Aeschylus Agamemnon 1475

CHOROS.

Alas, that some

Fate would come

Upon us in quickness —

Neither much sickness

Neither bed-keeping —

1450

And bear unended sleeping,

Now that subdued

Is our keeper, the kindest of mood!

Having borne, for a woman’s sake, much strife —

By a woman he withered from life!

Ah me!

1455

Law-breaking Helena who, one,

Hast many, so many souls undone

’Neath Troia! and now the consummated

Much-memorable curse

Hast thou made flower-forth, red

With the blood no rains disperse,

1460

That which was then in the House —

Strife all-subduing, the woe of a spouse.

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

Nowise, of death the fate —

Burdened by these things — supplicate!

Nor on Helena turn thy wrath

As the man-destroyer, as she who hath,

1465

Being but one,

Many and many a soul undone

Of the men, the Danaoi —

And wrought immense annoy!

CHOROS.

Daimon, who fallest

Upon this household and the double-raced

Tantalidai, a rule, minded like theirs displaced,

Thou rulest me with, now,

1470

Whose heart thou gallest!

And on the body, like a hateful crow,

Stationed, all out of tune, his chant to chant

Doth Something vaunt!

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

Now, of a truth, hast thou set upright

1475

Thy mouth’s opinion, —

Naming the Sprite,

The triply gross,

O’er the race that has dominion:

For through him it is that Eros

The carnage-licker

In the belly is bred: ere ended quite

Is the elder throe — new ichor!

1480

CHOROS.

Certainly, great of might

And heavy of wrath, the Sprite

Thou tellest of, in the palace

(Woe, woe!)

— An evil tale of a fate

1485

By Até’s malice

Rendered insatiate!

Oh, oh, —

King, king, how shall I beweep thee?

1490

From friendly soul whatever say?

Thou liest where webs of the spider o’ersweep thee

In impious death, life breathing away.

O me — me!

This couch, not free.

By a slavish death subdued thou art,

1495

From the hand, by the two-edged dart.

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

Thou boastest this deed to be mine:

But leave off styling me

The Agamemnonian wife!

For, showing himself in sign

1500

Of the spouse of the corpse thou dost see,

Did the ancient bitter avenging-ghost

Of Atreus, savage host,

Pay the man here as price —

A full-grown for the young one’s sacrifice.

CHOROS.

That no cause, indeed, of this killing art thou,

1505

Who shall be witness-bearer?

How shall he bear it — how?

But the sire’s avenging-ghost might be in the deed a sharer.

He is forced on and on

By the kin-born flowing of blood,

1510

— Black Ares: to where, having gone,

He shall leave off, flowing done,

At the frozen-child’s-flesh food.

King, king, how shall I beweep thee?

From friendly soul whatever say?

Thou liest where webs of the spider o’ersweep thee

1515

In impious death, life breathing away.

O me — me!

This couch, not free!

By a slavish death subdued thou art,

From the hand, by the two-edged dart.

1520

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

No death unfit for the free

Do I think this man’s to be:

For did not himself a slavish curse

To his household decree?

But the scion of him, myself did nurse —

1525

That much-bewailed Iphigeneia, he

Having done well by, — and as well, nor worse,

Been done to, — let him not in Haides loudly

Bear himself proudly!

Being by sword-destroying death amerced

For that sword’s punishment himself inflicted first.

CHOROS.

I at a loss am left —

1530

Of a feasible scheme of mind bereft —

Where I may turn: for the house is falling:

I fear the bloody crash of the rain

That ruins the roof as it bursts amain:

The warning-drop

Has come to a stop.

Destiny doth Justice whet

1535

For other deed of hurt, on other whetstones yet.

Woe, earth, earth — would thou hadst taken me

Ere I saw the man I see,

On the pallet-bed

Of the silver-sided bath-vase, dead!

1540

Who is it shall bury him, who

Sing his dirge? Can it be true

That thou wilt dare this same to do —

Having slain thy husband, thine own,

To make his funeral moan:

And for the soul of him, in place

1545

Of his mighty deeds, a graceless grace

To wickedly institute? By whom

Shall the tale of praise o’er the tomb

At the god-like man be sent —

From the truth of his mind as he toils intent?

1550

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

It belongs not to thee to declare

This object of care!

By us did he fall — down there!

Did he die — down there! and down, no less,

We will bury him there, and not beneath

The wails of the household over his death:

But Iphigeneia, — with kindliness, —

1555

His daughter, — as the case requires,

Facing him full, at the rapid-flowing

Passage of Groans shall — both hands throwing

Around him — kiss that kindest of sires!

CHOROS.

This blame comes in the place of blame:

1560

Hard battle it is to judge each claim.

He is borne away who bears away:

And the killer has all to pay.

And this remains while Zeus is remaining,

The doer shall suffer in time — for, such his ordaining.

Who may cast out of the House its cursed brood?

1565

The race is to Até glued!

KLUTAIMNESTRA.

Thou hast gone into this oracle

With a true result. For me, then, — I will

— To the Daimon of the Pleisthenidai

Making an oath — with all these things comply

1570

Hard as they are to bear. For the rest —

Going from out this House, a guest,

May he wear some other family

To nought, with the deaths of kin by kin!

And, — keeping a little part of my goods, —

Wholly am I contented in

Having expelled from the royal House

These frenzied moods

1575

The mutually-murderous.

SEMI-CHORUS

LE CHŒUR

CHORUS.

CORIFEO

2

Chorus.

Der Chor.