Laudator Temporis Acti

Euripides, Suppliant Women 846-856 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):

One question will I spare thee, lest I provoke thy laughter;
the foe that each of them encountered in the fray,
the spear from which each received his death-wound.
These be idle tales alike for those who hear
or him who speaks, that any man amid the fray,
when clouds of darts are hurtling before his eyes,
should declare for certain who each champion is.
I could not ask such questions,
nor yet believe those who dare assert the like;
for when a man is face to face with the foe, he scarce
can see even that which 'tis his bounden duty to observe.

ἓν δ᾽ οὐκ ἐρήσομαί σε, μὴ γέλωτ᾽ ὄφλω,
ὅτῳ ξυνέστη τῶνδ᾽ ἕκαστος ἐν μάχῃ
ἢ τραῦμα λόγχης πολεμίων ἐδέξατο.
κενοὶ γὰρ οὗτοι τῶν τ᾽ ἀκουόντων λόγοι
καὶ τοῦ λέγοντος, ὅστις ἐν μάχῃ βεβὼς        850
λόγχης ἰούσης πρόσθεν ὀμμάτων πυκνῆς
σαφῶς ἀπήγγειλ᾽ ὅστις ἐστὶν ἁγαθός.
οὐκ ἂν δυναίμην οὔτ᾽ ἐρωτῆσαι τάδε
οὔτ᾽ αὖ πιθέσθαι τοῖσι τολμῶσιν λέγειν·
μόλις γὰρ ἄν τις αὐτὰ τἀναγκαῖ᾽ ὁρᾶν        855
δύναιτ᾽ ἂν ἑστὼς πολεμίοις ἐναντίος.