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. And smite your Greeks, for all their bitter pride.
CHORUS.
  1. All hail!
  2. Sweet words and faithful heart!
  3. Only may Zeus avert
  4. From those proud lips the Wrath that none may bear!
  5. Never a galleon bore,
  6. Now, nor in days of yore,
  7. Prince like to thee, so valiant and so fair.
  8. How shall Achilles, how
  9. Shall Ajax bear him now,
  10. Or face thy lance? May I but stand that day
  11. Watching to see him reel
  12. Broken beneath thy steel,
  13. And once in blood his many murders pay!
RHESUS.
  1. Yea, more atonement thou shalt take from me
  2. For this slow help.—May Adrasteia see
  3. My heart and pardon!—When we two have set
  4. Troy free from these who compass her with hate,
  5. Soon as the Gods have had their first-fruits, I
  6. With thee will sail—so help me Zeus on high!—