Stasimon 5
[Episode]
His sorrow is my sorrow. On this plain
HECTOR.
I will uplift a wondrous sepulchre,
And burn about it gifts beyond compare
Of robes and frankincense. To Troy’s relief
960
He came in love and parteth in great grief.
MUSE.
My son shall not be laid in any graveP. 52, 1. 962 ff., My son shall not be laid in any grave.]—Like other Northern barbaric princes, such as Orpheus (1. 972 below) and Zalmoxis (Herodotus, iv. 95) and Holgar the Dane, Rhesus lies in a hidden chamber beneath the earth, watching, apparently, for the day of uttermost need when he must rise to help his people. There is no other passage in Greek tragedy where such a fate is attributed to a hero, though the position of Darius in the Persae and Agamemnon in the Choephori or the Electra is in some ways analogous.
The last lines of the Muse have a very Euripidean ring: cf. Medea, l. 1090 (p. 61, My thoughts have roamed a cloudy land), Alcestis, 1. 882.
Of darkness; thus much guerdon will I crave
Of Death’s eternal bride, the heavenly-born
Maid of Demeter, Life of fruits and corn,
To set this one soul free. She owes me yet,
965
For Orpheus widowed, an abiding debt.
To me he still must be—that know I well—
As one in death, who sees not. Where I dwell
He must not come, nor see his mother’s face.
Alone for ever, in a caverned place
970
Of silver-veinèd earth, hid from men’s sight,
970
A Man yet Spirit, he shall live in light:
As under far Pangaion Orpheus lies,
Priest of great light and worshipped of the wise.
Howbeit an easier anguish even to me
Falls than to Thetis in her azure sea;
975
For her son too shall die; and sorrowing,
975
First on the hills our band for thee shall sing,
Then for Achilles by the weeping wave.
Pallas could murder thee, but shall not save
Thy foe; too swift Apollo’s bolt shall fly.
O fleshly loves of sad mortality,
980
O bitter motherhood of these that die,
She that hath wisdom will endure her doom,
The days of emptiness, the fruitless womb;
