- Wilt not the watchword declare, ere my sword finds its way to thy heart?
Odys. What! hast thou slain Rhesus?
Semicho. Nay, I am asking thee about him who came to slay us.
Odys. Be of good heart, approach.
Semicho. Strike every man of you, strike, strike home!
Odys. Stay, every man of you!
Semicho. No, no, lay on!
Odys. Ah! slay not a friend.
Semicho. What is the watchword, then?
Odys. Phœbus.
Semicho. Right! stay every man his spear! Dost know whither those men are gone?
Odys. Somewhere here I caught a sight of them.
Semicho. Close on their track each man of you, or else must we shout for aid.
Odys. Nay, 'twere conduct strange to disturb our friends with wild alarms by night.
Cho. Who was that man who slipped away? Who was he that will loudly boast his daring in escaping me? How shall I catch him now? to whom liken him? the man who came by night with fearless step passing through our ranks and the guard we set. Is he a Thessalian or a dweller in some seacoast town of Locris, or hath he his home amid the scattered islands of the main? Who was he, and whence came he? What is his fatherland? What god doth he avow as lord of all the rest?
- Semicho. Whose work is this? is it the deed of Odysseus?
- If one may conjecture from his former acts, of course it is.
followed Paley. There are numerous other ways of assigning the lines, but none of them seem to have greater claims to be correct on the ground of probability.
