Epeisodion 1
HECTOR.
What makes he there towards Ida? All astray
Thus from the plain and the broad waggon-way!
SHEPHERD.
I know not rightly, though one well may guess.P. 17, l. 284 ff. The description of the march of the mountaineers, the vast crowd, the noise, the mixture of all arms, suggests personal observation. A great many fifth-century Athenians had probably served some time or other in Thrace.
’Tis hard to land at night, with such a press
285
Of spears, on a strange coast, where rumours tell
Of foes through all the plain-land. We that dwell
On Ida, in the rock, Troy’s ancient root
And hearth-stone, were well frighted, through the mute
And wolfish thickets thus to hear him break.
A great and rushing noise those Thracians make,
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Marching. We, all astonied, ran to drive
Our sheep to the upmost heights. ’Twas some Argive,
We thought, who came to sweep the mountain clear
And waste thy folds; till suddenly our ear
Caught at their speech, and knew ’twas nothing Greek.
Then all our terror fled. I ran to seek
295
Some scout or pioneer who led the van
And called in Thracian: Ho, what child of man
Doth lead you? From what nation do ye bring
This host with aid to Ilion and her king?
