"Phœbus" the watchword is, if need arise:
Remember it, and tell thy Thracian host.
(To the Chorus.) Ye must go forth in front of all our lines:
Watch keenly, and our spy upon the ships,
Dolon, receive; for, if he be unharmed, 525
By this he draweth nigh the camp of Troy.
Chorus.
(Str.)
Ho, warders, to whom is the next watch given?
Whose warding followeth mine?
For the stars that were high in the evening sky are setting: uprisen ye see
The Pleiads seven: in the midst of heaven the Eagle's broad wings shine.[1] 530
Ho, comrades, awake from your slumber! Why do ye linger? Hither to me!
Ho ye, ho ye, from your couches leap, for the sentinel-tramp appear!
Do ye see not afar where the silver car of the moon o'er the sea hangs low?
The dayspring cometh—break off your sleep, for the dawning is near, is near.
Lo there in the east where gleameth a star—'tis her harbinger: rouse ye, ho!
- ↑ As Rhesus, starting, we may suppose, at the beginning of spring for Troy, had had to turn back and undertake a spring campaign in Scythia, the time of his actual arrival at Troy could not well be before the summer. Now Aquila is high in the southern heavens, and the Pleiades are well above the eastern horizon, at about 3 a.m. in the middle of June. The star referred to as just rising in the east might be Mira Ceti.
