Stasimon 3
CHORUS.
Sweet words and faithful heart!
455
From those proud lips the Wrath that none may bear!
Now, nor in days of yore,
460
Prince like to thee, so valiant and so fair.
Or face thy lance? May I but stand that day
Watching to see him reel
465
Broken beneath thy steel,
And once in blood his many murders pay!
RHESUS.
Yea, more atonement thou shalt take from me
For this slow help.—May Adrasteia see
My heart and pardon!—When we two have set
Troy free from these who compass her with hate,
Soon as the Gods have had their first-fruits, I
470
With thee will sail—so help me Zeus on high!—
And sack all Hellas with the sword, till these
Doers of deeds shall know what suffering is.
HECTOR.
By heaven, could I once see this peril rolled
Past us, and live in Ilion as of old,
475
Untrembling, I would thank my gods! To seek
Argos and sack the cities of the Greek-
’Twere not such light work as thou fanciest.
RHESUS.
These Greeks that face thee, are they not their best?P. 26, l. 480. It may be remarked that the play here uses a fairly common Homeric phrase in a sense which the scholars of our tradition knew but rejected.
HECTOR.
We seek not better. These do all we need.
480
RHESUS.
When these are beaten, then, we have done the deed.
HECTOR.
Lose not thy path watching a distant view.
