Chorus-Leader
[175]
Listen, Odysseus. We would like a little chat with you.
Odysseus
Of course, since you are my friends and I am yours.
Chorus-Leader
Did you capture Troy and take Helen prisoner?
Odysseus
Yes, and we sacked the whole house of the sons of Priam.
Chorus-Leader
Once you had caught the girl,
[180]
didn't you all then take turns banging her, since she takes pleasure in having more than one mate? The traitoress! She saw the parti-colored breeches on the man's legs and the gold necklace around his neck
[185]
and went all aflutter after them, leaving behind that fine little man Menelaus. O would that the female sex were nowhere to be found—but in my lap!
Enter Silenus from the cave.
Silenus
Here, my lord Odysseus, are your flocks, the nurslings of the bleating sheep,
[190]
and a goodly number of cheeses made of curdled milk. Take them. Go away quickly from the cave, but first give me the drink of the Bacchic vine.
Heavens! Here comes the Cyclops. What are we to do?
Odysseus
Then we are done for, old man. Where should we flee to?
Silenus
[195]
Inside this cave, where you could avoid being seen.
Odysseus
A dangerous suggestion, this, going into the net.
Silenus
No danger: there are many hiding-places in the cave.
Odysseus
I shall not do it. Troy would groan loudly if I were to run from a single man
[200]
when I stood my ground so often, shield in hand, against a throng of Trojans without number. Rather, if I must die, I will die nobly—or live on and also retain my old reputation.
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Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. forthcoming.
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