Rhesus

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.

  1. your temple in Lycia, Apollo, O divine head, come with all your archery, appear this night, and by your guidance save this man,
  2. and aid the Dardanians, O almighty god whose hands in days of old built the walls of Troy.
Chorus
  1. May he come to the ships! May he reach the army of Hellas and spy it out, then turn again and reach the altars of his father’s
  2. home in Ilium!
  3. May he mount the chariot drawn by Phthia’s horses, when our master has sacked Achaea’s camp,
  4. those horses that the sea-god gave to Peleus, son of Aeacus.
Chorus
  1. For he alone had heart enough for home and country to go and spy on the naval station; I admire
  2. his spirit; how few stout hearts there are, when on the sea the sunlight dies and the city labors in the surge.
  3. Phrygia yet has left a valiant few, and bold hearts in the battle’s press; it is only Mysia’s sons who scorn us as allies.
Chorus
  1. Which of the Achaeans will the earth-treading murderer slay
  2. in their beds, as he pretends to be a four-footed beast on the ground? May he lay Menelaus low, slay Agamemnon and bring his head
  3. to Helen’s hands, causing her to lament her evil kinsman, who has come against my city, against the land of Troy with his army of a thousand ships.
Messenger
  1. Lord, in days to come may it be mine
  2. to bring my masters such news as I am bearing to you now.
Hector
  1. Often the rustic mind is afflicted with dullness; so you have probably come to this ill-suited place to tell your master, in armor, about the sheep! Do you not know my palace or my father’s throne,
  2. where you should carry your tale when you have prospered with your flocks?
Messenger
  1. Dull we herdsmen are; I do not dispute it. But none the less I bring joyful news to you.
Hector
  1. Cease your tale of how the sheep-fold fares; I have battles to fight and spears to wield.
Messenger
  1. The very things of which I, too, came to tell you; for a chieftain of a countless army is on his way to join you as your friend and ally of this land.
Hector
  1. His country? and the home that he has left?