These are the streams of Nile, the joy of nymphs, Glowing with beauty's radiance; he his floods Swell'd with the melted snow o'er Egypt's plain Irriguous pours, to fertilize her fields, Th' ethereal rain supplying. Euripides: _Helena_ 1.
On thee, high-nested in the museful shade By close-inwoven branches made, Thee, sweetest bird, most musical Of all that warble their melodious song The charmed woods among, Thee, tearful nightingale, I call: O come, and from thy dark-plumed throat Swell sadly-sweet thy melancholy note. Euripides: _Helena_ 1191.
O might we through the liquid sky Wing'd like the birds of Lybia fly; Birds, which the change of seasons know, And, left the wintry storms and snow, Their leader's well-known call obey. O'er many a desert dry and cultured plain He guides the marshall'd train, And cheers with jocund notes their way. Ye birds that through th' aerial height Your course with clouds light-sailing share, Your flight amidst the Pleiads hold, And where Orion nightly flames in gold; Then on Eurota's banks alight, And this glad message bear: "Your king from Troy shall reach once more, With conquest crown'd, his native shore." Euripides: _Helena_ 1603.
So is it as a wave Of ocean's billowing surge (Where Thrakian storm-winds rave, And floods of darkness from the depths emerge,) Rolls the black sand from out the lowest deep, And shores re-echoing wail, as rough blasts o'er them sweep. Sophocles: _Antigone_ 586 [Plumptre].
Steering their rough course o'er this boisterous main, Form'd in a ring beneath whose waves The Nereid train in high-arch'd caves Weave the light dance, and raise the sprightly song, Whilst whisp'ring in their swelling sails Soft Zephyrs breathe, or southern gales Piping amidst their tackling play, As their bark ploughs its wat'ry way Those hoary cliffs, the haunts of birds, among, To that wild strand, the rapid race Where once Achilles deigned to grace. Euripides: _Iphigenia among the Tauri_ 492.
Amongst barbarians all are slaves, save one. _Helena_ 311.
He is no lover who not always loves. _Daughters of Troy_ 1148.
What our necessities demand, becomes Of greater moment than to conquer Troy. _Andromache_ 427.
'Tis not the counsel, but the speaker's worth, That gives persuasion to his eloquence. _Hecuba_ 266.