Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (16 page)

[598]
So now why should you rehearse to me
the account at length? From the king himself I shall hear the whole tale; but I
should hasten to welcome my honored husband best on his return. For what joy is
sweeter in a woman’s eyes than to unbar the gates for her husband when God has
spared him to return from war? Give this message to my husband: let him come
with all speed, his country’s fond desire, come to find at home his wife
faithful, even as he left her, a watchdog of his house, loyal to him, a foe to
those who wish him ill; yes, for the rest, unchanged in every part; in all
this length of time never having broken any seal. Of pleasure from any other
man or of scandalous repute I know no more than of dyeing bronze.
[
Exit.
]

HERALD
[613]
A boast
like this, loaded full with truth, does not shame the speech of a noble wife.

CHORUS
[615]
 Thus
has she spoken for your schooling, but speciously for those that can interpret
right. But, Herald, say — I want to hear of Menelaus. Has he, our land’s dear
lord, travelled safe home and has he returned with you?

HERALD
[620]
 It
would be impossible to report false news so fair that those I love should take
pleasure for long.

CHORUS
[622]
Oh if only
you could tell tidings true yet good! It is not easy to conceal when true and
good are split apart.

HERALD
[624]
The prince
was swept from the sight of the Achaean host, himself, and his ship likewise. I
speak no lies.

CHORUS
[626]
Did he put
forth in sight of all from Ilium, or did a
storm, distressing all in common, snatch him from the fleet?

HERALD
[628]
Like a
master bowman you have hit the mark; a long tale of distress have you told in
brief.

CHORUS
[630]
 Did
the general voice of other voyagers bring news of him as alive or dead?

HERALD
[632]
None knows
to give clear report of this — except only the Sun that fosters life upon the
earth.

CHORUS
[634]
How then
do you say rose the storm by the wrath of the gods upon the naval host and
passed away?

HERALD
[636]
An
auspicious day one should not mar with a tale of misfortune — the honor due to
the gods keeps them apart. When a messenger with gloomy countenance reports to
a people dire disaster of its army’s rout — one common wound inflicted on the
State, while from many a home many a victim is devoted to death by the
two-handled whip beloved of Ares, destruction double-armed, a gory pair — when,
I say, he is packed with woes like this, he should sing the triumph-song of the
Avenging Spirits.

[646]
But when one comes with glad news of
deliverance to a city rejoicing in its happiness — how shall I mix fair with
foul in telling of the storm, not unprovoked by the gods’ wrath, that broke
upon the Achaeans? For fire and sea, beforehand bitterest of foes, swore
alliance and as proof destroyed the unhappy Argive army. In the night-time
arose the mischief from the cruel swells. Beneath blasts from Thrace ship
dashed against ship; and they, gored violently by the furious hurricane and
rush of pelting rain, were swept out of sight by the whirling gust of an evil
shepherd. But when the radiant light of the sun rose we beheld the Aegean
flowering with corpses of Achaean men and wreckage of ships. Ourselves,
however, and our ship, its hull unshattered, some power, divine not human,
preserved by stealth or intercession, laying hand upon its helm; and Savior
Fortune chose to sit aboard our craft so that it should neither take in the
swelling surf at anchorage nor drive upon a rock-bound coast. Then, having
escaped death upon the deep, in the clear bright day, scarce crediting our
fortune, we brooded in anxious thought over our late mischance, our fleet
distressed and sorely buffeted. So now, if any of them still draw the breath of
life, they speak of us as lost — and why should they not? We think the same of them.
But may all turn out for the best! For Menelaus, indeed; first and foremost
expect him to return. At least if some beam of the sun finds him alive and
well, by the design of Zeus, who has not yet decided utterly to destroy the
race, there is some hope that he will come home again. Hearing so much, be
assured that you hear the truth.
[
Exit
.]

CHORUS
[681]
Who can
have given a name so altogether true — was it some power invisible guiding his
tongue aright by forecasting of destiny? — who named that bride of the spear
and source of strife with the name of Helen? For, true to her name, a Hell she
proved to ships, Hell to men, Hell to city, when stepping forth from her
delicate and costly-curtained bower, she sailed the sea before the breath of
earth-born Zephyrus. And after her a goodly host of warrior huntsmen followed
on the oars’ vanished track in pursuit of a quarry that had beached its boat on
Simois’ leafy banks — in a strife to end in blood.

[699]
To Ilium, its
purpose fulfilling, Wrath brought a marriage rightly named a mourning, exacting
in later time requital for the dishonor done to hospitality and to Zeus, the
partaker of the hearth, upon those who with loud voice celebrated the song
in honor of the bride, even the bridegroom’s kin to whom it fell that day to
raise the marriage-hymn. But Priam’s city has learned, in her old age, an
altered strain, and now, I trust, wails a loud song, full of lamentation,
calling Paris “evil-wed”; for she has born the burden of a life in which
everything was destroyed, a life full of lamentation because of  the
wretched slaughter of her sons.

[716]
Even so a man
reared in his house a lion’s whelp, robbed of its mother’s milk yet still
desiring the breast. Gentle it was in the prelude of its life, kindly to
children, and a delight to the old. Much did it get, held in arms like a
nursling child, with its bright eye turned toward his hand, and fawning under
compulsion of its belly’s need.

[727]
But brought to
full growth by time it showed the nature it had from its parents. Unbidden, as
payment for its fostering, it prepared a feast with ruinous slaughter of the
flocks; so that the house was defiled with blood, and whose who lived there
could not control their anguish, and great was the carnage far and wide. A
priest of ruin, by order of a god, it was reared in the house.

[737]
At first, I
would say, there came to Ilium the spirit of unruffled calm, a delicate
ornament of wealth, a darter of soft glances from the eye, love’s flower that
stings the heart. Then, swerving from her course, she brought her marriage to a
bitter end, sped on to the children of Priam under escort of Zeus, the warder
of host and guest, ruining her sojourn and her companions, a vengeful Fury who
brought tears to brides.

[750]
 A venerable
utterance proclaimed of old has been fashioned among mankind: the prosperity of
man, when it has come to full growth, engenders offspring and does not die
childless, and from his good fortune there springs up insatiable misery.

[756]
But I hold my
own mind and think apart from other men. It is the evil deed that afterwards
begets more iniquity like its own breed; but when a house is righteous, the lot
of its children is blessed always.

[763]
But an old
Hubris tends to bring forth in evil men, sooner or later, at the fated hour of
birth, a young Hubris and that irresistible, unconquerable, unholy spirit,
Recklessness, and for the household black Curses, which resemble their parents.

[773]
But
Righteousness shines in smoke-begrimed dwellings and esteems the virtuous man. From
gilded mansions, where men’s hands are foul, she departs with averted eyes and
makes her way to pure homes; she does not worship the power of wealth stamped
counterfeit by the praise of men, and she guides all things to their proper
end.

[
Enter Agamemnon and Cassandra, in
a chariot, with a numerous retinue.
]
[782]
All hail,
my King, sacker of Troy,
off-spring of Atreus! How shall I greet you? How shall I do you homage, not
overshooting or running short of the due measure of courtesy? Many of mortal
men put appearance before truth and thereby transgress the right.Every one is
ready to heave a sigh over the unfortunate, but no sting of true sorrow reaches
the heart; and in seeming sympathy they join in others’ joy, forcing their
faces into smiles. But whoever is a discerning shepherd of his flock cannot be
deceived by men’s eyes which, while they feign loyalty of heart, only fawn upon
him with watery affection.

[799]
Now in the past,
when you marshaled the army in Helen’s cause, you were depicted in my eyes (for
I will not hide it from you) most ungracefully and as not rightly guiding the
helm of your mind in seeking through your sacrifices to bring courage to dying
men.

[804]
 But now,
from the depth of my heart and with no lack of love their toil is joy to those
who have won success. In course of time you shall learn by enquiry who of your
people has been an honest, and who an unfitting guardian of the State.

AGAMEMNON
[810]
 Argos first, as is right
and proper, I greet, and her local gods who have helped me to my safe return
and to the justice I exacted from Priam’s town. For listening to no pleadings
by word of mouth, without dissenting voice, they cast into the bloody urn their
ballots for the murderous destroying of Ilium;
but to the urn of acquittal that no hand filled, Hope alone drew near. The
smoke even now still declares the city’s fall. Destruction’s blasts still live,
and the embers, as they die, breathe forth rich fumes of wealth. For this
success we should render to the gods a return in ever-mindful gratitude, seeing
that we have thrown round the city the toils of vengeance, and in a woman’s
cause it has been laid low by the fierce Argive beast, brood of the horse, a
shield-armed folk, that launched its leap when the Pleiades waned. Vaulting
over its towered walls, the ravening lion lapped up his fill of princely blood.

[829]
For the gods
then I have stretched out this prelude. But, touching your sentiments — which I
heard and still bear in memory — I both agree and you have in me an advocate.
For few there are among men in whom it is inborn to admire without envy a
friend’s good fortune. For the venom of malevolence settles upon the heart and
doubles the burden of him who suffers from that plague: he is himself weighed
down by his own calamity, and groans to see another’s prosperity. From
knowledge — for well I know the mirror of companionship — I may call a shadow
of a shade those who feigned exceeding loyalty to me. Only Odysseus, the very
man who sailed against his will, once harnessed, proved my zealous yoke-fellow.
This I affirm of him whether he is alive or dead.

[844]
But, for the
rest, in what concerns the State and public worship, we shall appoint open
debates and consider. Where all goes well, we must take counsel so that it may
long endure; but whenever there is need of healing remedy, we will by kind
appliance of cautery or the knife endeavor to avert the mischief of the
disease.

[851]
And now I will pass to my palace halls
and to my household hearth, and first of all pay greeting to the gods. They who
sent me forth have brought me home again. May victory, now that it has attended
me, remain ever with me constant to the end!
[
He descends from his chariot.
]

[
Enter
Clytaemestra, attended by maidservants carrying purple tapestries.
]

CLYTAEMESTRA
[855]
 Citizens
of Argos, you Elders present here, I shall not be ashamed to confess in your
presence my fondness for my husband — with time diffidence dies away in humans.

[858]
Untaught by
others, I can tell of my own weary life all the long while my husband was
beneath Ilium’s walls. First and foremost, it
is a terrible evil for a wife to sit forlorn at home, severed from her husband,
always hearing many malignant rumors, and for one messenger after another
 to come bearing tidings of disaster, each worse than the last, and cry
them to the household. And as for wounds, had my husband received so many as
rumor kept pouring into the house, no net would have been pierced so full of
holes as he. Or if he had died as often as reports claimed, then truly he might
have had three bodies, a second Geryon, and have boasted of having taken on him
a triple cloak of earth [ample that above, of that below I speak not], one
death for each different shape. Because of such malignant tales as these, many
times others have had to loose the high-hung halter from my neck, held in its
strong grip. It is for this reason, in fact, that our boy, Orestes, does not
stand here beside me, as he should — he in whom rest the pledges of my love and
yours. Nor should you think this strange. For he is in the protecting care of
our well-intentioned ally, Strophius of Phocis, who warned me of trouble on two
scores — your own peril beneath Ilium’s walls, and then the chance that the
people in clamorous revolt might overturn the Council, as it is natural for men
to trample all the more upon the fallen. Truly such an excuse supports no
guile.

[887]
As for myself,
the welling fountains of my tears are utterly dried up — not a drop remains. In
night-long vigils my eyes are sore with weeping for the beacon-lights set for
you but always neglected. The faint whir of the buzzing gnat often waked me
from dreams in which I beheld more disasters to you than the time of sleep
could have compassed.

[895]
 But now,
having born all this, my heart freed from its anxiety, I would hail my husband
here as the watchdog of the fold, the savior forestay of the ship, firm-based
pillar of the lofty roof, only-begotten son of a father, or land glimpsed by
men at sea beyond their hope, dawn most fair to look upon after storm, the
gushing stream to thirsty wayfarer — sweet is it to escape all stress of need.
Such truly are the greetings of which I deem him worthy. But let envy be far
removed, since many were the ills we endured before.