Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (13 page)

[817]
For the males of
the race of Aegyptus, intolerable in their wantonness, chase after me, a
fugitive, with clamorous lewdness and seek to lay hold of me with violence. But
yours alone is the beam of the balance, and without you what is accomplished
for mortals?

[
The herald of the Egyptians is
seen at a distance, with armed followers.
]
[825]
Ho! Ha!
Here on the land is the pirate from the ship! Before that, pirate, may you
perish . . . I see in this the prelude of suffering wrought by violence. Oh!
Oh! Fly for protection! Savagery beyond bearing by its insolence on sea and
land alike. Lord of the land, protect us!

[HERALD]
[836]
Away with
you, away to the ship, as fast as your feet can carry you! If you won’t, your
hair shall be torn out; you’ll be pricked with goads, and off will come your
heads with abundant letting of gory blood. Away with you, away — and curses on
you! — to the ships.

[CHORUS]
[843]
Would that
you had perished on your course over the great briny flood along with your
lordly arrogance and your riveted ship! . . .

[HERALD]
[849]
I order
you to stop your shrieking. . . . Ho there! leave the sanctuary: be off to the
ship! I do not respect one without honor and city.

[CHORUS]
[854]
Never
again may my eyes behold the cattle-nurturing stream from which increase comes
to men and vigor of the blood of life. I am a native here, of ancient nobility
. . . old man.

[HERALD]
[861]
You will
get yourself speedily on board, on board, I say, whether you will or not, by
force, by force. . . .

[CHORUS]
[866]
Alas,
alas! So may you perish past all help, driven from your course over the surging
waves by eastern breezes off the sandy tomb of Sarpedon!

HERALD
[872]
Wail and
shout and call upon the gods — you will not escape the Egyptian ship. Cry out,
utter a strain of woe more bitter still.

[CHORUS]
[876]
Alas, alas
the brutal outrage with which, you crocodile, you boast arrogantly, bellowing
on the sea. May the mighty Nile, who watches
you, overwhelm your arrogance and destroy you.

HERALD
[882]
Go to the
double-prowed ship as quickly as possible. Let no one delay, for dragging by
force has no mercy on locks of hair.

CHORUS
[885]
Alas,
father; the help of the sacred images deludes me. Like a spider, he is carrying
me seaward step by step — a nightmare, a black nightmare! Oh! Oh! Mother Earth,
mother Earth, avert his fearful cries! O father Zeus, son of Earth!

HERALD
[893]
I do not
fear the native gods, be assured. They did not rear me, nor by their nurture
did they bring me to old age.

CHORUS
[895]
He rages
close to me, the two-footed serpent. Like some viper he lays hold of me and
bites my foot. Alas, alas! Mother Earth, mother Earth, avert his fearful cries!
O father Zeus, son of Earth!

HERALD
[902]
If you
will not resign yourself and get to the ship, rending will have no pity on the
fabric of your garments.

CHORUS
[908]
We are
lost! O King, we are suffering impious violence!

HERALD
[906]
Oh, you
will soon see many kings in Aegyptus’ sons. Be of good cheer: you will not have
to blame lack of government.

[CHORUS]
[905]
Listen!
Chiefs and rulers of the city, I am threatened with violence!

[HERALD]
[909]
I think I
will have to seize you by the hair and drag you off since you are slow to heed
my orders.

[
Enter the King
with retainers.
]

KING
[911]
You there!
What are you doing? What kind of arrogance has incited you to do such dishonor
to this realm of Pelasgian men? Indeed, do you think you have come to a land of
women? For a barbarian dealing with Hellenes, you act insolently. Many are the
misses of your wits, and your hits are none.

HERALD
[916]
And in
this case where have I gone wrong and transgressed my right?

KING
[917]
First of
all, you do not know how to act as a stranger.

HERALD
[918]
I not
know? How so, when I simply find and take my own that I had lost?

KING
[919]
To what
patrons of your land was your notice given?

HERALD
[920]
To Hermes,
the Searcher, greatest of patrons.

KING
[921]
For all
your notice to the gods, you do them no reverence.

HERALD
[922]
I revere
the deities by the Nile.

KING
[923]
While ours
are nothing, as I understand you?

HERALD
[924]
I shall
carry off these maids unless someone tears them away.

KING
[925]
If you so
much as touch them, you will regret it, and right soon.

HERALD
[926]
I hear
you; and your speech is far from hospitable.

KING
[927]
No, since
I have no hospitality for despoilers of the gods.

HERALD
[928]
I will go
and tell Aegyptus’ sons about this.

KING
[929]
My proud
spirit will not ponder on this threat.

HERALD
[930]
But that I
may know and tell a plainer tale — for it is fitting that a herald make exact
report on each detail — what message am I to deliver? Who is it, am I to tell
on my return, that has despoiled me of this band of women, their own cousins?
It is not, I suppose, by voice of witnesses that the god of battle judges cases
like this; nor is it by the gift of silver that he settles dispute; no! If that
be the case, many a one shall fall and shuffle off his life.

[KING]
[938]
My name?
Why should I tell you? In due course of time you will learn it, you and your
companions. As for these maids, if, convinced by god-fearing argument, they
consent of their own free will and heartily, you may take them. But to this
purpose a decree has been passed by the unanimous resolve of the people of the
State, never, under compulsion, to surrender this association of women. Through
their resolve the rivet has been driven home, to remain fixed and fast. Not on
tablets is this inscribed, nor has it been sealed in folds of books: you hear
the truth from free-spoken lips. Now get out of my sight immediately!

[HERALD]
[950]
I think we
are about to involve ourselves in a new war. But may victory and authority rest
with the men!

[KING]
[952]
It is men,
I believe, you will find in the dwellers of this land; and they are no drinkers
of diluted wine. [
Exit Herald.
] But take courage, all of you, and
together with your handmaidens, proceed to our well-fenced town, encircled by
sturdy devices of towers. As for places inside to lodge, there are plenty of
the public sort. For on no modest scale do I myself live, where, in company
with many others, you may occupy abodes suitably prepared; or, if it is more
pleasing to you, it is free for you also to make your home in dwellings of
separate sort. Of these select what is best and most to your desires. A
protector you have in me and in all the inhabitants, whose resolve this is that
now takes effect. Why wait for others of higher authority?

CHORUS
[966]
In
blessings may you abound, noble Pelasgian, in requital for your blessings! But,
if it pleases you, send our brave father Danaus here to be our adviser and
leader of our counsels. For it befits him, rather than ourselves, to advise us
where we should establish our home and what neighborhood is friendly. All the
world is ready to cast reproach on those who speak a foreign tongue. But may
all be for the best! [
Exit the King.
] And you, dear handmaidens,
preserving your fair fame and provoking no angry utterances on the part of the
native folk, take up your stations even as Danaus has allotted her duty of
attendance unto each.

[
Enter Danaus
with a bodyguard.
]

DANAUS
[980]
My
children, it is right to offer prayers to the Argives and to sacrifice and pour
libations to them as to Olympian gods; for they are our saviors in no doubtful
manner. They heard from my lips the conduct of your cousins toward their own
kinfolk, and were moved to bitterness against them; but to me they assigned
this escort of spearmen, that I might have rank and honor, and might not be
ambushed and perish by the death of the spear, and so an ever-living burden
come upon the land. Recipients of such favors as these, it becomes us to hold
gratitude in yet higher honor from the bottom of our hearts. And in addition to
the many other wise injunctions of your father recorded in your memory,
inscribe this too — that an unknown company is proved by time. For in an alien’s
case, all the world bears an evil tongue in readiness, and it is easy lightly
to utter defiling slander. Therefore I would have you bring no shame upon me,
now when your youthful loveliness attracts men’s gaze. The tender ripeness of
summer fruit is in no way easy to protect; beasts despoil it — and men, why
not? — and brutes that fly and those that walk the earth. Love’s goddess
spreads news abroad of fruit bursting ripe. . . . So all men, as they pass,
mastered by desire, shoot an alluring arrow of the eye at the delicate beauty
of virgins. See to it, therefore, that we do not suffer that in fear for which
we have endured great toil and ploughed the great waters with our ship; and
that we bring no shame to ourselves and exultation to our enemies. Housing of
two kinds is at our disposition, the one Pelasgus offers, the other, the city,
and to occupy free of cost. These terms are easy. Only pay heed to these
behests of your father, and count your chastity more precious than your life.

CHORUS
[1014]
May the
Olympian gods grant us good fortune in all the rest! But, concerning the bloom
of my virginity, father, be of good cheer, for, unless some evil has been
devised of Heaven, I will not swerve from the former pathway of my thoughts.

CHORUS [OF THE DANAIDS]
[1018]
Come now
away, glorifying the blessed gods, lords of the city both those who guard the
town and those who dwell about Erasinus’ ancient stream. And you handmaidens
take up the song. Let the theme of our praise be this city of the Pelasgians,
and no longer let the homage of our hymns be paid to Nile’s
floods where they seek the sea, but to the rivers that pour their gentle
draught through the land and increase the birth of children, soothing its soil
with their fertilizing streams.

[1030]
May pure
Artemis look upon this band in compassion, and may marriage never come through
Cytherea’s compulsion. May that prize belong to my enemies!

[CHORUS OF HANDMAIDENS]
[1034]
Yet there
is no disdain of Cypris in this our friendly hymn; for she, together with Hera,
holds power nearest to Zeus, and for her solemn rites the goddess of varied
wiles is held in honor. And in the train of their mother are Desire and she to
whom nothing is denied, winning Persuasion; and to Harmonia has been given a
share of Aphrodite, and to the whispering touches of the Loves.

[1043]
But for the
fugitives I have boding fears of blasts of harm and cruel distress and bloody
wars. How did they make such a smooth voyage when pursuit followed fast upon
their track? Whatever is fated, that will come to pass. The mighty,
untrammelled will of Zeus cannot be transgressed. Marriage has been the destiny
of many women before our time.

[A DANAID]
[1052]
May
mighty Zeus defend me from marriage with Aegyptus’ race!

[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1054]
That
would indeed be best.

[A DANAID]
[1055]
But you
would move the immovable.

[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1056]
And you
do not know what the future has in store.

[A DANAID]
[1057]
How
should I scan the mind of Zeus, a sight unfathomable?

[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1059]
Let the
words of your prayer be moderate.

[A DANAID]
[1060]
What
sense of proportion would you now teach me?

[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1061]
Do not
ask too much of the gods.

[CHORUS OF DANAIDS AND HANDMAIDENS]
[1062]
May
sovereign Zeus spare me cruel marriage with a man I hate, that very Zeus who
mercifully freed Io from pain, restoring her with healing hand by kindly force.
And may he award victory to the women! I praise that which is better than evil,
two parts of good mixed with one of bad; and I praise that, through god-given
means of deliverance, conflicting rights, in accordance with my prayers, should
follow the course of justice.

[
Exeunt omnes.
]

Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth

Except for a few
missing lines, the
Oresteia
is the
only trilogy to survive from antiquity. First performed in 458 BC, the trilogy
consists of
Agamemnon
,
The Libation Bearers
and
The Eumenides
, narrating the treacherous
story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos.

The first play
of the trilogy concerns the return of King Agamemnon from Troy and the reception he receives from his
wife, Queen Clytemnestra. Dark omens prepare the audience for the death of the
king at the hands of his wife, who is angry at his killing of their daughter
Iphigenia, sacrificed so the Gods would stop a storm hindering the Greek fleet
in the war. Clytemnestra is also jealous at Agamemnon’s keeping of the Trojan
prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra foretells of the murder of Agamemnon,
and of herself, to the assembled townsfolk, who are horrified. She then enters
the palace knowing that she cannot avoid her fate. The ending of the play
includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will seek
to avenge his father.