Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/202

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Shouting, with battering bars asunder we rent

Doorpost and door of the chambers wherein we were pent;

And from this side and that of the halls to the rescue we run,

One bearing stones, and a javelin one;

In the hand of another a drawn sword shone:—

But onward to meet us pressed

Pylades' dauntless breast,

Like Hector the Phrygian, or Aias of triple crest,

Whom I saw, I saw, when through portals of Priam he flashed;

And point to point in the grapple we clashed.

Then was it plain to discern how far

Worser than Hellenes in prowess of war

We Phrygians are.

In flight one vanished, and dead one lay,

This reeled sore wounded, that fell to pray

For life—his one shield prayer!

We fled, we fled through the darkness away,

While some were falling, and staggering some, some lay still there.

Then hapless Hermionê came to the halls, to the earth

As fell for her death the wretched mother who gave her birth.

But as Bacchanals dropping the thyrsus to seize

A kidling over the hills that flees,

They rushed on her—grasped—turned back to the slaughter

Of Helen—but vanished was Zeus's daughter!

From the bowers, through the house, gone wholly from sight!