge my brothers and my father.’ (Cassandra on Agamemnon) Part 4

‘Oh, my brothers, buried in this dear earth of Troy,
My father, you have not long to wait for me. I will come
To the House of Death triumphant, my hands and garments
Red
With the blood of House of Atreus, who brought our Troy to dust!’ (Cassandra’s parting line) Part 4

Part 5

‘It was terrible; but she [Polyxena] is dead now; and being dead she is happier than I who am left alive.’ (Andromache) Part 5

‘The gods have hated us, since the day when Paris was spared at his birth, to live and destroy his country for the sake of accursed Helen. Now vultures wheel, waiting to tear the dead stretched at the feet of Pallas, while we – are slaves and must look on.’ (Andromache) Part 5

‘Listen Hecabe – you are my mother, as you are hers: let me comfort your heart with welcome truth. I believe that to be dead is the same as never to have been born, and far better of living in misery. The dead have no feeling; so evil can bring no pain.’ (Andromache to Hecabe) Part 5

‘Take him! Carry him away, throw him down…I have no power to save my child from death.’ (Andromache) Part 5

Part 6

‘As Hector’s wife I studied and practised the perfection of womanly modesty. I gave up all desire of visiting my neighbours and stayed in my own house – where a woman must stay, however blameless her reputation, unless she means to invite slander…’ (Andromache on being the future Queen ) Part 6

‘… my dear daughter, cease mourning for Hector; all your tears cannot help him. And honour your new master; win his love as a husband by your own goodness and sweetness.’ (Hecabe suggests Andromache can have a life beyond this, with Neoptolemus) Part 6

‘O you Achaeans, you are fine fighters; but where is your pride? Did you so dread this boy that you must invent a new death for him? Did you fear that one day he would raise Troy from the dust?’ (Hecabe) Part 6

Part 7

‘What happened in my own heart, to make me desert my own country and my home and go away with this man whom I hardly knew? The power of love is something neither I nor you can resist… you should show Aphrodite your anger, me your forgiveness.’ (Helen trying to defend herself and her actions) Part 7

‘In Argos your [Helen’s] style and scope were somewhat limited; leave Sparta behind, you thought, and Troy would be a perpetual fountain of gold for your extravagance to spill in floods! Menelaus’s palace was too confined a stage for your luxurious insolence to strut on.’ (Hecabe believes it was Helen’s pride and greed that made her leave Sparta for another life) Part 7 

‘She [Helen] has enchantments that can captivate men’s eyes, bring cities to ruin and homes to ashes. I know her; so do you, so does everyone who has suffered by her.’ (Hecabe on Helen) Part 7

‘Menelaus, punish your wife in a manner worthy of your race, and of your family. Let those who have reproached Greece and called you womanish be silenced by your noble revenge!’ (The Chorus urge Menelaus to exact revenge on Helen) Part 7 

Part 8

‘…young man; instead, I am burying you – I, an old woman who has lost her city, her children, and her happiness.’ (Hecabe to the dead body of Astaynax) Part 8

‘Reverberations rock the walls,
Each ruin reels and sinks engulfed!
Come, trembling aged feet,
You must not fail me now.’ (Hecabe) Part 8