Euripides

“ Myself, I longed to try the battle-cast By night, and use God's vantage to the last, But sage and prophet, learned in the way Of seercraft, bade me wait for dawn of day, And then—leave no Greek living in the land. They wait not, they, for what my prophets planned So sagely. In the dark a runaway Beats a pursuer. Through our whole array Send runners! Bid them shake off sleep and wait Ready with shield and spear. ”

“ No soldier loveth, in his need, The glory of a chief too brave. A spy is best: a spy, to learn For what strange work those beacons burn All night beside the guarded wave. [Pg 10 vv. 137-157] Hector.
Ye all so wish it?—Well, ye conquer me. (To Aeneas) Go thou and calm the allies. There will be Some stir among them, hearing of these high And midnight councils.—I will seek the spy To send to the Greek camp. If there we learn Of some plot hatching, on the man's return I straight will call thee and share counsels. ”

“ Rhesus.
Who next to him hath honour in their host? Hector.
Next, to my seeming, Ajax hath the most, Or Diomede.—But Odysseus is a tough And subtle fox, and brave; aye, brave enough. No man of them hath harmed us more than he. He climbed here to Athena's sanctuary One night, and stole her image clean away To the Argive ships. Yes, and another day, Guised as a wandering priest, in rags, he came And walked straight through the Gates, made loud acclaim Of curses on the Greek, spied out alone All that he sought in Ilion, and was gone— Gone, and the watch and helpers of the Gate Dead! ”

“ He is the son of the greatest of Rivers and the Muse of the Mountain: she is simply "The Muse," otherwise nameless, and we are lost if we try to bind her down to the identity of any Greek goddess. Like many Thracian heroes Rhesus has a dash of the Sun-god in him, the burning targe, the white horses and the splendour. Like them he is a boaster and [Pg xii] a deep drinker, a child of battle and of song. Like other divine kings he dies in his youth and strength, and keeps watch over his people from some "feasting presence, full of light," where he lies among the buried silver-veins of Pangaion. ”

“ Of help is found for Troy. This very night Rhesus is come; who, if he see the light Of morning, not Achilles nor the rack Of Ajax' spear hath power to hold him back, Ere wall and gate be shattered and inside Your camp a spear-swept causeway builded wide To where beached galleys flame above the dead. Him slay, and all is won. Let Hector's head Sleep where it lies and draw unvexèd breath; Another's work, not thine, is Hector's death. Odysseus. ”

“ Some under yon rough barrows thou canst see Lie buried; they were true to Troy and me; And others, yet here in the shielded line Or mid the chariots, parching in the shine Of noonday, starving in the winds that bite Through Ilion's winter, still endure and fight On at my side. 'Twas not their way, to lie On a soft couch and, while the cups go by, Pledge my good health, like thee, in Thracian wine. I speak as a free man. With thee and thine Hector is wroth, and tells thee to thy face. [Pg 24 vv. 422-448] Rhesus. ”

“ Say, Diomede, wilt make the men thy share, Or catch the steeds and leave the fight to me? [Pg 35 vv. 624-638] Diomede.
I take the killing, thou the stablery: It needs keen wit and a neat hand. The post A man should take is where he helpeth most. Athena.
Behold, 'tis Paris, hasting there toward This tent. Methinks he knoweth from the guard Some noise of prowling Argives hither blown. Diomede.
Comes he alone or with his guards? Athena.
Alone; Toward Hector's quarters, as I deem, he plies His message. He hath heard some tale of spies. Diomede. ”

“ They dash into the tent, swords drawn; then return. God! All empty as the grave! Diomede.
Yet Dolon told us Hector's couch was made Just here. For none but him I drew this blade. Odysseus.
What means it? To some ambush is he gone? Diomede.
Maybe, to work some craft on us at dawn. Odysseus.
He is hot with courage when he is winning, hot. Diomede.
What must we do, Odysseus?—He was not Laid where we thought him, and our hopes are lost. Odysseus.
Back to our own ship-rampart at all cost! The God who gave him victory saves him still. We cannot force Fortune against her will. ”

“ The dead man sleepeth in his mother's care; But we who battle still—behold, the glare Of dawn that rises. Doth thy purpose hold, Hector, our arms are ready as of old. [Pg 54 vv. 986-996] Hector.
March on; and bid the allies with all speed Be armed, bind fast the yoke upon the steed, Then wait with torches burning, till we sound The Tuscan trump.—This day we shall confound, God tells me, their Greek phalanx, break their high Rampart and fire the galleys where they lie. ”

“ A carven targe, with golden shapes aglow, Hung o'er his back. Before each courser's head A Gorgon, to the frontlet riveted, With bells set round—like stories that they tell Of Pallas' shield—made music terrible. The numbers of that host no pen could write Nor reckon; 'tis a multitudinous sight, Long lines of horsemen, lines of targeteers, Archers abundant; and behind them veers A wavering horde, light-armed, in Thracian weed. A friend is come to Ilion in her need 'Gainst whom no Argive, let him fly or stand, Shall aught avail nor 'scape his conquering hand. ”

“ Peleus' son, for all his ire, Will never let thee touch the ships with fire Or pounce on his Greek lambs. The man will bide No wrong and standeth on a tower of pride. Nay, brother, let the army, head on shield, Sleep off its long day's labour in the field: Then, send a spy; find someone who will dare Creep to yon Argive camp. Then, if 'tis clear They mean flight, on and smite them as they fly. Else, if the beacons hide some strategy, The spy will read it out, and we can call A council.—Thus speak I, my general. ”

“ Indeed thy love is steadfast, and thy grace Bounteous to Troy and me. Thou art the joy And jewel of my days, which I to Troy Have brought, and made thee hers.—O Cyprian, I heard, not clearly,—'twas some talk that ran Among the pickets—spies had passed some spot Close by the camp. The men who saw them not [Pg 37 vv. 659-676] Talk much, and they who saw, or might have seen, Can give no sign nor token. It had been My purpose to find Hector where he lay. Athena.
Fear nothing. All is well in Troy's array. Hector is gone to help those Thracians sleep. Paris.
Thy word doth rule me, Goddess. ”

“ Must I do everything, one hand Alone, to save our allies and our land? [A lean dark man pushes forward from the back.
Dolon.
I, Prince!—I offer for our City's sake To go disguised to the Greek ships, to make Their counsels mine, and here bring word to thee. If that be thy full service, I agree. [Pg 11 vv. 158-171] Hector.
Dolon the Wolf! A wise wolf and a true! Thy father's house was praised when first I knew Troy: this shall raise it twofold in our eyes. Dolon.
'Tis wise to do good work, but also wise To pay the worker. Aye, and fair reward Makes twofold pleasure, though the work be hard. ”

“ Who is awake? What man-at-arms, Or squire or groom?—Let Hector know New rumour of alarms From sentinels who stand at mark The four long watches of the dark, While others sleep.—Uplift thine head, O Hector! On thine elbow rise, Unhood the eagle of thine eyes, Up from thy leaf-strewn bed!— Lord Hector! ”

“ Yet win it and thy life hath wings: A deed of glory in men's eyes, And greatness, to be wooed of kings. If God but hearken to the right, Thou drinkest to the full this night The cup of man's imaginings. ”

“ Great beacons in the Argive line Have burned, my chief, through half the night. The shipyard timbers seemed to shine. Then, clear against the light, Toward Agamemnon's tent the whole Army in tumult seemed to roll, As stirred by some strange voice, shoal after shoal. A night of such discord Was never seen. And we, in dread What such things boded, turned and sped Hither; dost blame us, Lord? Hector (after a moment of thought) .
No! Welcome, friend, with all thy tale of fear! It shows they mean to fly: they mean to clear [Pg 6 vv. 55-78] Decks in the dark and so delude my sight . ”

“ And in every ambush they have set By the old Altar, close to Troy, we know He sits—a murderous reptile of a foe! [Pg 28 vv. 510-529] Rhesus.
No brave man seeks so dastardly to harm His battle-foes; he meets them arm to arm. This Greek of thine, this sitter like a thief In ambush, I will make of him my chief Care. I will take him living, drive a straight Stake through him, and so star him at the Gate To feed your wide-winged vultures. 'Tis the death Most meet for a lewd thief, who pillageth God's sanctuary, or so we hold in Thrace. Hector (making no answer) . ”

“ I ask no pardon. [Hector is standing over him ready to strike when the Charioteer speaks.
Thracian.
Why threaten them? Art thou a Greek to blind My barbarous wit so nimbly, in a wind [Pg 47 vv. 835-861] Of words? This work was thine. And no man's head Is asked by us, the wounded and the dead, Save thine. It needs more play, and better feigned, To hide from me that thou hast slain thy friend By craft, to steal his horses.—That is why He stabs his friends. He prays them earnestly, Prays them to come; they came and they are dead. A cleaner man was Paris, when he fled With his host's wife. ”

“ We are not only supposed to know that Hector, son of Priam, leads the Trojans and their allies ("Trojans, and Lycians, and Dardans bold": in tragedy they are also called Phrygians) in defence against the Greeks—Argives, Achaeans, Hellênes—under Agamemnon, king of men, and his brother Menelaüs, husband of Helen. This sort of supposition is usual in all Greek tragedy. It merely means that the poet takes for granted the main outlines of the heroic saga. But in this play we are also supposed to take up the story as it stands at the opening of the Doloneia or Tenth Book of the Iliad. ”

“ Indeed one might almost say that the Rhesus is simply the Doloneia turned into drama and set in the Trojan camp. The only other play that is taken straight from Homer is the Satyr-play, Cyclops, which tells the story of Odyssey IX., but it is likely enough that if we possessed more of the earlier epic literature we should find many other plays closely hugging their traditional sources.—The Trojans are camping out on the field of battle, close to the Greek lines. Hector, always ready for danger, seems to have his tent or log-hut set up quite in the van, just behind the outposts. ”

“ She raises her voice. Back, back, ye twain! Are ye in love with death? Laertes' son, thy sword into the sheath! Our golden Thracian gaspeth in his blood; The steeds are ours; the foe hath understood And crowds against you. Haste ye! haste to fly,— Ere yet the lightning falleth, and ye die! [Athena vanishes; a noise of tumult is heard. Enter a crowd of Thracians running in confusion, in the midst of them Odysseus and Diomede.
Voices (amid the tumult) .
Ha! Ha!—At them! At them! After them! Down with them!—Where are they? [Pg 38 vv. 677-685] Captain. ”

“ God guide them!—Why then do you arm the host? Hector.
I mean to lame them in their climbing, I And my good spear, and break them as they fly. Black shame it were, and folly worse than shame, To let these spoilers go the road they came Unpunished, when God gives them to us here. Aeneas.
Brother, I would thy wit were like thy spear! But Nature wills not one man should be wise In all things; each must seek his separate prize. And thine is battle pure. There comes this word [Pg 9 vv. 110-136] Of beacons, on the touch thy soul is stirred: "They fly! ”

“ O fleshly loves of sad mortality, O bitter motherhood of these that die, She that hath wisdom will endure her doom, The days of emptiness, the fruitless womb; Not love, not bear love's children to the tomb. ”

“ Wait. Crouch on the ground; it may be yet Our man is drawing to the net. Voice.
Woe, woe! The burden of the hills of Thrace! Leader.
An ally? None of Hellene race. Voice.
Woe, woe! Yea, woe to me and woe to thee, My master! Once to set thine eye On Ilion the accurst, and die! Leader (calling aloud) .
Ho there! What ally passes? The dim night Blurreth mine eyes; I cannot see thee right. [Pg 43 vv. 738-756] Voice.
Ho, some one of the Trojan name! Where sleeps your king beneath his shield, Hector? What marshal of the field Will hear our tale . . . the men who came And struck us and were gone ”

“ Say, when we cross that coiling depth of dyke, We find the foe not fled, but turned to strike; One check there, and all hope of good return Is gone. How can our men, returning, learn The tricks of the palisade? ”

“ The whole scene and setting of the Rhesus; the man-wolf crawling away into the darkness and his two enemies presently crawling in out of the same darkness with his bloody spoils; the divine Thracian king with his round targe that shines by night and his horses whiter than the snow; the panic of the watch, the vaunting of the doomed chieftain, the goddess disguised as another goddess, the thrilling half-farcical scene where the spy Odysseus is actually caught and befools his captors: these things are not of course comic, like some incidents in the Cyclops. They [Pg x] belong to tragedy ”

“ In our version of Homer Dolon merely wears, over his tunic, the skin of a grey wolf. He has a leather cap and a bow. In the play he goes, as Red Indian spies used to go, actually disguised as a wolf, on all fours in a complete wolf-skin. The same version is found on the Munich cylix of the early vase-painter Euphronius (about 500 B.C.) , in which Dolon wears a tight-fitting hairy skin with a long tail. The plan can of course only succeed in a country where wild animals are common enough to be thought unimportant. ”

“ When the Athenians began making their dangerous settlements on the coast of Thrace—ten thousand settlers were massacred by Rhesus's people about 465 B.C.: Amphipolis not fully established till 437—they found the legend of Rhesus in the air, and eventually they thought it prudent to send for his hallowed bones from the Troad, where they were supposed to be buried, and give them a tomb in the Athenian colony. ”

“ The disguised Athena is common in the Odyssey, but she does not disguise herself as another goddess. (It is sometimes held that this scene requires four actors, which would be a decisive mark of lateness; but this is not really so. [Pg 63] The actor who took Odysseus could easily get round in time to take Paris also—especially if he made his exit at l. 626, before Athena sees Paris. And the Greek stage had no objection to such doubling.) Lastly, the scene of turmoil between the spies and the Guards is extraordinary in a tragedy, though it would suit well in a pro-satyric play. ”