Epeisodion 3
ODYSSEUS.
Diomede, hist!—A little sound of armsP. 31, 1. 567 ff., Odysseus and Diomedes.]—Observe how we are left gradually to discover that they have met and killed Dolon. They enter carrying, as far as we can make out, a wolf-skin that looks like his: they had evidently spoken to him, 11. 572, 575: it is his and they have killed him—l. 592 f.
All the Odysseus-Diomedes scenes have something unusual about them, something daring, turbulent, and perhaps lacking in dramatic tact. The silent rush on Hector’s empty tent is hard to parallel. The cruel Athena is Euripidean; but her appearance in the midst of the action is startling, though it may be paralleled from Sophocles’ Ajax. In Euripides Gods are generally kept for the prologue or epilogue, away from the ordinary action. (The vision of Iris and Lyssa in the middle of the Heracles has at least the stage clear of mortals and the Chorus apparently in a kind of dream.) Again the conception of Athena pretending to be Cypris is curious. The disguised Athena is common in the Odyssey, but she does not disguise herself as another goddess. (It is sometimes held that this scene requires four actors, which would be a decisive mark of lateness; but this is not really so. The actor who took Odysseus could easily get round in time to take Paris also—especially if he made his exit at 1. 626, before Athena sees Paris. And the Greek stage had no objection to such doubling.) Lastly, the scene of turmoil between the spies and the Guards is extraordinary in a tragedy, though it would suit well in a pro-satyric play. See Introduction.
565
Clanking . . . or am I full of void alarms?
DIOMEDE.
No. ’Tis some horse tied to the chariot rail
That clanks his chain.—My heart began to fail
A moment, till I heard the horse’s champ.
ODYSSEUS.
Mind—in that shade—the watchers of the camp.
570
DIOMEDE.
I keep in shadow, but I am staring hard.
ODYSSEUS.
Thou know’st the watchword, if we stir some guard?
DIOMEDE.
Phoebus. ’Twas the last sign that Dolon gave.
God! All empty as the grave!
DIOMEDE.
Yet Dolon told us Hector’s couch was made
575
Just here. For none but him I drew this blade.
ODYSSEUS.
What means it? To some ambush is he gone?
DIOMEDE.
Maybe, to work some craft on us at dawn.
ODYSSEUS.
He is hot with courage when he is winning, hot.
DIOMEDE.
What must we do, Odysseus?—He was not
580
Laid where we thought him, and our hopes are lost.
ODYSSEUS.
Back to our own ship-rampart at all cost!
The God who gave him victory saves him still.
We cannot force Fortune against her will.
DIOMEDE.
Could we not find Aeneas? Or the bed
585
Of Paris the accurst, and have his head?
ODYSSEUS.
Go by night searching through these lines of men
For chiefs to kill? ’Twere death and death again.
DIOMEDE.
But to go empty back—what shame ’twill be!—
And not one blow struck home at the enemy!
590
ODYSSEUS.
How not one blow? Did we not baulk and kill
Dolon, their spy, and bear his tokens still?
Dost think the whole camp should be thine to quell?
