Euripides, Rhesus, ed. Gilbert Murray, 422

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Scene

← Previous Next →

Ῥῆσος

τοιοῦτός εἰμι καὐτός, εὐθεῖαν λόγων

τέμνων κέλευθον, κοὐ διπλοῦς πέφυκʼ ἀνήρ.

ἐγὼ δὲ μεῖζον ἢ σὺ τῆσδʼ ἀπὼν χθονὸς

λύπῃ πρὸς ἧπαρ δυσφορῶν ἐτειρόμην·
425

ἀλλʼ ἀγχιτέρμων γαῖά μοι, Σκύθης λεώς,

μέλλοντι νόστον τὸν πρὸς Ἴλιον περᾶν

ξυνῆψε πόλεμον· Εὐξένου δʼ ἀφικόμην

πόντου πρὸς ἀκτάς, Θρῇκα πορθμεύσων στρατόν.

ἔνθʼ αἱματηρὸς πέλανος ἐς γαῖαν Σκύθης
430

ἠντλεῖτο λόγχῃ Θρῄξ τε συμμιγὴς φόνος.

τοιάδε τοί μʼ ἀπεῖργε συμφορὰ πέδον

Τροίας ἱκέσθαι σύμμαχόν τέ σοι μολεῖν.

ἐπεὶ δʼ ἔπερσα, τῶνδʼ ὁμηρεύσας τέκνα

τάξας τʼ ἔτειον δασμὸν ἐς δόμους φέρειν,
435

ἥκω περάσας ναυσὶ πόντιον στόμα,

τὰ δʼ ἄλλα πεζὸς γῆς περῶν ὁρίσματα —

οὐχ ὡς σὺ κομπεῖς τὰς ἐμὰς ἀμύστιδας,

οὐδʼ ἐν ζαχρύσοις δώμασιν κοιμώμενος,

ἀλλʼ οἷα πόντον Θρῄκιον φυσήματα
440

κρυσταλλόπηκτα Παιόνας τʼ ἐπεζάρει,

ξὺν τοῖσδʼ ἄυπνος οἶδα τλὰς πορπάμασιν.

ἀλλʼ ὕστερος μὲν ἦλθον, ἐν καιρῷ δʼ ὅμως·

σὺ μὲν γὰρ ἤδη δέκατον αἰχμάζεις ἔτος

κοὐδὲν περαίνεις, ἡμέραν δʼ ἐξ ἡμέρας
445

πίπτεις κυβεύων τὸν πρὸς Ἀργείους Ἄρη·

ἐμοὶ δὲ φῶς ἓν ἡλίου καταρκέσει

πέρσαντι πύργους ναυστάθμοις ἐπεσπεσεῖν

κτεῖναί τʼ Ἀχαιούς· θατέρᾳ δʼ ἀπʼ Ἰλίου

πρὸς οἶκον εἶμι, συντεμὼν τοὺς σοὺς πόνους,
450

ὑμῶν δὲ μή τις ἀσπίδʼ ἄρηται χερί·

ἐγὼ γὰρ ἕξω τοὺς μέγʼ αὐχοῦντας δορὶ

πέρσας Ἀχαιούς, καίπερ ὕστερος μολών.

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.)) — 422 focus

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

Rhesus Perseus (Euripides. The Rhesus of Euripides. Murray, Gilbert, translator. London: George Allen and Company, Ltd., 1913.) — 422 focus

RHESUS.

Thy way is mine, friend. Straight I run my race

In word and deed, and bear no double tongue.

I tell thee, more than thine my heart was wrung,

Yea, angered past all durance, thus to stay
425

Back from thy battles. ’Twas a folk that lay

Hard on my borders, Scythians of the north;

Just when my host for Troy had started forth,

They fell upon our homes. I had reached the coast

Of the Friendless Sea and purposed to have crossed

My Thracians there. We turned; and all that plain

Is trampled in a mire of Scythian slain
430

Ploughed by our spears, and blood of Thrace withal

Not stinted. This it was that drowned thy call

For help and held me back from Ilion ’s need.

I broke their power; the princes of their breed

I took to hostage, made their elders swear

To bring my house due tribute, year by year,
435

Then, never lagging, crossed the Pontus mouth,

Marched by long stages through Bithynia south

And here am come . . . not drunken with the feast,

As thou wouldst have me be, not lulled to rest

In golden chambers. In this harness hard
440

I have borne my nights of winter storm that starred

The Euxine into ice and scared the strong

Paionians. Long I have been, but not too long

To save thee yet. Friend, this is the tenth year

Thou labourest on unceasing, with no clear
445

Vantage; day creeps by day, and Ares throws

The same red dice for thee and for thy foes.

Now, hear my vow. Before one day’s eclipse

I swear to break their wall, to burn their ships

And slay their princes. On the second day

I leave this soil and take my homeward way,
450

Thy pains relieved. No Trojan of the land

Need move, nor turn the buckler in his hand.

Alone my late-comers will turn the tide

And smite your Greeks, for all their bitter pride.

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 422

ed. Gilbert Murray

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers