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.

  1. A garb for work, for night; a thieving guise.
LEADER.
  1. ’Tis good to learn the wisdoms of the wise.
  2. What will thy wrapping be?
DOLON.
  1. A grey wolf’s hide
  2. Shall wrap my body close on either side;
  3. My head shall be the mask of gleaming teeth,
  4. My arms fit in the forepaws, like a sheath,
  5. My thighs in the hinder parts. No Greek shall tell
  6. ’Tis not a wolf that walks, half visible,
  7. On four feet by the trenches and around
  8. The ship-screen. When it comes to empty ground
  9. It stands on two.—That is the plan, my friend!
LEADER.
  1. Now Maian Hermes guide thee to thy end
  2. And home safe! Well he loves all counterfeit . . .
  3. Good work is there; may good luck go with it!
DOLON
  1. There, and then back! . . . And on this belt shall bleed
  2. Odysseus’ head—or why not Diomede?—
  3. To prove my truth. Ere dawn can touch the land
  4. I shall be here, and blood upon my hand.
[*](numeration out of sync: 223 omitted )Exit DOLON.
CHORUS.
  1. Thymbraean, Delian, Birth divine,