Euripides, Rhesus, ed. Gilbert Murray, 388

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Scene

← Previous Next →

Ῥῆσος

χαῖρʼ, ἐσθλὸς ἐσθλοῦ παῖς, τύραννε τῆσδε γῆς,

Ἕκτορ· παλαιᾷ σʼ ἡμέρᾳ προσεννέπω.

χαίρω δέ σʼ εὐτυχοῦντα καὶ προσήμενον
390

πύργοισιν ἐχθρῶν· συγκατασκάψων δʼ ἐγὼ

τείχη πάρειμι καὶ νεῶν πρήσων σκάφη.

Ἕκτωρ

παῖ τῆς μελῳδοῦ μητέρος Μουσῶν μιᾶς

Θρῃκός τε ποταμοῦ Στρυμόνος, φιλῶ λέγειν

τἀληθὲς αἰεὶ κοὐ διπλοῦς πέφυκʼ ἀνήρ.
395

πάλαι πάλαι χρῆν τῇδε συγκάμνειν χθονὶ

ἐλθόντα, καὶ μὴ τοὐπί σʼ Ἀργείων ὕπο

Τροίαν ἐᾶσαι πολεμίῳ πεσεῖν δορί.

οὐ γάρ τι λέξεις ὡς ἄκλητος ὢν φίλοις

οὐκ ἦλθες οὐδʼ ἤμυνας οὐδʼ ἐπεστράφης.
400

τίς γάρ σε κῆρυξ ἢ γερουσία Φρυγῶν

ἐλθοῦσʼ ἀμύνειν οὐκ ἐπέσκηψεν πόλει;

ποῖον δὲ δώρων κόσμον οὐκ ἐπέμψαμεν;

σὺ δʼ ἐγγενὴς ὢν βάρβαρός τε βαρβάρους

Ἕλλησιν ἡμᾶς προύπιες τὸ σὸν μέρος.
405

καίτοι σε μικρᾶς ἐκ τυραννίδος μέγαν

Θρῃκῶν ἄνακτα τῇδʼ ἔθηκʼ ἐγὼ χερί,

ὅτʼ ἀμφὶ Πάγγαιόν τε Παιόνων τε γῆν

Θρῃκῶν ἀρίστοις ἐμπεσὼν κατὰ στόμα

ἔρρηξα πέλτην, σοὶ δὲ δουλώσας λεὼν
410

παρέσχον· ὧν σὺ λακτίσας πολλὴν χάριν,

φίλων νοσούντων ὕστερος βοηδρομεῖς.

οἱ δʼ οὐδὲν ἡμῖν ἐν γένει πεφυκότες,

πάλαι παρόντες, οἳ μὲν ἐν χωστοῖς τάφοις

κεῖνται πεσόντες, πίστις οὐ σμικρὰ πόλει,
415

οἳ δʼ ἔν θʼ ὅπλοισι καὶ παρʼ ἱππείοις ὄχοις

ψυχρὰν ἄησιν δίψιόν τε πῦρ θεοῦ

μένουσι καρτεροῦντες, οὐκ ἐν δεμνίοις

πυκνὴν ἄμυστιν ὡς σὺ δεξιούμενοι.

ταῦθʼ, ὡς ἂν εἰδῇς Ἕκτορʼ ὄντʼ ἐλεύθερον,
420

καὶ μέμφομαί σοι καὶ λέγω κατʼ ὄμμα σόν.

Rhesus. Euripides. ed. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. 1913.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Ῥῆσος (Greek) (Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. III. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1920-1978))

Translations (3)

Rhesus Perseus (Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 388 focus

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

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

Rhesus Perseus (Euripides. The Rhesus of Euripides. Murray, Gilbert, translator. London: George Allen and Company, Ltd., 1913.) — 388 focus

Re-enter HECTOR.

RHESUS.

Lord Hector, Prince of Ilion , noble son

Of noble sires, all hail! Long years have run

Since last we greeted, and ’tis joy this day

To see thy fortunes firm and thine array
390

Camped at the foe’s gate. Here am I to tame

That foe for thee, and wrap his ships in flame.

HECTOR. ¹

Thou child of Music and the Thracian flood,

Strymonian Rhesus, truth is alway good

In Hector’s eyes. I wear no double heart.
395

Long, long ago thou shouldst have borne thy part

In Ilion ’s labours, not have left us here,

For all thy help, to sink beneath the spear.

Why didst thou—not for lack of need made plain!—

Not come, not send, not think of us again?
400

What grave ambassadors prayed not before

Thy throne, what herald knelt not at thy door?

What pride of gifts did Troy not send to thee?

And thou, a lord of Barbary even as we,

Thou, brother of our blood, like one at sup
405

Who quaffs his fill and flings away the cup,

Hast flung to the Greeks my city! Yet, long since,

’Twas I that found thee but a little prince

And made thee mighty, I and this right hand;

When round Pangaion and the Paiôn’s land,

Front against front, I burst upon the brood

Of Thrace and broke their targes, and subdued
410

Their power to thine. The grace whereof, not small,

Thou hast spurned, and when thy kinsmen, drowning, call,

Comest too late. Thou! Others there have been

These long years, not by nature of our kin . .

Some under yon rough barrows thou canst see

Lie buried; they were true to Troy and me;
415

And others, yet here in the shielded line

Or mid the chariots, parching in the shine

Of noonday, starving in the winds that bite

Through Ilion ’s winter, still endure and fight

On at my side. ’Twas not their way, to lie

On a soft couch and, while the cups go by,

Pledge my good health, like thee, in Thracian wine.

I speak as a free man. With thee and thine
420

Hector is wroth, and tells thee to thy face.

Rhesus (OCR draft) Experimental (Rhesus. Robert Potter's English verse translation, first published in 1781–1783; text from the 1808 Oxford printing.)

No corresponding passage available

Euripides Rhesus 388

ed. Gilbert Murray

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

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

RHESUS.

Lord Hector, Prince of Ilion , noble son

Of noble sires, all hail! Long years have run

Since last we greeted, and ’tis joy this day

To see thy fortunes firm and thine array
390

Camped at the foe’s gate. Here am I to tame

That foe for thee, and wrap his ships in flame.

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

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

RHESUS. Lord Hector, Prince of Ilion , noble son Of noble sires, all hail! Long years have run Since last we greeted, and ’tis joy this day To see thy fortunes firm and thine array 390 Camped at the foe’s gate. Here am I to tame That foe for thee, and wrap his ships in flame.

Stable identifiers

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

RHESUS.

Lord Hector, Prince of Ilion , noble son

Of noble sires, all hail! Long years have run

Since last we greeted, and ’tis joy this day

To see thy fortunes firm and thine array
390

Camped at the foe’s gate. Here am I to tame

That foe for thee, and wrap his ships in flame.