Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (18 page)

CASSANDRA
[1167]
O the
sufferings, the sufferings of my city utterly destroyed! Alas, the sacrifices
my father offered, the many pasturing cattle slain to save its towers! Yet they
provided no remedy to save the city from suffering even as it has; and I, my
soul on fire, must soon fall to the ground.

CHORUS
[1173]
Your present
speech chimes with your former strain. Surely some malignant spirit, falling
upon you with heavy swoop, moves you to chant your piteous woes fraught with
death. But the end I am helpless to discover.

CASSANDRA
[1178]
And now,
no more shall my prophecy peer forth from behind a veil like a new-wedded
bride; but it will rush upon me clear as a fresh wind blowing against the sun’s
uprising so as to dash against its rays, like a wave, a woe far mightier than
mine. No more by riddles will I instruct you. And bear me witness, as, running
close behind, I scent the track of crimes done long ago. For from this roof
never departs a choir chanting in unison, but singing no harmonious tune; for
it tells not of good. And so, gorged on human blood, so as to be the more
emboldened, a revel-rout of kindred Furies haunts the house, hard to be drive
away. Lodged within its halls they chant their chant, the primal sin; and, each
in turn, they spurn with loathing a brother’s bed, for they bitterly spurn the
one who defiled it. Have I missed the mark, or, like a true archer, do I strike
my quarry? Or am I prophet of lies, a door-to-door babbler? Bear witness upon
your oath that I know the deeds of sin, ancient in story, of this house.

CHORUS
[1198]
How could
an oath, a pledge although given in honor, effect any cure? Yet I marvel at you
that,  though bred beyond the sea, you speak truth of a foreign city, even
as if you had been present there.

CASSANDRA
[1202]
The seer
Apollo appointed me to this office.

CHORUS
[1203]
 Can
it be that he, a god, was smitten with desire?

CASSANDRA
[1204]
 Before
now I was ashamed to speak of this.

CHORUS
[1205]
 In
prosperity all take on airs.

CASSANDRA
[1206]
Oh, but
he struggled to win me, breathing ardent love for me.

CHORUS
[1207]
Did you
in due course come to the rite of marriage?

CASSANDRA
[1208]
I
consented to Loxias but broke my word.

CHORUS
[1209]
 Were
you already possessed by the art inspired of the god?

CASSANDRA
[1210]
Already I
prophesied to my countrymen all their disasters.

CHORUS
[1211]
How came
it then that you were unharmed by Loxias’ wrath?

CASSANDRA
[1212]
Ever
since that fault I could persuade no one of anything.

CHORUS
[1213]
And yet
to us at least the prophecies you utter seem true enough.

CASSANDRA
[1214]
Ah, ah!
Oh, oh, the agony! Once more the dreadful throes of true prophecy whirl and
distract me with their ill-boding onset. Do you see them there — sitting before
the house — young creatures like phantoms of dreams? Children, they seem,
slaughtered by their own kindred, their hands full of the meat of their own
flesh; they are clear to my sight, holding their vitals and their inward parts
(piteous burden!), which their father tasted. For this cause I tell you that a
strengthless lion, wallowing in his bed, plots vengeance, a watchman waiting
(ah me!) for my master’s coming home — yes, my master, for I must bear the yoke
of slavery. The commander of the fleet and the overthrower of Ilium
little knows what deeds shall be brought to evil accomplishment by the hateful
hound, whose tongue licked his hand, who stretched forth her ears in gladness,
like treacherous Ate. Such boldness has she, a woman to slay a man. What odious
monster shall I fitly call her? An Amphisbaena? Or a Scylla, tenanting the
rocks, a pest to mariners, a raging, devil’s mother, breathing relentless war
against her husband? And how the all-daring woman raised a shout of triumph, as
when the battle turns, the while she feigned to joy at his safe return! And
yet, it is all one, whether or not I am believed. What does it matter? What is
to come, will come. And soon you, yourself present here, shall with great pity
pronounce me all too true a prophetess.

CHORUS
[1242]
Thyestes’
banquet on his children’s flesh I understood, and I tremble. Terror possesses
me as I hear the truth, nothing fashioned out of falsehood to resemble truth.
But as for the rest I heard I am thrown off the track.

CASSANDRA
[1246]
I say you
shall look upon Agamemnon dead.

CHORUS
[1247]
To words
propitious, miserable girl, lull your speech.

CASSANDRA
[1248]
Over what
I tell no healing god presides.

CHORUS
[1249]
No, if it
is to be; but may it not be so!

CASSANDRA
[1250]
 You
do but pray; their business is to slay.

CHORUS
[1251]
What man
is he that contrived this wickedness?

CASSANDRA
[1252]
Surely
you must have missed the meaning of my prophecies.

CHORUS
[1253]
I do not
understand the scheme of him who is to do the deed.

CASSANDRA
[1254]
And yet
all too well I understand the Greek language.

CHORUS
[1255]
 So
too do the Pythian oracles; yet they are hard to understand.

CASSANDRA
[1256]
Oh, oh!
What fire! It comes upon me! Woe, woe! Lycean Apollo! Ah me, ah me! This
two-footed lioness, who mates with a wolf in the absence of the noble lion,
will slay me, miserable as I am. Brewing as it were a drug, she vows that with
her wrath she will mix requital for me too, while she whets her sword against
her husband, to take murderous vengeance for bringing me here. Why then do I
bear these mockeries of myself, this wand, these prophetic chaplets on my neck?

[
Breaking her wand, she throws it
and the other insignia of her prophetic office upon the ground, and tramples
them underfoot.
]
[1266]
You at
least I will destroy before I die myself. To destruction with you! And fallen
there, thus do I repay you. Enrich with doom some other in my place. Look,
Apollo himself is stripping me of my prophetic garb — he that saw me mocked to
bitter scorn, even in this bravery, by friends turned foes, with one accord, in
vain — but, like some vagrant mountebank, called “beggar,” “wretch,” “starveling,”
I bore it all. And now the prophet, having undone me, his prophetess, has
brought me to this lethal pass. Instead of my father’s altar a block awaits me,
where I am to be butchered in a hot and bloody sacrifice. Yet, we shall not die
unavenged by the gods; for there shall come in turn another, our avenger, a
scion of the race, to slay his mother and exact requital for his sire; an
exile, a wanderer, a stranger from this land, he shall return to put the
coping-stone upon these unspeakable iniquities of his house. For the gods have
sworn a mighty oath that his slain father’s outstretched corpse shall bring him
home. Why then thus raise my voice in pitiful lament? Since first I saw the
city of Ilium
fare what it has fared, while her captors, by the gods’ sentence, are coming to
such an end,  I will go in and meet my fate. I will dare to die. This door
I greet as the gates of Death. And I pray that, dealt a mortal stroke, without
a struggle, my life-blood ebbing away in easy death, I may close these eyes.

CHORUS
[1295]
 O
woman, pitiful exceedingly and exceeding wise, long has been your speech. But
if, in truth, you have knowledge of your own death, how can you step with calm
courage to the altar like an ox, driven by the god?

CASSANDRA
[1299]
There is
no escape; no, my friends, there is none any more.

CHORUS
[1300]
 Yet
he that is last has the advantage in respect of time.

CASSANDRA
[1301]
The day
has come; flight would profit me but little.

CHORUS
[1302]
Well, be
assured, you brave suffering with a courageous spirit.

CASSANDRA
[1303]
None who
is happy is commended thus.

CHORUS
[1304]
Yet
surely to die nobly is a blessing for mortals.

CASSANDRA
[1305]
 Alas
for you, my father and for your noble children!
[
She starts back in horror.
]

CHORUS
[1306]
What ails
you? What terror turns you back?

CASSANDRA
[1307]
Alas,
alas!

CHORUS
[1308]
Why do
you cry “alas”? Unless perhaps there is some horror in your soul.

CASSANDRA
[1309]
This
house stinks of blood-dripping slaughter.

CHORUS
[1310]
 And
what of that? It is just the savor of victims at the hearth.

CASSANDRA
[1311]
It is
like a breath from a charnel-house.

CHORUS
[1312]
You are
not speaking of proud Syrian incense for the house.

CASSANDRA
[1313]
Nay, I
will go to bewail also within the palace my own and Agamemnon’s fate. Enough of
life! Alas, my friends, not with vain terror do I shrink, as a bird that fears
a bush. After I am dead, bear witness for me of this — when for me, a woman,
another woman shall be slain, and for an ill-wedded man another man shall fall.
 I claim this favor from you now that my hour is come.

CHORUS
[1321]
Poor
woman, I pity you for your death foretold.

CASSANDRA
[1322]
Yet once
more I would like to speak, but not a dirge. I pray to the sun, in presence of
his latest light, that my enemies may at the same time pay to my avengers a
bloody penalty for slaughtering a slave, an easy prey. Alas for human fortune!
When prosperous, a mere shadow can overturn it; if misfortune strikes, the dash
of a wet sponge blots out the drawing. And this last I deem far more pitiable
than that.
[
Enters the palace.
]

CHORUS
[1333]
It is the
nature of all human kind to be unsatisfied with prosperity. From stately halls
none bars it with warning voice that utters the words “Enter no more.” So the
Blessed Ones have granted to our prince to capture Priam’s town; and,
divinely-honored, he returns to his home. Yet if he now must pay the penalty
for the blood shed by others before him, and by dying for the dead he is to
bring to pass retribution of other deaths, what mortal man, on hearing this,
can boast that he was born with scatheless destiny?

[
A shriek is
heard from within.
]

AGAMEMNON
[1343]
Alas! I
am struck deep with a mortal blow!

CHORUS
[1344]
Silence!
Who is this that cries out, wounded by a mortal blow?

AGAMEMNON
[1345]
 And
once again, alas! I am struck by a second blow.

CHORUS
[1346]
The deed
is done, it seems — to judge by the groans of the king. But come, let us take
counsel together if there is perhaps some safe plan of action.

[
The members of
the Chorus deliver their opinion on the course to be taken.
]

[1349]
1. I tell you
my advice: summon the townsfolk to bring rescue here to the palace.

[1350]
 2. To my
thinking we must burst in and charge them with the deed while the sword is
still dripping in their hands.

[1352]
3. I, too, am
for taking part in some such plan, and vote for action of some sort. It is no
time to keep on delaying.

[1354]
4. It is plain.
Their opening act marks a plan to set up a tyranny in the State.

[1356]
5.Yes, because
we are wasting time, while they, trampling underfoot that famous name, Delay,
allow their hands no slumber.

[1358]
6. I know not
what plan I could hit on to propose. It is the doer’s part likewise to do the
planning.

[1360]
 7. I too
am of this mind, for I know no way to bring the dead back to life by mere
words.

[1362]
8. What! To
prolong our lives shall we thus submit to the rule of those defilers of the
house?

[1364]
9. No, it is
not to be endured. No, death would be better, for that would be a milder lot
than tyranny.

[1366]
10. And shall
we, upon the evidence of mere groans, divine that our lord is dead?

[1368]
11. We should
be sure of the facts before we indulge our wrath. For surmise differs from
assurance.

[1370]
 12. I am
supported on all sides to approve this course — that we get clear assurance how
it stands with Atreus’ son.

[
The bodies of
Agamemnon and Cassandra are disclosed; the queen stands by their side.
]

CLYTAEMESTRA
[1372]
Much have
I said before to serve my need and I shall feel no shame to contradict it now.
For how else could one, devising hate against a hated foe who bears the
semblance of a friend, fence the snares of ruin too high to be overleaped? This
is the contest of an ancient feud, pondered by me of old, and it has come,
however long delayed. I stand where I dealt the blow; my purpose is achieved.
Thus have I done the deed; deny it I will not. Round him, as if to catch a haul
of fish, I cast an impassable net — fatal wealth of robe — so that he should
neither escape nor ward off doom. Twice I struck him, and with two groans
 his limbs relaxed. Once he had fallen, I dealt him yet a third stroke to
grace my prayer to the infernal Zeus, the savior of the dead. Fallen thus, he
gasped away his life, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of blood, he struck
me with dark drops of gory dew; while I rejoiced no less than the sown earth is
gladdened in heaven’s refreshing rain at the birthtime of the flower buds.