A speech of Hecuba, on seeing the dead body of Polydorus, and in which she reproaches the Greeks as having no punishment for the murder of a parent or a guest, seems to have been added by Ennius himself, at least it is not in the Greek original of Euripides. On the whole, indeed, the Hecuba of Ennius appears, so far as we can judge from the fragments, to be the least servile of his imitations. In Columna’s edition of Ennius, an opportunity is afforded by corresponding quotations from the Greek Hecuba, of comparing the manner in which the Latin poet has varied, amplified, or compressed the thoughts of his original. In Euripides, Hecuba, while persuading Ulysses to intercede for Polixena, says—
“Τὸ δ’ αξίωμα, καν κακως λέγῃς, τὸ σόν
Πείσει. Λόγος γαρ ἔκ τ’ αδοξούντων ἰων,
Και ’κ των δοκούντων αὐτὸς, οὐ ταυτὸν σθένει.”
Ennius imitates this as follows:
“Hæc tu, etsi perverse dices, facile Achivos flexeris;
Namque opulenti cum loquuntur pariter atque ignobiles,
Eadem dicta, eademque oratio æqua non æque valent.”
This has been copied by Plautus, and from him by Moliere in his Amphitrion—
“Tous les discours sont des sottises