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. Amid the galleys at the news they bring
  2. Of Trojan sluggards and the fool their king?
  3. Great God, ye never baulked them as they came,
  4. Nor smote them as they went!
  5. Who bears the blame
  6. Of this but thou? Thou wast the watcher set
  7. To guard this host till morn. I tell thee yet
  8. For this deed—I have sworn by Zeus our Lord !—
  9. The scourge of torment or the headsman’s sword
  10. Awaits thee. Else, be Hector in your thought
  11. Writ down a babbler and a man of nought.
LEADER
  1. Woe, woe! It was for thee, only for thee,
  2. I must have gone, O Help and Majesty,
  3. That time with message that the fires were burning.
  4. Mine eye was keen; I swear by Simois river,
  5. It never drooped nor slumbered, never, never,
  6. From eve till morning!
  7. My master, verily, I am innocent utterly,
  8. Build not such wrath against me, Lord, nor harden
  9. Thy heart; let Time be judge; and if in deed