Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (15 page)

CHORUS
[317]
Lady, my
prayers of thanksgiving to the gods I will offer soon. But as I would like to
hear and satisfy my wonder at your tale straight through to the end, so may you
tell it yet again.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[320]
 This
day the Achaeans hold Troy.
Within the town there sounds loud, I believe, a clamor of voices which will not
blend. Pour vinegar and oil into the same vessel and you will say that, as
foes, they keep apart; so the cries of vanquished and victors greet the ear,
distinct as their fortunes are diverse. Those, flung upon the corpses of their
husbands and their brothers, children upon the bodies of their aged fathers who
gave them life, bewail from lips no longer free the death of their dearest
ones, while these — a night of restless toil after battle sets them down
famished to break their fast on such fare as the town affords; not faring
according to rank, but as each man has drawn his lot by chance. And even now they
are quartered in the captured Trojan homes, delivered from the frosts and dew
of the naked sky, and like happy men will sleep all the night without a guard.

[338]
Now if they keep
clear of guilt towards the gods of the town — those of the conquered land — and
towards their shrines, the captors shall not be made captives in their turn.
Only may no mad impulse first assail the army, overmastered by greed, to
pillage what they should not! For to win safe passage home they need to travel
back the other length of their double course. But even if, without having
offended the gods, our troops should reach home, the grievous suffering of the
dead might still remain awake — if no fresh disaster transpires. These are my
woman’s words; but may the good prevail clearly for all to see! For, choosing
thus, I have chosen the enjoyment of many a blessing.

CHORUS
[351]
Lady, you
speak as wisely as a prudent man. And, for my part, now that I have listened to
your certain proofs, I prepare to address due prayers of thanksgiving to the
gods; for a success has been achieved that well repays the toil.

[355]
 Hail,
sovereign Zeus, and you kindly Night, you who have given us great glory, you
who cast your meshed snare upon the towered walls of Troy, so that neither old
nor young could overleap  the huge enslaving net of all-conquering
Destruction. Great Zeus it is, lord of host and guest, whom I revere — he has
brought this to pass. He long kept his bow bent against Alexander until his
bolt would neither fall short of the mark nor, flying beyond the stars, be
launched in vain.

[367]
“The stroke of
Zeus” they may call it; his hand can be traced there. As he determines, so he
acts. Someone said that the gods do not trouble themselves to remember mortals
who trample underfoot the grace of things not to be touched. But that man was
impious!

[374]
Now it stands
revealed! The penalty for reckless crime is ruin when men breathe a spirit of
pride above just measure, because their mansions teem with more abundance than
is good for them. But let there be such wealth as brings no distress, enough to
satisfy a sensible man. For riches do not protect the man who in wantonness has
kicked the mighty altar of Justice into obscurity.

[385]
 Perverse
Temptation, the overmastering child of designing Destruction, drives men on;
and every remedy is futile. His evil is not hidden; it shines forth, a baleful
gleam. Like base metal beneath the touchstone’s rub, when tested he shows the
blackness of his grain (for he is like a child who chases a winged bird) and
upon his people he brings a taint against which there is no defence. No god
listens to his prayers. The man associated with such deeds, him they destroy in
his unrighteousness.

[399]
And such was
Paris, who came to the house of the sons of Atreus and dishonoured the
hospitality of his host by stealing away a wedded wife.

[403]
 But she,
bequeathing to her people the clang of shield and spear and army of fleets, and
bringing to Ilium destruction in place of dowry, with light step she passed
through the gates — daring a deed undareable. Then loud wailed the seers of the
house crying,  ”Alas, alas, for the home, the home, and for the princes!
Alas for the husband’s bed and the impress of her form so dear! He sits apart
in the anguish of his grief, silent, dishonored but making no reproach. In his
yearning for her who sped beyond the sea, a phantom will seem to be lord of the
house. The grace of fair-formed statues is hateful to him; and in the hunger of
his eyes all loveliness is departed.

[420]
 Mournful
apparitions come to him in dreams, bringing only vain joy; for vainly, whenever
in his imagination a man sees delights, straightaway the vision, slipping
through his arms, is gone, winging its flight along the paths of sleep.Such are
the sorrows at hearth and home, but here are sorrows surpassing these; and at
large, in every house of all who went forth together from the land of Hellas,
unbearable grief is seen. Many things pierce the heart. Each knows whom he sent
forth. But to the home of each come urns and ashes, not living men.

[437]
Ares barters the
bodies of men for gold; he holds his balance in the contest of the spear; and
back from Ilium to their loved ones he sends a heavy dust passed through his
burning, a dust cried over with plenteous tears, in place of men sending well
made urns with ashes. So they lament, praising now this one: “How skilled in
battle!” now that one: “Fallen nobly in the carnage,”— “for another’s wife— “
some mutter in secret, and  grief charged with resentment spreads
stealthily against the sons of Atreus, champions in the strife. But there far
from home, around the city’s walls, those in their beauty’s bloom have graves
in Ilium — the enemy’s soil has covered its
conquerors.

[456]
Dangerous is a
people’s voice charged with wrath — it acts as a curse of publicly ratified
doom.  In anxious fear I wait to hear something shrouded still in gloom.
The gods are not blind to men with blood upon their hands. In the end the black
Spirits of Vengeance bring to obscurity that one who has prospered in
unrighteousness and wear down his fortunes by reverse. Once a man is among the
unseen, there is no more help for him. Glory in excess is fraught with
peril; the lofty peak is struck by Zeus’ thunderbolt. I choose prosperity
unassailed by envy. May I not be a sacker of cities, and may I not myself be
despoiled and live to see my own life in another’s power!

(ONE ELDER)
[475]
 Heralded
by a beacon of good tidings a swift report has spread throughout the town. Yet
whether it is true, or some deception of the gods, who knows?

(A SECOND ELDER)
[479]
Who is so
childish or so bereft of sense, once he has let his heart be fired by sudden
news of a beacon fire, to despair if the story changes?

(A THIRD ELDER)
[483]
It is just
like a woman’s eager nature to yield assent to pleasing news before yet the
truth is clear.

(A FOURTH ELDER)
[485]
 Too
credulous, a woman’s mind has boundaries open to quick encroachment; but quick
to perish is rumor spread by a woman.

(LEADER OF THE CHORUS)
[489]
We shall
soon know about this passing on of flaming lights and beacon signals and fires,
whether they perhaps are true or whether, dream-like, this light’s glad coming
has beguiled our senses. Look! I see approaching from the shore a herald
crowned with boughs of olive. The thirsty dust, consorting sister of the mud,
assures me that neither by pantomime nor by kindling a flame of mountain wood
will he signal with smoke of fire. Either in plain words he will bid us to
rejoice the more, or — but I have little love for the report opposite to this!
May still further good be added to the good that has appeared!

(ANOTHER ELDER)
[501]
Whoever
makes this prayer with other intent toward the state, let him reap himself the
fruit of his misguided purpose!

[
Enter a Herald
]

HERALD
[503]
All hail,
soil of Argos,
land of my fathers! On this happy day in the tenth year I have come to you.
Many hopes have shattered, one only have I seen fulfilled; for I never dared to
dream that here in this land
of Argos I should die and
have due portion of burial most dear to me. Now blessings on the land,
blessings on the light of the sun, and blessed be Zeus, the land’s Most High,
and the Pythian lord; and may he launch no more his shafts against us. Enough
of your hostility did you display by Scamander’s banks; but now, in other mood,
be our preserver and our healer, O lord Apollo. And the gods gathered here, I
greet them all; him, too, my own patron, Hermes, beloved herald, of heralds all
revered; and the heroes who sped us forth, I pray that they may receive back in
kindliness the remnant of the host which has escaped the spear.

[519]
Hail, halls of
our kings, beloved roofs, and you august seats, and you divinities that face
the sun, if ever you did in days gone by, now after long lapse of years, with
gladness in your eyes receive your king. For bearing light in darkness to you
and to all assembled here alike, he has returned — Agamemnon, our king. Oh
greet him well, as is right, since he has uprooted Troy with the mattock of Zeus the Avenger,
with which her soil has been uptorn. Demolished are the altars and the shrines
of her gods; and the seed of her whole land has been wasted utterly. Upon the
neck of Troy he
has cast such a yoke. Now he has come home, our king, Atreus’ elder son, a man
of happy fate, worthy of honor beyond all living men. For neither Paris nor his
partner city can boast that the deed was greater than the suffering. Convicted
for robbery and for theft as well, he has lost the plunder and has razed in
utter destruction his father’s house and even the land. The sons of Priam have
paid a twofold penalty for their sins.

CHORUS
[538]
Joy to
you, Herald from the Achaean host!

HERALD
[539]
I do
rejoice. I will no longer refuse to die, if that pleases the gods.

CHORUS
[540]
 Was
it yearning for this your fatherland that wore you out?

HERALD
[541]
Yes, so
that my eyes are filled with tears for joy.

CHORUS
[542]
It was
then a pleasing malady from which you suffered.

HERALD
[543]
How so?
Teach me, and I shall master what you say.

CHORUS
[544]
You were
smitten with desire for those who returned your love.

HERALD
[545]
 Do
you mean that our land longed for the longing host?

CHORUS
[546]
Longed so,
that often from a darkly brooding spirit I have sighed.

HERALD
[547]
Where did
this gloom of melancholy upon your spirit come from?

CHORUS
[548]
Long since
have I found silence an antidote to harm.

HERALD
[549]
How so?
Did you fear anyone when our princes were gone?

CHORUS
[550]
 In
such fear that now, in your own words, even death would be great joy.

HERALD
[551]
Yes, all’s
well, well ended. Yet, of what occurred in the long years, one might well say
that part fell out happily, and part in turn amiss. But who, unless he is a
god, is free from suffering all his days? For were I to recount our hardships
and our wretched quarters, the scanty space and the sorry berths — what did we
not have to complain of . . . Then again, ashore, there was still worse to
loathe; for we had to lie down close to the enemy’s walls, and the drizzling
from the sky and the dews from the meadows distilled upon us, working constant
destruction to our clothes and filling our hair with vermin.

[563]
And if one were
to tell of the wintry cold, past all enduring, when Ida’s snow slew the birds;
or of the heat, when upon his waveless noonday couch, windless the sea sank to
sleep — but why should we bewail all this? Our labor’s past; past for the dead
so that they will never care even to wake to life again. Why should we count
the number of the slain, or why should the living feel pain at their past harsh
fortunes? Our misfortunes should, in my opinion, bid us a long farewell. For
us, the remnant of the Argive host, the gain has the advantage and the loss
does not bear down the scale; so that, as we speed over land and sea, it is
fitting that we on this bright day make this boast: “The Argive army, having
taken Troy at last, has nailed up these spoils to be a glory for the gods
throughout Hellas in their shrines from days of old.” Whoever hears the story
of these deeds must extol the city and the leaders of her host; and the grace
of Zeus that brought them to accomplishment shall receive its due measure of
gratitude. There, you have heard all that I have to say.

CHORUS
[583]
Your words
have proved me wrong. I do not deny it; for the old have ever enough youth to learn
aright. But these tidings should have most interest for the household and
Clytaemestra, and at the same time enrich me.

[
Enter
Clytaemestra
.]

CLYTAEMESTRA
[587]
I raised a
shout of triumph in my joy long before this, when the first flaming messenger arrived
by night, telling that Ilium was captured and
overthrown. Then there were some who chided me and said: “Are you so convinced
by beacon-fires as to think that Troy
has now been sacked? Truly, it is just like a woman to be elated in heart.” By
such taunts I was made to seem as if my wits were wandering. Nevertheless I
still held on with my sacrifice, and throughout all the quarters of the city,
according to their womanly custom, they raised a shout of happy praise while in
the shrines of the gods they lulled to rest the fragrant spice-fed flame.