Penthesilea - Opening

Scene 1
Enter Odysseues and Diomede from one side, Antilochus from
the other, with attendant soldiers
ANTILOCHUS: Greetings, mighty kings! Tell me how things go
Since
last we met before the walls of Troy?
ODYSSEUS: Badly, Antilochus. You see upon this field

The armies of the Greeks and Amazons

Locked in dread conflict like two rav'ning wolves.

And, by the gods, neither can tell the cause!

If Mars in anger, or our lord Apollo,

Do not restrain them, or the Thunderer

With levin-bolts do not divide the hosts,

They die, in hate inseparable,

The fangs of either deep in other's throat.
(to a soldier)

Bring me a helmet full of water, friend!

(tr: Humphry Trevelyan)