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. Then comfort. All an empty swell!
  2. It seems The lash of trembling Pan[*](P. 5, 1. 36, The lash of trembling Pan.]—i.e., a panic.)
  3. Hath caught you. Speak, if speak ye can.
  4. What tidings? Not a word is clear
  5. Of the whole tale ye tell.
[The turmoil subsides, the LEADER comes forward.
LEADER.
  1. Great beacons in the Argive line[*](P. 5, 1. 41, Great beacons in the Argive line.]— In the Iliad it is the Trojan watch-fires that are specially mentioned, especially VIII. 553-end. There is no great disturbance in the Greek camp in the Doloneia; there is a gathering of the principal chiefs, a visit to the Guards, and the despatch of the two spies, but no general tumult such as there is in Book II. One cannot help wondering whether our playwright found in his version of the Doloneia a description of fires in the Greek camp, such as our Eighth Book has of those in the Trojan camp. The object might be merely protection against a night attack, or it might be a wish to fly, as Hector thinks. If so, presumably the Assembly changed its mind— much as it does in our Book II.—and determined to send spies.)
  2. Have burned, my chief, through half the night.
  3. The shipyard timbers[*](P. 5, 1. 43 ff., The shipyard timbers.]—The Greeks had their ships drawn up on the beach and protected by some sort of wooden shipyard; then came the camp; then, outside the whole, a trench and a wall. The fires were in the camp.) seemed to shine.
  4. Then, clear against the light,
  5. Toward Agamemnon’s tent the whole
  6. Army in tumult seemed to roll,
  7. As stirred by some strange voice, shoal after shoal.
  8. A night of such discord
  9. Was never seen. And we, in dread
  10. What such things boded, turned and sped
  11. Hither; dost blame us, Lord?
HECTOR.
  1. No! Welcome, friend, with all thy tale of fear!
  2. It shows they mean to fly: they mean to clear
  3. Decks in the dark and so delude my sight . . .
  4. I like that beacon-burning in the night.