Rhesus
By Euripides
3/5
()
About this ebook
Euripides
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC to his mother, Cleito, and father, Mnesarchus, a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education. The details of his death are uncertain.
Read more from Euripides
Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlcestis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iphigenia in Aulis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trojan Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hippolytus; The Bacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea of Euripides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phœnician Virgins (Phoenician Virgins): (The Phoenician Women) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bacchae and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hecuba Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ten Tragedies of Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea (NHB Classic Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iphigenia in Tauris Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Electra and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Rhesus
Related ebooks
Rhesus Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Euripides Collection: 10 Classic Tragedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIphigenia Among the Taurians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trojan Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tragedies of Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHecuba Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Worlds Famous Orations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare's Hamlet - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra and Other Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iliad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seven Against Thebes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Delphi Complete Works of Sophocles (Illustrated) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pericles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Norse King's Bridal: Translations from the Danish and old Norse, with original ballads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIphigenia in Tauris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heracleidae Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Love: The Art of Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Works of Horace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgamemnon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTroilus and Cressida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iliad and The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Books of All Time - Retold for Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhiloctetes: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaesar and Cleopatra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tragedy of Hamlet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Poems by A. E. Housman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOedipus the King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philoctetes Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Classics For You
The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The New Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Rhesus
14 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a straightforward, succinct, and concise play by Euripides. The language was stark and less poetic than expected, but the flow of action and its effects were justified, comprehensible, and enjoyable. Overall, a decent play.3.5 stars.
Book preview
Rhesus - Euripides
RHESUS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHORUS OF TROJAN SENTINELS ODYSSEUS
HECTOR DIOMEDES
AENEAS PARIS
DOLON ATHENA
MESSENGER, a shepherd THE MUSE
RHESUS
RHESUS
SCENE
Before Hector›s tent at the gates of Troy. Enter CHORUS
CHORUS
To Hector’s couch away, one of you wakeful squires that tend the prince, to see if he have any fresh tidings from the warriors who wereset to guard the assembled host during the fourth watch of the night.
Calls to HECTOR in the tent
Lift up thy head! Prop thine arm beneath it! Unseal that louring eye from its repose; thy lowly couch of scattered leaves, O Hector, quit! ‘Tis time to hearken.
Enter HECTOR.
HECTOR
Who goes there? Is it a friend who calls? Who art thou? Thy watchword? Speak! Who in the dark hours comes nigh my couch, must tellme who he is.
CHORUS
Sentinels we of the army.
HECTOR
Why this tumultuous haste?
CHORUS
Be of good courage.
HECTOR
Is there some midnight ambuscade?
CHORUS
Nay.
HECTOR
Then why dost thou desert thy post and rouse the army, save thou have some tidings of the night? Art not aware how near the Argive host we take our night›s repose in all our harness clad?
CHORUS
To arms! O Hector, seek thine allies’ sleeping camp! Bid them wield the spear! Awake them! thine own company despatch a friend. Saddle and bridle the steeds. Who will to the son of Panthus? who to Europa’s son, captain of the Lycian band? Where are they who should inspect the victims? Where be the leaders of the light-armed troops? Ye Phrygian archers, string your horn-tipped bows.
HECTOR
Now fear, now confidence thy tidings inspire; nothing is plainly set forth. Can it be that thou art smitten with wild affright by Pan, the son of Cronion, and leaving thy watch therefore dost rouse the host? What means thy noisy summons? What tidings can I say thou bringest? Thy words are many, but no plain statement hast thou made.
CHORUS
The long night through, O Hector, the Argive host hath kindled fires, and bright with torches shines the anchored fleet. To Agamemnon’stent the whole army moves clamorously by night, eager for fresh orders maybe, for never before have I seen such commotion among yon sea-faring folk. Wherefore I was suspicious of what might happen and came to tell thee, that thou mayest have no cause to blame me hereafter.
HECTOR
In good season com’st thou, albeit thy tidings are fraught with terror; for those cowards are bent on giving me the slip and stealing away from this land in their ships by night; their midnight signalling convinces me of this. Ah! Fortune, to rob me in my hour of triumph, a lionof his prey, or ever this spear of