Argives Quotes

“Pullulating in the dim woods—and gently
trembling—and dilating in the light,
the water ripples; and just now she veils her rite,
just now through all her pale veins she
shivers in discovering a little valley
of nuptials where there are yet in sight
the vestiges of corpses that in the delight
of love had entwined under Selene’s scrutiny.

Selene is dead; the Argives are dead;
their wedding beds—abandoned; in the sovereign stand
of the night’s silence the water’s tumults cease;
but still from time to time I think I hear ahead
the gurgling of an urn that a hand
pours invisibly in that peace.

(Trans. Michael Shindler)”
― Gabriele D'Annunzio

“Shame on you Argives, we are now utterly undone, unless we can save ourselves by driving the enemy from our ships. Do you think, if Hector takes them, that you will be able to get home by land? Can you not hear him cheering on his whole host to fire our fleet, and bidding them remember that they are not at a dance but in battle?”
― Homer Translated by Samuel Butler