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.
- And when I had heard all I wished to learn, I stood still; and I see Rhesus mounted like a god upon his Thracian chariot. Of gold was the yoke that linked the necks of his horses brighter than the snow;
- and on his shoulders flashed his shield with figures welded in gold; while a gorgon of bronze like that on the aegis of the goddess was bound upon the front of his horses, ringing out its note of fear with many a bell. The number of his army you could not reckon
- to an exact sum, for it was beyond one’s comprehension; many knights, many ranks of targeteers, many archers, a great crowd of light-armed troops, arrayed in Thracian garb, to bear them company. Such the man who comes to Troy’s assistance,
- whom the son of Peleus will never escape, either if he tries to escape or if he meets him spear to spear.
- Whenever the gods stand by the citizens, the tide of fortune glides with easy flow to a successful goal.
- I shall find many friends now that fortune smiles
- upon my warring and Zeus is on my side. But we have no need of those who did not share our toils long since, when Ares, driving all before him, was rending the sails of our ship of state with his tempestuous blast. Rhesus has shown the friendship he then bore to Troy;
- for he comes to the feast, although he was not with the hunters when they took the prey, nor did he join his spear with theirs.
- You are right to scorn and blame such friends; yet welcome those who wish to help the state.
- We who have long kept Ilium safe are sufficient.
- Are you so sure you have already caught the foe?
- I am sure; tomorrow’s light will make that plain.
- Beware of what may happen; often fortune veers about.
- I loath the friend who brings his help too late.