Rhesus

“ Rhesus, king of the Thracian allies, has his camp apart—
“No steeds that e’er I saw,
For size and beauty, can with his compare;
Whiter than snow, and swifter than the wind.”
The unwilling treachery does not save his wretched life. Ulysses sarcastically admires his choice of a reward—
“High soared thy hopes indeed, that thought to win
The horses of Achilles; hard are they
For mortal man to harness or control,
Save for Achilles’ self, the goddess-born.” ”

“ Flasheth the lance in thine hand, spreading havoc through Hellas' array!
Rhesus.
Such deeds will I, for my long absence' sake,
Perform for thee. So Nemesis say not nay,
When we have freed this city of foes, and thou
Hast chosen triumph's firstfruits for the Gods, 470
Then will I march with thee to Argive land,
Swoop down, and waste all Hellas with the spear,
That they in turn may learn what suffering means. ”

“ For if ye are fain to enter the throng of the Trojans, lo, here apart be the Thracians, new comers, the outermost of all, and among them their king Rhesus, son of Eïoneus. His be verily the fairest horses that ever I saw, and the greatest, whiter than snow, and in speed like the winds. And his chariot is cunningly wrought with gold and silver, and armour of gold brought he with him, huge of size, a wonder to behold. Such armour it beseemeth not that mortal men should wear, but immortal gods. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Before us camped were thou and Phrygia's host:—
Of thy friends who was wounded then, who slain,
When came the foes whereof thou tellest us?
We—some are wounded, some have suffered scathe
More deadly, and the sun's light see no more. 850
In plain words, no Achaian we accuse.
Who of the foe had come, and in the night
Found Rhesus' couch—except a very God
Guided the slayers? They not even knew
That he had come! Now nay, this plot is thine. 855
Hector. ”

“ Led on by Rhesus, great Eioneus' son:
I saw his coursers in proud triumph go,
Swift as the wind, and white as winter snow:
Rich silver plates his shining car infold;
His solid arms, refulgent, flame with gold;
No mortal shoulders suit the glorious load,
Celestial panoply, to grace a god!
Let me, unhappy, to your fleet be borne,
Or leave me here, a captive's fate to mourn,
In cruel chains; till your return reveal
The truth or falsehood of the news I tell."
⁠To this Tydides, with a gloomy frown:
"Think not to live, though all the truth be shewn ”

“ King Rhesus, Eionëus’ son, commands them, who hath steeds,
More white than snow, huge, and well shaped; their fiery pace exceeds
The winds in swiftness; these I saw, his chariot is with gold
And pallid silver richly framed, and wondrous to behold;
His great and golden armour is not fit a man should wear,
But for immortal shoulders framed. [100]
100. Iliad, x. 435-41 (Chapman’s trans.) .
Now Odysseus and Diomed both loved plunder; each in his own way was of a reckless and dare-devil disposition; and one at any rate was a passionate admirer of equine beauty. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Rhesus was sleeping in the middle, and hard by him his horses were made fast to the topmost rim of his chariot. Ulysses from some way off saw him and said, "This, Diomed, is the man, and these are the horses about which Dolon whom we killed told us. Do your very utmost; dally not about your armour, but loose the horses at once- or else kill the men yourself, while I see to the horses." ”

“ Profess not thou that any Greek was there To fall on us. What Greek could pass the screen Of Trojan posts in front of us, unseen? Thyself was stationed there, and all thy men. What man of yours was slain or wounded when Your Greek spies came? Not one; 'tis we, behind, Are wounded, and some worse than wounded, blind Forever to the sunlight. When we seek Our vengeance, we shall go not to the Greek. What stranger in that darkness could have trod Straight to where Rhesus lay—unless some God Pointed his path? ”

“ Then Ulysses and Diomede leaped on the backs of the horses, as they had not time to bring away the chariot, and they galloped to the ships, stopping to pick up the spear, and bow, and cap of Dolon. They rode to the princes, who welcomed them, and all laughed for glee when they saw the white horses and heard that King Rhesus was dead, for they guessed that all his army would now go home to Thrace. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Are startling our array!—
Hitherward, hitherward, all! 680
Semichorus 1.
I have them caught in the grasp of mine hand!
Semichorus 2.
(To Od.) What is thy troop?—whence art thou?—a man of what land?
Odysseus. [9]
Nought to thee is this!
Semichorus 1.
For thou shalt die for evil wrought this day!
Tell the watchword, ere the spear unto thine heart have found the way!
Odysseus.
Ha! and hast thou murdered Rhesus? 685
Semichorus 2. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ The Andirus empties itself into the Scamander; a [Pg 371] river which comes from the district of Caresene, a mountainous country, in which are many villages. It is well cultivated by the husbandmen. It adjoins Dardania, and extends as far as the places about Zeleia and Pityeia. The country, it is said, had its name from the river Caresus, mentioned by the poet,
“the Rhesus, Heptaporus, Caresus, and Rhodius,”1437
but the city of the same name as the river is in ruins.
Demetrius again says, the river Rhesus is now called Rhoeites, unless it is the Rhesus which empties itself into the Granicus. ”

“ For Hippocoön, cousin to King Rhesus, awoke, and seeing the place of the horses empty and his comrades slain, groaned aloud, and called to the King, and the Trojans were roused, and flocked together with tumult and shouting. But Diomed and Ulysses meanwhile had mounted the horses, and were riding to the ships. ”

“ Then Rhesus taught us Trojans what avail His words are.—He comes early to the feast; Where was he when the hunters met the beast? Where, when we sank beneath the Argive spear? Leader.
Well may'st thou mock and blame thy friend. Yet here He comes with help for Troy. Accept him thou. Hector.
We are enough, who have held the wall till now. Leader.
Master, dost think already that our foe Is ta'en? Hector.
I do. To-morrow's light will show. [Pg 20 vv. 332-345] Leader.
Have care. Fate often flings a backward cast. Hector.
I hate the help that comes when need is past . . . ”

“ Naturally the Thracians had in those days some of the best horses that could be procured, while those they drove in their war chariots are said to have been quite unrivalled. That they [Pg 15] possessed very many chariots is proved by Homer's realistic account of the slaying of Rhesus, the Thracian king, with a dozen or so of his bravest followers, and the episode in connection with that incident. ”

“ The speech of the Muse seems like the writing of a poet who is, for the moment, tired of mere drama, and wishes to get back into his own element. Such passages are characteristic of Euripides.—The death of Rhesus seems to the Muse like an act of vengeance from the dead Thamyris, the Thracian bard who had blasphemed the Muses and [Pg 66] challenged them to a contest of song. They conquered him and left him blind, but still a poet. The story in Homer is more terrible, though more civilised: "They in wrath made him a maimed man, they took away his heavenly song and made him forget his harping." ”

“ The Chorus consists of citizens, probably Elders, of the city of Pherae. Dr. Verrall has rightly pointed out that there is some general dissatisfaction in the town at Admetus's behaviour (l. 210 ff.) . These citizens come to mourn with Admetus out of old friendship, though they do not altogether defend him.
The Chorus is very drastically broken up into so many separate persons conversing with one another; the treatment in the Rhesus is similar but even bolder. See Rhesus, pp. 28-31, 37-42. Cf. also the entrance-choruses of the Trojan Women (pp. 19-23) and the Medea (pp. 10-13) ”

“ Advance beyond your stations, men, at some Distance, and stay on watch till Dolon come With word of the Argives' counsel. If his vow Prosper, he should be nearing us by now. [Exeunt Hector and Rhesus and Attendants. The Guards, who have been below, come forward sleepily from the camp fire, and sit watching by Hector's tent.
Chorus.
Say, whose is the watch? Who exchanges With us? The first planets to rise [Pg 29 vv. 530-545] Are setting; the Pleiades seven Move low on the margin of heaven, And the Eagle is risen and ranges The mid-vault of the skies. ”

“ Let us try quite a different hypothesis, and begin by [Pg vii] accepting the external evidence as true. The famous critic, Crates, of the second century B.C., happens to mention—in excuse of what he took to be a slip in the poet's astronomy—that the Rhesus of Euripides was a youthful work. Now the earliest dated tragedy of Euripides that we possess is the Alcestis, B.C. 438, written when he was about forty-six. ”

“ Next to the Cyclops I am not sure what play would come, but the Alcestis would not be far off. It has especially several Epic forms which cannot be paralleled in tragedy. Now the conjunction of these two plays with the Rhesus is significant. The three seem to be three earliest of the extant plays; they are also—if we count the Heraclidae as mutilated—the three shortest. But, what is more important, the Cyclops is not a tragedy but a satyr-play, and the Alcestis is a tragedy of a special sort, written to take the place of a satyr-play. ”

“ And the Trojans sent forth Dolon a spy to know what the Greeks were minded to do. But there went forth also two spies from the camp of the Greeks, even Odysseus and Diomedes, and these met Dolon and slew him, after that he had told them in his fear all that they would know of the array of the Trojans, and of the coming of their great ally, Rhesus the Thracian, the son of a Goddess. And herein is told of the coming of the Thracian king, and of all that befell that night in the camp of the Trojans.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
Hector, captain of the host of Troy. ”

“ The unwearied Hector, the cautious Æneas, the vaunting, splendid, barbarian prince, the fiercely loyal charioteer—these are all obvious types. The only really fine stroke of psychological insight occurs where Hector, himself reckless at first, is by the absurd presumptuousness of Rhesus forced into discretion. [776] What really stirs one is the thrilling atmosphere of danger and the magical little lyric [777] which falls half-carelessly from the wearied sentries when the night begins to wane ”