View:
By Card
Chorus
Hail, all hail! O mighty prince!
fair the cub you have bred, 0
Thrace
, a ruler in his every look. See his stalwart frame in golden corslet! Hark to the ringing bells that peal so proudly from his shield-handle.
380
A god, O
Troy
, a god, a very Ares, Strymon’s colt and the tuneful Muse’s, has come to breathe courage into you.
385
388
Hail, all hail! O mighty prince!
fair the cub you have bred, 0
Thrace
, a ruler in his every look. See his stalwart frame in golden corslet! Hark to the ringing bells that peal so proudly from his shield-handle.
380
A god, O
Troy
, a god, a very Ares, Strymon’s colt and the tuneful Muse’s, has come to breathe courage into you.
385
Rhesus
Brave son of father as brave, Hector, prince of this land, hail! After many a long day I greet you.
I rejoice at your success, to see you camped hard on the enemy towers; I am here to help you raze their walls and fire their fleet of ships.
390
Brave son of father as brave, Hector, prince of this land, hail! After many a long day I greet you.
I rejoice at your success, to see you camped hard on the enemy towers; I am here to help you raze their walls and fire their fleet of ships.
390
Hector
Son of that tuneful mother, one of the Muses, and of Thracian Strymon’s river, I love to speak
plain truth always; nature did not give me a double tongue. Long, long ago should you have come and shared the labors of this land, and not allowed
Troy
for any help of yours to fall overthrown by hostile
Argive
spears. You can not say it was any want of invitation
395
that kept you from coming with your help to visit us. What herald or embassy from
Phrygia
did not come to you, urgently requiring your aid for our city? What sumptuous presents did we not send to you? But you, brother barbarian though you were,
400
pledged away to Hellenes us your barbarian brothers, for all the help you gave. Yet it was I with this arm that raised you from your paltry princedom to high lordship over
Thrace
, when I fell upon the Thracian chieftains face to face around Pangaeum in Paeonia’s land
405
and broke their serried ranks, and gave their people up to you enslaved; but you have trampled on this great favor done you, and come with laggard step to give your aid when friends are in distress. While they, whom no natural tie of kin constrains, have long been here, and some are dead and in their graves
410
beneath the heaped-up cairn, no mean proof of loyalty to the city; and others in arms and mounted on their chariots, with steadfast soul endure the icy blast and parching heat of the sun, not pledging one another on couches, as you do, in long deep draughts.
415
This is the charge I bring against you and utter to your face, that you may know how frank is Hector’s tongue.
420
422
Son of that tuneful mother, one of the Muses, and of Thracian Strymon’s river, I love to speak
plain truth always; nature did not give me a double tongue. Long, long ago should you have come and shared the labors of this land, and not allowed
Troy
for any help of yours to fall overthrown by hostile
Argive
spears. You can not say it was any want of invitation
395
that kept you from coming with your help to visit us. What herald or embassy from
Phrygia
did not come to you, urgently requiring your aid for our city? What sumptuous presents did we not send to you? But you, brother barbarian though you were,
400
pledged away to Hellenes us your barbarian brothers, for all the help you gave. Yet it was I with this arm that raised you from your paltry princedom to high lordship over
Thrace
, when I fell upon the Thracian chieftains face to face around Pangaeum in Paeonia’s land
405
and broke their serried ranks, and gave their people up to you enslaved; but you have trampled on this great favor done you, and come with laggard step to give your aid when friends are in distress. While they, whom no natural tie of kin constrains, have long been here, and some are dead and in their graves
410
beneath the heaped-up cairn, no mean proof of loyalty to the city; and others in arms and mounted on their chariots, with steadfast soul endure the icy blast and parching heat of the sun, not pledging one another on couches, as you do, in long deep draughts.
415
This is the charge I bring against you and utter to your face, that you may know how frank is Hector’s tongue.
420
Rhesus
I too am just the same; straight to the point I cut my way; no shuffling nature is mine. My heart was wrung with sorer anguish than yours
at my absence from this land; I fumed and chafed, but Scythian people, whose borders march with mine, made war on me on the very eve of my departure for
Ilium
; I had reached the strand of the Euxine sea, there to transport my Thracian army.
425
Then my spear poured out over
Scythia
’s land great drops of bloody rain, and
Thrace
too shared in the mingled slaughter. This then was what chanced to keep me from coming to the land of
Troy
and joining your standard. But as soon as I had conquered these and taken their children as hostages
430
and appointed the yearly tribute they should pay my house, I have come, sailing across the sea’s mouth, and on foot traversing the other borders of your land—not as you in your jeers at those carousals of my countrymen hint, nor sleeping soft in gilded palaces,
435
but amid the frozen hurricanes that vex the Thracian sea and the Paeonian shores, learning as I lay awake what suffering is, this soldier’s cloak my only wrap. True my coming has tarried, but yet I am in time; ten years already have you been at the fray,
440
and accomplished nothing yet; day in, day out, you fall, throwing the dice of war with Argives. But the light of one day will be enough for me to sack those towers and fall upon their anchored fleet and slay the Achaeans; and on the next day I will go
445
home from
Ilium
, at one stroke ending all your toil. Let none of you lay hand to spear to lift it, for I, for all my late arrival, will with my lance make utter havoc of those vaunting Achaeans.
450
454
I too am just the same; straight to the point I cut my way; no shuffling nature is mine. My heart was wrung with sorer anguish than yours
at my absence from this land; I fumed and chafed, but Scythian people, whose borders march with mine, made war on me on the very eve of my departure for
Ilium
; I had reached the strand of the Euxine sea, there to transport my Thracian army.
425
Then my spear poured out over
Scythia
’s land great drops of bloody rain, and
Thrace
too shared in the mingled slaughter. This then was what chanced to keep me from coming to the land of
Troy
and joining your standard. But as soon as I had conquered these and taken their children as hostages
430
and appointed the yearly tribute they should pay my house, I have come, sailing across the sea’s mouth, and on foot traversing the other borders of your land—not as you in your jeers at those carousals of my countrymen hint, nor sleeping soft in gilded palaces,
435
but amid the frozen hurricanes that vex the Thracian sea and the Paeonian shores, learning as I lay awake what suffering is, this soldier’s cloak my only wrap. True my coming has tarried, but yet I am in time; ten years already have you been at the fray,
440
and accomplished nothing yet; day in, day out, you fall, throwing the dice of war with Argives. But the light of one day will be enough for me to sack those towers and fall upon their anchored fleet and slay the Achaeans; and on the next day I will go
445
home from
Ilium
, at one stroke ending all your toil. Let none of you lay hand to spear to lift it, for I, for all my late arrival, will with my lance make utter havoc of those vaunting Achaeans.
450
Chorus
Joy, joy!
sweet champion sent by Zeus! Only may Zeus, throned on high, keep jealousy, resistless foe, from you for your words! That fleet of ships from
Argos
never brought,
455
neither formerly nor now, among all its warriors a braver than you. How I wonder will Achilles, how will Aias stand the onset of your spear? Oh! that I might see that day, my prince,
460
on which you may wreak vengeance on them, gripping your lance in your death-dealing hand!
465
467
Joy, joy!
sweet champion sent by Zeus! Only may Zeus, throned on high, keep jealousy, resistless foe, from you for your words! That fleet of ships from
Argos
never brought,
455
neither formerly nor now, among all its warriors a braver than you. How I wonder will Achilles, how will Aias stand the onset of your spear? Oh! that I might see that day, my prince,
460
on which you may wreak vengeance on them, gripping your lance in your death-dealing hand!
465
Rhesus
Such exploits am I ready to achieve to atone for my long absence; (with due submission to Nemesis I say this); then when we have cleared this city of its foes
and you have chosen out first-fruits for the gods, I wish to march with you against the Argives’ country and at my coming lay
Hellas
waste with war, that they in turn may know the taste of ill.
470
Such exploits am I ready to achieve to atone for my long absence; (with due submission to Nemesis I say this); then when we have cleared this city of its foes
and you have chosen out first-fruits for the gods, I wish to march with you against the Argives’ country and at my coming lay
Hellas
waste with war, that they in turn may know the taste of ill.
470
Hector
If I could rid the city of this present curse
If I could rid the city of this present curse
Rhesus
Do they not say that here came the greatest chiefs of
Hellas
?
Do they not say that here came the greatest chiefs of
Hellas
?
Hector
Yes, and I do not scorn them; I have enough to do in driving them away.
480
Yes, and I do not scorn them; I have enough to do in driving them away.
480
Rhesus
Well, when we slay these, is our task not fully done?
Well, when we slay these, is our task not fully done?
Hector
Do not leave the present need to look to distant schemes.
Do not leave the present need to look to distant schemes.
Rhesus
You are, it seems, content to suffer and make no return.
You are, it seems, content to suffer and make no return.
Hector
Yes, for I rule a great empire, even though I am here.
But on the left wing or the right or in the centre of the allies you may plant your shield and marshal your troops.
485
488
Yes, for I rule a great empire, even though I am here.
But on the left wing or the right or in the centre of the allies you may plant your shield and marshal your troops.
485
Rhesus
Alone I will face the foe, Hector. But if you are ashamed, after all your previous toil,
to have no share in firing their ships’ prows, place me face to face with Achilles and his army.
490
Alone I will face the foe, Hector. But if you are ashamed, after all your previous toil,
to have no share in firing their ships’ prows, place me face to face with Achilles and his army.
490
Hector
Against that man you cannot range your eager spear.
Against that man you cannot range your eager spear.
Rhesus
Why, it was surely said he sailed to
Ilium
.
Why, it was surely said he sailed to
Ilium
.
Hector
He sailed and he is here; but he is angry
and takes no part with the other chieftains in the battle.
495
He sailed and he is here; but he is angry
and takes no part with the other chieftains in the battle.
495
Rhesus
Who next to him has won a name in their army?
Who next to him has won a name in their army?
Hector
Aias and the son of Tydeus are, I take it, in no way his inferiors; there is Odysseus, a wheedling rascal, but bold enough indeed,
and of all men he has wrought most outrage on this country. For he came by night to Athena’s shrine and stole her image and took it to the
Argive
ships; next he came inside our battlements, clad as a vagrant in a beggar’s garb, and loudly did he curse
500
the Argives, sent as a spy to
Ilium
; and then went out again, when he had slain the sentinels and warders at the gate. He is always to be found lurking in ambush about the altar of Thymbrean Apollo near the city. In him we have a troubling pest to wrestle with.
505
Aias and the son of Tydeus are, I take it, in no way his inferiors; there is Odysseus, a wheedling rascal, but bold enough indeed,
and of all men he has wrought most outrage on this country. For he came by night to Athena’s shrine and stole her image and took it to the
Argive
ships; next he came inside our battlements, clad as a vagrant in a beggar’s garb, and loudly did he curse
500
the Argives, sent as a spy to
Ilium
; and then went out again, when he had slain the sentinels and warders at the gate. He is always to be found lurking in ambush about the altar of Thymbrean Apollo near the city. In him we have a troubling pest to wrestle with.
505
Rhesus
No brave man thinks it right to kill his foe in secret, but to meet him face to face. If I can catch this fellow alive, who, as you say, sits in stealthy ambush and plots his mischief, I will impale him at the outlet of the gates
510
and set him up for winged vultures to make their meal upon. This is the death he ought to die, pirate and temple-robber that he is.
515
No brave man thinks it right to kill his foe in secret, but to meet him face to face. If I can catch this fellow alive, who, as you say, sits in stealthy ambush and plots his mischief, I will impale him at the outlet of the gates
510
and set him up for winged vultures to make their meal upon. This is the death he ought to die, pirate and temple-robber that he is.
515
Hector
To your quarters now, for it is night. For you I will myself point out a spot where your army
can watch this night apart from our array. Our password is
Phoebus, if perhaps there should be need of it; hear and remember it, and tell it to the Thracian army. You must advance in front of our ranks and keep a watchful guard, and receive Dolon,
520
who went to spy on the ships, for he, if he is safe, is even now approaching the camp of
Troy
.
525
To your quarters now, for it is night. For you I will myself point out a spot where your army
can watch this night apart from our array. Our password is
Phoebus, if perhaps there should be need of it; hear and remember it, and tell it to the Thracian army. You must advance in front of our ranks and keep a watchful guard, and receive Dolon,
520
who went to spy on the ships, for he, if he is safe, is even now approaching the camp of
Troy
.
525
Rhesus. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.