Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/484

456 And the brute's gaping jaws shall frame mine head:

Its forefeet will I fasten to my hands,

Its legs to mine: the wolf's fourfooted gait

I'll mimic, baffling so our enemies,

While near the trench and pale of ships I am:

But whenso to a lone spot come my feet,

Two-footed will I walk: my ruse is this.

Now kindly speed thee Hermes, Maia's son,

Thither and back, prince of the guileful he!

Thou know'st thy work: thou needest but good speed.

Return I shall, with slain Odysseus' head

To show thee,—when thou hast this token sure,

"Dolon," shalt thou say, "reached the Argive ships,"—

Or Tydeus' son's head. Not with bloodless hand

Will I win home ere dawn rise o'er the earth.

[Exit.

O King Thymbræan, O Delian Lord, O haunter of Lycia's fane,

O sunlit brow, with thy bow do thou, Apollo, this night draw near:

To our hero's perilous mission be guide and saviour, and O maintain,

Almighty helper, our cause, who of old didst the ramparts of Troy uprear.

May he win to the galleys and enter the host of Hellas, and spy out their deeds,