Euripides' RHESUS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

44 pages - You are on Page 19

Rhesus: Brave son of sire as brave, Hector, prince of this land, all
haill After many a long day I greet thee. Right glad am I of thy success,
to see thee camped hard on the foemen's towers; I come to help thee
raze their walls and fire their fleet of ships.

Hector: Son of that tuneful mother, one of the Muses nine, and of
Thracian Strymon's stream, I ever love to speak plain truth; nature
gave me not a double tongue. Long, long ago shouldst thou have come
and shared the labours this land nor suffered Troy for any help of
thine to fall o'er thrown by hostile Argive spears. Thou canst not
say 'twas any want of invitation that kept thee from coming with thy
help to visit us. How oft came heralds and embassies from Phrygia
urgently requiring thine aid for our city? What sumptuous presents
did we not send to thee? But thou, brother barbarian though thou wert,
didst pledge away to Hellenes us thy barbarian brethren, for ill the
help thou gavest. Yet 'twas I with this strong arm that raised thee
from thy paltry princedom to high lordship over Thrace, that day I
fell upon the Thracian chieftains face to face around Pangaeus in
Paeonia's land and broke their serried ranks, and gave their people
up to thee with the yoke upon their necks; but thou hast trampled
on this great favour done thee, and comest with laggard step to give
thine aid when friends are in distress. While they, whom no natural
tic of kin constrains, have long been here, and some are dead and
in their graves beneath the heaped-up cairn, no mean proof of loyalty
to the city, and others in harness clad and mounted on their cars,
with steadfast soul endure the icy blast and parching heat of the
sun, not pledging one another, as thou art wont, in long deep draughts
on couches soft. This is the charge I bring against thee and utter
to thy face, that thou mayst know how frank is Hector's tongue.

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