by Aeschylus
CHORUS
[734] Father, I am afraid. With what swift wings the ships approach! There is not much time left. I am possessed by dreadful fear if truly my long flight has been of no profit. Father, I am consumed with fright.
DANAUS
[739] Since the vote of the Argives was final, be of good cheer, my children; they will fight in your defence, I know this well.
[CHORUS]
[741] Abominable is the lustful race of Aegyptus and insatiate of battle; and you know that all too well. In ships, stout-timbered and dark-prowed, they have sailed here, attended by a mighty black host, and in their wrath overtaken us.
DANAUS
[746] But they will find here a force with arms well-seasoned by the noonday heat.
[CHORUS]
[748] Do not leave me forlorn, I implore you, father. A woman abandoned to herself is nothing. There is no Ares in her. They are of evil mind, and guileful of purpose, with impure hearts, thinking no more of altars than carrion birds.
DANAUS
[753] This would profit us well, my children, should they incur both Heaven’s hate and yours.
[CHORUS]
[755] Father, no fear of tridents or of things held sacred in the sight of Heaven will ever keep their hands from us. They are overweening, maddened, with unholy rage, shameless dogs that do not respect the gods.
DANAUS
[760] Yet there is a saying that wolves are stronger than dogs; the papyrus-fruit does not conquer the wheat-ear.
[CHORUS]
[762] Since they have the tempers of lewd and impious beasts, we must guard against them quickly.
DANAUS
[764] A fleet in getting under way is not so speedy, nor yet in anchoring, when the securing cables must be brought ashore; and even at anchorage shepherds of ships do not feel immediately secure, above all if they have arrived on a harborless coast when the sun is sinking into night. In a cautious pilot night is likely to beget anxiety. Then, too, the disembarking of an army cannot be effected with success before a ship has gained confidence in her moorings. But, for all your terror, remember not to neglect the gods. [I will return] when I have secured aid. The city will find no fault with a messenger, old in years, but with youth in his heart and on his tongue.
[Exit.]
CHORUS
[776] O land of hills, land of our righteous veneration, what is to be our lot? To what region in the Apian land are we to flee, if anywhere there be some dark hiding-place? Ah that I might become black smoke that draws near to the clouds of Zeus; or, soaring aloft without wings, vanish out of sight like viewless dust and dissolve into nothingness!
[784] The evil is no longer escapable; my heart is darkened and trembling; the look-out my father held has brought me ruin. I am undone with terror. Rather would I meet my doom in a noose than suffer the embraces of a man I loathe. Death before that, with Hades for my lord and master!
[792] Ah that somewhere in the upper air I might find a seat against which the dank clouds turn into snow, or some bare, inaccessible crag, beyond sight, brooding in solitude, beetling, vulture-haunted, to bear witness to my plunge into the depths before I am ever forced into a marriage that would pierce my heart!
[800] Thereafter I refuse not to become a booty for dogs and a banquet for the local birds; for death is freedom from misery-loving evils. Come death, death be my doom, before the marriage-bed! How can I yet find some means of escape to deliver me from marriage?
[808] Shriek aloud, with a cry that reaches heaven, strains of supplication to the gods; O father, give heed that they are somehow accomplished to my safety and tranquility. Behold deeds of violence with no kind glance in your just eyes! Have respect for your suppliants, O Zeus, omnipotent upholder of the land!
[817] For the males of the race of Aegyptus, intolerable in their wantonness, chase after me, a fugitive, with clamorous lewdness and seek to lay hold of me with violence. But yours alone is the beam of the balance, and without you what is accomplished for mortals?
[The herald of the Egyptians is seen at a distance, with armed followers.]
[825] Ho! Ha! Here on the land is the pirate from the ship! Before that, pirate, may you perish . . . I see in this the prelude of suffering wrought by violence. Oh! Oh! Fly for protection! Savagery beyond bearing by its insolence on sea and land alike. Lord of the land, protect us!
[HERALD]
[836] Away with you, away to the ship, as fast as your feet can carry you! If you won’t, your hair shall be torn out; you’ll be pricked with goads, and off will come your heads with abundant letting of gory blood. Away with you, away — and curses on you! — to the ships.
[CHORUS]
[843] Would that you had perished on your course over the great briny flood along with your lordly arrogance and your riveted ship! . . .
[HERALD]
[849] I order you to stop your shrieking. . . . Ho there! leave the sanctuary: be off to the ship! I do not respect one without honor and city.
[CHORUS]
[854] Never again may my eyes behold the cattle-nurturing stream from which increase comes to men and vigor of the blood of life. I am a native here, of ancient nobility . . . old man.
[HERALD]
[861] You will get yourself speedily on board, on board, I say, whether you will or not, by force, by force. . . .
[CHORUS]
[866] Alas, alas! So may you perish past all help, driven from your course over the surging waves by eastern breezes off the sandy tomb of Sarpedon!
HERALD
[872] Wail and shout and call upon the gods — you will not escape the Egyptian ship. Cry out, utter a strain of woe more bitter still.
[CHORUS]
[876] Alas, alas the brutal outrage with which, you crocodile, you boast arrogantly, bellowing on the sea. May the mighty Nile, who watches you, overwhelm your arrogance and destroy you.
HERALD
[882] Go to the double-prowed ship as quickly as possible. Let no one delay, for dragging by force has no mercy on locks of hair.
CHORUS
[885] Alas, father; the help of the sacred images deludes me. Like a spider, he is carrying me seaward step by step — a nightmare, a black nightmare! Oh! Oh! Mother Earth, mother Earth, avert his fearful cries! O father Zeus, son of Earth!
HERALD
[893] I do not fear the native gods, be assured. They did not rear me, nor by their nurture did they bring me to old age.
CHORUS
[895] He rages close to me, the two-footed serpent. Like some viper he lays hold of me and bites my foot. Alas, alas! Mother Earth, mother Earth, avert his fearful cries! O father Zeus, son of Earth!
HERALD
[902] If you will not resign yourself and get to the ship, rending will have no pity on the fabric of your garments.
CHORUS
[908] We are lost! O King, we are suffering impious violence!
HERALD
[906] Oh, you will soon see many kings in Aegyptus’ sons. Be of good cheer: you will not have to blame lack of government.
[CHORUS]
[905] Listen! Chiefs and rulers of the city, I am threatened with violence!
[HERALD]
[909] I think I will have to seize you by the hair and drag you off since you are slow to heed my orders.
[Enter the King with retainers.]
KING
[911] You there! What are you doing? What kind of arrogance has incited you to do such dishonor to this realm of Pelasgian men? Indeed, do you think you have come to a land of women? For a barbarian dealing with Hellenes, you act insolently. Many are the misses of your wits, and your hits are none.
HERALD
[916] And in this case where have I gone wrong and transgressed my right?
KING
[917] First of all, you do not know how to act as a stranger.
HERALD
[918] I not know? How so, when I simply find and take my own that I had lost?
KING
[919] To wh
at patrons of your land was your notice given?
HERALD
[920] To Hermes, the Searcher, greatest of patrons.
KING
[921] For all your notice to the gods, you do them no reverence.
HERALD
[922] I revere the deities by the Nile.
KING
[923] While ours are nothing, as I understand you?
HERALD
[924] I shall carry off these maids unless someone tears them away.
KING
[925] If you so much as touch them, you will regret it, and right soon.
HERALD
[926] I hear you; and your speech is far from hospitable.
KING
[927] No, since I have no hospitality for despoilers of the gods.
HERALD
[928] I will go and tell Aegyptus’ sons about this.
KING
[929] My proud spirit will not ponder on this threat.
HERALD
[930] But that I may know and tell a plainer tale — for it is fitting that a herald make exact report on each detail — what message am I to deliver? Who is it, am I to tell on my return, that has despoiled me of this band of women, their own cousins? It is not, I suppose, by voice of witnesses that the god of battle judges cases like this; nor is it by the gift of silver that he settles dispute; no! If that be the case, many a one shall fall and shuffle off his life.
[KING]
[938] My name? Why should I tell you? In due course of time you will learn it, you and your companions. As for these maids, if, convinced by god-fearing argument, they consent of their own free will and heartily, you may take them. But to this purpose a decree has been passed by the unanimous resolve of the people of the State, never, under compulsion, to surrender this association of women. Through their resolve the rivet has been driven home, to remain fixed and fast. Not on tablets is this inscribed, nor has it been sealed in folds of books: you hear the truth from free-spoken lips. Now get out of my sight immediately!
[HERALD]
[950] I think we are about to involve ourselves in a new war. But may victory and authority rest with the men!
[KING]
[952] It is men, I believe, you will find in the dwellers of this land; and they are no drinkers of diluted wine. [Exit Herald.] But take courage, all of you, and together with your handmaidens, proceed to our well-fenced town, encircled by sturdy devices of towers. As for places inside to lodge, there are plenty of the public sort. For on no modest scale do I myself live, where, in company with many others, you may occupy abodes suitably prepared; or, if it is more pleasing to you, it is free for you also to make your home in dwellings of separate sort. Of these select what is best and most to your desires. A protector you have in me and in all the inhabitants, whose resolve this is that now takes effect. Why wait for others of higher authority?
CHORUS
[966] In blessings may you abound, noble Pelasgian, in requital for your blessings! But, if it pleases you, send our brave father Danaus here to be our adviser and leader of our counsels. For it befits him, rather than ourselves, to advise us where we should establish our home and what neighborhood is friendly. All the world is ready to cast reproach on those who speak a foreign tongue. But may all be for the best! [Exit the King.] And you, dear handmaidens, preserving your fair fame and provoking no angry utterances on the part of the native folk, take up your stations even as Danaus has allotted her duty of attendance unto each.
[Enter Danaus with a bodyguard.]
DANAUS
[980] My children, it is right to offer prayers to the Argives and to sacrifice and pour libations to them as to Olympian gods; for they are our saviors in no doubtful manner. They heard from my lips the conduct of your cousins toward their own kinfolk, and were moved to bitterness against them; but to me they assigned this escort of spearmen, that I might have rank and honor, and might not be ambushed and perish by the death of the spear, and so an ever-living burden come upon the land. Recipients of such favors as these, it becomes us to hold gratitude in yet higher honor from the bottom of our hearts. And in addition to the many other wise injunctions of your father recorded in your memory, inscribe this too — that an unknown company is proved by time. For in an alien’s case, all the world bears an evil tongue in readiness, and it is easy lightly to utter defiling slander. Therefore I would have you bring no shame upon me, now when your youthful loveliness attracts men’s gaze. The tender ripeness of summer fruit is in no way easy to protect; beasts despoil it — and men, why not? — and brutes that fly and those that walk the earth. Love’s goddess spreads news abroad of fruit bursting ripe. . . . So all men, as they pass, mastered by desire, shoot an alluring arrow of the eye at the delicate beauty of virgins. See to it, therefore, that we do not suffer that in fear for which we have endured great toil and ploughed the great waters with our ship; and that we bring no shame to ourselves and exultation to our enemies. Housing of two kinds is at our disposition, the one Pelasgus offers, the other, the city, and to occupy free of cost. These terms are easy. Only pay heed to these behests of your father, and count your chastity more precious than your life.
CHORUS
[1014] May the Olympian gods grant us good fortune in all the rest! But, concerning the bloom of my virginity, father, be of good cheer, for, unless some evil has been devised of Heaven, I will not swerve from the former pathway of my thoughts.
CHORUS [OF THE DANAIDS]
[1018] Come now away, glorifying the blessed gods, lords of the city both those who guard the town and those who dwell about Erasinus’ ancient stream. And you handmaidens take up the song. Let the theme of our praise be this city of the Pelasgians, and no longer let the homage of our hymns be paid to Nile’s floods where they seek the sea, but to the rivers that pour their gentle draught through the land and increase the birth of children, soothing its soil with their fertilizing streams.
[1030] May pure Artemis look upon this band in compassion, and may marriage never come through Cytherea’s compulsion. May that prize belong to my enemies!
[CHORUS OF HANDMAIDENS]
[1034] Yet there is no disdain of Cypris in this our friendly hymn; for she, together with Hera, holds power nearest to Zeus, and for her solemn rites the goddess of varied wiles is held in honor. And in the train of their mother are Desire and she to whom nothing is denied, winning Persuasion; and to Harmonia has been given a share of Aphrodite, and to the whispering touches of the Loves.
[1043] But for the fugitives I have boding fears of blasts of harm and cruel distress and bloody wars. How did they make such a smooth voyage when pursuit followed fast upon their track? Whatever is fated, that will come to pass. The mighty, untrammelled will of Zeus cannot be transgressed. Marriage has been the destiny of many women before our time.
[A DANAID]
[1052] May mighty Zeus defend me from marriage with Aegyptus’ race!
[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1054] That would indeed be best.
[A DANAID]
[1055] But you would move the immovable.
[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1056] And you do not know what the future has in store.
[A DANAID]
[1057] How should I scan the mind of Zeus, a sight unfathomable?
[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1059] Let the words of your prayer be moderate.
[A DANAID]
[1060] What sense of proportion would you now teach me?
[A HANDMAIDEN]
[1061] Do not ask too much of the gods.
[CHORUS OF DANAIDS AND HANDMAIDENS]
[1062] May sovereign Zeus spare me cruel marriage with a man I hate, that very Zeus who mercifully freed Io from pain, restoring her with healing hand by kindly force. And may he award victory to the women! I praise that which is better than evil, two parts of good mixed with one of bad; and I praise that, through god-given means of deliverance, conflicting rights, in accordance with my prayers, should follow the course of justice.
[Exeunt omnes.]
AGAMEMNON
Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth
Except for a few missing lines, the Oresteia is the only trilogy to survive from antiquity. First performed in 458 BC, the trilogy consists of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, narrating the treacherous story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos.
The first play of the trilogy concerns the return of King Agamemnon from Troy and the reception he receives from his wife, Queen Clytemnestra. Dark omens prepare the audience for the death of the king at the hands of his wife, who is angry at his killing of their daughter Iphigenia, sacrificed so the Gods would stop a storm hindering the Greek fleet in the war. Clytemnestra is also jealous at Agamemnon’s keeping of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra foretells of the murder of Agamemnon, and of herself, to the assembled townsfolk, who are horrified. She then enters the palace knowing that she cannot avoid her fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will seek to avenge his father.
The “Mask of Agamemnon” which was discovered at Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ARGUMENT
AGAMEMNON
‘Murder of Agamemnon’ by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
‘After the murder’ (1882) by John Collier
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
WATCHMAN
CHORUS of Argive Elders
CLYTAEMESTRA
HERALD
AGAMEMNON
CASSANDRA
AEGISTHUS
SCENE. — Argos
TIME. — The heroic age.