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. Where death-laden Simois falls,
  2. Of the face of dead Itys that stunned her,
  3. Of grief grown to music and wonder:
  4. Most changeful and old and undying
  5. The nightingale calls.
ANOTHER.
  1. And on Ida the shepherds are waking
  2. Their flocks for the upland. I hear
  3. The skirl of a pipe very distant.
ANOTHER.
  1. And sleep, it falls slow and insistent.
  2. ’Tis perilous sweet when the breaking
  3. Of dawn is so near.
DIVERS GUARDS
  1. Why have we still no word nor sign
  2. Of that scout in the Argive line?
ANOTHER.
  1. I know not; he is long delayed.
ANOTHER.
  1. God send he trip not on the blade
  2. Of some Greek in an ambuscade!
ANOTHER.
  1. It may be. I am half afraid.
LEADER.
  1. Our time is past! Up, men, and tell
  2. The fifth watch. ’Tis the Lycians’ spell
  3. Now, as the portions fairly fell.