The Cypria: Reconstructing the Lost Prequel to Homer's Iliad

by D M Smith

  But when violent winds had delayed the Greeks from sailing for several days, and the conditions at sea were beginning to worsen, they approached Telephus and asked him when would be a safe time to set sail. And they learned from him that the best time to sail for Troy was at the beginning of spring, and thus the decision was made to return to Boeotia. From there, after beaching their ships, the armies went home to winter in their own kingdoms.

  It was around this time that word of the Greek expedition came to Troy, the message carried by Scythian barbarians who traded back and forth across the Hellespont. Fear and anxiety seized the Trojans; many had been displeased with Paris’ crime from the very beginning, deeming it an evil act against Greece, and it took little imagination to see that in the coming destruction the entire community would be held liable. Amidst all this, great care was taken by Paris and his evil advisers to enlist the aid of the neighbouring countries, and those envoys he sent were commanded to conclude their business and return as soon as possible. And so the sons of Priam hastily readied their armies, so that they might launch a pre-emptive assault and thus take the war to the Greeks.

  While this was going on at Troy, Diomedes, having been informed of their plans, travelled with great speed throughout the whole of Greece warning all of the leaders of the Trojans’ designs. He instructed them to stow all of the necessary implements of war and set sail as soon as possible. Not long after, everyone convened at Argos. And when all were present no one disregarded his military duty, especially Telamonian Ajax, Achilles and Diomedes, who displayed great concern and enthusiasm for the undertaking; even commissioning a fleet of new ships in preparation for the initial invasion. Thus in only a few days a fleet of fifty additional ships were completed and furnished. Eight years had elapsed since the beginning of this venture, and the ninth had now begun.

  As soon as everything was ready, with the seas being calm and nothing to hinder sailing, some Scythians—who by lucky chance had landed at Argos to trade—were employed by the leaders to serve as guides. At the same time Telephus was still pained by the wound that he had received in battle against the Greeks. It had now afflicted him for some time, and having found no remedy or cure he had consulted the oracle of Apollo.

  —Dictys Cretensis, Ephemeris belli Trojani, II

  The Healing of Telephus

  Telephus, because his wound was unhealed and Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the one who wounded him should turn physician, came from Mysia to Argos, clad in rags, and begged the help of Achilles, promising to show the course to steer for Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping off the rust of his Pelion spear.[59] Accordingly, on being healed, Telephus showed the course to steer, and the accuracy of his information was confirmed by Calchas by means of his own art of divination.

  —Apollodorus, Epitome

  VI.

  When the expedition had mustered a second time at Aulis, Agamemnon, while at the chase, shot a stag and boasted that he surpassed even Artemis. At this the goddess was so angry that she sent stormy winds and prevented them from sailing. Calchas then told them of the anger of the goddess and bade them sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis. This they attempt to do, sending to fetch Iphigenia as though for marriage with Achilles. Artemis, however, snatched her away and transported her to the Tauri, making her immortal, and putting a stag in place of the girl upon the altar.

  —Proclus, Chrestomathy

  Euripides, Iphigenia At Aulis

  Translated by E. Coleridge

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  AGAMEMNON

  ATTENDANT, an old man

  CHORUS OF WOMEN OF CHALCIS

  MENELAUS

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  IPHIGENIA

  ACHILLES

  MESSENGER

  The sea-coast at Aulis. Enter AGAMEMNON and ATTENDANT

  AGAMEMNON Old man, come hither and stand before my dwelling.

  ATTENDANT I come; what new schemes now, King Agamemnon?

  AGAMEMNON Thou shalt hear.

  ATTENDANT I am all eagerness. ’Tis little enough sleep old age allows me and keenly it watches over my eyes.

  AGAMEMNON What can that star be, steering his course yonder?

  ATTENDANT Sirius, still shooting over the zenith on his way near the Pleiads’ sevenfold track.

  AGAMEMNON The birds are still at any rate and the sea is calm; hushed are the winds, and silence broods over this narrow firth.

  ATTENDANT Then why art thou outside thy tent; why so restless, my lord Agamemnon? All is yet quiet here in Aulis; the watch on the walls is not yet astir. Let us go in.

  AGAMEMNON I envy thee, old man. Aye, and every man who leads a life secure, unknown and unrenowned; but little I envy those in office.

  ATTENDANT And yet ’tis there we place the be-all and end-all of existence.

  AGAMEMNON Aye, but that is where the danger comes; and ambition, sweet though it seems, brings sorrow with its near approach. At one time the unsatisfied claims of Heaven upset our life, at another the numerous peevish fancies of our subjects shatter it.

  ATTENDANT I like not these sentiments in one who is a chief. It was not to enjoy all blessings that Atreus begot thee, oh Agamemnon; but thou must needs experience joy and sorrow alike, mortal as thou art. Even though thou like it not, this is what the gods decree. But thou, after letting thy taper spread its light abroad, writest the letter which is still in thy hands and then erasest the same words again, sealing and re-opening the scroll, then flinging the tablet to the ground with floods of tears and leaving nothing undone in thy aimless behaviour to stamp thee mad. What is it troubles thee? What news is there affecting thee, my liege? Come, share with me thy story. To a loyal and trusty heart wilt thou be telling it, for Tyndareus sent me that day to form part of thy wife’s dowry and to wait upon the bride with loyalty.

  AGAMEMNON Leda, the daughter of Thestius, had three children, maidens: Phoebe, Clytemnestra my wife, and Helen. This last it was who had for wooers the foremost of the favoured sons of Hellas, but terrible threats of spilling his rival’s blood were uttered by each of them, should he fail to win the maid. Now the matter filled Tyndareus, her father, with perplexity. At length this thought occurred to him: the suitors should swear unto each other and join right hands thereon and pour libations with burnt sacrifice, binding themselves by this curse: “Whoever wins the child of Tyndareus for wife, him will we assist, in case a rival takes her from his house and goes his way, robbing her husband of his rights; and we will march against that man in armed array and raze his city to the ground, Hellene no less than barbarian.”[60]

  Now when they had once pledged their word and old Tyndareus with no small cleverness had beguiled them by his shrewd device, he allowed his daughter to choose from among her suitors the one towards whom the breath of love might fondly waft her. Her choice fell on Menelaus; would she had never taken him! Anon there came to Lacedaemon from Phrygia’s folk the man who, legend says, adjudged the goddesses’ dispute—in robes of gorgeous hue, ablaze with gold, in true barbaric pomp—and he, finding Menelaus gone from home, carried Helen off with him to his steading on Ida, a willing paramour. Goaded to frenzy Menelaus flew through Hellas, invoking the ancient oath exacted by Tyndareus and declaring the duty of helping the injured husband. Whereat the chivalry of Hellas, brandishing their spears and donning their harness, came hither to the narrow straits of Aulis with armaments of ships and troops, with many a steed and many a car, and they chose me to captain them all for the sake of Menelaus, since I was his brother. Would that some other had gained that distinction instead of me!

  But after the army was gathered and come together, we still remained at Aulis weather-bound; and Calchas, the seer, bade us in our perplexity sacrifice my own begotten child Iphigenia to Artemis, whose home is in this land, declaring that if we offered her, we should sail and sack the Phrygians’ capital, but if we forbore, this was not for us. When I heard this, I commanded Talthybius with loud proclamation to disband the whole host, as I could never
bear to slay daughter of mine. Whereupon my brother, bringing every argument to bear, persuaded me at last to face the crime; so I wrote in a folded scroll and sent to my wife, bidding her despatch our daughter to me on the pretence of wedding Achilles, it the same time magnifying his exalted rank and saying that he refused to sail with the Achaeans, unless a bride of our lineage should go to Phthia. Yes, this was the inducement I offered my wife, inventing, as I did, a sham marriage for the maiden.

  Of all the Achaeans we alone know the real truth: Calchas, Odysseus, Menelaus and myself. But that which I then decided wrongly, I now rightly countermand again in this scroll, which thou, old man, hast found me opening and resealing beneath the shade of night. Up now and away with this missive to Argos, and I will tell thee by word of mouth all that is written herein, the contents of the folded scroll, for thou art loyal to my wife and house.

  ATTENDANT Say on and make it plain, that what my tongue utters may accord with what thou hast written.

  AGAMEMNON “Daughter of Leda, in addition to my first letter I now send thee word not to despatch thy daughter to Euboea’s embosomed wing, to the waveless bay of Aulis; for after all we wilt celebrate our child’s wedding at another time.”

  ATTENDANT And how will Achilles, cheated of his bride, curb the fury of his indignation against thee and thy wife?

  AGAMEMNON Here also is a danger.

  ATTENDANT Tell me what thou meanest.

  AGAMEMNON It is but his name, not himself, that Achilles is lending, knowing nothing of the marriage or of my scheming, or my professed readiness to betroth my daughter to him for a husband’s embrace.

  ATTENDANT A dreadful venture thine, king Agamemnon! That thou, by promise of thy daughter’s hand to the son of the goddess, wert for bringing the maid hither to be sacrificed for the Danai.

  AGAMEMNON Woe is me! Ah woe! I am utterly distraught; bewilderment comes over me. Away hurry thy steps, yielding nothing to old age.

  ATTENDANT In haste I go, my liege.

  AGAMEMNON Sit not down by woodland founts; scorn the witcheries of sleep.

  ATTENDANT Hush!

  AGAMEMNON And when thou passest any place where roads diverge, cast thine eyes all round, taking heed that no mule-wain pass by on rolling wheels, bearing my daughter hither to the ships of the Danai, and thou see it not.

  ATTENDANT It shall be so.

  AGAMEMNON Start then from the bolted gates, and if thou meet the escort, start them back again, and drive at full speed to the abodes of the Cyclopes.[61]

  ATTENDANT But tell me, how shall my message find credit with thy wife or child?

  AGAMEMNON Preserve the seal which thou bearest on this scroll. Away! Already the dawn is growing grey, lighting the lamp of day yonder and the fire of the sun’s four steeds; help me in my trouble.

  Exit ATTENDANT

  AGAMEMNON None of mortals is prosperous or happy to the last, for none was ever born to a painless life.

  Exit AGAMEMNON. Enter CHORUS OF WOMEN OF CHALCIS

  CHORUS To the sandy beach of sea-coast Aulis I came after a voyage through the tides of Euripus, leaving Chalcis on its narrow firth, my city which feedeth the waters of far-famed Arethusa near the sea, that I might behold the army of the Achaeans and the ships rowed by those god-like heroes. For our husbands tell us that fair-haired Menelaus and high-born Agamemnon are leading them to Troy on a thousand ships in quest of the lady Helen, whom herdsman Paris carried off from the banks of reedy Eurotas his guerdon from Aphrodite, when that queen of Cyprus entered beauty’s lists with Hera and Pallas at the gushing fount.

  Through the grove of Artemis, rich with sacrifice, I sped my course, the red blush mantling on my cheeks from maiden modesty, in my eagerness to see the soldiers’ camp, the tents of the mail-clad Danai, and their gathered steeds. Two chieftains there I saw met together in council: one was Ajax, son of Oileus; the other Ajax, son of Telamon, crown of glory to the men of Salamis. And I saw Protesilaus and Palamedes, sprung from the son of Poseidon,[62] sitting there amusing themselves with intricate figures at draughts; Diomedes too at his favourite sport of hurling quoits, and Meriones the war-god’s son,[63] a marvel to mankind, stood at his side. Likewise I beheld the offspring of Laertes, who came from his island hills, and with him Nireus, handsomest of all Achaeans. Achilles next, that nimble runner, swift on his feet as the wind, whom Thetis bore and Chiron trained; him I saw upon the beach, racing in full armour along the shingle and straining every nerve to beat a team of four horses, as he sped round the track on foot. Eumelus the grandson of Pheres, their driver, was shouting when I saw him, goading on his goodly steeds, with their bits of chased gold-work; whereof the centre pair, that bore the yoke, had dappled coats picked out with white, while the trace-horses, on the outside, facing the turning-post in the course, were bays with spotted fetlocks. Close beside them Peleus’ son leapt on his way, in all his harness, keeping abreast the rail by the axle-box.

  Next I sought the countless fleet, a wonder to behold, that I might fill my girlish eyes with gazing, a sweet delight. The warlike Myrmidons from Phthia held the right wing with fifty swift cruisers, upon whose sterns, right at the ends, stood Nereid goddesses in golden-effigy, the ensign of Achilles’ armament. Near these were moored the Argive ships in equal numbers, over which Mecisteus’ son [Euryalus], whom Taulaus his grandsire reared, and Sthenelus, son of Capaneus, were in command. Next in order, Theseus’ son was stationed at the head of sixty ships from Attica, having the goddess Pallas set in a winged car drawn by steeds with solid hoof—a lucky sight for mariners. Then I saw Boeotia’s fleet of fifty sails decked with ensigns; these had Cadmus at the stern holding a golden dragon at the beaks of the vessels, and earth-born Leitus was their admiral.

  Likewise there were ships from Phocis, and from Locris came the son of Oileus with an equal contingent, leaving famed Thronium’s citadel; and from Mycenae, the Cyclopes’ town, Atreus’ son sent a hundred well-manned galleys, his brother being with him in command, as friend with friend, that Hellas might exact on her, who had fled her home to wed a foreigner. Also I saw upon Gerenian Nestor’s prows twelve from Pylos the sign of his neighbour Alpheus, four-footed like a bull. Moreover there was a squadron of Aenianian sail under king and next the lords of Elis, stationed near them, whom all the people named Epeians; and Eurytus was lord of these; likewise he led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, the subjects of Meges, son of Phyleus, who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land.

  Lastly, Ajax, reared in Salamis, was joining his right wing to the left of those near whom he was posted, closing the line with his outermost ships—twelve barques obedient to the helm—as I heard and then saw the crews; no safe return shall he obtain, who bringeth his barbaric boats to grapple Ajax. There I saw the naval armament, but some things I heard at home about the gathered host, whereof I still have a recollection.

  Enter MENELAUS and ATTENDANT

  ATTENDANT (As MENELAUS wrests a letter from him) Strange daring thine, Menelaus, where thou hast no right!

  MENELAUS Stand back! Thou carriest loyalty to thy master too far.

  ATTENDANT The very reproach thou hast for me is to my credit.

  MENELAUS Thou shalt rue it, if thou meddle in matters that concern thee not.

  ATTENDANT Thou hadst no right to open a letter which I was carrying.

  MENELAUS No, nor thou to be carrying sorrow to all Hellas.

  ATTENDANT Argue that point with others, but surrender that letter to me.

  MENELAUS I shall not let go.

  ATTENDANT Nor yet will I let loose my hold.

  MENELAUS Why then, this staff of mine will be dabbling thy head with blood ere long!

  ATTENDANT To die in my master’s cause were a noble death.

  MENELAUS Let go! Thou art too wordy for a slave.

  ATTENDANT (Seeing AGAMEMNON approaching) Master, he is wronging me; he snatched thy letter violently from my grasp, Agamemnon, and will not heed the claims of right!

  Enter AGA
MEMNON

  AGAMEMNON How now? What means this uproar at the gates, this indecent brawling?

  MENELAUS My tale, not his, has the better right to be spoken.

  AGAMEMNON Thou, Menelaus! What quarrel hast thou with this man; why art thou haling him hence?

  Exit ATTENDANT