Rhesus
Euripides
Euripides. The Rhesus of Euripides. Translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes by Gilbert Murray. Murray, Gilbert, translator. London: George Allen and Company, Ltd., 1913.
- Poseidon, rider of the wild sea-drift,
- Tamed them, men say, and gave them for his gift
- To Peleus.—None the less, since I have stirred
- Hopes, I will baulk them not. I pledge my word,
- Achilles’ steeds, a rare prize, shall be thine.
- I thank thee.—’Tis indeed a prize more fine
- Than all in Troy.—
- Grudge me not that; there be
- Guerdons abundant for a Prince like thee.
- O peril strange, O fearful prize!
- Yet win it and thy life hath wings:
- A deed of glory in men’s eyes,
- A greatness, to be wooed of kings.
- If God but hearken to the right,
- Thou drinkest to the full this night
- The cup of man’s imaginings.
- There lies the way.—But first I must go find
- At home some body-shelter to my mind;
- Then, forward to the ships of Argolis!
- What other raiment wilt thou need than this?