Stasimon 5
[Episode]
Not love, not bear love’s children to the tomb.
LEADER.
The dead man sleepeth in his mother’s care;P. 54, 11. 983-end. This curious and moving end—not in death or peace but in a girding of tired men to greater toil—reminds one of the last words of The Trojan Women: Forth to the long Greek ships And the sea’s foaming, and the last words of the Chanson de Roland there quoted. The Trojans evidently go forth under the shadow of disaster, though with firmness and courage. The stage direction is of course purely conjectural. If Diomedes left some sign of Dolon’s death for Hector to see, as he probably must have done, then Hector must at some time or other see it. If so, this seems to be the place.
But we who battle still—behold, the glare
Of dawn that rises. Doth thy purpose hold,
Hector, our arms are ready as of old.
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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
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Rampart and fire the galleys where they lie.
Yon first red arrow of the Sun, that brings
The dawn to Troy, hath freedom on his wings.
CHORUS.
The Chief hath spoken: let his will
Be law, ye Trojans.—Raise the cry
To Arms! To Arms! and down the line
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Of allies pass the battle-sign.
The God of Ilion liveth still;
And men may conquer ere they die.
