Stasimon 4
[Choral]
Who was the man that passed?
CHORUS.
Who, that, so madly bold,
Laughed, and I loosed my hold?
Where shall I find him now?
695
What shall I deem of him,
To steal thro’ the guards a-row,
Quaking not, eye nor limb,
On thro’ the starlight dim?
Born by the Locrian sea,
700
Or harvester of some starved island’s corn?
What man hath seen his face?
What was his name or race,
What the high God 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. by whom his sires have sworn?
DIVERS GUARDS
This night must be Odysseus’ work, or whose?—
Odysseus? Aye, to judge by ancient use.—
705
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!
CHORUS.
He came once, of old,
710
Up thro’ the city throng,
Foam on his lips, a-cold,
Huddled in rags that hung
Hid in his mantle’s pleat;
His face grimed and scored,
715
A priest of wandering feet,
715
Who begged his bread in the street.
715
He cast on the brother kings
Like one long hurt, who nurseth anger sore;
Would that a curse, yea, would
The uttermost wrath of God
720
Had held those feet from walking Ilion’s shore!
DIVERS GUARDS
Odysseus or another, ’tis the guard
Will weep for this. Aye, Hector will be hard.—
What will he say?—He will suspect.—Suspect?
What evil? What should make you fear?—
725
’Twas we that left a passage clear.—
A passage?—Yea, for these men’s way,
Who came by night into the lines unchecked.