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

by D M Smith

  MENELAUS Look me in the face! Be that the prelude to my story.

  AGAMEMNON Shall I, the son of Atreus, close my eyes from fear?

  MENELAUS Seest thou this scroll, the bearer of a shameful message?

  AGAMEMNON I see it, yes; and first of all surrender it.

  MENELAUS No, not till I have shown its contents to all the Danai.

  AGAMEMNON What! Hast thou broken the seal and dost know already what thou shouldst never have known?

  MENELAUS Yes, I opened it and know to thy sorrow the secret machinations of thy heart.

  AGAMEMNON Where didst thou catch my servant? Ye gods what a shameless heart thou hast!

  MENELAUS I was awaiting thy daughter’s arrival at the camp from Argos.

  AGAMEMNON What right hast thou to watch my doings?

  MENELAUS My wish to do it gave the spur, for I am no slave to thee.

  AGAMEMNON Infamous! Am I not to be allowed the management of my own house?

  MENELAUS No, for thou thinkest crooked thoughts; one thing now, another formerly, and something different presently.

  AGAMEMNON Most exquisite refining on evil themes! A hateful thing the tongue of cleverness!

  MENELAUS Aye, but a mind unstable is an unjust possession, disloyal to friends. Now I am anxious to test thee, and seek not thou from rage to turn aside from the truth, nor will I on my part overstrain the case. Thou rememberest when thou wert all eagerness to captain the Danai against Troy, making a pretence of declining, though eager for it in thy heart; how humble thou wert then! Taking each man by the hand and keeping open doors for every fellow townsman who cared to enter, affording each in turn a chance to speak with thee—even though some desired it not—seeking by these methods to purchase popularity from all bidders.

  Then when thou hadst secured the command, there came a change over thy manners; thou wert no longer so cordial before to whilom friends, but hard of access, seldom to be found at home. But the man of real worth ought not to change his manners in the hour of prosperity, but should then show himself most staunch to friends, when his own good fortune can help them most effectually. This was the first cause I had to reprove thee, for it was here I first discovered thy villainy. But afterwards, when thou camest to Aulis with all the gathered hosts of Hellas, thou wert of no account; no! The want of a favourable breeze filled thee with consternation at the chance dealt out by Heaven.

  Anon the Danai began demanding that thou shouldst send the fleet away instead of vainly toiling on at Aulis; what dismay and confusion was then depicted in thy looks, to think that thou, with a thousand ships at thy command, hadst not occupied the plains of Priam with thy armies! And thou wouldst ask my counsel, “What am I to do? What scheme can I devise? Where find one?” to save thyself being stripped of thy command and losing thy fair fame. Next when Calchas bade thee offer thy daughter in sacrifice to Artemis, declaring that the Danai should then sail, thou wert overjoyed, and didst gladly undertake to offer the maid, and of thine own accord—never allege compulsion!—thou art sending word to thy wife to despatch thy daughter hither on pretence of wedding Achilles. This is the same air that heard thee say it, and after all thou turnest round and hast been caught recasting thy letter to this effect, “I will no longer be my daughter’s murderer.” Exactly so!

  Countless others have gone through this phase in their conduct of public affairs; they make an effort while in power, and then retire dishonourably, sometimes owing to the senselessness of the citizens, sometimes deservedly, because they are too feeble of themselves to maintain their watch upon the state. For my part, I am more sorry for our unhappy Hellas, whose purpose was to read these worthless foreigners a lesson, while now she will let them escape and mock her, thanks to thee and thy daughter. May I never then appoint a man to rule my country or lead its warriors because of kinship! Ability is what the general must have, since any man with ordinary intelligence can govern a state.

  CHORUS For brethren to come to words and blows, whenever they disagree, is terrible.

  AGAMEMNON I wish to rebuke thee in turn, briefly, not lifting mine eyes too high in shameless wise, but in more sober fashion, as a brother; for it is a good man’s way to be considerate. Prithee, why this burst of fury, these bloodshot eyes? Who wrongs thee? What is it thou wantest? Thou art fain to win a virtuous bride. Well, I cannot supply thee; for she, whom thou once hadst, was ill controlled by thee. Am I then, a man who never went astray, to suffer for thy sins? Or is it my popularity that galls thee? No! It is the longing thou hast to keep a fair wife in thy embrace, casting reason and honour to the winds. A bad man’s pleasures are like himself. Am I mad, if I change to wiser counsels, after previously deciding amiss? Thine is the madness rather in wishing to recover a wicked wife, once thou hadst lost her—a stroke of Heaven-sent luck.

  Those foolish suitors swore that oath to Tyndareus in their longing to wed; but Hope was the goddess that led them on, I trow, and she it was that brought it about rather than thou and thy mightiness. So take the field with them! They are ready for it in the folly of their hearts; for the deity is not without insight, but is able to discern where oaths have been wrongly pledged or forcibly extorted. I will not slay my children, nor shall thy interests be prospered by justice in thy vengeance for a worthless wife, while I am left wasting, night and day, in sorrow for what I did to one of my own flesh and blood, contrary to all law and justice. There is thy answer shortly given, clear and easy to understand; and if thou wilt not come to thy senses, I shall do the best for myself.

  CHORUS This differs from thy previous declaration, but there is good in it—thy child’s reprieve.

  MENELAUS Ah me, how sad my lot! I have no friends then after all.

  AGAMEMNON Friends thou hast, if thou seek not their destruction.

  MENELAUS Where wilt thou find any proof that thou art sprung from the same sire as I?

  AGAMEMNON Thy moderation, not thy madness do I share by nature.

  MENELAUS Friends should sympathise with friends in sorrow.

  AGAMEMNON Claim my help by kindly service, not by paining me.

  MENELAUS So thou hast no mind to share this trouble with Hellas?

  AGAMEMNON No, Hellas is diseased like thee according to some god’s design.

  MENELAUS Go vaunt thee then on thy sceptre, after betraying thine own brother! While seek some different means and other friends.

  Enter MESSENGER

  MESSENGER Agamemnon, lord of all Hellenes! I am come and bring thee thy daughter, whom thou didst call Iphigenia in thy home; and her mother, thy wife Clytemnestra, is with her, and the child Orestes, a sight to gladden thee after thy long absence from thy palace. But, as they had been travelling long and far, they are now refreshing their tender feet at the waters of a fair spring—they and their horses, for we turned these loose in the grassy meadow to browse their fill. I am come as their forerunner to prepare thee for their reception; for the army knows already of thy daughter’s arrival, so quickly did the rumour spread. All the folk are running together to the sight, that they may see thy child; for Fortune’s favourites enjoy a worldwide fame and have all eyes fixed on them. “Is it a wedding?” some ask, “or what is happening? Or has King Agamemnon from fond yearning summoned his daughter hither?” From others thou wouldst have heard: “They are presenting the maiden to Artemis, queen of Aulis, previous to marriage; who can the bridegroom be, that is to lead her home?”

  Come, then, begin the rites—that is the next step—by getting the baskets ready. Crown your heads; prepare the wedding-hymn, thou and prince Menelaus with thee. Let flutes resound throughout the tents with noise of dancer’s feet, for this is a happy day that is come for the maid.

  AGAMEMNON Thou hast my thanks. Now go within, for the rest it will be well, as Fate proceeds.

  Exit MESSENGER

  AGAMEMNON Ah, woe is me! Unhappy wretch, what can I say? Where shall I begin? Into what cruel straits have I been plunged! Fortune has outwitted me, proving far cleverer than any cunning of mine. Wha
t an advantage humble birth possesses! For it is easy for her sons to weep and tell out all their sorrows, while to the high-born man come these same sorrows, but we have dignity throned over our life and are the people’s slaves. I, for instance, am ashamed to weep, nor less, poor wretch, to check my tears at the awful pass to which I am brought.

  Oh! What am I to tell my wife? How shall I welcome her? With what face meet her? For she too has undone me by coming uninvited in this my hour of sorrow; yet it was but natural she should come with her daughter to prepare the bride and perform the fondest duties, where she will discover my villainy. And for this poor maid—why maid? Death, methinks, will soon make her his bride—how I pity her! Thus will she plead to me, I trow: “My father, will thou slay me? Be such the wedding thou thyself mayst find, and whosoever is a friend to thee!” while Orestes, from his station near us, will cry in childish accents, inarticulate, yet fraught with meaning. Alas! To what utter ruin Paris, the son of Priam, the cause of these troubles, has brought me by his union with Helen!

  CHORUS I pity her myself, in such wise as a woman, and she a stranger, may bemoan the misfortunes of royalty.

  MENELAUS (Offering his hand) Thy hand, brother! Let me grasp it.

  AGAMEMNON I give it; thine is the victory, mine the sorrow.

  MENELAUS By Pelops our reputed grandsire and Atreus our father I swear to tell thee the truth from my heart, without any covert purpose, but only what I think. The sight of thee in tears made me pity thee, and in return I shed a tear for thee myself; I withdraw from my former proposals, ceasing to be a cause of fear to thee. Yea, and I will put myself in thy present position; and I counsel thee, slay not thy child nor prefer my interests to thine. It is not just that thou shouldst grieve, while I am glad, or that thy children should die, while mine still see the light of day. What is it, after all, I seek? If I am set on marriage, could I not find a bride as choice elsewhere? Was I to lose a brother—the last I should have lost—to win a Helen, getting bad for good?

  I was mad, impetuous as a youth, till I perceived, on closer view, what slaying children really meant. Moreover I am filled with compassion for the hapless maiden, doomed to bleed that I may wed, when I reflect that we are kin. What has thy daughter to do with Helen? Let the army be disbanded and leave Aulis; dry those streaming eyes, brother, and provoke me not to tears. Whatever concern thou hast in oracles that affect thy child, let it be none of mine; into thy hands I resign my share therein. A sudden change, thou’lt say, from my fell proposals! A natural course for me; affection for my brother caused the change. These are the ways of a man not void of virtue, to pursue on each occasion what is best.

  CHORUS A generous speech, worthy of Tantalus, the son of Zeus! Thou dost not shame thy ancestry.

  AGAMEMNON I thank thee, Menelaus, for this unexpected suggestion; ’tis an honourable proposal, worthy of thee.

  MENELAUS Sometimes love, sometimes the selfishness of their families causes a quarrel between brothers; I loathe a relationship of this kind which is bitterness to both.

  AGAMEMNON ’Tis useless, for circumstances compel me to carry out the murderous sacrifice of my daughter.

  MENELAUS How so? Who will compel thee to slay thine own child?

  AGAMEMNON The whole Achaean army here assembled.

  MENELAUS Not if thou send her back to Argos.

  AGAMEMNON I might do that unnoticed, but there will be another thing I cannot.

  MENELAUS What is that? Thou must not fear the mob too much.

  AGAMEMNON Calchas will tell the Argive host his oracles.

  MENELAUS Not if he be killed ere that—an easy matter.

  AGAMEMNON The whole tribe of seers is a curse with its ambition.

  MENELAUS Yes, and good for nothing and useless, when amongst us.

  AGAMEMNON Has the thought, which is rising in my mind, no terrors for thee?

  MENELAUS How can I understand thy meaning, unless thou declare it?

  AGAMEMNON The son of Sisyphus knows all.

  MENELAUS Odysseus cannot possibly hurt us.[64]

  AGAMEMNON He was ever shifty by nature, siding with the mob.

  MENELAUS True, he is enslaved by the love of popularity; a fearful evil.

  AGAMEMNON Bethink thee then, will he not arise among the Argives and tell them the oracles that Calchas delivered, saying of me that I undertook to offer Artemis a victim, and after all am proving false? Then, when he has carried the army away with him, he will bid the Argives slay us and sacrifice the maiden. And if I escape to Argos, they will come and destroy the place, razing it to the ground, Cyclopean walls and all. That is my trouble. Woe is me! To what straits Heaven has brought me at this pass! Take one precaution for me, Menelaus, as thou goest through the host, that Clytemnestra learn this not, till I have taken my child and devoted her to death, that my affliction may be attended with the fewest tears. (Turning to the CHORUS) And you, ye stranger dames, keep silence.

  Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS

  CHORUS Happy they who find the goddess come in moderate might, sharing with self-restraint in Aphrodite’s gift of marriage and enjoying calm and rest from frenzied passions, while the Love-god, golden-haired, stretches his charmed bow with arrows twain, and one is aimed at happiness, the other at life’s confusion. Oh Lady Cypris, Queen of Beauty![65] Far from my bridal bower I ban the last. Be mine delight in moderation and pure desires, and may I have a share in love, but shun excess therein.

  Men’s natures vary, and their habits differ, but true virtue is always manifest. Likewise the training that comes of education conduces greatly to virtue; for not only is modesty wisdom, but it has also the rare grace of seeing by its better judgment what is right; whereby glory, ever young, is shed over life by reputation. A great thing it is to follow virtue’s footsteps—for women in their secret loves; while in men again an inborn sense of order, shown in countless ways, adds to a city’s greatness.

  Thou camest, oh Paris, to the place where thou wert reared to herd the kine amid the white heifers of Ida, piping in foreign strain and breathing on thy reeds an echo of the Phrygian airs Olympus played.

  Full-uddered cows were browsing at the spot where that verdict ’twixt goddesses was awaiting thee the cause of thy going to Hellas to stand before the ivory palace, kindling love in Helen’s trancéd eyes and feeling its flutter in thine own breast; whence the fiend of strife brought Hellas with her chivalry and ships to the towers of Troy.

  Oh, great is the bliss the great enjoy! Behold Iphigenia, the king’s royal child, and Clytemnestra, the daughter of Tyndareus; how proud their lineage! How high their pinnacle of fortune! These mighty ones, whom wealth attends, are very gods in the eyes of less favoured folk.

  Halt we here, maidens of Chalcis, and lift the queen from her chariot to the ground without stumbling, supporting her gently in our arms, with kind intent, that the renowned daughter of Agamemnon but just arrived may feel no fear. Strangers ourselves, avoid we aught that may disturb or frighten the strangers from Argos.

  Enter CLYTEMNESTRA and IPHIGENIA

  CLYTEMNESTRA I take this as a lucky omen, thy kindness and auspicious greeting, and have good hope that it is to a happy marriage I conduct the bride. (To the CHORUS) Take from the chariot the dowry I am bringing for my daughter and convey it within with careful heed.

  My daughter, leave the horse-drawn car, planting thy faltering footstep delicately. (To the CHORUS) Maidens, take her in your arms and lift her from the chariot, and let one of you give me the support of her hand, that I may quit my seat in the carriage with fitting grace. Some of you stand at the horses’ heads, for the horse has a timid eye, easily frightened. Here, take this child Orestes, son of Agamemnon, babe as he still is.

  What, sleeping, little one, tired out by thy ride in the chariot? Awake to bless thy sister’s wedding; for thou, my gallant boy, shalt get by this marriage a kinsman gallant as thyself, the Nereid’s godlike offspring. Come hither to thy mother, my daughter Iphigenia, and seat thyself beside me, and stationed near
show my happiness to these strangers. Yes, come hither and welcome the sire thou lovest so dearly.

  Hail my honoured lord, King Agamemnon! We have obeyed thy commands and are come.

  Enter AGAMEMNON

  IPHIGENIA (Throwing herself into AGAMEMNON’S arms) Be not wroth with me, Mother, if I run from thy side and throw myself on my father’s breast. Oh my father! I long to outrun others and embrace thee after this long while, for I yearn to see thy face. Be not wroth with me.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Thou mayst do so, Daughter; for of all the children I have born, thou hast ever loved thy father best.

  IPHIGENIA I see thee, Father, joyfully after a long season.

  AGAMEMNON And I thy father thee. Thy words do equal duty for both of us.

  IPHIGENIA All hail, Father! Thou didst well in bringing me hither to thee.

  AGAMEMNON I know not how I am to say yes or no to that, my child.