Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/517

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RHESUS.
489

Charioteer.

Perish the doer! Not at thee my tongue 875
Hurls this, as plains thy pride:—but Justice knows.


Hector (to attendants).

Ye, take him up and bear him to mine house.
So tend him that he shall not slander us.
And ye must go to those upon the wall,[1]
To Priam and our elders, bidding them 880
Bury the slain beside the public way.[2]

[Exeunt bearers with Charioteer.


Chorus.

Wherefore from heights of victory
Doth fortune drag down Troy unto woe—
Fortune estranged? What purposeth she?
(The Muse appears above the stage with Rhesus in her arms).
Ho ye!—lo there!—what ho!
What God overhead, O King, doth appear,
In whose hands is the corpse of the newly dead
Borne as it were on a bier?
I quail as I look on the vision of dread.


Muse.

Trojans, fear not to look: the Muse am I, 890
One of the Song-queens, honoured of the wise.
My dear son I behold in piteous sort

  1. See Iliad iii, 145—244.
  2. He specifies for the slain Thracians the most honourable place of sepulture: cf. Alcestis, ll. 835–6.