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.
- ’Tis Ares’ self, this issue strong
- Of Strymon and the Muse of song,
- Whose breath is fragrant on thy shore!
- Lord Hector, Prince of Ilion, noble son
- Of noble sires, all hail! Long years have run
- Since last we greeted, and ’tis joy this day
- To see thy fortunes firm and thine array
- Camped at the foe’s gate. Here am I to tame
- That foe for thee, and wrap his ships in flame.
- Thou child of Music and the Thracian flood,
- Strymonian Rhesus, truth is alway good
- In Hector’s eyes. I wear no double heart.
- Long, long ago thou shouldst have borne thy part
- In Ilion’s labours, not have left us here,
- For all thy help, to sink beneath the spear.
- Why didst thou—not for lack of need made plain!—
- Not come, not send, not think of us again?
- What grave ambassadors prayed not before
- Thy throne, what herald knelt not at thy door?
- What pride of gifts did Troy not send to thee?