The Thracians go off in pursuit. Meantime
the original Guards who form the Chorus
have hastened back. The two Greeks are
presently seen crossing at the back in a
different direction.
CHORUS.
Who was the man that passed?
Who, that, so madly bold,
Even as I held him fast,
Laughed, and I loosed my hold?
Where shall I find him now?
What shall I deem of him,
To steal thro' the guards a-row,
Quaking not, eye nor limb,
On thro' the starlight dim?
Is he of Thessaly,
Born by the Locrian sea,
Or harvester of some starved island's corn?
What man hath seen his face?
What was his name or race,
What the high God1 by whom his sires have sworn?
DIVERS GUARDS (talking).
This night must be Odysseus' work, or whose?-
Odysseus? Aye, to judge by ancient use.-
Odysseus surely !-That is thy belief?-
What else? It seems he hath no fear
Of such as we!-Whom praise ye there?
Whose prowess? Say!-Odysseus.-Nay,
Praise not the secret stabbing of a thief!
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1 P. 40, 1. 703, What the High God.]-It would be unparalleled in classical Greek to describe a man by his religion; but this phrase seems only to mean: "What is his tribal God?" i.e. what is his tribe? Thus it could be said of Isagoras in Herodotus (v. 66) that his kinsmen sacrificed to Carian Zeus, suggesting, presumably, that he had Carian blood.
The Rhesus of Euripides. Translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes by Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt, F.B.A., Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford. Euripides. Gilbert Murray. New York. Oxford University Press. 1913.
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