Agamemnon. N. Wecklein. . 2026-09-06.
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Wecklein’s commentary on Agamemnon (1888; German; OCR draft) (German) (Explanatory commentary, pp. 30–140; Iowa and Harvard OCR collated conservatively. Unresolved OCR and provisional reference mappings are explicitly marked.)
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (8)
Ἀγαμέμνων First1KGreek (Aeschyli Tragoediae. Sidgwick, Arthur, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902.) — 104-257 focus
Χορός
κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
ἐκτελέων: ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν καταπνεύει
105
πειθοῖ μολπᾶν
ἀλκὰν
1
σύμφυτος αἰών:
ὅπως Ἀχαιῶν
δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος ἥβας
ξύμφρονε ταγώ,
2
110
πέμπει σὺν δορὶ καὶ χερὶ
3
πράκτορι
θούριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς βασιλεῦσι νε-
ῶν ὁ κελαινός, ὅ τ᾽ ἐξόπιν ἀργᾶς,
4
115
φανέντες ἴκταρ μελάθρων
χερὸς ἐκ δοριπάλτου
παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισι,
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
120
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
κεδνὸς δὲ στρατόμαντις ἰδὼν δύο λήμασιν ἴσους
7
Ἀτρεΐδας μαχίμους ἐδάη λαγοδαίτας
πομπούς τ᾽ ἀρχάς:
οὕτω δ᾽ εἶπε τερᾴζων:
125
“ʽχρόνῳ μὲν ἀγρεῖ
Πριάμου πόλιν ἅδε κέλευθος,
πάντα δὲ πύργων
κτήνη †πρόσθε τὰ
8
δημιοπληθῆ
Μοῖρ᾽ ἀλαπάξει πρὸς τὸ βίαιον:
130
οἶον μή τις ἄγα θεόθεν κνεφά-
σῃ προτυπὲν στόμιον μέγα Τροίας
στρατωθέν. οἴκτῳ
9
γὰρ ἐπί-
φθονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὰ
135
πτανοῖσιν κυσὶ πατρὸς
αὐτότοκον πρὸ λόχου μογερὰν πτάκα θυομένοισι:
στυγεῖ δὲ δεῖπνον αἰετῶν.”
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
“τόσον περ εὔφρων, καλά,
140
πάντων τ᾽ ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοισι τερπνά,
τούτων αἴνει
12
ξύμβολα κρᾶναι,
δεξιὰ μέν, κατάμομφα δὲ φάσματα [στρουθῶν].
13
145
ἰήιον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους
Δαναοῖς χρονίας ἐχενῇδας
ἀπλοίας τεύξῃ,
150
σπευδομένα θυσίαν ἑτέραν ἄνομόν τιν᾽, ἄδαιτον
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον,
οὐ δεισήνορα. μίμνει γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
οἰκονόμος δολία μνάμων μῆνις τεκνόποινος.
155
τοιάδε Κάλχας ξὺν μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
14
μόρσιμ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ὀρνίθων ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις:
τοῖς δ᾽ ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
Ζεύς, ὅστις ποτ᾽ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ᾽ αὐ-
160
τῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ,
τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω.
οὐκ ἔχω προσεικάσαι
πάντ᾽ ἐπισταθμώμενος
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν
15
165
ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος
χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως.
Χορός
οὐδ᾽ ὅστις πάροιθεν ἦν μέγας,
παμμάχῳ θράσει βρύων,
οὐδὲ λέξεται
16
πρὶν ὤν:
170
ὃς δ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ἔφυ, τρια-
κτῆρος οἴχεται τυχών.
Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως
ἐπινίκια κλάζων
τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν:
175
Χορός
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τὸν πάθει μάθος
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
στάζει δ᾽ ἔν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος: καὶ παρ᾽ ἄ-
180
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.
δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος
17
σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.
Χορός
καὶ τόθ᾽ ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέ-
σβυς νεῶν Ἀχαιικῶν,
185
μάντιν οὔτινα ψέγων,
ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι συμπνέων,
εὖτ᾽ ἀπλοίᾳ κεναγγεῖ βαρύ-
νοντ᾽ Ἀχαιικὸς λεώς,
Χαλκίδος πέραν ἔχων παλιρρό-
190
χθοις
18
ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις:
Χορός
πνοαὶ δ᾽ ἀπὸ Στρυμόνος μολοῦσαι
κακόσχολοι, νήστιδες, δύσορμοι,
βροτῶν ἄλαι,
παλιμμήκη χρόνον τιθεῖσαι
τρίβῳ κατέξαινον ἄνθος Ἀργους.
21
ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πικροῦ
χείματος ἄλλο μῆχαρ
βριθύτερον πρόμοισιν
200
μάντις ἔκλαγξεν προφέρων Ἄρτεμιν, ὥστε χθόνα βά-
κτροις ἐπικρούσαντας Ἀτρείδας δάκρυ μὴ κατασχεῖν:
Χορός
ἄναξ δ᾽ ὁ πρέσβυς τότ᾽
22
εἶπε φωνῶν:
205
“βαρεῖα μὲν κὴρ τὸ μὴ πιθέσθαι,
23
βαρεῖα δ᾽, εἰ
τέκνον δαΐξω, δόμων ἄγαλμα,
μιαίνων παρθενοσφάγοισι
ῥείθροις
24
πατρῴους χέρας πρὸ βωμοῦ.
210
τί τῶνδ᾽ ἄνευ κακῶν,
πῶς λιπόναυς γένωμαι
ξυμμαχίας ἁμαρτών;
παυσανέμου γὰρ θυσίας παρθενίου θ᾽ αἵματος ὀρ-
γᾷ περιόργῳ σφ᾽
25
ἐπιθυμεῖν θέμις. εὖ γὰρ εἴη.”
215
Χορός
ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἀνάγκας ἔδυ λέπαδνον
φρενὸς πνέων δυσσεβῆ τροπαίαν
ἄναγνον, ἀνίερον, τόθεν
220
τὸ παντότολμον φρονεῖν μετέγνω.
βροτοὺς
26
θρασύνει γὰρ αἰσχρόμητις
τάλαινα παρακοπὰ πρωτοπήμων.
ἔτλα δ᾽ οὖν θυτὴρ γενέ-
σθαι θυγατρός, γυναικοποί-
225
νων πολέμων ἀρωγὰν
καὶ προτέλεια ναῶν.
Χορός
λιτὰς δὲ καὶ κληδόνας πατρῴους
παρ᾽ οὐδὲν αἰῶνα παρθένειον τ᾽
ἔθεντο φιλόμαχοι βραβῆς.
230
φράσεν δ᾽ ἀόζοις πατὴρ μετ᾽ εὐχὰν
δίκαν χιμαίρας ὕπερθε βωμοῦ
πέπλοισι περιπετῆ παντὶ θυμῷ
προνωπῆ
λαβεῖν ἀέρ-
235
δην, στόματός τε καλλιπρῴ-
ρου φυλακᾷ
27
κατασχεῖν
φθόγγον ἀραῖον οἴκοις,
ρου φυλακᾷ 27 κατασχεῖν
Χορός
βίᾳ χαλινῶν τ᾽ ἀναύδῳ μένει.
κρόκου βαφὰς δ᾽ ἐς πέδον χέουσα
ἔβαλλ᾽ ἕκαστον θυτή-
240
ρων ἀπ᾽ ὄμματος βέλει φιλοίκτῳ,
πρέπουσά θ᾽ ὡς ἐν γραφαῖς, προσεννέπειν
θέλουσ᾽, ἐπεὶ πολλάκις
πατρὸς κατ᾽ ἀνδρῶνας εὐτραπέζους
ἔμελψεν, ἁγνᾷ δ᾽ ἀταύρωτος αὐδᾷ
28
πατρὸς
245
φίλου τριτόσπονδον εὔποτμον
παιᾶνα
29
φίλως ἐτίμα.
Ἀγαμέμνων Perseus (Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.) — 104-257 focus
Χορός
κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
ἐκτελέων· ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν καταπνεύει
105
πειθὼ μολπᾶν
ἀλκὰν σύμφυτος αἰών·
ὅπως Ἀχαι-
ῶν δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος ἥβας
ξύμφρονα ταγάν,
110
πέμπει σὺν δορὶ καὶ χερὶ πράκτορι
θούριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδʼ ἐπʼ αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς βασιλεῦσι νε-
ῶν ὁ κελαινός, ὅ τʼ ἐξόπιν ἀργᾶς,
115
φανέντες ἴ-
κταρ μελάθρων χερὸς ἐκ δοριπάλτου
παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισιν,
βοσκόμενοι λαγίναν, ἐρικύμονα φέρματι γένναν,
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
120
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δʼ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
κεδνὸς δὲ στρατόμαντις ἰδὼν δύο λήμασι δισσοὺς
Ἀτρεΐδας μαχίμους ἐδάη λαγοδαίτας
πομπούς τʼ ἀρχάς·
οὕτω δʼ εἶπε τερᾴζων·
125
χρόνῳ μὲν ἀγρεῖ
Πριάμου πόλιν ἅδε κέλευθος,
πάντα δὲ πύργων
κτήνη πρόσθε τὰ δημιοπληθῆ
Μοῖρʼ ἀλαπάξει πρὸς τὸ βίαιον·
130
οἶον μή τις ἄγα θεόθεν κνεφά-
σῃ προτυπὲν στόμιον μέγα Τροίας
στρατωθέν.οἴκτῳ γὰρ ἐπί-
φθονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὰ
135
πτανοῖσιν κυσὶ πατρὸς
αὐτότοκον πρὸ λόχου μογερὰν πτάκα θυομένοισιν
στυγεῖ δὲ δεῖπνον αἰετῶν.
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δʼ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
τόσον περ εὔφρων, καλά,
140
δρόσοισι λεπτοῖς μαλερῶν λεόντων
πάντων τʼ ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοισι τερπνά,
τούτων αἴνει ξύμβολα κρᾶναι,
δεξιὰ μέν, κατάμομφα δὲ φάσματα
στρουθῶν.
145
ἰήιον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους Δανα-
οῖς χρονίας ἐχενῇδας ἀ-
πλοίας τεύξῃ,
150
σπευδομένα θυσίαν ἑτέραν ἄνομόν τινʼ, ἄδαιτον
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον,
οὐ δεισήνορα. μίμνει γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
οἰκονόμος δολία μνάμων μῆνις τεκνόποινος.
155
τοιάδε Κάλχας ξὺν μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
μόρσιμʼ ἀπʼ ὀρνίθων ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις·
τοῖς δʼ ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δʼ εὖ νικάτω.
Χορός
Ζεύς, ὅστις ποτʼ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδʼ αὐ-
160
τῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ,
τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω.
οὐκ ἔχω προσεικάσαι
πάντʼ ἐπισταθμώμενος
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος
165
χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως.
Χορός
οὐδʼ ὅστις πάροιθεν ἦν μέγας,
παμμάχῳ θράσει βρύων,
οὐδὲ λέξεται πρὶν ὤν·
170
ὃς δʼ ἔπειτʼ ἔφυ, τρια-
κτῆρος οἴχεται τυχών.
Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων
τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν·
175
Χορός
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τὸν πάθει μάθος
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
στάζει δʼ ἔν θʼ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος· καὶ παρʼ ἄ-
180
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.
δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος
σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.
Χορός
καὶ τόθʼ ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέ-
σβυς νεῶν Ἀχαιικῶν,
185
μάντιν οὔτινα ψέγων,
ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι συμπνέων,
εὖτʼ ἀπλοίᾳ κεναγγεῖ βαρύ-
νοντʼ Ἀχαιικὸς λεώς,
Χαλκίδος πέραν ἔχων παλιρρόχ-
190
θοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις·
Χορός
πνοαὶ δʼ ἀπὸ Στρυμόνος μολοῦσαι
κακόσχολοι νήστιδες δύσορμοι,
βροτῶν ἄλαι, ναῶν
τε καὶ
πεισμάτων ἀφειδεῖς,
195
παλιμμήκη χρόνον τιθεῖσαι
τρίβῳ κατέξαινον ἄν-
θος Ἀργείων· ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πικροῦ
χείματος ἄλλο μῆχαρ
βριθύτερον πρόμοισιν
200
μάντις ἔκλαγξεν προφέρων
Ἄρτεμιν, ὥστε χθόνα βάκ-
τροις ἐπικρούσαντας Ἀτρεί-
δας δάκρυ μὴ κατασχεῖν·
Χορός
ἄναξ δʼ ὁ πρέσβυς τότʼ εἶπε φωνῶν·
205
βαρεῖα μὲν κὴρ τὸ μὴ πιθέσθαι,
βαρεῖα δʼ, εἰ τέκνον δαΐ-
ξω, δόμων ἄγαλμα,
μιαίνων παρθενοσφάγοισιν
ῥείθροις πατρῴους χέρας
210
πέλας βωμοῦ· τί τῶνδʼ ἄνευ κακῶν,
πῶς λιπόναυς γένωμαι
ξυμμαχίας ἁμαρτών;
παυσανέμου γὰρ θυσίας
παρθενίου θʼ αἵματος ὀρ-
215
γᾷ περιόργως ἐπιθυ-
μεῖν θέμις. εὖ γὰρ εἴη.
Χορός
ἐπεὶ δʼ ἀνάγκας ἔδυ λέπαδνον
φρενὸς πνέων δυσσεβῆ τροπαίαν
ἄναγνον ἀνίερον, τόθεν
220
τὸ παντότολμον φρονεῖν μετέγνω.
βροτοὺς θρασύνει γὰρ αἰσχρόμητις
τάλαινα παρακοπὰ πρωτοπήμων. ἔτλα δʼ οὖν
θυτὴρ γενέσθαι θυγατρός,
225
γυναικοποίνων πολέμων ἀρωγὰν
καὶ προτέλεια ναῶν.
Χορός
λιτὰς δὲ καὶ κληδόνας πατρῴους
παρʼ οὐδὲν αἰῶ τε παρθένειον
ἔθεντο φιλόμαχοι βραβῆς.
230
φράσεν δʼ ἀόζοις πατὴρ μετʼ εὐχὰν
δίκαν χιμαίρας ὕπερθε βωμοῦ
πέπλοισι περιπετῆ παντὶ θυμῷ προνωπῆ
λαβεῖν ἀέρδην, στόματός
235
τε καλλιπρῴρου φυλακᾷ κατασχεῖν
φθόγγον ἀραῖον οἴκοις,
Χορός
βίᾳ χαλινῶν τʼ ἀναύδῳ μένει.
κρόκου βαφὰς δʼ ἐς πέδον χέουσα
ἔβαλλʼ ἕκαστον θυτήρ-
240
ων ἀπʼ ὄμματος βέλει
φιλοίκτῳ, πρέπουσά θʼ ὡς ἐν γραφαῖς, προσεννέπειν
θέλουσʼ, ἐπεὶ πολλάκις
πατρὸς κατʼ ἀνδρῶνας εὐτραπέζους
ἔμελψεν, ἁγνᾷ δʼ ἀταύρωτος αὐδᾷ πατρὸς
245
φίλου τριτόσπονδον εὔ-
ποτμον παιῶνα φίλως ἐτίμα—
Χορός
τὰ δʼ ἔνθεν οὔτʼ εἶδον οὔτʼ ἐννέπω·
τέχναι δὲ Κάλχαντος οὐκ ἄκραντοι.
Δίκα δὲ τοῖς μὲν παθοῦσ-
250
ιν μαθεῖν ἐπιρρέπει·
τὸ μέλλον
δʼ, ἐπεὶ γένοιτʼ, ἂν κλύοις· πρὸ χαιρέτω·
ἴσον δὲ τῷ προστένειν.
τορὸν γὰρ ἥξει σύνορθρον αὐγαῖς.
πέλοιτο δʼ οὖν τἀπὶ τούτοισιν εὖ πρᾶξις, ὡς
255
θέλει τόδʼ ἄγχιστον Ἀ-
πίας γαίας μονόφρουρον ἕρκος.
Ἀγαμέμνων (OCR draft) Experimental (Ἀγαμέμνων. Guilielmus Dindorfius, 1882.) — 40 focus
ΧΟΡΟΣ.
δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ᾽ ἐπεὶ Πριάμου
40
μέγας ἀντίδικος,
Μενέλαος ἄναξ ἠδ᾽ Ἀγαμέμνων,
διθρόνου Διόθεν καὶ δισκήπτρου
τιμῆς ὀχυρὸν ζεύγος Ἀτρείδαιν,
στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην
45
τῆσδ᾽ ἀπὸ χώρας
ἦραν, στρατιῶτιν ἀρωγὴν,
μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ κλάζοντες῎Αρη
τρόπον αἰγυπιῶν,
οἵτ᾽ ἐκπατίοις ἄλγεσι παίδων
50
ὕπατοι λεχέων στροφοδινοῦνται
πτερύγων ἐρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι,
δεμνιοτήρη
πόνον ὀρταλίχων ὀλέσαντες
Ἀγαμέμνων (OCR draft) Experimental (Ἀγαμέμνων. Gottfried Hermann, 1852.) — 40 focus
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ᾽ ἐπεὶ Πριάμου
40
μέγας ἀντίδικος,
Μενέλαος ἄναξ ἠδ᾽ Ἀγαμέμνων,
διθρόνου Διόθεν καὶ δισκήπτρου
τιμῆς ὀχυρὸν ζεῦγος Ἀτρειδᾶν,
στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύταν
45
τῆσδ᾽ ἀπὸ χώρας
ἦραν, στρατιῶτιν ἀρωγάν,
μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ κλάζοντες Ἄρη,
τρόπον αἰγυπιῶν,
οἵτ᾽ ἐκπατίοις ἄλγεσι παίδων
50
ὕπατοι λεχέων στροφοδινοῦνται
πτερύγων ἐρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι,
δεμνιοτήρη
πόνον ὀρταλίχων ὀλέσαντες·
ὕπατος δ᾽ ἀΐων ἤ τις Ἀπόλλων,
55
ἢ Πάν, ἢ Ζεύς, οἰωνόθροον
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
γόον ὀξυβόαν, τῶνδε μετοίκων
ὑστερόποινον
πέμπει παραβᾶσιν Ἐρινύν.
οὕτω δ᾽ Ἀτρέως παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων
60
ἐπ' Ἀλεξάνδρῳ πέμπει ξένιος
Ζεύς, πολυάνορος ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς
πολλὰ παλαίσματα καὶ γυιοβαρῆ,
γόνατος κονίαισιν ἐρειδομένου
διακναιομένης τ' ἐν προτελείοις
65
κάμακος, θήσων Δαναοῖσιν,
Τρωσί θ᾽ ὁμοίως. ἔστι δ᾽ ὅπῃ νῦν
ἔστι· τελεῖται δ᾽ ἐς τὸ πεπρωμένον·
οὔθ᾽ ὑποκλαίων οὔθ᾽ ὑπολείβων
ἀπύρων ἱερῶν
70
ὀργὰς ἀτενεῖς παραθέλξει.
ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἀτίτᾳ σαρκὶ παλαιᾷ
τῆς τότ᾽ ἀρωγῆς ὑπολειφθέντες
μίμνομεν, ἰσχὺν
ἰσόπαιδα νέμοντες ἐπὶ σκήπτροις.
75
ὅ τε γὰρ νεαρὸς μυελὸς στέρνων
ἐντὸς ἀνάσσων
ἰσόπρεσβυς, Ἄρης δ' οὐκ ἔνι χώρᾳ,
τό θ᾽ ὑπεργήρων φυλλάδος ἤδη
κατακαρφομένης τρίποδας μὲν ὁδοὺς
80
στείχει, παιδὸς δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἀρείων
ὄναρ ἡμερόφαντον ἀλαίνει.
σὺ δέ, Τυνδάρεω
θύγατερ, βασίλεια Κλυταιμνήστρα,
τί χρέος; τί νέον; τί δ᾽ ἐπαισθομένη,
85
τίνος ἀγγελίας
πειθοῖ περίπεμπτα θυοσκεῖς;
πάντων δὲ θεῶν τῶν ἀστυνόμων,
ὑπάτων, χθονίων,
τῶν τ᾽ οὐρανίων τῶν τ' ἀγοραίων,
90
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
βωμοὶ δώροισι φλέγονται·
ἄλλη δ᾽ ἄλλοθεν οὐρανομήκης
λαμπὰς ἀνίσχει,
φαρμασσομένη χρίματος ἁγνοῦ
μαλακαῖς ἀδόλοισι παρηγορίαις,
95
πελάνῳ μυχόθεν βασιλείῳ.
τούτων λέξασ᾽ ὅ τι καὶ δυνατὸν
καὶ θέμις αἰνεῖν,
παιών τε γενοῦ τῆσδε μερίμνης,
ἣ νῦν ποτὲ μὲν κακόφρων τελέθει,
100
ποτὲ δ᾽ ἐκ θυσιῶν ἀγανὰ φαίνουσ'
ἐλπὶς ἀμύνει φροντίδ᾽ ἄπληστον
τῆς θυμοβόρου φρενολύπης.
στρ. α'.
κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
ἐκτελέων· ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν καταπνείει
105
πειθὼ μολπάν,
ἀλκᾷ σύμφυτος αἰών·
ὅπως Ἀχαιῶν δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος ἥβας
ξύμφρονα ταγάν,
πέμπει ξὺν δορὶ πράκτορι
1
110
θοῦριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδ᾽ ἐπ' αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς βασιλεῦσι νεῶν, ὁ κελαινός, ὅ τ᾽ ἐξόπιν ἀργᾶς,
φανέντες ἔκταρ μελάθρων, χερὸς ἐκ δοριπάλτου,
παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισιν,
βοσκόμενοι λαγίναν ἐρικύμονα φέρματι γένναν,
115
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
ἀντ. α'.
κεδνὸς δὲ στρατόμαντις ἰδὼν δύο λήμασι δισσοὺς
Ἀτρείδας μαχίμους, ἐδάη λαγοδαίτας
πομπούς τ' ἀρχάς·
120
οὕτω δ᾽ εἶπε τεράζων·
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
χρόνῳ μὲν ἀγρεῖ Πριάμου πόλιν ἅδε κέλευθος,
πάντα δὲ πύργων
κτήνη πρόςθετα δημιοπληθῆ
Μοῖρα λαπάξει πρὸς τὸ βίαιον.
125
οἶον μή τις ἄγα θεόθεν κνεφάσῃ προτυπὲν στόμιον μέγα Τροίας
στρατωθέν. οἴκτῳ γὰρ ἐπίφθονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὰ
πτανοῖσιν κυσὶ πατρός,
αὐτότοκον πρὸ λόχου μογερὰν πτάκα θυομένοισιν·
στυγεῖ δὲ δεῖπνον αἰετῶν.
130
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
ἐπῳδός.
τόσσον περ εὔφρων ἁ καλά,
δρόσοις ἀέπτοις μαλερῶν λεόντων
πάντων τ' ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοις ἔπι τερπνά,
135
τούτων αἰτεῖ ξύμβολα κρᾶναι,
δεξιὰ μέν, κατάμομφα δὲ φάσματα.
ἰήϊον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους Δαναοῖς χρονίας ἐχενῇδας ἀπλοίας
τεύξῃ, σπευδομένα θυσίαν ἑτέραν ἄνομόν τιν', ἄδαιτον,
140
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον, οὐ δεισήνορα
2
μίμνει γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
οἰκονόμος δολία μνάμων μῆνις τεκνόποινος.
τοιάδε Κάλχας
ξὺν μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
145
μόρσιμ᾽ ἀπ' ὀρνίθων ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις·
τοῖς δ᾽ ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ' εὖ νικάτω.
στρ. β'.
Ζεύς, ὅςτις ποτ᾽ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ᾽ αὐ-
τῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ,
150
τοῦτό νιν προςεννέπω.
οὐκ ἔχω προςεικάσαι,
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
πάντ᾽ ἐπισταθμώμενος
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος
χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως.
155
ἀντ. β'.
οὐδ᾽ ὅςτις πάροιθεν ἦν μέγας,
παμμάχῳ θράσει βρύων,
οὐδὲ λέξεται πρὶν ὤν·
ὃς δ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ἔφυ, τρια-
κτῆρος οἴχεται τυχών.
160
Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων
τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν·
στρ. γ'.
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τῷ πάθει μάθος
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
165
στάζει δ᾽ ἔν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος· καὶ παρ᾽ ἄ-
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.
δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις
βίαιος σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.
170
ἀντ. γ'.
καὶ τόθ᾽ ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέσ-
βυς νεῶν Ἀχαιϊκῶν,
μάντιν οὔτινα ψέγων,
ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι συμπνέων,
εὖτ᾽ ἀπλοίᾳ κεναγγεῖ βαρύ-
175
νοντ' Ἀχαιϊκὸς λεώς,
Χαλκίδος πέραν ἔχων
παλιρρόθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις,
στρ. δ'.
πνοαὶ δ᾽ ἀπὸ Στρυμόνος μολοῦσαι
κακόσχολοι, νήστιδες, δύςορμοι,
180
βροτῶν ἄλαι,
νεῶν τε καὶ πεισμάτων ἀφειδεῖς,
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
παλιμμήκη χρόνον τιθεῖσαι
τρίβῳ κατέξαινον ἄνθος Ἄργους·
ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πικροῦ
185
χείματος ἄλλο μῆχαρ
βριθύτερον πρόμοισιν
μάντις ἔκλαγξεν, προφέρων
Ἄρτεμιν, ὥςτε χθόνα βά-
κτροις ἐπικρούσαντας Ἀτρεί-
190
δας δάκρυ μὴ κατασχεῖν·
ἀντ. δ'.
ἄναξ δ᾽ ὁ πρέσβυς τότ᾽ εἶπε φωνῶν·
βαρεῖα μὲν κὴρ τὸ μὴ πιθέσθαι,
βαρεῖα δ᾽, εἰ
τέκνον δαΐξω, δόμων ἄγαλμα,
195
μιαίνων παρθενοσφάγοισιν
ῥεέθροις πατρῴους χέρας πέλας βωμοῦ.
τί τῶνδ᾽ ἄνευ κακῶν;
πῶς λιπόναυς γένωμαι,
ξυμμαχίας ἁμαρτών;
200
παυσανέμου γὰρ θυσίας
παρθενίου θ' αἵματος αὐ-
δᾷ περιόργως ἐπιθυ-
μεῖν θέμις. εὖ γὰρ εἴη.
στρ. ε'.
ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἀνάγκας ἔδυ λέπαδνον,
205
φρενὸς πνέων δυςσεβῆ τροπαίαν
ἄναγνον, ἀνίερον, τόθεν
τὸ παντότολμον φρονεῖν μετέγνω.
βροτοὺς θρασύνει γὰρ αἰσχρόμητις
τάλαινα παρακοπὰ πρωτοπήμων.
210
ἔτλα δ᾽ οὖν θυτὴρ γενέσθαι θυγατρός,
γυναικοποίνων πολέμων ἀρωγὰν
καὶ προτέλεια ναῶν.
Χορὸς Πρεσβυτῶν
ἀντ. ε'.
λιτὰς δὲ καὶ κληδόνας πατρῴους
παρ᾽ οὐδὲν αἰῶνα παρθένειόν τ'
215
ἔθεντο φιλόμαχοι βραβῆς.
φράσεν δ᾽ ἀόζοις πατὴρ μετ' εὐχάν,
δίκαν χιμαίρας ὕπερθε βωμοῦ
πέπλοισι περιπετῆ παντὶ θυμῷ
προνωπῆ λαβεῖν ἀέρδην, στόματός
220
τε καλλιπρῴρου φυλακὰν κατασχεῖν
φθόγγον ἀραῖον οἴκοις,
βίᾳ χαλινῶν τ' ἀναύδῳ μένει.
στρ. ς'.
κρόκου βαφὰς δ᾽ ἐς πέδον χέουσα
ἔβαλλ᾽ ἕκαστον θυτήρων
225
ἀπ᾽ ὄμματος βέλει φιλοίκτῳ,
πρέπουσα θ᾽ ὡς ἐν γραφαῖς, προςεννέπειν
θέλουσ', ἐπεὶ πολλάκις
πατρὸς κατ' ἀνδρῶνας εὐτραπέζους
ἔμελψεν· ἁγνᾷ δ᾽ ἀταύρωτος αὐδᾷ πατρὸς φίλου
230
τριτόσπονδον εὔποτμον
παιῶνα φίλως ἐτίμα.
ἀντ. ς'.
τὰ δ᾽ ἔνθεν οὔτ᾽ εἶδον οὔτ᾽ ἐννέπω·
τέχναι δὲ Κάλχαντος οὐκ ἄκραντοι.
Δίκα δὲ τοῖς μὲν παθοῦσιν
235
μαθεῖν ἐπιρρέπει· τὸ μέλλον·
τὸ προκλύειν δ᾽ ἐπιγνοιη· προχαιρέτω·
ἴσον δὲ τῷ προστένειν.
τορὸν γὰρ ἥξει σύνορθρον αὐγαῖς.
πέλοιτο δ᾽ οὖν τἀπὶ τούτοισιν εὔπραξις, ὡς θέλει
240
τόδ᾽ ἄγχιστον Ἀπίας
γαίας μονόφρουρον ἕρκος.
ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ (OCR draft) Experimental (ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ. Paul Mazon, 1920-1925.) — 40 focus
ΧΟΡΟΣ
Δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ' ἐπεὶ
Πριάμου
-μω
40
μέγας ἀντίδικος, Μενέλαος ἄναξ
ἠδ' Ἀγαμέμνων, διθρόνου Διόθεν
καὶ δισκήπτρου τιμῆς ὀχυρὸν
ζεῦγος Ἀτρειδᾶν, στόλον Ἀργείων
χιλιοναύτην
χιλιοναύταν τῆσδ' ἀπὸ χώρας
45
1
ἦραν
ἤιραν, στρατιῶτιν
ἀρωγήν
-γάν,
μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ
κλάζοντες
κλάγξαντες Ἄρη
τρόπον αἰγυπιῶν οἵτ' ἐκπατίοις
ἄλγεσι παίδων ὕπατοι λεχέων
ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ
ΧΟΡΟΣ
στροφοδινοῦνται
50
πτερύγων ἐρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι,
δεμνιοτήρη
πόνον ὀρταλίχων ὀλέσαντες·
ὕπατος δ' ἀΐων ἤ τις Ἀπόλλων
ἢ Πὰν ἢ Ζεὺς οἰωνόθροον
55
γόον ὀξυβόαν τῶνδε μετοίκων
ὑστερόποινον
πέμπει παραβᾶσιν Ἐρινύν·
οὕτω δ' Ἀτρέως παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων
ἐπ' Ἀλεξάνδρῳ πέμπει Ξένιος
60
Ζεύς, πολυάνορος ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς
πολλὰ παλαίσματα καὶ γυιοβαρῆ
γόνατος κονίαισιν
ἐρειδομένου
ἐρειπο-
ἐριδο-
διακναιομένης τ' ἐν προτελείοις
κάμακος θήσων
65
Δαναοῖσιν Τρωσί θ' ὁμοίως.
Ἔστι δ' ὅπη νῦν ἔστι· τελεῖται δ'
ἐς τὸ πεπρωμένον· οὔθ'
ὑποκαίων
-κλαίων
οὔτ'
ἐπιλείβων
ὑπολ-
ἀπύρων
οὔτε δακρύων ἀπύρων ἱερῶν
ὀργὰς ἀτενεῖς παραθέλξει.
70
Ἡμεῖς δ' ἀτίται σαρκὶ παλαιᾷ
2
τῆς τότ' ἀρωγῆς ὑπολειφθέντες
3
μίμνομεν ἰσχὺν
ἰσόπαιδα νέμοντες ἐπὶ σκήπτροις·
ὅ τε γὰρ νεαρὸς μυελὸς στέρνων
75
ἐντὸς
ἀνᾴσσων
ἀνάσσων ἰσόπρεσβυς, Ἄρης δ'
ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ
ΧΟΡΟΣ
οὐκ ἔνι χώρᾳ·
τί θ' ὑπέργηρως
τίθιπεργήρως
τόθιπεργήρως
το θ' ὑπέργηρων
φυλλάδος ἤδη κατακαρφομένης ;
τρίποδας μὲν ὁδοὺς στείχει, παιδὸς δ'
οὐδὲν ἀρείων
80
ὄναρ
ἡμερόφαντον
-φατον ἀλαίνει.
Σὺ δέ,
Τυνδάρεω
-ρεα -ρεου
θύγατερ, βασίλεια Κλυταιμήστρα,
τί χρέος ; τί νέον ; τί δ' ἐπαισθομένη,
τίνος ἀγγελίας
85
πειθοῖ περίπεμπτα
θυοσκεῖς
θυοσκινεῖς ;
πάντων δὲ θεῶν τῶν ἀστυνόμων,
ὑπάτων, χθονίων, τῶν
τε θυραίων
τ' οὐρανίων
τῶν τ' ἀγοραίων,
βωμοὶ
δώροισι
-ροις φλέγονται·
90
ἄλλη δ' ἄλλοθεν οὐρανομήκης
λαμπὰς ἀνίσχει, φαρμασσομένη
χρίματος
χρήμ-
χρίσμ- ἁγνοῦ
μαλακαῖς ἀδόλοισι παρηγορίαις,
πελανῶν... βασιλείων
-λάνῳ (-λανῶ Μ)... -λείῳ.
95
Τούτων λέξασ' ὅ τι καὶ δυνατὸν
καὶ θέμις
αἴνει
αἰνεῖν
εἰπεῖν, παιών τε γενοῦ
τῆσδε μερίμνης, ἣ νῦν τοτὲ μὲν
κακόφρων τελέθει, τοτὲ δ' ἐκ θυσιῶν
ἃς ἀναφαίνεις
ἀγανὰ φαίνεις
φαίνει
φαίνουσ' ἐλπὶς ἀμύνει
100
τὴν θυμοβόρον
λύπης φρενὶ φροντίδ' ἄπληστον
φροντίδ' ἄπληστον τὴν θυμοβόρον λύπης φρένα.
λύπης φρενὶ φροντίδ' ἄπληστον φροντίδ' ἄπληστον τὴν θυμοβόρον λύπης φρένα.
ΧΟΡΟΣ
Κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
Str.
ἐκτελέων· ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν
καταπνεύει
-πνέει πειθώ,
μολπᾶν
-πὰν ἀλκάν, σύμφυτος αἰών·
105
ὅπως Ἀχαιῶν δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος
ἥβας
ἥβαν
ξύμφρονα
σύμ-
ταγάν
τὰν γᾶν,
πέμπει
σὺν
ξὺν δορὶ
καὶ χερὶ
δίκας πράκτορι
θούριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδ' ἐπ' αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς βασιλεῦσι νε-
110
ῶν, ὁ κελαινὸς ὅ τ' ἐξόπιν
ἀργᾷς
ἀργίας,
φανέντες ἴκταρ μελάθρων χερὸς ἐκ δορυπάλτου
παμπρέπτοις
-πρέποις ἐν Μ1 -πρέποισιν F -πρέπτεσιν Tr ἐν
ἕδραισιν
ἕδραις,
βοσκόμενοι
-μένην λαγίναν
ἐρικυμάδα
-κύματα Μ -κύμονα
φέρματι
φέρβοντο γένναν,
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
115
Αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ' εὖ νικάτω.
Κεδνὸς δὲ στρατόμαντις ἰδὼν δύο
λήμασιν ἴσους
-σι δισσοὺς
Ant.
Ἀτρεΐδας μαχίμους ἐδάη λαγοδαίτας
πομπᾶς
πομπούς τ'
ἀρχούς
ἀρχάς· οὕτω δ' εἶπε τεράζων·
« Χρόνῳ μὲν ἀγρεῖ Πριάμου πόλιν ἅδε κέλευθος,
120
πάντα δὲ πύργων
κτήνη πρόσθε τὰ δημιοπληθῆ
Μοῖρ' ἀλαπάξει πρὸς τὸ βίαιον·
οἷον μή τις
ἄγα
ἄτα θεόθεν κνεφά-
σῃ προτυπὲν στόμιον μέγα Τροίας
125
στρατωθέν·
οἴκτῳ
οἴκῳ γὰρ ἐπίφθονος Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὰ
πτανοῖσιν
-οῖς
κυσὶ
-σὶν πατρὸς
αὐτότοκον πρὸ λόχου μογερὰν
πτάκα
πτάωνκα
πτῶκα θυομένοισιν·
ΧΟΡΟΣ
στυγεῖ δὲ δεῖπνον αἰετῶν.
Αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ' εὖ νικάτω.
« Τόσον περ εὔφρων <ἁ> Καλά,
Epod.
δρόσοις ἀέπτοις μαλερῶν λεόντων
140
πάντων τ' ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοισιν τερπνά,
τούτων (μ') αἰτεῖ ξύμβολα κρῖναι,
δεξιὰ μέν, κατάμομφα δὲ φάσματα.
Ἰήϊον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
145
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους Δαναοῖς χρονί-
ας ἐχενῇδας ἀπλοίας τεύξῃ,
σπευδομένα θυσίαν ἑτέραν ἄνομόν τιν' ἄδαιτον
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον, οὐ δεισήνορα· μίμνει
γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
150
οἰκονόμος δολία μνάμων Μῆνις τεκνόποινος. »
Τοιάδε Κάλχας ξὺν μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
μόρσιμ' ἀπ' ὀρνίθων ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις·
τοῖς δ' ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ' εὖ νικάτω.
155
Ζεὺς ὅστις ποτ' ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ' αὐ-
Str. 1.
τῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ,
τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω·
οὐκ ἔχω προσεικάσαι
πάντ' ἐπισταθμώμενος
160
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος
χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως·
οὐδ' ὅστις πάροιθεν ἦν μέγας,
Ant. 1.
ΧΟΡΟΣ
παμμάχῳ θράσει βρύων,
οὐδὲ
λέξεται
λέξαι
λέξαι πρὶν ὤν·
165
ὃς δ' ἔπειτ' ἔφυ, τρια-
κτῆρος οἴχεται τυχών·
Ζῆνα δέ τις προφρόνως ἐπινίκια κλάζων
τεύξεται φρενῶν τὸ πᾶν·
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
170
Str. 2.
σαντα, τῷ πάθει μάθος
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν·
στάζει δ' ἔν θ' ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος καὶ παρ' ἄ-
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν·
175
δαιμόνων δέ
που
ποῦ χάρις
βίαιος
βιαίως
σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.
Καὶ τόθ' ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέ-
Ant. 2.
σβυς νεῶν Ἀχαιϊκῶν,
μάντιν οὔτινα ψέγων,
180
ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι συμπνέων —
εὖτ' ἀπλοίᾳ κεναγγεῖ βαρύ-
νοντ' Ἀχαιϊκὸς λεώς,
Χαλκίδος πέραν ἔχων παλιρρό-
χθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις·
185
πνοαὶ δ' ἀπὸ Στρυμόνος μολοῦσαι
Str. 3.
κακόσχολοι, νήστιδες, δύσορμοι,
βροτῶν ἄλαι, ναῶν
<τε>
om. καὶ
πεισμάτων ἀφειδεῖς,
παλιμμήκη χρόνον τιθεῖσαι
190
τρίβῳ κατέξαινον ἄν-
θος Ἀργείων· ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πικροῦ
ΧΟΡΟΣ
χείματος ἄλλο μῆχαρ
βριθύτερον πρόμοισιν
μάντις
ἔκλαγξεν
ἔκλαγξε προφέρων
195
Ἄρτεμιν, ὥστε χθόνα βάκ-
τροις ἐπικρούσαντας Ἀτρεί-
δας δάκρυ μὴ κατασχεῖν·
ἄναξ δ' ὁ πρέσβυς τόδ' εἶπε φωνῶν·
Ant. 3.
« Βαρεῖα μὲν κὴρ τὸ μὴ
πιθέσθαι
πειθέσθαι
πείθεσθαι,
200
βαρεῖα δ', εἰ τέκνον δαΐ-
ξω, δόμων ἄγαλμα,
μιαίνων παρθενοσφάγοισιν
ῥείθροις
ῥεέθροις
πατρῴους
-ῴας χέρας
πέλας βωμοῦ
βωμοῦ πέλας· τί τῶνδ' ἄνευ κακῶν ;
205
πῶς
τί· πῶς
λιπόναυς
-ναυς τε γένωμαι
ξυμμαχίας ἁμαρτών ;
παυσανέμου γὰρ θυσίας
παρθενίου θ' αἵματος ὀρ-
γᾷ
περιοργῶς
-όργως ἐπιθυ-
210
μεῖν
θέμις· εὖ γὰρ
θέμις γὰρ εὖ εἴη. »
Ἐπεὶ δ' ἀνάγκας ἔδυ λέπαδνον
Str. 4.
φρενὸς πνέων δυσσεβῆ τροπαίαν
ἄναγνον, ἀνίερον, τόθεν
τὸ παντότολμον φρονεῖν μετέγνω·
215
βροτοὺς
θρασύνει
θρασύνοι γὰρ αἰσχρόμητις
τάλαινα παρακοπὰ πρωτοπήμων·
ἔτλα δ' οὖν θυτὴρ γενέ-
σθαι θυγατρός, γυναικοποί-
νων πολέμων ἀρωγὰν
220
ΧΟΡΟΣ
καὶ προτέλεια ναῶν.
Λιτὰς δὲ καὶ κληδόνας πατρῴους
Ant. 4.
παρ' οὐδέν, αἰῶνα παρθένειον,
ἔθεντο φιλόμαχοι
βραβῆς
-βεῖς·
φράσεν δ'
ἀόζοις
ἐν ὄσσοις πατὴρ μετ' εὐχὰν
225
δίκαν χιμαίρας ὕπερθε βωμοῦ
πέπλοισι περιπετῆ παντὶ θυμῷ
προνωπῆ
λαβεῖν
βαλεῖν ἀέρ-
δην στόματός τε καλλιπρῴ-
ρου
φυλακᾷ
-κὰν κατασχεῖν
230
φθόγγον ἀραῖον οἴκοις,
βίᾳ χαλινῶν
τ'
δ'
ἀναύδῳ
-δων μένει·
Str. 5.
κρόκου
βαφὰς δ'
βαφὰς ἐς πέδον χέουσα
ἔβαλλ' ἕκαστον θυτή-
ρων ἀπ'
ὄμματος
ὀμμάτων βέλει
235
φιλοίκτῳ, πρέπουσά θ' ὡς
ἐν γραφαῖς προσεννέπειν
θέλουσ', ἐπεὶ πολλάκις
πατρὸς κατ' ἀνδρῶνας εὐτραπέζους
ἔμελψεν,
ἁγνᾷ
ἁγνὰ δ' ἀταύ-
240
ρωτος
αὐδᾷ
αὐδὰ πατρὸς
φίλου τριτόσπονδον
εὔ-
ποτμον
εὐπόταμον
εὔποτον
παιᾶνα
αἰῶνα φίλως ἐτίμα.
ποτμον εὐπόταμον εὔποτον παιᾶνα αἰῶνα φίλως ἐτίμα.
Τὰ δ' ἔνθεν οὔτ' εἶδον οὔτ' ἐννέπω·
Ant. 5.
τέχναι δὲ Κάλχαντος οὐκ ἄκραντοι·
245
Δίκα δὲ τοῖς μὲν παθοῦ-
σιν μαθεῖν ἐπιρρέπει·
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τὸ μέλλον
<δ'>
om. ἐπεὶ γένοιτ'
4
ἂν κλύοις,
πρὸ χαιρέτω
προχαιρέτω·
ἴσον δὲ τῷ προστένειν·
250
τορὸν γὰρ ἥξει
σύνορθρον
σύναρθρον
σύνορθον
αὐγαῖς
αὐταῖς·
πέλοιτο δ' οὖν τἀπὶ τού-
τοισιν
εὖ πρᾶξις
εὔπραξις, ὡς
θέλει τόδ' ἄγχιστον Ἀ-
πίας γαίας μονόφρουρον ἕρκος.
255
Ἀγαμέμνων (OCR draft) Experimental (Ἀγαμέμνων. N. Wecklein, 1885.) — 40 focus
δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ᾽ ἐπεὶ Πριάμου
40
μέγας ἀντίδικος,
Μενέλαος ἄναξ ἠδ᾽ ᾿Αγαμέμνων,
διθρόνου Διόθεν καὶ δισκήπτρου
τιμῆς ὀχυρὸν ζεῦγος Ἀτρειδᾶν,
στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην
45
τῆσδ᾽ ἀπὸ χώρας
ἦραν, στρατιῶτιν ἀρωγήν,
μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ κλάζοντες Ἄρη,
τρόπον αἰγυπιῶν, οἶτ᾽ ἐκπατίοις
ἄλγεσι παίδων ὕπατοι λεχέων
50
στροφοδινοῦνται,
πτερύγων ἐρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι,
δεμνιοτήρη
πόνον ὀρταλίχων ὀλέσαντες·
ὕπατος δ᾽ ἀίων ἤ τις Ἀπόλλων
55
ἢ Πὰν ἢ Ζεὺς οἰωνόθροον
γόον ὀξυβόαν
τῶνδε μετοίκων ὑστερόποινον
πέμπει παραβᾶσιν Ἐρινύν.
οὕτω δ᾽ Ἀτρέως παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων
60
ἐπ᾽ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ πέμπει ξένιος
Ζεύς, πολυάνορος ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς
πολλὰ παλαίσματα καὶ γυιοβαρῆ
γόνατος κονίαισιν ἐρειδομένου
διακναιομένης τ᾽ ἐν προτελείοις
65
κάμακος θήσων Δαναοίσιν
Τρωσί θ᾽ ὁμοίως. ἔστι δ᾽ ὅπῃ νῦν
ἔστι· τελεῖται δ᾽ ἐς τὸ πεπρωμένον·
οὔθ᾽ ὑποκλαίων οὔθ᾽ ὑπολείβων
οὔτε δακρύων ἀπύρων ἱερῶν
70
ὀργὰς ἀτενεῖς παραθέλξει.
ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἀτίται σαρκὶ παλαιᾷ
τῆς τότ᾽ ἀρωγῆς ὑπολειφθέντες
μίμνομεν ἰσχὺν
ἰσόπαιδα νέμοντες ἐπὶ σκήπτροις.
75
ὅ τε γὰρ νεαρὸς μυελός στέρνων
ἐντὸς ἀνάσσων
ἰσόπρεσβυς, Ἄρης δ' οὐκ ἐνὶ χώρᾳ,
τί θ᾽ ὑπέργηρως; φυλλάδος ἤδη
κατακαρφομένης τρίποδας μὲν ὁδοὺς
80
στείχει, παιδὸς δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἀρείων
ὄναρ ἡμερόφαντον ἀλαίνει.
σὺ δέ, Τυνδάρεω
θύγατερ, βασίλεια Κλυταιμήστρα,
τί χρέος; τί νέον; τί δ᾽ ἐπαισθομένη,
85
τίνος ἀγγελίας
πειθοῖ περίπεμπτα θυοσκεῖς;
πάντων δὲ θεῶν τῶν ἀστυνόμων,
ὑπάτων, χθονίων,
τῶν τ᾽ οὐρανίων τῶν τ᾿ ἀγοραίων,
90
βωμοὶ δώροισι φλέγονται·
ἄλλη δ᾽ ἄλλοθεν οὐρανομήκης
λαμπὰς ἀνίσχει,
φαρμασσομένη χρίματος ἁγνοῦ
μαλακαῖς ἀδόλοισι παρηγορίαις,
95
πελάνῳ μυχόθεν βασιλείῳ.
τούτων λέξασ᾽ ὅ τι καὶ δυνατὸν
καὶ θέμις αἰνεῖν,
παιών τε γενοῦ τῆσδε μερίμνης,
ἢ νῦν τοτὲ μὲν κακόφρων τελέθει,
100
τοτὲ δ᾽ ἐκ θυσιῶν ἀγανὰ φαίνεις
ἐλπὶς ἀμύνει φροντίδ᾽ ἄπληστον
τὴν θυμοφθόρον λύπης φρένα.
εἰτ.
κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος
αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
105
ἐκτελέων· ἔτι γὰρ
θεόθεν καταπνείει
πειθώ, μολπᾶν
ἀλκὰν σύμφυτος αἰών·
ὅπως Ἀχαιῶν
110
δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος ἥβας
ξύμφρονα τὰν γᾶν,
πέμπει σὺν δορὶ καὶ χερὶ πράκτορι
θούριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς
115
βασιλεῦσι νεῶν, ὁ κελαινὸς
ὅ τ᾽ ἐξόπιν ἀργάς,
φανέντες ἔκταρ μελάθρων
χερὸς ἐκ δορυπάλτου
παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισιν,
120
βοσκόμενοι λαγίναν
ἐρικύματα φέρματι γένναν,
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ' εὖ νικάτω.
antistr.
κεδνὸς δὲ στρατόμαντις ἰδὼν δύο
125
λήμασι δισσοὺς
Ἀτρείδας μαχίμους
ἐδάη λαγοδαίτας
πομπούς τ᾿ ἀρχάς·
οὕτω δ᾽ εἶπε τερᾴζων·
130
χρόνῳ μὲν ἀγρεῖ
Πριάμου πόλιν ἅδε κέλευθος,
πάντα δὲ πύργων
κτήνη πρόσθε τὰ δημιοπληθῆ
μοῖρα λαπάξει πρὸς τὸ βίαιον·
135
οἷον μή τις ἄγα
θεόθεν κνεφάσῃ προτυπὲν στόμιον
μέγα Τροίας
στρατωθέν. οἴκῳ γὰρ ἐπίφθονος
Ἄρτεμις ἁγνὰ
140
πτανοῖσιν κυσὶ πατρὸς
αὐτότοκον πρὸ λόχου
μογερὰν πτάκα θυομένοισιν·
στυγεῖ δὲ δεῖπνον αἰετῶν.
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
145
epod.
τόσσων περ εὔφρων καλὰ
δρόσοισιν ἀέλπτοις μαλερῶν λεόντων,
πάντων τ᾿ ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοισι, τερπνὰ
τούτων αἰτεῖ ξύμβολα κρᾶναι,
150
δεξιὰ μέν, κατάμομφα δὲ
φάσματα στρουθῶν.
ἰήιον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους
Δαναοῖς χρονίας ἐχενηΐδας
155
ἀπλοίας τεύξῃ,
σπευδομένα θυσίαν
ἑτέραν ἄνομόν τιν, ἄδαιτον,
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον,
οὐ δεισήνορα. μίμνει
160
γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
οἰκονόμος δολία,
μνάμων μῆνις τεκνόποινος.
τοιάδε Κάλχας ξὺν
μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
165
μόρσιμ᾽ ἀπ᾿ ὀρνίθων
ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις·
τοῖς δ᾽ ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.
str. 1.
Ζεὺς ὅστις ποτ᾽ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ᾽ αὐ-
170
τῷ φίλον κεκλημένῳ,
τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω.
οὐκ ἔχω προσεικάσαι
πάντ᾽ ἐπισταθμώμενος
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν
175
Ἀγαμέμνων (OCR draft) Experimental (Ἀγαμέμνων. Martin L. West, 1990.) — 40 focus
Aeschyli Agamemnon (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschyli Agamemnon. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1914.) — 40 focus
ΧΟΡΟΣ
δέκατον μὲν ἔτος τόδ᾽, ἐπεὶ Πριάμου
40
μέγας ἀντίδικος Μενέλαος ἄναξ
ἠδ᾽ ᾿Αγαμέμνων, διθρόνου Διόθεν
καὶ δισκήπτρου τιμῆς ἐχυρὸν
Ζεύγος ᾿Ατρείδαιν, στόλον ᾿Αργείων
χιλιοναύτην τῆσδ᾽ ἀπὸ χώρας
45
ἦραν στρατιώτιν ἀρωγήν,
μέγαν ἐκ θυμοῦ κλάζοντες Ἄρη,
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
φάος νῦn φῶς σημανῶ σημαίνω ἐπορθιάζειν έπορθρ. ἀγγέλλων ἀγγέλλων ἀγγέλων λέξειεν λέξει αὐδῶ αὐδῶν οὐ Πριάμου πριάμω ἐχυρὸn ὀχυρὸν ᾿Ατρείδαιν ᾿Ατρειδᾶν corr. Dindorf χιλιοναύτην χιλιοναύτην supra -ταν hoc ἀρωγήν ἀρωγήν supra -γάν hoc γρ. ἴλιον αὐτάν κλάζοντες κλάγξαντες
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τρόπον αἰγυπιῶν, οἵτ᾽ ἐκπατίοις
ἄλγεσι παίδων ὕπατοι λεχέων
50
στροφοδινοῦνται
πτερύγων ἐρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι,
δεμνιοτήρη
πόνον ὀρταλίχων ὀλέσαντες·
ὕπατος δ᾽ ἀίων ἤ τις ᾿Απόλλων
55
ἢ Πὰν ἢ Ζεὺς οἰωνόθροον
γόον ὀξυβόαν τῶνδε μετοίκων
ὑστερόποινον
πέμπει παραβᾶσιν Ἐρινύν.
οὕτω δ᾽ ᾿Ατρέως παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων
60
ἐπ᾿ ᾿Αλεξάνδρωι πέμπει ξένιος
Ζεύς, πολυάνορος ἀμφὶ γυναικός
πολλὰ παλαίσματα καὶ γυιοβαρή
γόνατος κονίαισιν ἐρειδομένου
διακναιομένης τ᾽ ἐν προτελείοις
65
κάμακος θήσων
Δαναοῖσί (τε) Τρωσί θ᾽ ὁμοίως.
ἔστι δ᾽ ὅπηι νῦν ἔστι· τελεῖται
δ᾽ ἐς τὸ πεπρωμένον· οὔθ᾽ ὑποκαίων
οὔθ᾽ ὑπολείβων οὔτε δι᾽ ἁγνῶν
70
ἀπύρων ἱερῶν
ὀργὰς ἀτενεῖς παραθέλξει.
ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἀτίται σαρκὶ παλαιᾶι
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
ἐκπατίοις ἐκπατίως v. 1. στροφοδινοῦνται στρεφεδίνηθεν μετοίκων τῶν δὲ μετ. ἐρειδομένου ἐριδομ. ἐρειπ. (τε) supplevi ὑποκαίων ὑποκλαίων corr. Casaubonus ὑπολείβων οὔτε δακρύων correxi ἀτίται ἀτίταν ἀτίταια ἀτιταί
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τῆς τότ᾽ ἀρωγῆς ὑπολειφθέντες
μίμνομεν ἰσχὺν
75
ἰσόπαιδα νέμοντες ἐπὶ σκήπτροις.
ὅ τε γὰρ νεαρὸς μυελὸς στέρνων
ἐντὸς ἀνάισσων
ἰσόπρεσβυς, ῎Αρεως δ᾽ οὐκ ἔνι χώρα.
τό θ᾽ ὑπέργηρων φυλλάδος ἤδη
80
κατακαρφομένης τρίποδας μὲν ὁδοὺς
στείχει, παιδὸς δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἀρείων
ὄναρ ἡμερόφαντον ἀλαίνει.
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
ἀνάισσων ἀνάσσων χώρα χώραι corr. Kayser τό θ᾽ ὑπέργηρων τό θ᾽ ὑπέργηρων τόθιπεργήρως τίθιπεργήρως τρίποδας τρίποδος δ᾽ om. ἡμερόφαντον ἡμερόφατον Κλυταιμήστρα -μνήστρα πειθοῖ πυθοῖ θυοσκεῖς θυοσκινεῖς δύος corr. Hesych. Turn. δώροισι δώροισι δώροις χρίματος χρήματος χρίσμ.
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τούτων λέξασ᾽ ὅ τι καὶ δυνατὸν
καὶ θέμις αἴνει,
παιών τε γενοῦ τῆσδε μερίμνης,
100
ἣ νῦν τοτὲ μὲν κακόφρων τελέθει,
τοτὲ δ᾽ ἐκ θυσιῶν, ἃς ἀναφαίνεις,
ἐλπὶς ἀμύνει φροντίδ᾽ ἄπληστον
[τὴν] θυμοφθόρου λύπης φρενί.
κύριός εἰμι θροεῖν ὅδιον κράτος αἴσιον ἀνδρῶν
105
ἐντελέων· ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν καταπνεύει
πειθὼ μολπᾶν ἀλκαι σύμφυτος αἰών·
ὅπως Ἀχαιῶν δίθρονον κράτος, Ἑλλάδος ἥβας
ξύμφρονα ταγάν,
110
πέμπει ξὺν δορὶ καὶ χερὶ πράκτορι
θούριος ὄρνις Τευκρίδ᾽ ἐπ᾿ αἶαν,
οἰωνῶν βασιλεὺς βασιλεῦσι νε-
ῶν, ὁ κελαινὸς ὅ τ᾽ ἐξόπιν ἀργᾶις,
φανέντες ἴκταρ μελάθρων χερὸς ἐκ δοριπάλτου
115
παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισιν
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
αἴνει αἰνεῖν εἰπεῖν corr. Wieseler ἃς ἀναφαίνεις ἀγανά φαίνεις φαίνει φαίνουσ' corr. Ahrens ἄπληστον ἄπλειστον [τὴν] θυμοφθόρου λύπης φρενί θυμόφθορον λ. φρένα θυμοβόρον λύπης φρένα τὴν θυμοβόρον λυποφρένα φρενί Pauw correxi ἐντελέων ἐκτελέων corr. Auratus καταπνεύει καταπνεύει καταπνείει ἀλκαι ἀλκὰν corr. Schütz ἥβας ἥβας ἥβαν ταγάν σύμφ. τὰν γᾶν ξὺn δορὶ καὶ χερὶ πράκτορι σὺn δ. Μ. καὶ χερί πρ. δίκας πρ. βασιλεῦσι νεῶν οἰωνῶν βασιλεύς om. ἀργᾶις ἀργίας corr. Blomfield φανέντες ... δοριπάλτου οἱ φαν. ... δορυπάλτου παμπρέπτοις ἐν ἕδραισιν παμπρέποις παμπρέποισιν ἕδραις παμπρέπτεσιν ἕδραις
ΧΟΡΟΣ
βοσκόμενοι λαγίναν ἐρικύμονα φέρματι γένναν
βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων.
120
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὐ νικάτω. –
τόσονπερ εὔφρων ἁ καλά,
140
δρόσοις ἀέπτοις μαλερῶν λεόντων
πάντων τ᾽ ἀγρονόμων φιλομάστοις
θηρῶν ὀβρικάλοισι τερπνά,
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
βοσκόμενοι βοσκομένην ἐρικύμονα φέρματι ἐρικύματα φέρβοντο αἴλινον αἵλινον hoc accentu semper αἴλινον semel semper δύο δύω λήμασι λήμμασι λαγοδαίτας λογοδαίτας πομπᾶς πομπᾶς πομπούς τ᾽ ἀρχούς ἀρχάς δ᾽ δ᾽ οὖν πρόσθε προσθετά μοῖρα μοῖρ᾽ ἀλ. ἄγα ἄτα corr. Herm. κνεφάσηι κνεφάσειε προτυπὲn προτυφθέν οἴκτωι οἴκωι corr. Scaliger πτανοῖσιν πτανοῖς πτάκα πτάωνκαθ. πτώκα ἁ τόσσων om. δρόσοις δρόσοις δρόσοισιν ἀέπτοις ἀέπτοισι ἀέλπτοις λεόντων λεόντων ὄντων om. φιλομάστοις φιλόμάτοις τερπνά ὀβρικάλοις τερπνά, ἢ τέρπεται unus recte Herm.
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τούτων αἰτεῖ ξύμβολα κρᾶναι.
δεξιὰ μὲν κατάμομφα δὲ φάσματα
145
[τῶν στρουθῶν]
ἰήιον δὲ καλέω Παιᾶνα,
μή τινας ἀντιπνόους Δαναοῖς χρονί-
ας ἐχενῆιδας ἀπλοίας
τεύξηι σπευδομένα θυσίαν ἑτέ-
150
ραν [ἄνομόν] τιν᾿ ἄδαιτον,
νεικέων τέκτονα σύμφυτον οὐ δεισ-
ήνορα. μίμνει γὰρ φοβερὰ παλίνορτος
οἰκονόμος δολία, μνάμων μῆνις τεκνόποινος.“
τοιάδε Κάλχας ξὺν μεγάλοις ἀγαθοῖς ἀπέκλαγξεν
155
μόρσιμ᾽ ἀπ᾿ ὀρνίθων ὁδίων οἴκοις βασιλείοις·
τοῖς δ᾽ ὁμόφωνον
αἴλινον αἴλινον εἰπέ, τὸ δ᾽ εὐ νικάτω. –
Ζεὺς ὅστις ποτ᾽ ἐστίν, εἰ τόδ᾽ αὐ-
160
τῶι φίλον κεκλημένωι,
τοῦτό νιν προσεννέπω.
οὐκ ἔχω προσεικάσαι
πάντ᾽ ἐπισταθμώμενος
πλὴν Διός, εἰ τὸ μάταν ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος
165
χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως. –
Apparatus Criticus
φάσματα articulum om. del. Porson [τῶν στρουθῶν] τῶν στρουθῶν χρονίας χρονίας post ἐχ. ἀπλοίας ἀπλοΐδας [ἄνομόν] delevi σύμφυτον συμμενειῶν φυτόν γὰρ om. in marg. supplet ἀπέκλαγξεν ἀπέκλαιξεν οἴκοις οἶκος τοῖς τοῖσδ᾽ ὠμοφ. αἴλινον semel τὸ τὸ τόδε γε οὐδὲ λέξεται οὐδὲn (τι add. Tr) λέξαι corr. Ahrens
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τῶι πάθει μάθος
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
στάζει δ᾽ ἀνθ᾽ ὕπνου πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος· καὶ παρ᾿ ἄ-
180
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.
δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βι-
αίως σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων. –
καὶ τόθ᾽ ἡγεμὼν ὁ πρέ-
σβυς νεῶν ᾿Αχαιικῶν,
185
μάντιν οὔτινα ψέγων,
ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι συμπνέων,
εὐτ᾿ ἀπλοίαι κεναγγεῖ βαρύ-
νοντ᾽ Ἀχαιικὸς λεώς,
Χαλκίδος πέραν ἔχων πα-
190
λιρρόχθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις· =
Apparatus Criticus
μάθος μάθη ἀνθ᾽ ὕπνου ἔν θ᾽ ὕπνωι corr. Emperius τύχαισι τύχαις συμπνέων συμπνέει παλιρρόχθοις παλιρρόθοις corr. Ahrens (τε) suppl. Porson παλιμμήκη πολυμ. κατέξαινον κατέξενον κατάξενον τότ᾽ τόδ' corr. Stanley
ΧΟΡΟΣ
“βαρεῖα μὲν κὴρ τὸ μὴ πιθέσθαι,
βαρεῖα δ᾽, εἰ τέκνον δαΐ-
ξω, δόμων ἄγαλμα,
μιαίνων παρθενοσφάγοισιν / ῥείθροις πατρώιους χέρας / πέλας βωμοῦ, τί τῶνδ᾽ ἄνευ κακῶν;
210
πῶς λιπόναυς γένωμαι
ξυμμαχίας ἁμαρτών;
παυσανέμου γὰρ θυσίας
παρθενίου θ᾽ αἵματος ὀρ-
215
γᾶι περιόργως ἐπιθυ-
μεῖν θέμις. εὐ γὰρ εἴη.“ =
Testim.:
Apparatus Criticus
πιθέσθαι πειθέσθαι πείθεσθαι παρθενοσφάγοισιν παρθενοσφάγοις ῥείθροις ῥείθροις ῥεέθροις πατρώιους πατρώιας πέλας βωμοῦ βωμοῦ πέλας corr. Blomfield πῶς λιπόναυς πῶς λιπόναυς τί πῶς λιπόναυς (λειπ. F) τε ὀργᾶι ὀργᾶι αὐδᾶι θέμις. εὐ γὰρ εἴη. θέμις γὰρ εὖ βροτοὺς βροτοῖς corr. Schütz αἰῶ τε αἰῶ τε e Bekk. An. O. Müller αἰῶνα παρθένειον παρθένιον βραβῆς βεῖς φράσεν δ᾽ ἀόζοις φράσεν δ᾽ ἐν ὄσσοις χιμαίρας χειμαίρας λαβεῖn ἀέρδην βαλεῖν ἀέρδειν
ΧΟΡΟΣ
τε καλλιπρώιρου φυλακᾶι κατασχεῖν
235
φθόγγον ἀραῖον οἴκοις. =
Translations (10)
Agamemnon Perseus (Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.) — 104-257 focus
CHOROS.
Empowered am I to sing
The omens, what their force which, journeying,
105
Rejoiced the potentates:
(For still, from God, inflates
My breast song-suasion: age,
Born to the business, still such war can wage)
— How the fierce bird against the Teukris land
110
Despatched, with spear and executing hand,
The Achaian’s two-throned empery—o’er
Hellas
’ youth
Two rulers with one mind:
The birds’ king to these kings of ships, on high,
— The black sort, and the sort that’s white behind, —
115
Appearing by the palace, on the spear-throw side,
In right sky-regions, visible far and wide, —
Devouring a hare-creature, great with young,
Baulked of more racings they, as she from whom they sprung!
Ah, Linos, say — ah, Linos, song of wail!
120
But may the good prevail!
122
The prudent army-prophet seeing two
The Atreidai, two their tempers, knew
Those feasting on the hare
The armament-conductors were;
And thus he spoke, explaining signs in view.
125
In time, this outset takes the town of Priamos:
But all before its towers, — the people’s wealth that was,
Of flocks and herds, — as sure, shall booty-sharing thence
Drain to the dregs away, by battle violence.
Only, have care lest grudge of any god disturb
130
With cloud the unsullied shine of that great force, the curb
Of
Troia
, struck with damp
Beforehand in the camp!
For envyingly is
The virgin Artemis
135
Toward — her father’s flying hounds — this House —
The sacrificers of the piteous
And cowering beast,
Brood and all, ere the birth: she hates the eagles’ feast.
Ah, Linos, say — ah, Linos, song of wail!
But may the good prevail!
140
Thus ready is the beauteous one with help
140
To those small dewdrop-things fierce lions whelp,
And udder-loving litter of each brute
That roams the mead; and therefore makes she suit,
The fair one, for fulfilment to the end
Of things these signs portend —
145
Which partly smile, indeed, but partly scowl —
The phantasms of the fowl.
I call Ieïos Paian to avert
She work the Danaoi hurt
By any thwarting waftures, long and fast
Holdings from sail of ships:
150
And sacrifice, another than the last,
She for herself precipitate —
Something unlawful, feast for no man’s lips,
Builder of quarrels, with the House cognate —
Having in awe no husband: for remains
A frightful, backward-darting in the path,
Wily house-keeping chronicler of wrath,
155
That has to punish that old children’s fate!
Such things did Kalchas, — with abundant gains
As well, — vociferate,
Predictions from the birds, in journeying,
Above the abode of either king.
With these, symphonious, sing —
Ah, Linos, say — ah, Linos, song of wail!
But may the good prevail!
160
Zeus, whosoe’er he be, — if that express
160
Aught dear to him on whom I call —
So do I him address.
I cannot liken out, by all
Admeasurement of powers,
Any but Zeus for refuge at such hours,
165
If veritably needs I must
From off my soul its vague care-burthen thrust.
167
Not — whosoever was the great of yore,
Bursting to bloom with bravery all round —
Is in our mouths: he was, but is no more.
And who it was that after came to be,
170
Met the thrice-throwing wrestler, — he
Is also gone to ground.
But
Zeus — if any, heart and soul, that name —
Shouting the triumph-praise — proclaim,
Complete in judgment shall that man be found.
175
176
Zeus, who leads onward mortals to be wise,
Appoints that suffering masterfully teach.
In sleep, before the heart of each,
A woe-remembering travail sheds in dew
Discretion, — ay, and melts the unwilling too
180
By what, perchance, may be a graciousness
Of gods, enforced no less, —
As they, commanders of the crew,
Assume the awful seat.
184
And then the old leader of the Achaian fleet,
Disparaging no seer —
185
With bated breath to suit misfortune’s inrush here
— (What time it laboured, that Achaian host,
By stay from sailing, — every pulse at length
Emptied of vital strength, —
Hard over Kalchis shore-bound, current-crost
190
In
Aulis
station, — while the winds which post
192
From Strumon, ill-delayers, famine-fraught,
Tempters of man to sail where harbourage is naught,
Spendthrifts of ships and cables, turning time
To twice the length, — these carded, by delay,
195
To less and less away
The Argeians’ flowery prime:
And when a remedy more grave and grand
Than aught before, — yea, for the storm and dearth, —
The prophet to the foremost in command
200
Shrieked forth, as cause of this
Adducing Artemis,
So that the Atreidai striking staves on earth
Could not withhold the tear) —
205
Then did the king, the elder, speak this clear.
205
Heavy the fate, indeed, — to disobey!
Yet heavy if my child I slay,
The adornment of my household: with the tide
Of virgin-slaughter, at the altar-side,
A father’s hands defiling: which the way
210
Without its evils, say?
How shall I turn fleet-fugitive,
Failing of duty to allies?
Since for a wind-abating sacrifice
And virgin blood, — ’t is right they strive,
215
Nay, madden with desire.
Well may it work them — this that they require!
218
But when he underwent necessity’s
Yoke-trace, — from soul blowing unhallowed change
Unclean, abominable, — thence—another man —
220
The audacious mind of him began
Its wildest range.
For this it is gives mortals hardihood —
Some vice-devising miserable mood
Of madness, and first woe of all the brood.
The sacrificer of his daughter — strange! —
He dared become, to expedite
225
Woman-avenging warfare, — anchors weighed
With such prelusive rite!
228
Prayings and callings
Father — naught they made
Of these, and of the virgin-age, —
Captains heart-set on war to wage!
230
His ministrants, vows done, the father bade —
Kid-like, above the altar, swathed in pall,
Take her — lift high, and have no fear at all,
Head-downward, and the fair mouth’s guard
And frontage hold, — press hard
235
From utterance a curse against the House
238
By dint of bit-violence bridling speech.
And as to ground her saffron-vest she shed,
She smote the sacrificers all and each
240
With arrow sweet and piteous,
From the eye only sped, —
Significant of will to use a word,
Just as in pictures: since, full many a time,
In her sire’s guest-hall, by the well-heaped board
Had she made music, — lovingly with chime
Of her chaste voice, that unpolluted thing,
245
Honoured the third libation, — paian that should bring
Good fortune to the sire she loved so well.
248
What followed — those things I nor saw nor tell.
But Kalchas’ arts, — whate’er they indicate, —
Miss of fulfilment never: it is fate.
True, justice makes, in sufferers, a desire
250
To know the future woe preponderate.
But — hear before is need?
To that, farewell and welcome! ’t is the same, indeed,
As grief beforehand: clearly, part for part,
Conformably to Kalchas’ art,
Shall come the event.
But be they as they may, things subsequent, —
255
What is to do, prosperity betide
E’en as we wish it! — we, the next allied,
Sole guarding barrier of the Apian land.
The Agamemnon (OCR draft) Experimental (The Agamemnon. Theodore Alois Buckley, 1849.) — 40 focus
CLYTEMNESTRA
Let morning become, as the adage runs, a herald of gladness from its mother night. And learn thou a joy greater than thy hope to hear; for the Argives have taken the city of Priam.
CHORUS
AGAMEMNON (OCR draft) Experimental (AGAMEMNON. Paul Mazon, 1920-1925.) — 40 focus
argienne de mille vaisseaux, pour prêter à leur cause le secours des armes.
Terribles, ils criaient la guerre du fond de leur cœur
irrité, semblables aux vautours qui, éperdus du deuil de
irrité, semblables aux vautours qui, éperdus du deuil de
LE CHŒUR
leur couvée, tournoient au-dessus de l'aire, battant l'espace à grands battements d'ailes, frustrés de la peine prise à garder leurs petits au nid.
Et au-dessus d'eux, une divinité — est-ce Apollon, ou Pan, ou Zeus ? — entendant, clamée en langue d'oiseau, la plainte aiguë de ces hôtes du ciel
1
, tôt ou tard dépêche aux coupables l'Érinys vengeresse.
Ainsi le puissant Zeus Hospitalier
2
dépêche à Alexandre les deux fils d'Atrée ; et bientôt, pour une femme qui fut à plus d'un homme, des bras vont s'engourdir en des luttes
sans trêve, des genoux toucher la poussière, des lances se briser dès l'entrée au combat, selon le lot que Zeus réserve aux Troyens et aux Danaens à la fois
3
.
Pour nous, dont le vieux corps ne peut payer sa dette et que l'armée partie pour soutenir nos droits a laissés
derrière elle, nous demeurons ici, guidant sur un bâton des forces pareilles à celles de l'enfance. La sève qui monte en de jeunes poitrines est toute pareille à celle des
AGAMEMNON
Et au-dessus d'eux, une divinité — est-ce Apollon, ou Pan, ou Zeus ? — entendant, clamée en langue d'oiseau, la plainte aiguë de ces hôtes du ciel 1 , tôt ou tard dépêche aux coupables l'Érinys vengeresse.
Ainsi le puissant Zeus Hospitalier 2 dépêche à Alexandre les deux fils d'Atrée ; et bientôt, pour une femme qui fut à plus d'un homme, des bras vont s'engourdir en des luttes
sans trêve, des genoux toucher la poussière, des lances se briser dès l'entrée au combat, selon le lot que Zeus réserve aux Troyens et aux Danaens à la fois 3 .
derrière elle, nous demeurons ici, guidant sur un bâton des forces pareilles à celles de l'enfance. La sève qui monte en de jeunes poitrines est toute pareille à celle des
LE CHŒUR
vieillards : Arès n'est pas là chez lui ! Et, de même, qu'est-ce qu'un très vieil homme, quand son feuillage
se flétrit ? Il marche sur trois pieds et, sans plus de
se flétrit ? Il marche sur trois pieds et, sans plus de
A toi de parler, fille de Tyndare, reine Clytemnestre : qu'y a-t-il ? qu'as-tu donc appris ? sur la foi de quel message tes ordres vont-ils partout provoquer des sacrifices ?
Tous les dieux de la ville, dieux du ciel et des enfers, dieux de la maison et de la place publique
6
, voient leurs autels chargés de tes dons.
Et, de tous côtés, jaillit jusqu'au ciel, au stimulant appel d'une huile sainte dont la douceur n'est pas trompeuse
7
, la flamme des offrandes royales tirées du fond du palais.
De tout cela daigne me dire ce qu'il m'est possible et permis d'apprendre, et guéris mon âme anxieuse, qui
A toi de parler, fille de Tyndare, reine Clytemnestre : qu'y a-t-il ? qu'as-tu donc appris ? sur la foi de quel message tes ordres vont-ils partout provoquer des sacrifices ?
Tous les dieux de la ville, dieux du ciel et des enfers, dieux de la maison et de la place publique 6 , voient leurs autels chargés de tes dons.
Et, de tous côtés, jaillit jusqu'au ciel, au stimulant appel d'une huile sainte dont la douceur n'est pas trompeuse 7 , la flamme des offrandes royales tirées du fond du palais.
De tout cela daigne me dire ce qu'il m'est possible et permis d'apprendre, et guéris mon âme anxieuse, qui
LE CHŒUR
Je puis dire du moins quel tout-puissant présage salua le départ de nos hommes en pleine vigueur — les dieux laissent encore une force à notre âge, la foi qu'inspirent ses chants —
Et comment les deux puissants rois des Achéens, dont les volontés unies commandent à la jeunesse grecque, lance et bras prêts à la vengeance, sont partis pour la Teucride
accompagnés d'un présage guerrier : deux rois des oiseaux apparus aux rois des nefs, l'un tout noir, l'autre
Je puis dire du moins quel tout-puissant présage salua le départ de nos hommes en pleine vigueur — les dieux laissent encore une force à notre âge, la foi qu'inspirent ses chants —
Et comment les deux puissants rois des Achéens, dont les volontés unies commandent à la jeunesse grecque, lance et bras prêts à la vengeance, sont partis pour la Teucride
accompagnés d'un présage guerrier : deux rois des oiseaux apparus aux rois des nefs, l'un tout noir, l'autre
Ils apparurent près du palais, du côté du bras qui brandit
la lance, perchés bien en vue, en train de dévorer, avec toute sa portée, une hase pleine,
la lance, perchés bien en vue, en train de dévorer, avec toute sa portée, une hase pleine,
Et, à cette vue, le sage devin de l'armée, dans ces belliqueux dévoreurs de lièvres, reconnut soudain les deux fils d'Atrée aux vouloirs pareils, les chefs mêmes de l'expédition ! Et il dit, interprétant le prodige :
remparts tout un peuple amassa, le Destin, brutal, les mettra à sac. Mais prenez garde que quelque dépit divin ne vienne, prenant les devants, frapper et couvrir de
L'armée ici prête. Car, émue de pitié, la pure Artémis en veut aux chiens ailés de son père, qui ont immolé avant sa
LE CHŒUR
Dis le chant lugubre, lugubre ; mais que triomphe le sort heureux !
Je m'arrête : c'est là tout ce qu'en sa bonté la Toute-Belle, qui met ses complaisances aussi bien dans les faibles fruits des lions farouches que dans les tendres nourrissons de
toutes les bêtes des champs, m'invite à expliquer des signes que ces oiseaux nous apportent — apparitions d'espoir et d'alarme à la fois !
Ah ! c'est le dieu qu'on invoque avec des cris aigus, c'est Péan que j'implore, pour qu'Artémis aux nefs des Danaens n'envoie pas de vents contraires, qui les arrêtent au port
dans une longue attente, exigeant à son tour un sacrifice monstrueux, dont la victime lui restera entière, qui fera naître la discorde au sein des familles et ne respectera même pas un époux. Car, prête à se redresser un jour terrible, une intendante perfide garde la maison, la Colère,
qui n'oublie pas et veut venger une enfant. » Tels furent les destins sinistres, joints à des
toutes les bêtes des champs, m'invite à expliquer des signes que ces oiseaux nous apportent — apparitions d'espoir et d'alarme à la fois !
dans une longue attente, exigeant à son tour un sacrifice monstrueux, dont la victime lui restera entière, qui fera naître la discorde au sein des familles et ne respectera même pas un époux. Car, prête à se redresser un jour terrible, une intendante perfide garde la maison, la Colère,
qui n'oublie pas et veut venger une enfant. » Tels furent les destins sinistres, joints à des
LE CHŒUR
Zeus !... quel que soit son vrai nom, si celui-ci lui agrée, c'est
que Zeus propre à me décharger vraiment du poids de ma stérile angoisse.
LE CHŒUR
Un dieu
11
fut grand jadis,
tous les combats : quelque jour on ne dira plus qu'il a seulement existé. Un autre vint ensuite, qui trouva son vainqueur 12 et sa fin. Mais l'homme qui, de toute son âme,
célébrera le nom triomphant de Zeus aura la sagesse suprême.
Il a ouvert aux hommes les voies de la prudence, en leur donnant
C'est ainsi qu'en ces temps-là l'aîné des
C'est ainsi qu'en ces temps-là l'aîné des
Achéens s'énervaient, arrêtés en vue de Chalcis, au milieu des brisants d'Aulis.
LE CHŒUR
Les vents soufflaient du Strymon, portant avec eux les retards funestes, la famine, les mouillages périlleux, la
dispersion des équipages, l'usure des coques et des câbles, et, par des délais toujours renouvelés, déchiraient dans l'attente la fleur des Argiens.
dispersion des équipages, l'usure des coques et des câbles, et, par des délais toujours renouvelés, déchiraient dans l'attente la fleur des Argiens.
LE CHŒUR
du nom d'Artémis, vint encore proclamer un remède
15
plus douloureux aux chefs que la tempête amère, à ce coup les Atrides, frappant le sol de leurs bâtons, ne continrent plus leurs larmes.
Et l'aîné des rois parle ainsi : « Cruel est mon sort, si je me rebelle ; mais cruel est-il aussi, si je dois sacrifier mon enfant
16
, le joyau de ma maison, et, près de l'autel, souiller
mes mains paternelles au flot sanglant jailli d'une vierge égorgée. Est-il donc
du nom d'Artémis, vint encore proclamer un remède 15 plus douloureux aux chefs que la tempête amère, à ce coup les Atrides, frappant le sol de leurs bâtons, ne continrent plus leurs larmes.
Et l'aîné des rois parle ainsi : « Cruel est mon sort, si je me rebelle ; mais cruel est-il aussi, si je dois sacrifier mon enfant 16 , le joyau de ma maison, et, près de l'autel, souiller
mes mains paternelles au flot sanglant jailli d'une vierge égorgée. Est-il donc
ce sang virginal enchaîne les vents, avec ardeur, ardeur profonde, on peut le désirer sans crime. Qu'il tourne à notre salut ! »
Et, sous son front une fois ployé au joug du destin, un revirement se fait, impur, impie,
Et, sous son front une fois ployé au joug du destin, un revirement se fait, impur, impie,
enfant pour aider une armée à reprendre une femme, ouvrir la mer à des vaisseaux !
comprendre sa faute ? c'est ce que les vieillards se demandent avec angoisse.
LE CHŒUR
Ses prières, ses appels à son père, tout cela — même son âge virginal ! — elle le vit compté pour rien par ces chefs épris de guerre. Et, les dieux invoqués, le père aux servants fait un signe,
Ses prières, ses appels à son père, tout cela — même son âge virginal ! — elle le vit compté pour rien par ces chefs épris de guerre. Et, les dieux invoqués, le père aux servants fait un signe,
elle soit saisie, soulevée, cependant qu'un bâillon fermant sa belle bouche arrêtera toute imprécation sur les siens 17 Cela par la force, la brutalité muette d'un frein ! Mais, tandis que sa robe teinte de safran coule sur le sol 18 , le trait
de son regard va blesser de pitié chacun de ses bourreaux. Elle semble
voix pure de vierge aimante, entonnait pour la troisième libation 19 l'heureux péan de son père aimé !
Ce qui a suivi, je ne l'ai point vu, je ne peux le dire. Mais l'art de Calchas n'est pas vain, et ce n'est qu'à celui qui a
souffert que la Justice accorde de comprendre. L'avenir, il
20
souffert que la Justice accorde de comprendre. L'avenir, il 20
LE CHŒUR
sera temps de le connaître, quand il arrivera au jour. Jusque-là, qu'il aille sa route ! autant vouloir gémir d'avance. Il se révélera assez clairement au soleil qui le verra naître.
Du moins puisse maintenant
Du moins puisse maintenant
Agamemnon (OCR draft) Experimental (Agamemnon. Robert Potter, 1779.) — 40 focus
A warlike preparation; their bold breaſts
Breathing heroic ardor to high deeds;
Like vultures, which their unplumed offspring loſt
d
,
CLYTEMNESTRA, CHORUS. CHORUS.
Eschilo, Agamennone: traduzione italiana di Ettore Romagnoli (OCR draft) Experimental (Eschilo, Agamennone: traduzione italiana di Ettore Romagnoli. Ettore Romagnoli, 1922.) — 40 focus
CORIFEO
immane, sovressi i giacigli
60
s' aggirano, a guisa di turbine,
librati su i remi dell'ale.
E Apolline infine ode, o Giove,
o Pane, l'acuto lamento
che mandan gli augelli, ed invia,
65
pur tarda, l'Erinni, che vendichi
gli aligeri sacri.
Cosí Giove possente, che vigila
sugli ospiti, i figli d'Atreo
contro Paride manda; e prepara
70
pei Dànai, e insiem pei Troiani,
intorno alla donna dai molti
consorti, assai zuffe e travagli,
tra un fiaccarsi di lance ai primi urti,
e ginocchia piombar nella polvere.
75
Pur sia quel che sia. Bene il Fato
si deve compir. Non coi gemiti,
coi libami, né vittime ardendo,
placherai le inflessibili furie
degli Dei, se le offerte non arsero.
80
E noi, cui la carne vetusta
scema pregio, lasciati in disparte
quando mossero gli altri, attendiamo,
sugli scettri reggendo la forza
fanciullesca: ché a quello dei vecchi
85
il midollo somiglia, che s'agita
AGAMENNONE
CORIFEO
entro il petto dei parvoli; e Marte
non ha qui dimora.
CORIFEO
Clitennestra, di Tindaro figlia,
regina, che nuove? Che eventi ?
95
Quale nunzio t'indusse a inviare
per tutta Argo le offerte votive?
Gli altari dei Numi, che d'Argo
han custodia, dei Superi e gl' Inferi,
di quei che le soglie tutelano
100
e le piazze, tutti ardon di vittime;
e la fiamma si leva, una qua,
una là, tocca altissima il cielo,
medicata da molli sincere
blandizie di limpidi unguenti,
105
libami di case regali.
Or quanto è possibile e lecito
a noi tu partecipa: medico
divieni di questa mia pena,
che ora ci affanna il pensiero;
110
CORIFEO
ed or, se le offerte son fauste,
appare speranza benevola,
e allontana la cura mai sazia
dell' ambascia che l'alma divora.
I vecchioni sono aggruppati intorno all'altare di Dioniso. Ora compiono lente evoluzioni danzate, intonando le strofe.
PRIMO CANTO INTORNO ALL'ARA
CORO
1
Lugubre, lugubre canto s' intoni; ma il bene trionfi.
CORO
1
Lugubre, lugubre canto s' intoni; ma il bene trionfi.
CORO
non affretti novello esecrabile
sacrifizio, che, scevro di mensa,
di liti domestico artefice
divenga, ed immoli lo sposo.
Ché l'ira terribile
165
risollevasi, memore, subdola,
trascorre la casa, dei figli a vendetta ».
Tali, con grandi beni commisti funerei presagi,
Calcante, leggendo l'augurio,
predisse alla casa dei regi che a guerra movevano.
170
E a quello concorde,
lugubre, lugubre canto s' intoni; ma il bene trionfi.
2
Invocar, per quanto ponderi,
io non so che Giove solo,
se veramente conviene gittare dall'anima
questo vano e greve duolo.
180
2
CORO
3
3
4
CORO
4
dei ritardi funesti, dei digiuni,
dei mali approdi, delle sperse genti,
dei legni e delle funi
sterminio, eterne l'ore
rendendo, con l'indugio distruggevano
220
dell' esercito il fiore.
E il profeta, un riparo
contro l'ira d'Artemide
piú grave dell'amaro
turbine disse ai principi:
225
cosí che, nello schianto,
gli scettri ambo gli Atridi al suol percossero,
piú non frenando il pianto.
4
CORO
5
5
6
CORO
6
cantava essa al banchetto.
La virginea sua voce, al terzo calice,
intonava il peana e il fausto augurio
275
pel suo padre diletto.
6
Saprai
ciò che serba il futuro insiem con l'esito.
Non dartene pensier: sarebbe piangere
prima della disgrazia.
285
T'apparirà ben chiaro
al raggio del mattino.
Eventi prosperi
nascan da ciò, come or brama quest'unico
dell'Apio suol riparo.
290
Rientra Clitennestra, alla quale alludono le ultime parole.
CORIFEO
Aeschylus, Agamemnon: versio Latina Ioannis Sanravii (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Agamemnon: versio Latina Ioannis Sanravii. Ioannes Sanravius, 1555.) — 40 focus
Duorum thronorum ſceptrorum ex Iove
60
Honoris, forte iugum Atridarum,
Claſſem Argiuorum mille nauium ab hac regione
Collegerunt nauem auxiliatricem,
Magnum ex animo clamantes Martem,
More uulturum, qui magnis
65
Doloribus pedum alti ex lectis circumuertuntur,
Alarum remis remigantes, cubilia obſeruantem
Laborem pullorum perdentes.
Supremus audiens, ut Apollo,
Aut Pan, aut Iupiter
70
Luctum acutum
Horum habitatorum poſteram pæna mittit furiam
Sic uerò Atrei filios melior (traducentibus ipfos,
Contrà Alexandrum mittit hofpitalis
Iupiter: pro muliere multis uiris nupta
75
Multa certamina, grauia,
Genu puluere firmato,
Pugnis tedio afficientis
Haſte faciens Danais,
Troianisq; fimiliter. est quo nunc uerò,
80
Est, perfectum est fatum:
Neq; celebrans, neq; libans,
Neq; excipiens igne carentia facrificia,
Iras auſteras demulcebit.
Nos uerò extenuati antiqua carne,
85
Hoc auxilium tunc derelicti expectamus, fortitudi-
Iuuenilem colentes cum fceptris.
(nem
Quado enim iuuenis medulla pectoris intus regës,
Aequaliter fenex Isopresbys, Mars nõ inest regioni,
90
Tunc fenectutis ſtrue iam
Siccatæ, tripodas per uias quidem
It: puero uerò nihil melior,
Somnus lucem mitigans uagatur.
Filia, regina Clytemnestra
Quid opus sit, quid noui, quidue fentiens, cuius nuncij
Persuasione immittens uaticinaris.
Omniū deorŭ patriorū, excellentißimoru, terrestrium,
Cœlestiumą; ac forenfiu are donis fplendēt.
100
Alia aliunde ex lato cœlo lampas oritur,
Infecta unctione caſta,
Delicatis, non fraudulentis confolationibus,
Libo ex feceffu regio: hoc dices quod et fieri potest
Et fas laudare, Peang; fiat huius cure,
105
Que nunc mala mente est,
Tunc uerò feruens admodum appares.
Spes arcet inexplebilem curam,
Animiuoram mentem doloris.
Poſsum narrare uifum in uia robur
110
Aufpicatum uirorum
Vt Achæorum
Ditronum robur Græcie pubem,
Eiufdem mentis imperium,
Mitrit cum hafta pænas uindici
Bellicosa ales in Teucrida terram,
120
Auium rex
Regibus nauium niger,
Retro uero albus.
Apparentes prope ueftibula
Ex manu quatiente hastam,
125
Splendidis folijs
Paſcentes leporinam
Tumultuosam reti generationem
Nocentem ultimo curſu.
Lamentationem lamentationem dic, hoc bene uincat.
130
Sic dixit portendens,
135
Tempore quidem accipiet
Priami urbem, hec uerò una est.
Omnes uerò turrium
Poſseſsiones populi multitudinem
Parca depopulabitur per uim,
140
Tanquam nullum nocumentum
Diuinitus obſcurabit fictum frænum
Magnumn Troiæ,
Ab exercitu.
Domui inuidiosa caſta
145
Diana. celeribus canibus patris,
Cum ipſo fætu ame agmen
Laboriosum leporem ſacrificantibus,
Edit cœnam aquilarum,
Vlulatum ululatum dic uerò, hoc bene uincat.
150
Curſibus in ſperatis, defatigatis
Omnibus rusticis charis
Venans catulis iucunditatem.
Horum petit figna perficere,
155
Dextras quidem accufaui uiſiones aquilarum.
Propriu uoco peana, ne aliquas cõtrariò refpirantes
Danais moras naues retinētes innauigabiles cõcilies,
Faciens facrificiu alienu, iniquũ, cõuiuio uacuũ,
Contentioni artificē cognatu non timentē uirũ. manet
160
Enim
Terribilis rurfus concitata rectrix fraudulenta
Memoriarum ira pariens dolores.
Talia Calchas cum
Magnis bonis clanxit,
165
Fata ab auibus fauftis. domibus regijs.
His uerò eiufdē mentis exiſlens, lamentationë lamen
Bene uincat.
A cura dolorem oportet eijcere uerè,
Neq; qui antea erat magnus
Deducentem mortales ut faperent,
Molestie moleftiam propriè facientcm habere,
Stillat uerò intus ſono ad cor labor recordatu tristis,
180
Et ad inuitos uenit ſapere.
Deorum gratia uerò uiolenta.
Conſpirans fortibus mœnibus.
185
Quando incomoditate nauigandi grauahat populus
Detentus trans Chalcidem tempeſtuosis in Aulidis
Auræ ab Strymone uenientes
Acris hyemis alia machinatione grauiore, primatibus
Vates clanxit proſtrens
195
Dianam, ut terram
Fuſtibus concutientes Atride
Non continuerint lachrymas.
Fluentis paternas manus.
Prope aram, ſine his
205
Malis, fic defertor nauis ero,
Aberrans à focietate.
Quiescente uerò facrificio,
E' uirgineo ſanguine
Ira,iratè cupere
210
Fas, bene enim erit
Mifera, amentia, præcipuum nocumentum.
Tolerabat igitur facrificulus
Fieri filiæ muliere laboriofo
Bello auxiliator, principią nauium
Dixit uerò sacrificiis pater post preces,
Inſtar Chimæræ ſuper aram
Peplis procidentem omni animo
Et procumbentem ut acciperent ſublimi,
225
Pulchri orisque
Custodiam obtinerent,
Sonum horridum domi,
Croci colorem in campum fundens,
230
Eiecit quemq; ſacrificorum ab oculos iaculo
Lugubri, decens ut in tabulis loqui
Volens ſæpiſsime postquam
Patris iuxta uiriles conuiuas
Debuit caſta ſine iugo loquutio
235
Patris chari beatum ter confæderatum
Seculum charè honorabat.
Que uerò inde, neq; noui, neq; dicam,
Futura: hoc uerò audire,
Poſtquam fiet expiatio, ualeat.
Aequale uerò
Manifestum fatum ueniet uerum cum ipfis.
Fit uerò in his bonum opus,
245
Vt uult hoc proximum Apiæ
Aeschylus, Agamemnon: German translation (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Agamemnon: German translation. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1919–1923.) — 40 focus
Chorführer.
40
Zehen Jahre sind's, daß Atreus' Söhne,
Priamos' von Troia große Gegner,
König Menelas und Agamemnon,
beide Fürsten göttlichen Geblütes,
beide stolz die Fürstenwürde wahrend,
45
45
der Hellenenflotte tausend Segel
aus den Häfen unsres Landes führten,
auszufechten ihren Rachekrieg.
53
Chorführer.
Grimmig scholl aus ihrer Brust der Schlachtruf,
wie ein Geierpaar gen Himmel aufschreit
50
klagend um die Brut. Ihr Fittich rudert
kreisend um die Felsen durch die Lüfte,
50
wo das Nest im Frieden des Gebirges
ihre Jungen barg, die nun verschwunden,
langen Brütens Frucht, die nun zerstört.
55
60
Doch den schrillen Schrei des Vogelrufes
55
hört ein Gott, ein Herr des Hochgebirges,
Zeus, Apollon oder Pan, und Rache
für die Schutzbefohl'nen seines Reiches
nimmt er grimmig an den Übeltätern.
60
Komme sie auch spät, Vergeltung kommt.
Also hat des Gastrechts hoher Hüter
Zeus die Atreussöhne wider Paris
um das buhlerische Weib gesendet,
lange Tage voller Kampf den Troern,
65
voller Kampf bereitend den Hellenen.
Bald ist in der Schlacht der Speer zersplittert,
65
Brust steht wider Brust, die Glieder werden
schwer und steif und matt; die Ringer sinken
nieder in den Staub — und ringen fort.
70
Mag der Kampf nun stehen, wie er wolle;
weder Opferrauch noch Weihespende
70
noch blutlosen Opfers heil'ge Reinheit
drängt vom graden Pfade Gottes Willen:
einmal kommt es, wie es kommen muß.
75
Aber wir, vom Rachekriege ruhmlos
heimgeblieben, stützen mit dem Stabe
75
unsres Alters kindesgleiche Schwäche.
Denn das Kind, durch dessen weiche Glieder
Jugendsäfte rinnen, gleicht dem Greise:
80
Ares hat darinnen keine Stätte.
Und das letzte Menschenalter wieder,
80
wann das Laub am Lebensbaum vertrocknet,
54
Chorführer.
Chorführer.
Klytaimestra, meine Fürstin, Tochter
des Tyndareos, was ist geschehen?
85
welche Botschaft, welche Kunde ward dir,
daß du allen Tempeln Opfer schickst?
Allen Göttern, die die Stadt beschirmen,
90
Göttern des Gebirges und der Tiefe,
90
Himmelsgöttern und des Marktes Hütern,
flammt von deinen Spenden der Altar.
Allerorten steigt die Feuersäule
himmelhoch, getränket und gesänftet
95
95
von den linden Düften keuschen Öles,
von des Königsschatzes Spezerei'n.
Was du sagen kannst und darfst, verhehl' uns
nicht, erlös' uns aus der Ungewißheit,
100
die uns bald mit Unheilsahnung ängstet,
100
bald durch deiner Opfer Schein ermutigt,
hoffnungsvoll der ruhelosen Sorge
103
Qual vom Herzen scheucht, an dem sie nagt.
Ja, verkünd' uns frohe Siegesbotschaft,
105
Aber wenn den Mund dir fromme Rücksicht
noch verschließt, wenn du der Opfer Anlaß
später erst verkünden willst, so harren
110
wir bescheiden: Lieder und Gebete
stimmen ein in deinen Gottesdienst.
Chor.
104
Mein ist das Amt zu besingen des Kriegszugs sieghaft
Zeichen,
welches der streitbaren Mannschaft erschien.
115
Sangeswohllaut gönnen auch uns noch die Götter;
dem Greise bleibt des Liedes Kraft.
110
Atreus' Söhnen, der Brüder und Fürsten einträchtigem
Paare,
die die hellenische Jugend mit Schwert und rächendem
120
Arme
Nahe dem Lager erschienen auf weithin sichtbarem
Sitze
125
Vogelkönige zween, sich den Königen zeigend der
Flotte
115
auf des Speerarms Seite. Das Schwanzgefieder des
einen
weiß, des anderen schwarz. Sie fraßen der trächtigen
130
120
Häsin
nicht ausgetrag'ne Leibesfrucht.
Wehe, Wehe!
Wehe lasset uns singen, doch endlich möge das Gute
triumphieren.
135
Und auf die beiden verschiedengemuteten Atreussöhne
schaute Kalchas, der weise Prophet.
Da verstand er die streitbaren Fresser des Hasen,
des Angangs Weisung für die Fahrt.
125
140
Chor.
Daß nur nicht von göttlichem Zorn eine finstere
Wolke
135
aufsteigt über dem ehernen Ring, der Troia um-
klammert.
Artemis ist nicht hold den befiederten Boten des
150
Vaters,
die sich zum Opfer die Häschen im Schoße der Mutter
erkiesen.
140
Die Reine haßt der Adler Mahl.
Wehe, Wehe!
155
Wehe lasset uns singen, doch endlich möge das Gute
triumphieren.
Die holde Schöne,
welche die hilflosen Jungen
160
150
Möge sie nicht ein anderes
170
widernatürliches Opfer
fordern, das unüberwindlichen,
Gattenliebe vernichtenden
Hader entfache.
Sonst bleibt nimmer vergessende,
175
155
Chor.
So rief neben dem Glück, das die Are dem Zuge der
180
Helden
kündeten, Kalchas ein Schicksalswort dem Haus
Agamemnons.
160
Zeus, Zeus.
Mit diesem Namen ruf' ich ihn,
mit jedem, den er hören mag.
190
Und ob ich alles wäge,
Von Sorgen und von Sinnen
165
und Zweifeln löst das Herze
mir Zeus allein.
195
Hin, hin,
vergessen ist, der einst geherrscht,
der Urwelt ungeheurer Gott.
Titanenlist bezwang ihn.
170
Auch sie fand ihren Meister.
200
Doch aller Weisheit Ende
ist andachtvoll zu preisen
175
des Zeus' Triumph.
Er wies den Weg zur Weisheit;
uns zwingt die ew'ge Satzung,
205
Auf unser müdes Herze
senkt quälend sich und ängstend
statt Schlummers Reue.
180
Auch wider Willen kommt der Mensch zur Einsicht.
210
Gott lenkt das Weltenregiment gewaltsam,
doch Gott ist gütig.
Chor.
185
Auch dies war Gottes Wille.
Es sprach der ält're Führer
des Heers von Hellas
215
und schalt auf keinen Seher,
und fügte sich dem schweren
190
Als des Euripos' Strudel hohl am Strande
von Aulis brandend der Hellenenflotte
220
die Fahrt versagte.
Vom Strymon kam der Sturm, und mit dem Sturm
Verzug und Hunger kam,
195
Das Ankertau riß, die Planken krachten,
die Mannschaft lief ratlos hin und wider;
225
das stolze Heer tatenlos verkümmert.
Und als den Fürsten Kalchas
205
Da war es, wo der ält're der Atreidenfürsten also sprach:
235
„Schwer wiegt die Schuld, will ich nicht gehorchen:
schwer wiegt sie auch, schlacht' ich meine Tochter,
215
Nein, die Gefährten, die Flotte
kann ich nicht feige verraten,
und zu dem Blute der Jungfrau,
zum windstillenden Opfer
treibt es mich unwiderstehlich.
245
Chor.
Wär' es denn Sünde zu folgen?
Sei es zum Segen.
Der Mensch wird kühn, hat ihm erst Leidenschaft
den Sinn berückt.
225
Zum Bösen ist's der erste Schritt.
Da fand er den Mut seine Tochter zu schlachten,
Gelingen zu schaffen dem Krieg um ein Weib,
255
der Flotte den Segen zu geben.
Der Jungfrau Bitten, ihre Vaterrufe,
Agamemnon (OCR draft) Experimental (Agamemnon. Anna Swanwick, 1886.) — 40 focus
Chorus
For Ares, bartering for gold
The flesh of men, the scales doth hold
In battle of the spear.
From Ilion, back to sorrowing friends,
Rich dust, fire-purified, he sends,
Wash'd with full many a tear.
No living warriors greet them, but instead
Urns filled with ashes smoothly spread.
Groaning, each hero's praise they tell;
How this excelled in martial strife;
And that in fields of carnage fell,
Right nobly for another's wife.
Breathing such murmurs, jealous hate
Doth on the Atridan champions wait.
Achaians, cast in fairest mould,
Ensépulchred 'neath Ilion's wall,
The foughten shore now firmly hold,
The hostile sod their pall.
Chorus
Direful the people's voice, to hate
Attuned, which worketh soon or late
As ban of public doom.
Now o'er my spirit anxious fear
Broodeth, lest tidings I should hear
That night still shrouds in gloom;
For blind to deeds of blood the gods are not.
In Time the swarthy brood of Night
With slow eclipse reverse his lot,
Who Fortune reareth in despite
Of Justice. Reft of succour lies
The wretch once prone. Excessive praise
Is bodeful ever; 'gainst men's eyes
Zeus hurls his blinding rays.
But may ungrudged success be mine!
No city-spoiler let me be!
Nor, subject to another, pine
Myself in slavery.
Chorus
Borne by the joy-announcing flame
Swift through the town the tidings fly;
But whether true who may proclaim,
Or not a heavenly lie?
For who so childish, so distraught,
To warm his spirit at the beacon's glow,
When other news, with evil fraught,
His joy may change to woe?
'Tis woman's way the boon, ere seen, to prize;
Too credulous, her fancy open lies
To rumour's rapid inroad, but the fame
Published by women quickly dies.
Chorus Leader
Soon shall we know whether the signal fires,
The swift relays of courier-light be true,
Or whether, dreamlike, they beguiled our minds
With grateful splendour; -Yonder, from the coast,
A herald comes, shaded with laurel boughs;
While Clay's twin-brother, thirsty Dust, attests
That neither voiceless, nor of mountain wood
Kindling the blaze, will he report in smoke;
No, either will his voice announce more joy,
Or, but ill-omened words I deprecate.
Be omens fair with fair assurance crown'd!
May he who 'gainst the state breathes other prayer,
First reap the fruit of his malignant thought.
HERALD
Oh soil of Argos, oh my native land,
In light of this tenth year to thee I come;
While many a hope hath snapt, this one still holds,
For ne'er I counted, dying here, to share
Beloved sepulture in Argive soil.
Now hail, O earth, bright sunlight hail, and Zeus,
Supreme o'er Argos.
HERALD
Thou too, Pythian king,
With thy fell darts assailing us no more;
Let it suffice that on Scamander's banks
Thy mien was hostile; now, Apollo, lord,
Be thou the Saviour,-be the Healer thou!
Ye Gods of Council, all I now invoke,
Thee, my protector Hermes, Herald dear,
Whom Heralds venerate, and Heroes, ye
Who sent us forth, now kindly welcome back
The Argive host, poor remnant of the spear.
HERALD
Hail royal palace! roofs beloved, hail!
Ye seats august, ye powers that front the sun,
If e'er of yore, now, with those cheerful eyes
Receive in state the monarch absent long,
For he returns bringing in darkness light
Common to you and all assembled here,
King Agamemnon. Welcome, as beseems,
Him who with mattock of avenging Zeus
Hath Ilion razed, her under-soil uptorn.
Quenched are the fanes, the altars of the gods,
And of the land entire the seed is crushed.
Such yoke round Troy hath Atreus' elder son
Fastened: and lo! blest by the gods, he comes
Of living men most worthy of renown.
Nor Paris now nor his associate town
Their deed may vaunt as greater than their woe
Cast in a suit for rapine and for theft,
His surety forfeit, he to utter doom
Hath mowed his natal home. Thus Priam's sons
With twofold forfeit have atoned their crime.
Chorus
Hail, herald of Achaia's host!
HERALD
All hail!
So please the gods, I grudge not now to die.
Chorus
Love for thy father-land thy heart hath wrung!
HERALD
So wrung that from mine eyes fall tears of joy.
Chorus
Sweet the heart-sickness that o'ercame you thus.
HERALD
The key I lack which may thy words unlock.
Chorus
Smit with desire for those who longed for you.
HERALD
Hath Argos yearned then for the yearning host ?
Chorus
Ay, so that oft from darken'd soul I groaned.
HERALD
Whence this sad gloom, abhorrent to the host?
Chorus
Silence I long have held bale's safest cure.
HERALD
How! Aught didst fear in absence of thy lords?
Chorus
To die was oft my wish as whilom thine.
HERALD
Well ended, all is well. But, in long years,
Some chances, one might say, fell happily,
While others adverse were. For who, save gods,
Lives through the whole of life by grief unscathed ?
For should I tell of toils, of lodgment rude,
Infrequent landings, vexed by dangerous surf,
†What portion of the day exempt from groans?
Still more abhorrent was our life ashore ;-
For close to hostile walls our beds were strewn ;
Dank vapours fell from heaven, while from the earth
Drizzled the meadow dews,—our raiment's canker,
Matting, like savage beast's, our shaggy hair.
Or spake I of bird-killing winter's cold,
Unbearable, from snows of Ida born ;
Or summer's heat, when, stretched on noonday couch,
By breeze unruffled, slept the waveless sea ?
But why lament these hardships ? Past the toil!
Past now and gone,-past also for the dead,
Who ne'er will trouble them again to rise.
Why call the spectral army-roll? and why,
Living, bemoan reverses ? Nay, I claim
With many a farewell to salute mischance.
For us, the remnant of the Argive host,
Joy triumphs, nor can Sorrow tilt the scale.
Winging o'er land and sea our homeward flight.
We to the sun-light well may make this boast,
" The Argive host, captors at length of Troy,
These spoils, an off'ring to Achaia's gods,
Hang up, bright glory of their ancient shrines."
Whoso these tidings hears must needs extol
The city and the leaders of the host;
Also the consummating grace of Zeus
Due honour shall attain. My tale is told.
Chorus
Ungrudged surrender yield I to thy words.
Age still is young enough for grateful lore.
But Atreus' halls and Clytemnestra most
These news concern ; me also they enrich.
CLYTEMNESTRA
The shout of jubilee erewhile I raised,
When first by night the fiery herald came,
Telling of Ilion captured and o'erthrown.
Then some one spake and taunting asked," Dost think
Trusting the beacon-light, that Troy is sacked ?
'Tis woman's way to be elate of heart."
By such bold utt'rance was my wit misprised:
Yet still I sacrificed : and through the town
With woman's note they tuned the joyous trill,
Pæans uplifting in the gods' abodes,
The while they lulled the fragrant incense-flames.
And now, what need that thou shouldst tell me more ?
I from the king himself the tale shall hear.
With honour due, my venerated lord
To welcome home, myself will hasten : for-
What sight for woman sweeter than the day
Which to her spouse, Heaven-shielded from the fight,
Throws wide the gates? Then hither bid my lord,
Beloved of Argos, to return with speed.
Arriving, may he find a faithful wife,
Such as he left her, watch-dog of his house,
To him devoted, hostile to his foes,
In all points like herself, no single seal
Through these long years invaded by her hand.
Pleasure, or blameful word from other man,
Foreign to me as dyer's hue to brass.
613
A boast like this, fraught as it is with truth,
The lip misseems not of a high-born dame.
Chorus
Behold! The queen herself hath tutored thee;
Decorous words her clear interpreters.
But tell me, Herald, touching Menelas,
Doth he in safety homeward with the host
Hither return, prince to his country dear ?
HERALD
False news were I to tell, in flatt'ring terms,
Not long would friends enjoy the fair deceit.
Chorus
Oh, could'st thou speak auspicious words yet true!
That here they sundered are is all too plain.
HERALD
The man is vanished from th' Achaian host;
Himself and galley. No untruth I tell.
Chorus
Steering ahead from Troy ? or hath a storm,
A common terror, snatched him from the host?
HERALD
Like skilful archer thou hast hit the mark;
And hast in brief a mighty woe declared.
Chorus
Say, doth the voice of other mariners
Report of him as living, or as dead ?
HERALD
Not one so knoweth as to speak his doom,
Save the bright Sun, feeder of teeming earth.
Chorus
How ! Burst the tempest on the naval host
Through anger of the gods ? say, what the end ?
HERALD
Auspicious day with ill-announcing tongue
Beseems not to defile. In weal and woe
Diverse the honour due unto the gods.
When messenger, sad-visaged, tidings dire
Of routed armies to the city bears,
A common wound inflicting on the state,
While many men from many homes are banned,
Smit by the twofold scourge which Ares loves,
Twin-speared Calamity, a gory pair :—
Whoso is laden with such woes as these
The pæan of the Furies well may raise.
But coming to a town in jubilee,
Glad messenger of safety and success,
How shall I tidings mingle fair and foul,
The tale unfolding of the storm that smote
The Achaian host, not without wrath of Heaven ?
For fire and ocean, bitter foes of yore,
Sware true alliance and redeemed their pledge,
Whelming Achaia's luckless armament.
Then in the night foul-surging mischiefs rose :
Beneath the Thracian blasts ship against ship
Dashed wildly; they, sore-butted by the storm,
With furious wind and stress of pelting rain,
Vanished from sight, 'neath whirl of shepherd dire.
And when uprose the sun's fair light, behold,
The Aegean sea with flowerage overstrewn,—
Corpses of Grecian men and wrecks of ships.
Us, and our vessel with undamaged hull,
Some god, I ween, (not mortal was the power,)
Ruling the helm, hath saved, by stealth or prayer.
But Saviour Fortune lighting on our ship,
At moorage she nor felt the billows' strain,
Nor drave against the iron-girded coast.
Then safe at last, from watery Hades snatch'd,
In genial daylight, still mistrusting chance,
With anxious thought o'er this new grief we brooded,—
Our host sore wearied, and in evil plight.
And doubtless now, if any still survive,
They speak of us as dead. Why should they not ?
As we imagine a like fate for them.
But may the best befal! For Menelas,
Foremost and chief, expect him to arrive;
If any sunbeam knows of him as safe,
Rejoicing in the light, (through the device
Of Zeus, not willing yet the race to whelm,)
Good hope there is that he may yet return.
Hearing this tale, know, thou the truth hast heard.
Chorus
Who, oh who, with truest aim,
Did the battle-wedded dame,
Prize of conflict, Helen name ?
Was it not one, unseen, in happy hour,
Guiding his tongue with Fate-presaging power?
Helen, the captor;-titled fittingly,—
Captor of ships, of men, of cities, she
From dainty curtained bower hath fled,
By Titan zephyr borne along ;
Straight in her quarrel mustered strong
The shielded hunters' mighty throng,
Marshalled for battle;-forth they sped,
Swift on their track whose viewless oar
Harbour had found on Simois' leafy shore.
Chorus
Wrath, with direful issue fraught,
Thus to hapless Ilion brought
Dear alliance, dearly bought:
Requiter of the outraged festal board,
And of high Zeus, tho hearth's presiding Lord ;
Late vengeance wreaking on the guilty throng,
Who carol jubilant tho bridal song,
Which, fate-impelled, tho bridegroom's kin prolong.
But aged Priam's city hoar
A novel hymn doth now intone,
From many a voice; with mighty groan,
Woe upon Paris' bridal bed
She utters ;—she who long before
A dirgeful life, alas ! had led,
Weeping her sons in wretched slaughter sped.
Chorus
So once did wight incautious rear
A suckling lion, for the breast
Still yearning, to the house a pest.
Tame in life's early morning, dear
To childhood, and by Eld caressed.
Carried full oft in fondling play,
Like to a babe in arms he lay;
The hand with winning glances wooed,
And, smit with pangs of hunger, fawned for food.
Chorus
But time the temper doth bewray
Inherent in his race. Due meed
Of gentle nurture to repay,
Rending the flocks with cruel greed,
Unbidden he prepares the feast,
And mars with gory stain the halls.
Resistless, dire, athirst for prey,
The pest the menial train appals,
Reared for the house by Heaven, fell Atè's priest.
Chorus
So came to Troia's walls, in evil hour,
Spirit of breathless calm, fair pride
Of riches, love's soul-piercing flower,
The eyes' soft dart; but from her course aside
Swerving, to wedlock bitter end she wrought.
To Priam's offspring came she, mischief fraught,
Evil companion, bringing evil dower.
By Zeus escorted, guardian of the guest,
She sped, dire Fury, bridal pest.
Chorus
Lives among men this saw, voiced long ago;
" Success consummate breeds apace,
Nor childless dies, but to the race
From prosperous Fortune springeth cureless Woe."
Apart I hold my solitary creed.
Prolific truly is the impious deed;
Like to the evil stock, the evil seed;
But fate ordains that righteous homes shall aye
Rejoice in goodly progeny.
Chorus
†But ancient Arrogance, or soon or late,
When strikes the hour ordained by Fate,
Breedeth new Arrogance, which still
Revels, wild wantoner in human ill;
And the new birth another brood
Unhallowed, in the house doth bear ;—
Gorged Insolence, and, not to be withstood,
Defiant Boldness, demon unsubdued ;—
Swart curses twain, their parents' mien that wear.
Chorus
But Justice doth the smoke-begrimèd cell
Illumine with celestial sheen,
And loves with honest worth to dwell.
Gold-spangled palaces with hands unclean,
Forsaking with averted eyes,
To holy Innocence she flies.
The power of wealth, if falsely stamped with praise,
With homage she disdains to recognize,
And to their fated issue all things sways.
Chorus
Hail, royal lord! Stormer of Ilion, hail!
Scion of Atreus! How compose my speech,
How due obeisance render thee,
Yet neither overshoot the mark, nor fail
The goal of fitting compliment to reach ?
For many men, transgressing right, there be
Semblance who place above reality.
To him who groans beneath affliction's smart,
All men have prompt condolence; but the sting
Of feignèd sorrow reaches not the heart.
So men with others' joy rejoicing, bring
Over their visage an enforced smile :
But the discerning shepherd knows his fleck,
And his unerring glance detects their guile,
Who simulating love, with glozing art
And watery kindness fawn, but inly mock.
But thou, O King, (I speak without disguise,)
In Helen's quarrel asking war's array,
A mien didst wear unseemly in mine eyes,
Guiding not well the rudder of thy mind,
Who didst, on death-devoted men, essay
Courage to urge, by sacrifice.
But those who have achieved the great emprize,
Not from the surface of my mind alone,
I welcome now, with feelings not unkind ;
And inquest made, in time shall it be known,
Who of thy citizens at home the while
Guarded thy state with truth, and who with guile.
AGAMEMNON
speaking from the chariot.
First Argos and her tutelary gods,
Who with me wrought to compass my return,
And visit Priam's town with vengeance due,
Justly I hail. For in this cause the gods,
Swayed by no hearsay, in the bloody urn
Without dissentient voice the pebbles cast,
Sealing the doom of Ilion and her sons.
But to the rival urn, by no hand filled,
Hope only came. Smoke still uprising marks
The captured city ; Atè's incense-fires
Are living still, but, dying as they die,
The ash sends upward costly fumes of wealth.
Wherefore 'tis meet to render to the gods
Memorial thanks; since round them we have east
Our vengeful toils, and in a woman's cause
The Argive monster, offspring of the horse,
Host shield-accoutred, made its deadly leap,
And Priam's city levelled to the dust,
What time the Pleiades in ocean waned;
So, bounding o'er the towers, of princely blood
The raw-devouring lion lapped his fill.
This lengthened prelude to the gods! and now
Weighing the judgment ye erewhile expressed,
I say the same, and am with you agreed.
To few is it congenial, envy-free,
To venerate the friend whom Fortune crowns.
The jealous poison, lodged within the heart,
Tortures with twofold pang whom it infects ;
By his own griefs oppressed, the envious man
Groans also to behold another's joy.
Out of my proof I speak, for, well I wot,
Who friendship most pretended, only were
Its mirrored image, shadow of a shade.
None but Odysseus, who unwilling sailed,
Once harnessed, was my trusty yoke-fellow;
This I affirm, be he alive or dead.
But for the rest, what to the state pertains,
And to the gods, a full assembly called,
We'll weigh in free debate. Counsel we need.
That where the state is sound, we keep it so;
But where disease the healer's art requires,
By kind excision, or by cautery,
We shall attempt to remedy the harm.
Now to my palace and my household hearth
Returning, first will I the gods salute,
Who forward sped me, and who lead me home;
Since victory so far hath followed me,
Here may she henceforth stedfastly abide!
CLYTEMNESTRA
Men of our city, Argive elders here,
I shame not in your presence to avow
My wifely temper ; bashful Fear in time
From mortals dieth : not by others taught,
But from myself, the wretched life I'll tell
'Twas mine to lead while this man was at Troy.
First, for a woman severed from her mate,
To sit forlorn at home is grievous woe,
Hearing malignant murmurs manifold.
One courier comes, another in his train
Worse tidings brings to echo through the house ;
And as for wounds, had my dear lord received
As many as report kept pouring in,
A net methinks had not been more transpierced.
Or had he died oft as reported then,
A second triple-bodied Geryon,
1
†A threefold cloak of earth he must have donned,
2
Enduring death in every form he wore.
Thus harassed by these ever-rife reports,
Full often from my neck have forceful hands
Seized and untied the beam-suspended noose.
And for this cause our son, pledge of our troth,
Of mine and thine, stands not beside me now,
As stand he should, Orestes. Marvel not,
For him thy trusty spear-guest nourisheth ;
1
Strophius, the Phocian, who hath me forewarned
Of twofold peril, thine 'neath Ilion's wall,
And next lest clamour-fostered Anarchy
Hazard the plot, for 'tis with men inborn
To trample further him already down.
This pretext, trust me, carries no deceit.
But for myself the gushing founts of grief
Are all dried up, no single tear is left;
Sore with late watching are my weary eyes,
Weeping the fiery beacons set for thee
Neglected ever. Often from my dreams
Was I awakened by the tiny hum
Of buzzing gnat, seeing, endured by thee,
More woes than could have filled mine hour of sleep.
These sorrows past, now with a heart unwrung
I hail my husband, watchdog of the fold,
Sure forestay of the ship; of lofty roof
Pillar firm based ; Sire's sole-begotten child ;
Land beyond hope looming to mariners;
Day after storm most brilliant to behold;
To thirsty wayfarer clear gushing spring.
Sooth, sweet it is to 'scape from harsh constraint;
With such addresses do I honour him.
Let Envy stand aloof! for we have borne
Ere this full many a woe. Now dear my lord
Come from thy car; but on the ground, O King,
Plant not the foot that trampled Ilion.
Maidens, why tarry ye, whose duty 'tis
With carpets to bespread his stepping-floor ?
Swift, purple-strew his passage to a home
Unlooked for, e'en as Justice may conduct;
What further she decreeth with the gods,
887
Thought, not by sleep o'ermastered, shall dispose.
AGAMEMNON
Daughter of Leda! Guardian of my home!
Such as my absence was, is now thy speech,
Drawn out to ample length. With better grace
My praise had come from others than from thee.
And for the rest, seek not in woman's guise
To pamper me, nor, gaping forth loud cries,
Bow down to me, as to barbaric wight.
Make not my path with tapestries bestrewn
A mark for envy. To the gods belong
Such signal honours ; but for mortal man,
On bright-hued broidery to plant his foot,
I own it, is to me not free from dread ;
As mortal honour me, but not as god;
Without foot-carpeting or gorgeous web,
Glory resounds ; a constant mind to keep
Is Heaven's best gift; him only call we blest
Who ends in fair prosperity his days.
If thus I bear myself I need not fear.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Against my settled purpose speak not thus.
AGAMEMNON
Deem not my sober purpose I will mar.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Haply thou thus to act hast vowed in fear.
AGAMEMNON
Final and sure my word as man e'er spake.
CLYTEMNESTRA
What, thinkest thou, had Priam done if victor ?
AGAMEMNON
Purples, I ween, he verily had trod.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Then stand not thou in fear of human blame.
AGAMEMNON
Yet hath the people's rumour mighty power.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Life envy-free is life unenviable.
AGAMEMNON
'Tis not for woman to be fond of strife.
CLYTEMNESTRA
But it becomes the fortunate to yield.
AGAMEMNON
Does conquest in this struggle rate so high ?
CLYTEMNESTRA
Yield thee; thy will bend willingly to mine.
AGAMEMNON
If thou wilt have it so, let one with speed
These buskins loosen, vassals of the foot;
Lest, if with them sea-tinctured robes I tread,
Some jealous eye of gods smite me from far.
For much it shameth me, with wanton feet
To mar this wealth of silver-purchased web.
Of this enough. This stranger damsel now
Kindly receive. Zeus, with propitious eye,
Beholds the victor's sway with mercy crowned.
For willingly none bears the captive yoke;
But she, the chosen flower of many a spoil,
Fair present from the host, hath followed me.
But since herein I yield me to thy will,
Treading on purple to my halls I go.
CLYTEMNESTRA
A sea there is (which who may drain ?) that breeds
Abundant purple, fresh from many a shell,
Precious as silver, brilliant dye of robes,
Whereof, through favour of the gods, these halls
May boast, O King, a store right plentiful;
And poverty is stranger to our house
Trampling of many garments had I vowed,
Had thus the oracles our house enjoined,
Ransom devising for this precious life.
For while the root lives on, the leafage spreads,
Screening the mansion from the dog-star's ray.
So now, returning to thy household hearth,
As warmth in winter doth thy presence show.
And when Zeus breweth from the acrid grape
Rich wine, then coolness thro' the halls is shed,
Where, crowner of the home, the husband dwells.
Zeus, Zeus, all-crowner, my petitions crown :
Thine be the care of that which crown thou wilt.
Chorus
Whence this dread portent, that untired
Before my bodeful spirit floats ?
Wherefore, unbidden and unhired,
Waken these dark prophetic notes?
Why sits not on my bosom's throne
The direful presage to disown
As riddling dream, assurance strong?
Time's youth hath flown
Since the stern-cables from the boats
Were flung, what time the ship-borne host
Marched on to Ilion from the sandy coast.
Chorus
After long absence their return
With self-informing eyes I learn ;
Yet in its depths my soul, self-taught,
Chanteth Erinys' lyreless strains ;
My hopes, of courage reft, depart;
Not vainly throb my inmost reins ;
Whirleth on eddies of dark thought
My bodeful heart;
Yet, against hope, the gods I pray,
That, false to augury, my lay
Futile may fall, with vain foreboding fraught.
Chorus
Never will perfect health confess
Her limit sated ; though disease,
Neighbour, with party-wall, against her press.
Sailing with prosperous course elate,
Strikes on the hidden reef man's proud estate.
Then if reluctant Fear, with well-poised sling,
His bales doth into ocean fling,
Riseth once more the bark ; and though
With evil freighted to the full,
Floateth secure the lightened hull.
So likewise, gift of ample worth
From Zeus, the year's increase,
Whose teeming harvests in the furrows grow,
Quells the disease of dearth.
Chorus
But when on earth the crimson gore
Of man hath fallen, never more
May charm or spell the vanished life evoke;
Hence he of old, whose mystic lore
Was skilled the dead from Hades to restore,
Fell, blasted by the Thunderer's warning stroke.
†Now did not Fate—a heaven-sent Fate—
Baffle my impulse, ere too late,
Leaving behind the lagging tongue,
My heart its bodeful strain had sung.
But now it raves; no cheering rays
My anguished spirit knows,
And hopeless to unravel Fate's dark maze
With fiery ardour glows.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Come thou too in, Cassandra, thee I mean;
For not in wrath Zeus placed thee in our house
A sharer in our lustral rites to stand,
With many slaves beside his household altar.
Now from this car descend; be not too proud,
For e'en Alcmena's son,—so runs the tale,—
Sold as a slave, endured the forceful yoke ;
But if such fate befal thee, great the boon
Heirs of ancestral wealth to own as lords ;
For upstarts, beyond hope who fortune reap,—
These reckless are and cruel to their slaves.
From us thou hast what usuage warranteth.
Chorus
Thee in clear words she hath addressed, and thou,
Meshed as thou art within the toils of Fate,
Yield if thou canst; mayhap thou wilt not yield.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Nay, an she be not, swallow-like, possessed
Of an unknown, barbaric tongue, my words,
Reaching her mind, must move her to comply.
Chorus
Follow! She counsels for thy need the best:
Be thou persuaded;—leave thy chariot-seat.
CLYTEMNESTRA
No leisure have I here before the gates
To linger; for, beside the central hearth,
The victims wait the sacrificial fire ;
A favour that our fondest hope transcends.
But thou, if aught wilt do of what I say,
Make no delay; but if, of sense bereft,
Thou canst not catch the meaning of my words,
In lieu of voice, speak with barbarian hand.
Chorus
A clear interpreter the stranger needs :
Distraught she seems, like creature newly caught.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Nay, she is mad ; to her distempered thoughts
She listens ; from a newly-captured town
She cometh here, nor knows the yoke to bear,
Till quelled in foam the passion of her blood.
But words I'll waste no more, thus to be scorned.
Exit.
Chorus
But I, by pity moved, will not be wroth ;
Come, wretched sufferer, this car forsake ;
To Fortune yielding, hansel this new yoke.
CASSANDRA
Ah me ! alas ! Gods, Earth!
Apollo, O Apollo!
Chorus
Why raise for Loxias these cries of bale ?
Not he the god to need the mourner's wail.
CASSANDRA
Ah me ! alas ! Gods, Earth!
Apollo, O Apollo!
Chorus
Once more she calleth with ill-omened cry,
The god who hath no part in misery.
CASSANDRA
Apollo, O Apollo!
Thou way-god! my destroyer!
Once more thou hast destroyed me utterly.
Chorus
She seems about to augur her own ills ;
Heaven's breathing e'en in bonds her spirit fills.
CASSANDRA
Apollo, O Apollo!
Thou way-god! my destroyer !
Ah, whither hast thou led me ? to what roof?
Chorus
To the Atreidan; an thou dost not know
I tell thee; thou'lt not say it is not so.
CASSANDRA
Ah! Ah!
A heaven-detested house, whose walls of yore
Halters have seen, and streams of kindred gore;
A human shambles with blood-reeking floor.
Chorus
Keen scented seems the stranger, like a hound ;
Ay, and the blood she's tracking will be found.
CASSANDRA
Ah! Ah!
Lo ! witnesses trust-worthy ! Vouchers dire!
These babes, who weep their death-wound, faith inspire,
Their roasted members eaten by their sire!
Chorus
Thy fame oracular hath reached our ear;
But certes seek we now no prophet here.
CASSANDRA
Alas! ye gods!
What is she plotting? what new blow ?
A mighty mischief plots she 'neath this roof;
An unimaginable cureless woe,
Unbearable to friends. Help stands aloof.
Chorus
Dark are these oracles ; the first I know ;
For, them the city voucheth wholly true.
CASSANDRA
Ah wretched one!
The deed wilt consummate? With guile
Wilt in the bath thy wedded consort cheer?
How speak the issue ? Soon it will be here ;—
Hand after hand is lifted. Woe the while !
Chorus
I comprehend her not; this mystic lore,
These blear-eyed oracles perplex me sore.
CASSANDRA
Woe! woe! Look! look! What see I there?
Is it, ye gods, a net of hell ?
The wife herself, joint-slayer, is the snare.
Now o'er the accursèd rite
Let the dread brood of Night,
Unglutted with the race, their chorus swell!
Chorus
What Fury 'gainst this house doth summon ? What,
The shriek to raise ? Such utt’rance cheers me not.
Pallid through every vein
Blood to my heart doth run,
Which to the battle-slain
Quencheth life's sun ;
But Atè comes amain.
CASSANDRA
Hold! hold ! Woe! woe! The heifer there
Keep from the bull. In meshes fell
†Of black-woofed garb entangled,-guileful snare,-
Catching,—she smites him dead;-
Prone in his watery bed
He falls. The laver’s guileful doom I tell.
Chorus
I boast not to be skilled in auguries,
Yet mischief here I cannot but surmise.
Chorus
Through spells, say, if ye know,
To mortals here below,
What grateful cheer is sent ?
Their wordy arts from human woe
Breed dark presentiment.
CASSANDRA
Woe! woe! my wretched ill-starred lot!
Wailing another's fate mine own I mourn ;
Why hast thou led me hither, all forlorn,
Unless with thee to perish ? Wherefore not ?
Chorus
Thou'rt frenzied, by some god possest,
And tuneless quirest forth thy doom,
Like nightingale, with dusky plume
Sateless of song. From heart opprest,
Ceaseless her Itys, Itys, flows,
1
Her life bewailing, rich alone in woes.
CASSANDRA
Woe ! woe ! Clear-voicèd bird, arrayed
In plumed shape, by powers divine ;
1
Sweet life, unmarred by tears, is thine :
But me awaits the double-edged blade.
Chorus
Whence hast thou these prophetic throes,
Rushing athwart thy soul, in vain ?
Why body forth in dismal strain,
Blent with shrill cries, these direful woes ?
Whence cometh thus to vex thy soul
Of prophecy the dark, ill-omened goal ?
CASSANDRA
Oh, nuptial rite, oh, nuptial rite,
Of Paris, fraught with doom !
Scamander ! whence my fathers drank,
Nourished of yore upon thy bank,
I throve in youthful bloom.
Me now Cocytos and the streams of night
To augur on their dismal shores invite.
Chorus
What thought hast uttered all too clear?
An infant might interpret here.
Smitten within am I with gory sting,
The while thy bird-like cry to hear
My heart doth wring.
CASSANDRA
Oh deadly coil, oh, deadly coil
Of Ilion, doomed to fall !
Alas, the flower-cropping kine
Slain by my father at the shrine
To save her sacred wall!
But cure was none : she perished ; vain the toil!
I too, soul-kindled, soon shall press the soil.
Chorus
This tallies with thy former strain ;
Sure some ill demon smites thy brain,
And falling on thee moves thee thus to tell
In piteous chant thy doleful pain.
The end I cannot spell.
CASSANDRA
In sooth the oracle no more shall peer
Forth from a veil, like newly wedded bride ;
But flashing on the soul, like wind that blows
Sunward, it dasheth 'gainst the orient beams
A mighty surge that doth this grief o'ertop.
No more through dark enigmas will I teach!
And bear me witness, how in eager chase
The track I scent of crimes wrought long ago.
For from this roof departeth never more
A choir, concordant but unmusical,
To evil tuned. Ay, drunk with human blood,
And by the draught made bold, within these halls
Abides a rout, not easy to eject,
Of sister Furies ; lodged within these walls
They chant in chorus the primeval curse.
Hostile to him his brother's couch who trod,
In turn they tell their loathing. Have I missed,
Or, like true archer, have I hit the mark?
Or strolling cheat, or lying prophet am I ?
Before I die, attest ye now on oath
That of these halls the hoary crimes I know.
Chorus
And how can oath be healer of a woe
Inherent in the race? Yet marvel I
That, nurtured o'er the sea, thou know'st to speak
Of foreign city as though native there.
CASSANDRA
Loxias, the seer, me with this grace endowed.
Chorus
How! passion-smitten was he, though a god?
CASSANDRA
Till now it shamed me to speak of this.
Chorus
True ; for who fareth well grows over-nice.
CASSANDRA
Love-wrestler was he, warm his favour breathed.
Chorus
Came ye in course to rite conjugial ?
CASSANDRA
Consent I gave, but cheated Loxias.
Chorus
Mistress already of presaging art?
CASSANDRA
Ay, to the townsmen all their woes I spelled.
Chorus
How then by wrath of Loxias unharmed ?
CASSANDRA
No credence won I after this offence.
Chorus
To us thy oracles seem all too true.
CASSANDRA
Woe! woe! alas! alas! ye miseries !
Of faithful augury the direful toil
Racks me once more, with bodeful preludings
Vexing my soul.-Seated within these halls,
See, tender boys, like dreamy phantoms; children,
As by their dear ones done to death, their hands
Filled with their proper flesh, for nutriment;
Their heart and vitals,—loathsome, piteous, meal,—
Look, how they hold,-their sire has tasted, look!
For these, I say, vengeance devising, waits
A dastard lion, wallowing in bed;
House-warden, sooth, to him that's come, my master.
For the slave’s yoke, alas ! I needs must bear.
The naval leader, leveller of Troy,
He knows not that the fell she-dog, whose tongue
Spoke words of guileful welcome, long drawn out,
Like lurking Atè, will achieve his doom.
Such things she dares ; the female slays the male!
Her,—what detested monster may I name
Aud hit the mark ?-Some basilisk, or Scylla
Housing in rocks, deadly to mariners,
Infuriate dam of Hades, breathing forth,
Against her dearest, curse implacable ?
What triumph-notes exultantly she raised,
All daring one, as in the turn of fight,
Feigning to gratulate his safe return !
What boots it whether I persuade or no ?
The doomed must come ; ere long to pity moved,
Me thou wilt own a prophet all too true.
Chorus
Thyestes' banquet of his children's flesh
I knew and shudder at; fear takes my soul,
Hearing the truth, no imaged counterfeit.
The rest I heard, but follow not the track.
CASSANDRA
On Agamemnon dead, I say, thou'lt look.
Chorus
Lull, poor forlorn one, thy ill-omened tongue.
CASSANDRA
Yet o'er this speech no healing god presides.
Chorus
If be it must; but may it never be;
CASSANDRA
The while thou prayest, theirs it is to slay.
Chorus
What man deviseth this accursèd deed ?
CASSANDRA
Widely thy glance hath missed mine oracles.
Chorus
Ay, for the plotter's scheme to me is dark.
CASSANDRA
Yet in Hellenic speech my words are couched.
Chorus
So too are Pythian chants, yet hard to spell.
CASSANDRA
Alas ! what fire is this! It seizes me.
Woe! woe! Lykeian god! Apollo! Woe!
The biped lioness, that with the wolf
In absence of the noble lion couched,
Will me, her victim, slaughter, and as one
Poison who mixeth, she my doom will add
To crown her vengeance ; whetting 'gainst her lord
The murderous knife, sho boasteth to exact
His death, as payment for escorting me.
Why longer wear this scorn-provoking gear,
This wand, these wreaths prophetic round my neck ?
Thee I will shatter ere myself am doomed.
Hence to destruction : I will follow soon;
Another, in my place, enrich with woes.
Behold, Apollo’s self doth strip me bare
Of the prophetic robe ; coldly he gazed,
What time, in these adornments vainly tricked,
To friends and enemies, with one consent,
All undeserved, a laughter I became :
Vagrant yclept, poor hunger-stricken wretch,
A strolling mountebank, I bare it all;
And now the seer (his vengeance wreaked on me
The seeress) calls me to this deadly fate.
My father at the altar fell, but me
The slaughter-block awaiteth, smitten down
By stroke relentless, reeking with hot gore.
Yet not unhonoured of the gods we fall;
For other champion of our cause shall come,
Seed matricidal, venger of his sire.
An exiled wanderer, from this land estranged,
Returns, this vengeance for his friends to crown.
For, lo, the gods a mighty oath have sworn,
His father's prostrate form shall lead him home.
But why, an alien here, pour I my wail ?
When that I first have seen my Ilion fare
As fared it hath, and they who won the town
In sorry plight, through judgment of the gods.
I'll do! I'll suffer ! I will dare to die.
These gates, as gates of Hades, I adjure,
One prayer I offer, " mortal be the stroke
Free from convulsive throes, in easy death,
While ebbs my life-blood, may I close mine eyes.
Chorus
Oh woman, thou most wretched and most wise;
Lengthy thy speech hath been ; but if thou knowest
Truly thine own sad doom, how walkest thou
Like heaven-led victim, boldly to the altar ?
CASSANDRA
There’s no escape; brief respite, nothing more.
Chorus
Yet to be last is gain at least of time.
CASSANDRA
The day is come, small were my gain by flight.
Chorus
Enduring art thou, and of dauntless mind.
CASSANDRA
Such words none heareth from the fortunate.
Chorus
Yet dear to mortals is a glorious death.
CASSANDRA
Alas, my sire, for thee and thy brave sons!
She suddenly starts back.
Chorus
What may this mean ? What terror drives thee back ?
CASSANDRA
Alas! alas!
Chorus
Why this alas, unless some horror scare thee?
CASSANDRA
Blood-reeking murder breatheth from these halls.
Chorus
'Tis but the scent of victims at the hearth.
CASSANDRA
Nay, but such breath as issues from a tomb.
Chorus
No Syrian odour tell'st thou for the house.
CASSANDRA
Well! I will go, within these palace halls
To wail mine own and Agamemnon's doom.
Enough of life ! Strangers! Alas! Alas!
Yet quail I not, as bird at the brake,
Idly ; in death my vouchers be in this,
When, in my place, woman for woman dies,
And when for man ill-wedded, man shall fall.
Dying, this hospitable grace I crave.
Chorus
Poor wretch ; Thy fateful doom my pity moves.
CASSANDRA
Once more I fain would speak, but not to pour
Mine own funereal wail; but to the Sun,
Looking my last upon his beams, I pray
That my avengers pay my murderers back,
Requiting me, poor slave, their easy prey.
Alas, for man's estate! If Fortune smile,
A shadow may o'erturn it; should she frown,
A moistened sponge the picture doth destroy.
More than the first this doom my pity moves.
Chorus
All are of boundless weal insatiate ;—
None warneth from his halls
Him at whom Envy points, as rich or great,
Saying, " Come here no more."—
So to this man the Blessed Ones have given
To capture Priam's walls ;—
Home he returns, beloved of Heaven;—
But must he now the blood repay
Of ancient murder ; must he die,
And dying expiate,
With his own death, their deaths who died of yore ;
Who, being mortal, this can hear, nor pray,
That he were born to scathless destiny ?
AGAMEMNON
In the palace.
Woe's me ! I'm smitten with a deadly blow !
Chorus
Hush! Wounded unto death who lifts this cry.
AGAMEMNON
Woe’s me ! Again ! a second time I'm struck.
Choraphæus
By the groaning of the monarch, wrought methinks is now the deed ;
But together taking counsel, weave we now some prudent scheme.
Chorus
I. To you my counsel is to raise the cry,
And to the palace call the citizens.
II. To me seems best, at quickest, breaking in,
To prove the deed by newly-dripping blade.
III. I, this opinion sharing, give my vote
For action ;-not to dally is the point.
IV. 'Tis manifest; for they, thus preluding,
Give to the city signs of tyranny.
V. Ay, we delay ;-they, treading under foot
All thoughts of dalliance, sleep not with the hand.
VI. No plan I know to fashion or propose ;
Against the guilty doer we must plot.
VII. That view I share, for no device I know,
By words, the dead man to restore to life.
VIII. What! dragging on our lives, shall we obey
These home-polluters? Them our leaders make?
IX. That were past hearing, better far to die;
For milder doom were death than tyranny.
X. How ! may we not on evidence of groans
Augur full surely that the man is dead ?
XI. Ere we can argue, we must know the facts;
Assurance differs widely from surmise.
XII. This I commend, taking the general vote,
Plainly to know how fareth Atreus' son.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Though much to suit the times before was said,
It shames me not the opposite to speak :
For, plotting against foes,—our seeming friends,-
How else contrive with Ruin's wily snare.
Too high to overleap, to fence them round?
To me, not mindless of an ancient feud,
Hath come at last this contest ;-late indeed.
The deed achieved, here stand I, where I slew.
So was it wrought (and this I'll not deny),
That he could neither 'scape, nor ward his doom;
Around him, like a fish-encircling net,
This garment’s deadly splendour did I cast ;—
Him twice I smote, and he, with twofold groan,
His limbs relaxed ;—then, prostrate where he lay,
Him with third blow I dowered, votive gift
To nether Hades, saviour of the dead.
Thus as he fell he chafed his soul away;
And gurgling forth the swift death-tide of blood,
He smites me with black drops of gory dew,
Not less exultant than, with heaven-sent joy
The corn-sown land, in birth-hour of the ear.
For this great issue, Argive Senators,
Joy ye, if joy ye can, but I exult.
Nay, o'er the slain were off'rings meet, with right
Here were they poured,—with emphasis of right.
Such goblet having filled with cursèd ills
At home,-himself on his return drains off.
Chorus
We marvel at thy tongue, how bold thy speech,
Who o'er thy husband makest so thy vaunt.
CLYTEMNESTRA
As witless woman are ye proving me ;
But I with steadfast heart, to you who know,
Proclaim,—and whether ye will praise or blame,
It recks me not,-this man is Agamemnon,-
My husband, dead, the work of this right hand,
Doer of righteous deed ;-so stands the case.
Chorus
O woman, what earth-nurtured bane,
What potion, upsent from the wind-ruffled sea,
Hast tasted, that on thine own head dost heap
Curses, for incense, folk-mutter'd and deep !
Hast cast off, hast slain ;—
Out-cast, uncitied, thyself shalt be,
Huge hate of the townsmen blasting thee.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Me thou dost doom to exile,-to endure
The people's hate, their curse deep-muttered,-thou,
Who 'gainst this man of yore hadst naught to urge.
He, all unmoved, as though brute life he quenched,
The while his fleecy pastures teem'd with flocks,
His own child slaughtered,-of my travail throes
To me the dearest, ---charm for Thracian blasts.
Him shouldst thou not have chased from land and home
Just guerdon for foul deed ? Stern judge thou art
When me thou dost arraign ;- but, mark my words,
(Nerved as I am to threat on equal terms,)
If with strong hand ye conquer me, then rule;-
But should the god decree the opposite,
Though late, to sober sense shalt thou be schooled.
Chorus
O haughty of council art thou ; —
And haughtily-minded thou vauntest amain,
As raveth thy mind 'neath blood-reeking fate.
Calling for vengeance, glares forth on thy brow
Of blood the foul stain ;—
Forsaken of friends, the common hate,
Death-blow with death-blow shalt expiate.
CLYTEMNESTRA
This solemn sanction of mine oaths thou hearest ;—
By the accomplished vengeance of my child,
By Atè, by Erinyes, unto whom
I slew this man,—Expectancy for me
Treads not the halls of Fear, while on my hearth,
Aegisthos, kind as heretofore, burns fire ;—
For he of boldness is no puny shield.
There prostrate lies this woman's outrager,
Minion to each Chryseis under Troy.
There too, this captive slave, this auguress,
And this man's concubine,-this prophetess,
His faithful bedfellow, who shared with him
The sailor's bench. Not unrequited wrought they ;
For he lies-thus. While she, in swan-like fashion,
Having breathed forth her last, her dying wail,
Lies here, to him a paramour, and so
Adds keener relish to my sweet revenge.
Chorus
Oh might some sudden Fate
Not tethered to a weight
Of couch-enchaining anguish, hither waft
The boon of endless sleep!
For our most gracious guardian slain we weep,
In woman's cause of yore
Full many a pang who bore,
And now lies smitten by a woman's craft.
Chorus
Woe! frenzied Helen, woe !
Through thee alone, through one,
How many souls, how many, were undone ;
What havoc dire 'neath Troia thou hast wrought.
* * * * *
Chorus
And now the cureless woe,
Heirloom of blood, shed long ago,
Through thee hath blossomed, causing strife
Unquenchable, with husband-murder rife.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Bowed beneath sorrow's weight,
Invoke not deadly Fate,
Nor in thine anger Helen thus arraign,
As though through her, through one,
Fell many a Danaan son ;—
She-man-destroyer, working cureless bane!
Chorus
Demon, who now dost fall
Ruthless on Atreus' hall
Making the twin Tantalidæ thy prey,
†Through women's haughty reign,
Gnawing my heart, thou dost confirm thy sway.
Like bodeful raven hoarse,
She standeth o'er the corse,
And chants exulting her discordant strain.
ANTISTROPHE IV.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Ay now thy speech in sooth
Runs even with the truth,
Calling the thrice-dread demon of this race ;
For in their veins is nursed,
By him, the quenchless thirst
For blood ; ere pales the trace
Of ancient pang, now ichor flows apace.
Chorus
Mighty the demon, dire his hate,
Whom here thou boastest to preside ;
Woe ! woe ! ill-omened praise of Fate,
Baneful and still unsatisfied !
Alas! 'Tis Zeus, in will, in deed,
Sole cause, sole fashioner; for say
What comes to mortals undecreed
By Zeus, what here, that owneth not his sway ?
Chorus
Woe ! woe!
King ! King! how thee shall I bewail ?
How voice my heartfelt grief? Thou liest there
Entangled in the spider's guileful snare;
In impious death thy life thou dost exhale.
Chorus
Ah me! ah me! to death betrayed,
Sped by the two-edged blade,
On servile couch now ignominious laid.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Dost boast as mine this deed ?
Then wrongly thou dost read,
†To count me Agamemnon's wife ;-not so;
Appearing in the mien
Of this dead monarch's queen,
The ancient fiend of Atreus dealt the blow ;—
Requiting his grim feast,
For the slain babes, as priest,
The full-grown victim now he layeth low.
Chorus
That thou art guiltless of this blood
Who will attest? Yet by thy side,
Haply, as thy accomplice, stood
The Fury who doth here preside.
Through streams of kindred gore
Presseth grim Ares on to claim
Requital for the deed of shame
The clotted blood of babes devoured of yore.
Chorus.
Woe ! woe!
King ! King ! thee how shall I bewail ?
How voice my heartfelt grief ? Thou liest there
Entangled in the spider's guileful snare,
In impious death thy life thou dost exhale.
ANTISTROPHE VII.
Ah me ! ah me! to death betrayed,
Sped by the two-edged blade,
On servile couch now ignominious laid.
CLYTEMNESTRA
ANTISTROPHE VIII.
By no unjust decree
Perished this man, for he
Through guile hath household death enacted here :—
His proper child he slew,
Sweet bud from me that grew,
Iphigenia, wept with many a tear.
Foul quittance for foul deed ;—
He reaped the sword's due meed,
Hence no proud boast from him let Hades hear!
Chorus
STROPHE IX.
Perplexed I am, bewildered sore
Which way to turn; escape is vain ;
Totters the house; I dread the crimson rain
That with loud plashing shakes these walls; no more
Falleth in niggard droppings now the gore.
And bent on deed of mischief, Fate anew
On other whetstones, whetteth vengeance due.
Chorus.
ANTISTROPHE II.
Earth! Earth! oh hadst thou been
My shroud ere I my king
Prone in the silver-sided bath had seen !
Who will inter him? Who his dirge shall sing?
So hardy thou? Wilt thou who didst assail
Thy husband's life, thyself uplift the wail ?
Wilt to his shade, for the great deeds he wrought,
Render a graceless grace, with malice fraught ?
Chorus.
With tears of honest grief
Weeping the godlike chief,
Above the tomb who now shall raise
The funeral hymn ? Who speak the hero's praise ?
CLYTEMNESTRA
STROPHE X.
Not thine the task to counsel here.
By us he fell: this man we slew;
Ours be it to inurn him too;
Borne from the palace, o'er the bier
Shall sound no notes of wailing ;-no,
But him, with blandishments, shall meet
Iphigenia; by the rapid streams
Of Acheron, his daughter, as beseems,
Facing her father, shall around him throw
Her loving arms, and him with kisses greet.
Chorus
That taunt still answers taunt we see.
Here to adjudge is hard indeed.
Spoiled be the spoiler ; who sheds blood must bleed.
While Zeus surviveth shall this law survive.
Doer must suffer; 'tis the Fates' decree;
Who from the house the fated curse may drive ?
The race is welded to calamity.
CLYTEMNESTRA
ANTISTROPHE X.
Ay! now on Truth thou dost alight!
I with the demon of this race-
The Pleisthenid—an oath will plight.
My doom, though grievous, I embrace.
But for the rest, hence let him haste!
Leaving this house, let him another race
Harass with kindred murders. For myself,
When from these halls blood-frenzy I have chased,
Small pittance shall I crave of worldly pelf.
ÆGISTHOS
Hail, joyous light of justice-bearing day!
At length I can aver that Gods supernal,
Judges of men, look down on earthly woes,
Beholding, in the Erinyes' woven robes,
This man, thus prostrate, welcome sight to me,
The wiles atoning compassed by his sire.
For Atreus, Argos' ruler, this man's father,
Did from the city and his home expel
Thyestes, rival in the sovereignty,-
My father, to be plain, and his own brother.
But coming back, a suppliant of the hearth,
Wretched Thyestes found a lot secure,
Not doomed his natal soil with blood to stain,
Here in his home: but this man's godless sire,
Atreus, with zeal officious more than kind,
Feigning a joyous banquet-day to hold,
Served to my sire, for food, his children's flesh.
Their feet indeed, the members of their hands,—
Seated aloof, in higher place, he hides.
Partaking of the undistinguished parts,
In ignorance, Thyestes eats the food,
Curse-laden, as thou seest, to the race.
Discerning then the impious deed, he shrieked,
And back recoiling the foul slaughter spewed.
Spurning, with righteous curse, th' insulted board
Dread doom he vows to the Pelopidæ ;—
" So perish the whole race of Pleisthenes."
Hence is it that ye see this man laid low;
The righteous planner of his death am I.
For me, the thirteenth child, in swathing clothes,
He with my wretched sire, to exile drove.
But, grown to manhood, Justice led me back,
And I, although aloof, have reached this man,
The threads combining of the fatal plot.
Now for myself 'twere glorious to die,
Seeing this man entrapped in Justice' toils.
Chorus
To honour insolence in guilt, Aegisthos,
I know not ;—that with purpose thou didst kill
This man, thou boastest; of his piteous doom
Sole author thou :—I tell thee thine own head
To Justice brought, be sure shall not escape
The curse of stoning by the people's hand.
ÆGISTHOS
Plying the lowest oar, dost menace us
Who from the upper benches sway the helm ?
Being old thou know’st how bitter at thy years
Wisdom by stern necessity to learn.
But bonds and hunger-pangs, to cure the mind
Of stubborn old, are skilful leeches found.
Hast eyes, yet seest not this? Against the pricks
Kick not, lest stumbling, thou shouldst come to grief.
Chorus
Woman, house-mate to him from recent war
Return’d,— defiler of thy husband's bed,
Death thou didst plot against this warrior chief.
ÆGISTHOS
These words will fountains be of bitter tears.
Thy tongue the opposite to Orpheus is;
For he drew all by rapture of his voice,
While thou, by idle bark, dost all things stir
†To hate ; — when conquered, thou wilt tamer
show.
Chorus
Shalt thou be ruler of the Argives, thou,
Who, when that thou hadst plotted this man's death,
Didst courage lack to strike the blow thyself?
ÆGISTHOS
To spread the snare was plainly woman's part,
For I, his ancient foeman, was suspect;
But armed with this man's treasure, be it mine
To rule the citizens. Th' unruly colt
That, barley-fed, turns restive, I will bind
†With heavier thong than yokes the trace-horse;
—him,
Darkness' grim comrade, Famine, shall see tamed.
Chorus
This man why didst thou not, O base of soul,
Slaughter thyself? But him his wife, with thee,
The land polluting, and her country's gods,
Hath slain. Orestes, sees he still the light,
That, home-returning with auspicious Fate,
He may, with mighty stroke, deal death to both ?
ÆGISTHOS
Since thou art minded thus to act, not talk alone,
know quickly.
* * * * *
To his attendants.
Come on, my faithful body-guard, the fray is not far distant.
Chorus
Come on then, and with hand on hilt, his sword let each make ready.
ÆGISTHOS
Be well assured, with hand on hilt, to die I too refuse not.
Chorus
To die,—thine utterance we accept, and take as thy death-omen.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Dearest of husbands let us not, I pray, work further mischief.
Already in our many woes reaped have we wretched harvests.
Of sorrow there hath been enough ; let us forbear more bloodshed.
Go thou, and ye too aged men, seek your appointed mansions,
Ere aught ye do to work mischance. As fate enjoined we’ve acted.
If trouble is the lot of man, enough have we encountered ;
Sore smitten by the heavy hoof of some avenging demon.
Thus ye a woman's counsel have, if any deign to hearken.
ÆGISTHOS
To think that their vain tongue 'gainst me into such speech should blossom;-
That they should hurl forth words like these, their proper doom, thus tempting :
They against sober reason err, thus to insult their ruler.
Chorus
Upon the evil man to fawn is not the wont of Argives.
ÆGISTHOS
But, be assured, some future day, I yet shall overtake you.
Chorus
Not so if hither to return some god should guide Orestes.
ÆGISTHOS
Full well I know that exiles still on hopes are wont to batten.
Chorus
Work as thou listest. Gorge thy fill. Stain justice. Thou canst do it.
ÆGISTHOS
Be sure that thou to me shalt pay the forfeit of thy folly.
Chorus
Be boastful and be bold, like cock beside his partner strutting.
CLYTEMNESTRA
These senseless barkings heed not thou ; thyself and I together,
Ruling within these royal halls, will all things wisely order.
English (E. D. A. Morshead, 1889, second edition) (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Morshead translation. Wikisource transcription; speech corresp and card milestones aligned to Smyth perseus-grc2.) — 40 focus
Ten livelong years have rolled away,
50
Since the twin lords of sceptred sway,
By Zeus endowed with pride of place,
The doughty chiefs of Atreus' race,
Went forth of yore,
To plead with Priam, face to face,
55
Before the judgment-seat of War!
A thousand ships from Argive land
Put forth to bear the martial band,
That with a spirit stern and strong
Went out to right the kingdom's wrong—
60
Pealed, as they went, the battle-song,
Wild as the vultures' cry;
When o'er the eyrie, soaring high,
In wild bereaved agony,
Around, around, in airy rings,
65
They wheel with oarage of their wings,
But not the eyas-brood behold,
That called them to the nest of old;
But let Apollo from the sky,
Or Pan, or Zeus, but hear the cry,
70
The exile cry, the wail forlorn,
Of birds from whom their home is torn—
On those who wrought the rapine fell,
Heaven sends the vengeful fiends of hell.
Even so doth Zeus, the jealous lord
75
And guardian of the hearth and board,
Speed Atreus' sons, in vengeful ire,
'Gainst Paris—sends them forth on fire,
Her to buy back, in war and blood,
Whom one did wed but many woo'd!
80
And many, many, by his will,
The last embrace of foes shall feel,
And many a knee in dust be bowed,
And splintered spears on shields ring loud,
Of Trojan and of Greek, before
85
That iron bridal-feast be o'er!
But as he willed 'tis ordered all,
And woes, by heaven ordained, must fall—
Unsoothed by tears or spilth of wine
Poured forth too late, the wrath divine
90
Glares vengeance on the flameless shrine.
1
And we in gray dishonoured eld,
Feeble of frame, unfit were held
To join the warrior array,
That then went forth unto the fray:
95
And here at home we tarry, fain
Our feeble footsteps to sustain,
Each on his staff—so strength doth wane,
And turns to childishness again.
For while the sap of youth is green,
100
And, yet unripened, leaps within,
The young are weakly as the old,
And each alike unmeet to hold
The vantage post of war!
And ah ! when flower and fruit are o'er,
105
And on life's tree the leaves are sere,
Age wendeth propped its journey drear,
As forceless as a child, as light
And fleeting as a dream of night
Lost in the garish day!
110
But thou, O child of Tyndareus,
Queen Clytemnestra, speak! and say
What messenger of joy to-day
Hath won thine ear? what welcome news,
That thus in sacrificial wise
115
E'en to the city's boundaries
Thou biddest altar-fires arise?
Each god who doth our city guard,
And keeps o'er Argos watch and ward
From heaven above, from earth below—
120
The mighty lords who rule the skies,
The market's lesser deities,
To each and all the altars glow,
Piled for the sacrifice!
And here and there, anear, afar,
125
Streams skyward many a beacon-star,
Conjur'd and charm'd and kindled well
By pure oil's soft and guileless spell,
Hid now no more
Within the palace' secret store.
130
O queen, we pray thee, whatsoe'er,
Known unto thee, were well revealed,
That thou wilt trust it to our ear,
And bid our anxious heart be healed!
That waneth now unto despair—
135
Now, waxing to a presage fair,
Dawns from the altar Hope—to scare
From our rent hearts the vulture Care.
List! for the power is mine, to chant on high
The chiefs' emprise, the strength that omens gave!
140
List! on my soul breathes yet a harmony,
From realms of ageless powers, and strong to save!
How brother kings, twin lords of one command,
Led forth the youth of Hellas in their flower,
Urged on their way, with vengeful spear and brand,
145
By warrior-birds, that watched the parting hour.
Go forth to Troy, the eagles seemed to cry—
And the sea-kings obeyed the sky-kings' word,
When on the right they soared across the sky,
And one was black, one bore a white tail barred.
150
High o'er the palace were they seen to soar,
Then lit in sight of all, and rent and tare,
Far from the fields that she should range no more,
Big with her unborn brood, a mother-hare.
And one beheld, the soldier-prophet true,
155
And the two chiefs, unlike of soul and will,
In the twy-coloured eagles straight he knew,
And spake the omen forth, for good and ill.
(Ah woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!)
Go forth, he cried,
and Priam's town shall fall.
160
Yet long the time shall be; and flock and herd,
The people's wealth, that roam before the wall,
Shall force hew down, when Fate shall give the word.
But O beware! lest wrath in Heaven abide,
To dim the glowing battle-forge once more,
165
And mar the mighty curb of Trojan pride,
The steel of vengeance, welded as for war!
For virgin Artemis bears jealous hate
Against the royal house, the eagle-pair,
Who rend the unborn brood, insatiate—
170
Yea, loathes their banquet on the quivering hare.
(Ah woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!)
For well she loves—the goddess kind and mild—
The tender new-born cubs of lions bold,
Too weak to range—and well the sucking child
175
Of every beast that roams by wood and wold.
So to the Lord of Heaven she prayeth still
"Nay, if it must be, be the omen true!
Yet do the visioned eagles presage ill;
The end be well, but crossed with evil too!"
180
Healer Apollo! be her wrath controlled,
Nor weave the long delay of thwarting gales,
To war against the Danaans and withhold
From the free ocean-waves their eager sails!
She craves, alas! to see a second life
185
Shed forth, a curst unhallowed sacrifice—
'Twixt wedded souls, artificer of strife,
And hate that knows not fear, and fell device.
At home there tarries like a lurking snake,
Biding its time, a wrath unreconciled,
190
A wily watcher, passionate to slake
In blood, resentment for a murdered child.
Such was the mighty warning, pealed of yore—
Amid good tidings, such the word of fear,
What time the fateful eagles hovered o'er
195
The kings, and Calchas read the omen clear.
(In strains like his, once more,
Sing woe and well-a-day! but be the issue fair!)
Zeus—if to The Unknown
That name of many names seem good—
200
Zeus, upon Thee I call.
Thro' the mind's every road
I passed, but vain are all,
Save that which names thee Zeus, the Highest One,
Were it but mine to cast away the load,
205
The weary load, that weighs my spirit down.
He that was Lord of old,
In full-blown pride of place and valour bold,
Hath fallen and is gone, even as an old tale told!
And he that next held sway,
210
By stronger grasp o'erthrown
Hath pass'd away!
2
And whoso now shall bid the triumph-chant arise
To Zeus, and Zeus alone,
He shall be found the truly wise.
215
'Tis Zeus alone who shows the perfect way
Of knowledge: He hath ruled,
Men shall learn wisdom, by affliction schooled.
In visions of the night like dropping rain
Descend the many memories of pain
220
Before the spirit's sight: through tears and dole
Comes wisdom o'er the unwilling soul—
A boon, I wot, of all Divinity,
That holds its sacred throne in strength, above the sky!
And then the elder chief, at whose command
225
The fleet of Greece was manned,
Cast on the seer no word of hate,
But veered before the sudden breath of Fate—
Ah weary while! for, ere they put forth sail,
Did every store, each minish'd vessel, fail,
230
While all the Achæan host
At Aulis anchored lay,
Looking across to Chalcis and the coast
Where refluent waters welter, rock, and sway;
And rife with ill delay
235
From northern Strymon blew the thwarting blast—
Mother of famine fell,
That holds men wand'ring still
Far from the haven where they fain would be!—
And pitiless did waste
240
Each ship and cable, rotting on the sea,
And, doubling with delay each weary hour,
Withered with hope deferred th' Achæans' warlike flower.
But when for bitter storm a deadlier relief,
And heavier with ill to either chief,
245
Pleading the ire of Artemis, the seer avowed,
The two Atridæ smote their sceptres on the plain,
And, striving hard, could not their tears restrain!
And then the elder monarch spake aloud—
Ill lot were mine, to disobey!
250
And ill, to smite my child, my household 's love and pride!
To stain with virgin blood a father's hands, and slay
My daughter, by the altar's side!
'Twixt woe and woe I dwell—
I dare not like a recreant fly,
255
And leave the league of ships, and fail each true ally;
For rightfully they crave, with eager fiery mind,
The virgin's blood, shed forth to lull the adverse wind—
God send the deed be well!
Thus on his neck he took
260
Fate's hard compelling yoke;
Then, in the counter-gale of will abhorr'd, accursed,
To recklessness his shifting spirit veered—
Alas! that Frenzy, first of ills and worst,
With evil craft men's souls to sin hath ever stirred!
265
And so he steeled his heart—ah well-a-day—
Aiding a war for one false woman's sake,
His child to slay,
And with her spilt blood make
An offering, to speed the ships upon their way!
270
Lusting for war, the bloody arbiters
Closed heart and ears, and would nor hear nor heed
The girl-voice plead,
Pity me, Father! nor her prayers,
Nor tender, virgin years.
275
And, when the chant of sacrifice was done,
Her father bade the youthful priestly train
Raise her, like some poor kid, above the altar-stone,
From where amid her robes she lay
Sunk all in swoon away—
280
Bade them, as with the bit that mutely tames the steed,
Her fair lips' speech refrain,
Lest she should speak a curse on Atreus' home and seed.
So, trailing on the earth her robe of saffron dye,
With one last piteous dart from her beseeching eye
285
Those that should, smite she smote—
Fair, silent, as a pictur'd form, but fain
To plead
Is all for got?
How oft those halls of old,
Wherein my sire high feast did hold,
290
Rang to the virginal soft strain,
When I, a stainless child,
Sang from pure lips and undefiled,
Sang of my sire, and all
His honoured life, and how on him should fall
295
Heaven's highest gift and gain!
And then—but I beheld not, nor can tell,
What further fate befel:
But this is sure, that Calchas' boding strain
Can ne'er be void or vain.
300
This wage from Justice' hand do sufferers earn,
The future to discern:
And yet—farewell, O secret of To-morrow!
Fore-knowledge is fore-sorrow.
Clear with the clear beams of the morrow's sun,
305
The future presseth on.
Now, let the house's tale, how dark soe'er,
Find yet an issue fair!
—So prays the loyal, solitary band
That guards the Apian land.
310
[
They turn to Clytemnestra, who leaves
the altars and comes forward.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1854; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylos, Band I, Agamemnon. Independent Donner line citations, Smyth card correspondence, twelve located textual notes and opening metrical facsimiles. Unfinished OCR proofreading and note attribution are documented in the review inventory.) — 40 focus
Zehn Sommer entfloh'n, seit Priamos' Feind,
1
Recht fordernd mit Macht,
40
Menelaos der Fürst, Agamemnon mit ihm,
Das gewaltige Paar der Atriden, von Zeus
Durch Scepter und Thron zwiefältig geehrt,
Mit den tausend Masten Achäa's Heer,
Die Genossen des Kampfs,
45
Von den heimischen Fluren entführten.
Laut schnoben sie Mord aus zorniger Brust,
Wie der Weihen Geschlecht,
Die, der Jungen beraubt, in unendlichem Schmerz
Hoch über dem Horst hin kreisend und her,
50
Mit der Fittige Schlag durchrudern die Luft,
Die verlorenen Müh'n
Um der Kindlein Pflege betrauernd.
Doch ein Gott in den Höh'n, ob Apollon, ob Pan,
Ob Zeus, er vernimmt der Beraubten Geschrei,
55
Das mit klagendem Ruf die Gebirge durchhallt,
Und die Frevler ereilt
Der vergeltende Fluch der Erinnys.
So sandte des Atreus Söhne der Gott,
Der des Gastrechts wahrt, der gewaltige Zeus,
60
Auf Paris heran für der Buhlerin Raub,
Vielfältige Müh'n, abmattenden Kampf,
Da gestemmt in den Staub arbeitet das Knie,
Da die Lanze zerschellt in den vordersten Reih'n,
Dem achäischen Volke zu wecken,
65
Und den Troern zugleich. Nun geht es einmal,
Wie's geht; es erfüllt sich der Spruch des Geschicks;
Nicht Weinen und nicht Trankspende versöhnt,
Kein Jammern den unauslöschbaren Groll
Um die fehlende Flamme des Opfers.
70
Uns Greisen indeß, die das Alter gebeugt,
Uns ward kein Theil an der Ehre des Zugs;
Wir blieben zurück,
Gleich Kindern am Stab aufstüßend die Kraft.
Denn das jüngere Mark, das jugendlichſtolz
75
Im Busen sich hebt,
Flieht, schwach wie der Greis, vor dem Kampfe zurück:
Der Gealterte schleicht, wann herbstlich bereits
Sich entlaubte der Stamm, dreifüßig dahin;
Unmächtig, dem Kind gleich, wankt er einher,
80
Ein Traumbild, irrend am Tage.
(Während dieser Worte ist aus den Pforten des königlichen Palastes ein Zug von Dienerinnen mit Schalen und Krügen um die Altäre getreten, um zu opfern; zu gleicher Zeit erscheint Klytämnestra mit Gefolge, und läßt das Opfer beginnen.)
Der Chorführer.
Auf, Tyndaros' Kind,
O Königin, sprich, Klytämnestra: was ist's?
Was Neues geschah? Was vernahm dein Ohr?
Auf welches Gerücht
85
Dich stützend, erregst du die Opfer umher?
2
Denn den Göttern gesammt, den Behütern der Stadt
Und der Tiefen und Höh'n
Und des Markts und Olymps, flammt jeder Altar
Von duftenden Opfergeschenken.
90
Und von hier und von dort, zu dem Himmel empor,
Wallt leuchtende Glut,
Balsamisch getränkt mit des heiligen Oels
Süßathmendem, lauterem, labendem Born,
Mit der Spende vom Königeshause.
95
So sage mir denn, was du kundthun darfst
Und zu melden vermagst,
Und wehre der Angst und banne die Qual,
Die jetzt das Gemüth uns feindlich befällt;
Doch strahlt auch ein freudiges Hoffen mir auf
100
Von den Opfern und stillt das unendliche Leid,
Die verzehrende Trauer im Busen.
Chor
Gesang des Chores.
Strophe.
Singend verherrlichen darf ich der Könige Fahrt mit der Zeichen
3
Glücklichem Stern, (noch haucht ja Vertrau'n von den Göttern
Mir den Gesang ein,
105
Kraft noch gönnt mir das Alter,)
4
Wie Hellas' stolzthronendes Paar, der achäischen Jugend
Fürsten in Eintracht,
Sandten die stürmischen Adler mit rächenden
Armen und Lanzen in's Troergefilde,
110
Da die Beherrscher der Luft den Beherrschern des Meers,
Der eine mit schwarzem Gefieder,
Der andre weiß, nah dem Palaste, zur Rechten erschienen;
Auf weitglänzendem Horste
Saßen sie, gierig verschlingend das Fleisch der befruchteten Häsin,
115
Die matt im letzten Laufe sank.
Hebe den klagenden Ruf! Doch siegreich walte das Gute!
Gegenstrophe.
Aber der Seher des Heers, der erfahrene, sah der Atriden
5
Zwiefachen Sinn, und erkennt in den Mördern des Hasen
Argos' Feldherrn;
120
Und so deutend begann er:
„Wohl bricht dereinst stürmend in Priamos' Veste der Zug hier;
Alle die reichen
Schätze der Burg, die das Volk ihr steuerte,
6
Wird mit Gewalt einst rauben das Schicksal.
125
Daß nur göttlicher Neid nicht breche die Kraft
Dem gewaltigen Zaume des Heeres,
Das Troja stürzt! Artemis grollt ja dem Hause des Atreus,
Weil Zeus' fliegende Diener
Vor der Geburt mit der Frucht die geängstigte Mutter geopfert:
130
Sie haßt der Adler grauses Mahl."
Hebe den klagenden Ruf! Doch siegreich walte das Gute!
Schlußgesang.
„Die Holde, die so liebevoll
7
Dem grimmen Leu'n hütet die zarten Sprossen,
8
Die sich der milchverlangenden Jungen
135
Freut der schweifenden Thiere des Waldes,
9
Wünscht doch, daß sich das Zeichen erfülle,
Das Heilvolles verhieß, und zugleich uns schreckte mit Unheil.
Zu Phöbos ruf' ich, dem Gott des Heiles,
Daß sie dem Danaervolk durch Hemmungen feindlicher Winde
140
Nicht aufhalte die Fahrt,
Heischend ein anderes Mahl, ein verrucht unseliges Opfer
Welches gebäre den Streit, scheulos zu vertilgen den Gatten.
10
Fürchterlich harrt ja des einst heimkehrenden,
Tückisch im Haus ingeheim um das Kind fortglühend, die Rachsucht."
145
Solches verkündete Kalchas zugleich mit unendlichem Glücke,
Was von den Vögeln des Weges dem Königeshause verhängt ward.
Diesem entsprechend
Hebe den klagenden Ruf! Doch siegreich walte das Gute!
Chor
Wechselgesang des Chores.
Erste Strophe.
Zeus, wer Zeus auch immer sei, mit dem
150
Namen ruf' ich jetzt ihn an,
Hört er so sich gern genannt.
Wäg' ich Alles sinnend ab,
Keinen weiß ich auszuspäh'n,
Keinen, als Zeus, auf den ich die nichtige Bürde der Sorge
12
155
Werfen mag mit Zuversicht.
Erste Gegenstrophe.
Denn der ehedem gewaltig war,
Alles stürmte trozigfrech,
Seiner wird nicht mehr gedacht.
13
Der nach ihm erstand, auch er
160
Fand den Sieger und erlag.
Doch wer fromm im Gesange des Siegs den Kroniden verherrlicht,
Pflückt des Geistes schönsten Kranz.
Zweite Strophe.
Denn zur Weisheit leitet uns
Zeus und heiligt als Gesetz,
165
Daß in Leiden Lehre wohnt.
Auch in Träumen wallt ja vor das Herz
Schuldbewußt Seelenangst, und es keimt
Wider Willen weiser Sinn.
Huld der Gottheit ist es, die gewaltig
170
Hoch am Weltenruder thront.
Zweite Gegenstrophe.
Das erwog der ält're Fürst,
Der Achäa's Heereszug
Führte, schalt den Seher nicht,
Nein, trug still die ringsentbrannte Noth,
175
Als in thatloser Rast Hungerqual
Schwer bedrängt' Achäa's Volk,
Das in Aulis' wildumwogtem Porte
Chalkis gegenüber lag.
Dritte Strophe.
Vom Strymon her wehend, tobt der Sturmwind,
180
Bringt Zögern, bringt Hunger, wehrt die Landung,
Und führt die Menschen irre,
Schont Kiele nicht noch Taue,
Und dehnt endlos die lange Säumniß,
Daß Argos' Volksblüthe matt dahinwelkt.
14
185
Und als den Fürsten nun
Kalchas ein anderes Mittel,
Schmerzlicher, als des bittern
Sturmes Verzug, Artemis' Zorn meldend, enthüllt, daß sie den Stab
Wild in den Grund stießen und laut weinten, die Söhne des Atreus:
190
Dritte Gegenstrophe.
Da sprach er also, der ält're Heerfürst:
„Ein hartes Loos ist es, nicht zu folgen,
Ein hartes, soll ich schlachten
Mein Kind, des Hauses Kleinod,
Und bei'm Altar die Vaterhand hier
195
Nuchlos in's Herzblut der Tochter tauchen!
15
Was bleibt da frei von Leid?
Ueb' ich Verrath am Heere?
Täusch' ich die Kampfgenossen?
Daß sie das windstillende Sühnopfer, das jungfräuliche Blut,
200
Fordern in zornglühender Gier, recht ist's: führ' es zum Heile!"
Vierte Strophe.
Jetzt, als er aufnahm das Joch des Zwanges,
Und Sinneswandlung im Busen hauchte,
Gottlose, schnöd unheilige,
Ergriff er tollkühn das kecke Wagniß.
205
Denn dreist in Unthat verlockt die Menschen
Unsel'ger Wahnsinn, des Fluches Quelle.
So trug er's denn, sein Kind schlachten zu seh'n,
Dem frauenraubrächenden Krieg zum Schuße,
Als Voropfer des Seezugs:
210
Vierte Gegenstrophe.
Ihr Fleh'n, ihr Angstruf zum Vater rührt nicht,
Nicht ihre jungfräulich holde Blüthe,
Der Richter kampfentbrannten Muth.
Er hieß den Priestern, als ihr Gebet schwieg,
Sie, gleich der Ziege, hoch über'm Altar
215
Vorwärts gebeugt, tiefverhüllt in Schleier,
Mit Armeskraft emporheben, gebot
Der Tochter schönrosigen Mund zu fesseln,
Daß sie dem Haus nicht fluche,
Fünfte Strophe.
Mit Zwang und lautlosen Zaums starrer Macht.
220
Ihr Safrankleid floß zur Erde nieder,
Des Auges Blick traf mit Mitleids
Geschossen ihrer Opf'rer jeden,
Und reizend schön, einem Bild gleich, wollte sie
Wie sonst ihn anreden, da
225
Ihr Lied im mahlreichen Vätersaale
Erklungen. Oft sang sie da liebevoll, kindlichfromm,
16
Die Heldenjungfrau, das heitre Glück
Das selige Loos des Vaters.
Fünfte Gegenstrophe.
Was dann geschah, sah ich nicht, sag' ich nicht:
230
Doch Kalchas' Wort bleibt nicht unvollendet.
Denn Dike wägt allem Leide
Belehrung zu für späte Zukunft.
Vorauszuschau'n, was die Zeit bringt, wünsch' ich nicht;
17
Voraus trauern wäre das.
235
Denn klar enthüllt's einst der Sonne Frühstrahl.
So möge Heil uns hinfort blühen, wie Sie es wünscht,
Die dort heranwandelt und allein
Des apischen Landes Hort ist.
(Klytämnestra verläßt die Altäre, und kommt näher.)
Der Chorführer.
Commentary
Critical apparatus to Agamemnon (OCR draft) (Latin and Greek critical apparatus to Gottfried Hermann's 1852 edition of Agamemnon.) focus
40.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-24
44.
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53-54.
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66.
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69-71.
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72.
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75.
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77.
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78.
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79.
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80.
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81.
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82.
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83.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-51
87.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-52
90.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-53
91.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-54
94.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-55
97.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-56
98.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-57
100.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-58
101.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-59
102.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-60
103.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-61
103.note.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-62
104.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-63
105.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-64
106-107.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-65
108.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-66
109.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-67
110-111.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-68
112.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-69
113.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-70
114.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-71
115.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-72
116.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-73
117.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-74
118.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-75
119.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-76
120.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-77
121.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-78
122.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-79
124.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-80
125.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-81
126.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-82
127.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-83
128.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-84
129.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-85
131.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-86
132.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-87
133.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-88
135.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-89
136.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-90
137.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-91
138.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-92
139.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-93
140.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-94
141.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-95
142.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-96
143.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-97
145.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-98
146.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-99
147.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-100
148.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-101
149-150.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-102
151.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-103
154.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-104
155.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-105
158.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-106
162.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-107
164.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-108
166.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-109
169.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-110
172.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-111
174.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-112
175.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-113
176.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-114
178.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-115
182.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-116
183.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-117
184.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-118
185.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-119
187.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-120
188.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-121
189.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-122
192.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-123
193.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-124
196.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-125
197.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-126
199.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-127
200.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-128
202-204.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-129
205.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-130
206.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-131
207.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-132
208.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-133
209.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-134
212.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-135
213.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-136
214.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-137
215.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-138
216.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-139
217.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-140
218.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-141
219.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-142
220.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-143
221.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-144
223.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-145
224-225.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-146
226.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-147
230-232.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-148
234.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-149
235-236.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-150
237.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-151
238.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-152
239.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-153
240.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-154
241-242.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-155
243.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-156
244.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-157
245.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-158
246.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-159
247.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-160
248.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-161
249.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-162
251.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-163
253.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-164
254.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-165
255.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-166
256.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-167
257.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-168
258.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-169
259.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-170
261.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-171
262.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-172
265.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-173
267.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-174
268.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-175
269.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-hermann1852-appcrit-lat1-176
Wecklein’s commentary on Agamemnon (1888; German; OCR draft) (Explanatory commentary, pp. 30–140; Iowa and Harvard OCR collated conservatively. Unresolved OCR and provisional reference mappings are explicitly marked.) focus
40-269.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-26
40.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-27
41-42.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-28
43.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-29
45.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-30
47.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-31
48.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-32
49.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-33
50.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-34
51.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-35
52.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-36
53-54.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-37
55.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-38
58.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-39
59.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-40
60.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-41
61.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-42
62.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-43
64.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-44
65.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-45
66.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-46
67-68.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-47
69.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-48
70-71.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-49
71.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-50
72.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-51
75.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-52
76.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-53
77.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-54
78.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-55
79-80.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-56
82.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-57
83.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-58
87.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-59
88.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-60
90.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-61
91.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-62
92.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-63
95.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-64
96.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-65
98.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-66
99.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-67
102-103.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-68
104-105.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-69
106-107.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-70
113.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-71
115.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-72
116.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-73
119.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-74
120.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-75
121-122.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-76
123.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-77
124.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-78
125-126.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-79
127.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-80
129.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-81
131.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-82
133-134.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-83
135.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-84
136.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-85
137.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-86
139-140.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-87
141.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-88
142.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-89
144.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-90
146.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-91
147.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-92
150.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-93
153.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-94
155.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-95
157-158.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-96
159.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-97
161.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-98
165.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-99
168.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-100
170.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-101
173.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-102
175.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-103
178.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-104
181.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-105
184.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-106
185.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-107
186.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-108
187.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-109
189.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-110
190-191.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-111
192-193.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-112
194.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-113
196.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-114
197.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-115
198.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-116
199.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-117
200.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-118
202.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-119
203.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-120
204.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-121
205.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-122
207.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-123
209-210.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-124
211-212.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-125
215.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-126
216.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-127
221.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-128
222-223.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-129
224.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-130
225-226.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-131
227.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-132
228.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-133
229.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-134
230-231.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-135
232-233.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-136
234.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-137
235.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-138
238.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-139
239.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-140
240.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-141
241.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-142
242.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-143
243.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-144
244.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-145
245.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-146
248.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-147
249.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-148
251-252.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-149
256.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-150
257-258.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-151
259.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-152
260.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-153
261.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-154
263-264.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-155
266.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-156
267.
mvp-aeschylus-tlg0085-tlg005-wecklein1888-com-ger1-157