LIBRARY
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA
PRESENTED BY
Miss Rosario Curletti
THE TRAGEDIES OF -dESCHYLOS
THE TRAGEDIES OF
/ESCHYLOS
^Translation,
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY, AND AN APPENDIX OP
RHYMED CHORAL ODES
BY E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.B.
PROFESSOR OK DIVINITY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON ; VICAR OF BICKLEY ;
PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL'S
PHILADELPHIA :
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER,
1022 MARKET STREET.
THB MOST RKVXRKKD
RICHARD CHENEYIX TRENCH, D.D.,
ABCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN.
DEAB friend, of old true guide of pilgrims known,
Leading their steps where Wisdom's fair pearla li«
With orient gems, in Truth's rich treasury,
On to the altar-stairs and sapphire Throne,
Now reaping harvest which thou hadst not sown,
The heaped-up debt of far ancestral crimes,
Bearing the brunt of these our troublous times,
While mists are thick, and loud the night-winds moan '
Scant leisure thine to look with studious eyes
On these poor transcripts of a glorious page,
The heathen's dim, ' unconscious prophecies,'
The dreams of Hellas in her golden age :
Nay, gird thee to thy task, come good, come ill,
And eo 'mid storms and fears thy Master's heat fulfil.
PREFACE.
I HAVE been led by the interest which I found in the
work of translating Sophocles, and in part also by the
reception which my translation met with, to enter on
another, and, in some respects, more difficult task, in
which I have had predecessors at once more numerous
and of higher mark. I leave it to others to compare
the merits and defects of my work with theirs.
I have adhered in it to the plan of using for
the Choral Odes such unrhymed metres, observing the
strophic and antistrophic arrangement, as seemed to
me most analogous in their general rhythmical effect
to those of the original ; while, for the sake of those
who cannot abandon their preference for the form with
which they are more familiar, I have added, in an
Appendix, a rhymed version of the chief Odes of the
Oresteian trilogy. Those in the other dramas did not
seem to me of equal interest, or to lend themselves
with equal facility to a like attempt.
I have for the most part followed the text of Mr.
Paley's edition of 1861, and, in common with all
Viii PREFACE.
students of 2Eschylos, I have to acknowledge a large
debt of gratitude to him both for his textual criticism
and for the varied amount of illustrative material which
he has brought together in his notes. It is right to
name Professor Conington also as at once among the
most distinguished of those with whose labours my
own will have to be compared, and as one who has
done for JEschylos at Oxford what Mr. Paley has done
at Cambridge, bringing to bear on the study of his
dramas at once the accuracy of a critic and the insight
of a poet. Had his work as a translator been carried
further, had the late Dean of St. Paul's left us more
than the single tragedy of the Agamemnon, or my
friend, Miss Swanwick, been able to complete what
she began so well in her version of the Oresteian
trilogy, I should probably not have undertaken the
work which I have now brought to a conclusion. I
have felt, however, that it was desirable for the large
mass of readers to whom the culture which comes
through the study of Greek literature in the inimitable
completeness of the originals is more or less inacces-
sible, that there should be a translation within thei*
reach, embracing all that has been left to us by one
who takes all but the highest place among the tragic
poets of Athens, and making it, as far as was possible,
intelligible and interesting in its connexion with the
history of Greek thought, political and theological.
I have indicated by an asterisk (*) passages where
PREFACE. a,
the reading or the rendering is mere or less con-
jectural, and in which therefore the student would do
well to consult the notes of commentators. Passages
which are regarded as spurious by editors of authority
are placed between brackets [ ].
It only remains that I should once again acknow-
ledge my obligations to my friend the Rev. Charles
Hole, for much help kindly given in the progress of
my work through the press.
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. — The whole work
has been subjected to revision. Additional notes have
been added where they seemed necessary. I have
thought it best to arrange the plays in their chrono-
logical order.
CONTENTS.
M*l
07 JB3CHTLO* •••••••• xiii
THE PERSIANS ........•!
THE SEVEN \VHO POT7GHT AGAINST THEBES • • . 45
PROMETHEUS BOUND ...... .89
THE SUPPLIANTS •••••••• 133
AGAMEMNON ...*..•;. 177
OHOEPHORI, OB THE LIBATION-POUKERS . • • . 247
EUMENIDES ......••• 203
FBAQMENTS ....••••• 337
Or SHYMKD OXOKUK28 . • • • • ti6
LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
THE materials for a life of 2Eschylos are like in kind
and quantity to those which we possess for a life of
Sophocles. A brief anonymous memoir, written pro-
bably some four or five hundred years after his death,1
ft few scattered facts in scholia and lexicons, a few
anecdotes or allusions in contemporary, or all but con-
temporary, authors ; this is all we have to deal with.3
My purpose in this essay is to do for the older as I
have done for the younger dramatist, to put these dis-
jecta membra together in such an order as may best
Bhow what the man himself was, to illustrate them
from the poet's own works, to throw light on the<n
from the history of the period in which he lived.
The birth of 2Eschylos3 is fixed partly by dates
given by Suidas and in the Arundel Inscriptions, partly
by a conjectural emendation of the text of the anony-
(1) The memoir in question Is prefixed to the Medicean MS. of the
plays, and is to be found in most editions. It is the authority for all
statements in the text for which no special reference is given.
(2) In some respects, indeed, the earlier dramatist has fared worse than
the later. Even Germany supplies but two monographs, De Vita Jtsthyli,
one by Dahm, the other by Peterson, and these are meagre and unin-
teresting aa compared with those by Leasing and Schdll on the life of
Bophocles.
(3) The name, a diminutive of atcr\nbc, and so meaning "little and (
Ugly," is of an unusual type, and might almost seem to imply some per- '
•onal deformity in the child to whom it was given. May we connect
this with the passionate, irascible temper by which the poet was charac-
terised I
LIFE OF JBSCHYLOS.
mous biographer, at B.C. 525. Both his parentage and
his place of birth maybe thought of as having influenced
I his poetry. He was an Eupatrid, one of the old noble
* families of Attica, born at a time when the separation
between them and the other citizens was far more
strongly marked than at a later period, and we find
the feelings of his class clinging to him through life.
He delights to dwell on the nobler character, the more
generous treatment even of slaves, to be found in the
" heirs of ancient wealth" than in the nouveaux riches,
who rose into prominence and power under Pericles,
(Agam. ver. 1010-12.) He utters his protest through
the lips of Athena against defiling the " clear stream "
of the old nobility with the " foul mire " of aliens and
traders,1 (Eumen. v. 665.) With this as the dominant
feeling in his mind, he attached himself to the cause
of Kimon as against Pericles, and, as we shall see
hereafter, defended the Areiopagos against the attacks
that threatened its authority. Something of the san>e
temper — as of one who places noble blood above
wealth, because it more often goes together with
nobleness of nature — is seen in his scorn for " gold-
decked " houses where the hands of those who dwell
in them are soiled, (Agam. v. 748,) while he maintains
that there is no inevitable connexion between greatness
and the fall that so often follows on it, that there are
families in which prosperity and honour pass on from
generation to generation, (Agam. v. 736.)
Nor can the fact that he was born at Eleusis be
(1) One may note the parallelism of Dante's vehement protest against
**Ja yente nunva," "le bfstie Fitxolam," that had been received into Flo-
rence from neighbouring cities, or made their way to power by
f**iafni."—J"/crn. xv. 62, xvi. 73.
LIFE OF JESCHYLOS.
considered as of less importance. Initiation into the
Mysteries that were connected with that spot, may
have been postponed, indeed, (if he was ever actually
initiated,)1 to mature age. But the local influence
must have been round him from the first. Men came
there to pass through the rites of probation, counted
it the blessedness of their life to be admitted by the
hierophant, spoke of it as unfolding the secrets of
immortality. Theories as to the nature and teacher
of these and other mysteries, have indeed varied
very widely.* Some have seen in them the channels
by which a primitive religion was kept from perishing
utterly, and faith in the providence, perhaps in the
unity, of God, and in a future retribution, transmitted
to fit recipients. Others have discerned nothing more
than a Phallic symbolism of the reproductive powers of
nature, the attractions of which lay in the debasing
character of the symbols and the stimulus they sup-
plied to a prurient imagination. Others have found
in them symbols, indeed, but symbols no longer under-
stood, the story which had once clothed a thought
being dramatised for its own sake, till the thought
(1) The question remains nib fudiee. On the one side there is the state-
ment preserved by Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata, (ii. 166,) that
when accused before the Areiopagos of having brought the mysteries on
the stage., he defended himself by pleading that he had never been ini-
tiated. On the other, we have the fact that Aristophanes, in the Frog*,
(v. 886,) represents him as invoking Demeter,
" Who hast trained my soul
To meetness for thy holy mysteries."
The latter testimony, as being nearly contemporary, seems to have greatest
weight. Aristotle, however, in referring to the case as illustrating his
doctrine of sins of ignorance, (Eth. JV'teom. iii. 2,) may be thrown into the
other scale, as corroborating the tradition given by Clement.
(2) WUrburton, in his Divine Legation of Muses, has brought together
most of the ancient authorities on the subject. Lobeck, in a treatisa
bearing the title of Aglaophaitus, has treated the question with a more
exhaustive scholarship. St. Croix'B JtccAt rales tur let JJyitiret
may also be consulted.
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
itself was forgotten in the interest of the fantastic
mythos that embodied it. With views so divergent
before us, we cannot safely build much on any esti-
mate of the influence which the mysteries of Eleusis
may have exercised upon the mind of ^Eschylos. It
may be suggested, perhaps, that they, like all other
symbolic rites, degenerated as they grew older ; that
whatever of obscenity or triviality was in them, was
of later growth ; that if they were parables of Nature
and her life-giving power, they also helped men to
think of that life as extending into a more distant
future. Like the secrets of Freemasonry, they may
have had a religious meaning at first, which afterwards
degenerated into a mere conventional mystery, and a
fantastic triviality which a later age strove in vain to
re-clothe with a religious significance. The language
in which Sophocles and Pindar speak of them1 forbids
us to think of them as in his time other than witnesses
to a loftier truth than that held by the uninitiated
many. The stress laid by ^Eschylos on the righteous
government of God, on the immortality of the spirits
of the dead, may possibly be traceable to that witness.
His reverence for the Goddess of Eleusis was at all
events thought of as so characteristic, that he is repre-
sented, in the Aristophanic caricature already quoted,
as swearing by her name and no other.
(1) Sophocles, Fragm. 719 —
" Thrice happy they who having seen these rite*
Then pass to Hades : there to these alone
Is granted life ; all others evil find."
Pindar, Thren. J-'ragm. 8 —
" Blessed is he who having looked on them,
Passes below the hollow earth, for he
Knows life's true end, and Zeus-given sov' reign ty."
LIFE OF .lESCHYLOS.
The education of Jllschylos would, in its main out-
lines, be such as has been described in my life of
Sophocles. It would want, indeed, that which the
latter found as he grew to manhood in the dramas of
JEscbylos himself. It would want also the poetry of
Pindar,1 But the music, and the athletic training, and
the poetry of Homer, were already there to form the
character and develop its nascent powers. The care
taken by Peisistratos to collect and arrange the so-
called Homeric poems, and the formation of a library
at Athens by his sons Hippias and Hipparchos, were
at once symptoms and causes of the intellectual life
which was about to bud and blossom and bear fruit
with such unexampled rapidity. The education of the \
young men of Athens was based thenceforward upon
Homer. The cycle of the Iliad supplied nearly the
whole material which was to be worked up by the
coming dramatists. jEschylos himseff spoke of his';
tragedies as being but " made-up dishes " (T€/u.a^)
from the great Homeric banquet, (Athcn. viii. p. 347.)
Nor can we forget that the name which has stamped
itself upon dramatic art was then beginning to be
known, and that the works of Thespis began, teul
years before the birth of 2Eschylos, to give a ne\ri
character to the festival of the Dionysia. Concurrently
with the influence of the heroic, there must also have
taen that of the early gnomic poetry of Greece. The
sententious morality of Theognis appears to have im-
pressed itself on a mind which loved to reproduce
even the earlier, simpler proverbs that entered into
(1) Pindar and Simonides vve, however, contemporaries of the grent
dramatist, and might easil" .^ercisc some influence on the growth oi lua
Jtviil LIFE OF JESCHYLOS.
the common speech of men, those which bade them
not to " kick against the pricks," or taught them that
' out of a little seed may spring a mighty tree," that
*'pain is gain," that "wisdom comes by sorrow," that
" the highest wisdom is self-knowledge," and the like.
And, accord ngly, the parallelisms between the two
writers are striking enough to exclude the notion of
mere coincidence.1
The resemblance is, however, in mind and teaching
much more than in words and images. There is the
same dread of the evils of over-prosperous fortune,
the same reverence for the rights of the suppliant and
(1) I owe the references to these passages to a note of Mr.
Comp. (1) Theognis. w. 44-9—
" In all my deeds thou'lt find me like pure gold,
Still glowing red, though tried by touchstone's tei
And the black stain not e'en the surface mars."
Again, v. 381—
" And like to worthless bronze,
By friction tried and tests,
It turns to tarnished blackness in its hue.*
(1) Theogn. v. 151—
" But full-flushed Lust hegetteth Recklessness,
When prosperous fortune comes U> villain aouL
Atom. v. 738—
" But Recklessness of old
Is wont to breed another Recklessness ;
That in its youth, in turn
Doth full-flushed Lust beget,
Begets Satiety."
(») Theogn. T. 961—
" Many there are with false mood counterfeit,
Who hide their lies with show of short-lived z«2.
T. 76O-
" Men there are who right transgressing,
Honour semblance more than being :
O'er the sufferer all are ready
Wail of bitter grief to utter,
Though the biting pang of sorrow
Never to their heart appipaches;
So with counterfeit rejoicing
Men strain laces Uiat lire suuleleao."
LIFE OF JS.SCHYLOS.
the guest, the same belief in a Nemesis working at
times slowly and secretly, but sure to manifest itself at
last as the avenger of outrage, and turbulence, and
wrong. Even the tone in which the ethical poet
speaks of the chastisement which the Gods had sent
upon the haughty Medes is in the same key as that
which pervades the Persians (vv. 744 and 775) of the
dramatist. Both are intensely national ; both are also
intensely the poets of an aristocracy. Theognis com-
plains (vv. 53-58)—
" This State is still a State, but men are changed ;
Those who ere while knew nought of Right and Law,
And clad in goatskin lived outside the gates,
These are now known as nobles, and the men.
Who once were noble, now as cowards L've.
Men honour wealth, and wealth corrupts the blood,
Bad marrying good, and good with villains wed."
Just as .ZEschylos makes Athena warn her people —
" But if with streams defiled and tainted soil
Clear river thou pollute, no drink thou'lt find."
— Eumen. v. 664
and utters his complaint that —
" Now Success
It man's sole God and more."
— Lib. Pourert, T. 50.
The chronological relation of the two poets to each
other was just such as to bring the younger poet under
the influence of the older. Theognis lived to witness
the overthrow of the Persians, and died just as .ZEschy-
los was rising into fame.
The reference in Fragm. 123 to the story of the
eagle shot with one of its own feathers, as taken from
LIFE OF jESCHYLOS.
the Libyan Fables, seems to indicate an acquaintance
also with that form of composition which, about this
time, was travelling from Asia and Africa into the
literature of Greece.
The legend which has come down to us through
Pausanias, (Alt. i. 21, § 3,) though too remote in time
to claim a place among the elements of a biography,
may yet be received as the expression of the influence
exercised on .ZEschylos by the new art which Thespis
had introduced, and its religious associations. " Ho
was set," so the story runs, " to watch grapes as they
were ripening for the vintage, and fell asleep : And lo !
as he slept, Dionysos appeared to him, and bade him
give himself to write tragedies for the great festival of
the God. And when he awoke, he found himself
invested with new powers of thought and utterance,
and the work was as easy to him as if he had been
trained to it for many years." The parable shadows
forth, as I have said elsewhere, the chief characteris-
tics both of the excellence and the faults of JEschylos,
— the presence of a creative power flaming as with a
divine light, striking out lofty thoughts, and clothing
them in words of singular felicity, yet wanting in the
supreme refinement and equilibrium of a deliberate
and conscious art.
Of the dramatic poets who preceded him we know
the names, and little more. The date assigned to the
first exhibition of tragedies at Athens by Thespis is
B.C. 535. So far as we can judge amid conflicting
statements of the precise nature of the changes intro-
duced by him, they consisted — (1.) In the introduction
of now subjects, still, however, confined to the Dio-
LIFE OF ^JSCHYLOS.
nysiac cycle ; (2.) in the addition of dialogue to the
choral songs which had previously made r.p, as it were,
the libretto of the Dionysian opera; and (3.) in the
use of masks, or pigments, to make personation oi
characters more life-like. Groups of satyrs, following
the chariot of the God, singing his adventures, and
representing some of these adventures in rude mimetic
action, seem to have furnished the starting-point oi
Greek drama. Then came, at Sikyon or elsewhere,
(Herod, v. 67,) the celebration of the deeds of other
gods, or of the heroes of the Homeric cycle, but still
confined to odes, and with a satyr chorus as the chief
or only actors.1 The recitation of the Homeric poems
by the travelling minstrels known as Rhapsodists,
would naturally tend to enlarge the range of the sub-
jects in which spectators were interested. Thespis
had the credit of seizing on the opening thus given,
and introducing an actor on the stage conversing with
the chorus. Possessed of the versatile mimetic power
which has in our own times led men like Charles Ma-
thews and Albert Smith to sustain many characters,
and so to be the one actor in a drama which yet had
something of a plot, he appeared now in one dress,
now in another ; now, e.g., as Dionysos, now as Pen-
theus, now as Agave ; and so on, representing the
whole story which we find in the Bacclue of Euripides.
At first, apparently, the change was in the mode rather
than in the subjects. When these, too, were altered,
and when the people came to the vintage festival, and
found, as in the plays of Phrynichos and ^schylos,
(1) The people of Sikyon, the historian tells us, honoured the hero
Adrastos, the son of Tallies, with "tragic choruses" which celebrated
bus ad ventures, and which were transferred by Cleistlwnes to DionyKK.
XXU LIFE OF ^BSCHYLOS.
notliing that reminded them of the vintage God, they
missed the rough, coarse mirth in which they had
revelled, and asked in words which passed into a pro-
verb, " What has this to do with Dionysos ? M1 The
change from one cycle of subjects to the whole range
of the legends of the heroic age was analogous to that
which passed over the English drama when Ferrex
and Porrex and Gorboduc took the place of the " mys-
teries" and " miracle plays" of an earlier period.
The later arrangement, which made a satyric drama
the necessary completion of a tragic trilogy, (as the
Christmas pantomime comes, in the modern drama,
after the five-act tragedy,) was probably of the nature
of a compromise between the tastes of the men of
culture and those of the people, who still craved for
something of the old rough sport, and frolicsome, ram-
pant humour.
Phrynichos, whose name thus meets us in conjunc-
tion with that of ^Eschylos, (he gained his first prize
B.C. 511, and his last B.C. 476,) went further in the
development of the new art. The impulse given to
the study of Homer by the influence of Peisistratos,
supplied him, as it afterwards supplied his successors,
not only, as has been said, with an almost inexhaust-
ible material, loftier and nobler than the subjects of
the old Dionysian mimes or the earlier dramas of
Thespis, but also with a higher culture generally.
The choral odes of his dramas were long remembered
as at once exquisitely sweet, and pure and lofty in
their tone. With Aristophanes, he is the type of the
older and better style of poetry and music, as com<
(I) Plutarch, Syntpos. ii. p. 109£
LIFE OF ASCHYLOS.
pared v/ith later and more artificial refinements. His
songs are " sweet as the honey of the bee." He him-
self is the " master of all singers."1 The introduction
of masks for the female characters, and of solemn
measures for the rhythmical movements of the chorus,
was also ascribed to him. Perhaps the most striking
fact in connexion with him is, that he was the first to
seize on the facts of contemporary history as subjects?
for his dramas, and in B.C. 494, brought on the stage
the capture of Miletos, which had just fallen into the
hands of the Persians. With a just perception of the
true purpose of the drama, the Athenians, though
moved to tears by the sorrows which were thus
brought before them, felt that the sufferings of a city
so nearly related to them should not be displayed for
the amusement of the people. They fined the poet a
thousand drachmae, and forbade the reproduction of
the drama. Taught by this experience, at a later
period, with the victorious Themistocles as his cho-
rdgos, he dramatised, not the disasters, but the suc-
cesses of the Athenians ; and in a drama which bore
the title of the Phcenikians, represented, probably in
B.C. 476, the defeat of Xerxes, and so set the example
which jiEschylos followed in his Persians. Phryni-
chos, however, did not stand alone. The intellectual
activity of the time threw itself at Athens into this
line of work, and little as we know of Choarilos, Pra-
tinas, and other contemporaries, we must bear in mind
that they were there, stimulating the mind of ^Eschy-
los to emulation, and contributing, each of them, soma
new improvement to the progress of the art.
(1) Athen. yiii. p. 348; Aristoph., Birds, v. 748; Waff*, VT. 210-268
Frofft, w. 911-1294 ; 3'hetm. v. 164.
LIFE OK /ESCHYLOS.
But before we enter on the dramatic career of him
•who was to surpass thorn all, it will be well to note
some other influences to which he must, in the nature
of things, have been exposed, and the operation of
which we can actually trace in his writings.
(1.) Foremost among these must be noted the spirit
of enterprise which was leading the Greeks to voyages
of discovery and to settlements in remote lands. The
temper, of which the Odyssey, and the legend of the
Argonauts, were the first-fruits, had rapidly developed
itself in them. They had begun to establish them-
selves in Egypt in the time of Psammitichos, and the
wonders which the land of the Nile presented to their
view, drew travellers who, like Herodotos a little later,
gazed round them in astonishment, and sought to dis-
cover affinities between the myths of Egypt and those
of Hellas. Others pressed on, as Herodotos also did,
to the land of the two great rivers, to the cities on the
shores of the Euphrates and the Tigris, to those of
the Medes and Persians. The invasion of Syria and
the seaboard of the Euxine by the Skythians, had
brought them also into prominence, increased, of
course, by the stories of the expedition of Dareios
against them. In the West also, colonies of Greeks
had settled in the south of Italy and Sicily. The
marvels of Skylla and Charybdis, of ^Etna and the
Kyclops, of Atlas and the pillars of Heracles, and the
Islands of the Blessed, and the mysterious Atlantis,
had impressed themselves on their imagination. M&-
chylos himself, there is some reason to believe, shared
in some of these adventurous voyages, and visited
Sicily before he had reached the age of twenty-six,
LIFE OF AESCHYLUS.
before his success as a dramatist began.1 Wben he
dwells on the wonders which travellers had told, he
may have reproduced what he had thus heard hknself.
"When he went to the court of Hieron after his defeat
by Sophocles, it was not as a stranger, but as one who
had already made friends there, and was sure of
patronage. He at any rate shared in the spirit which
delighted in these reports from far-off lands. In pro-
portion to the, distance, the tales of travellers were
stranger and more fantastic. What the Spanish Main
and El Dorado, and the "still vexed Bermoothes"
and Prester John, were to the Elizabethan dramatists,
that the one-eyed Arimaspi, and the long-lived, happy
Hyperborei, and the Gorgons, and the Kyclops, were
to the dramatic poets of Athens. And in .ZEschylos
the position which they occupy is obviously a pro-
minent one. In the Prometheus the wanderings of lo
are brought in, if in part for deeper mythological
reasons, yet in part also to enable the tale of these
marvels to be told fully. In it and in the Suppliants
he yields to the fascination of the mysterious legends
of lo and the " touch-born " Epaphos, and claims a
common origin for the Argives and the Egyptians. He
revels, and his hearers must have revelled, (some of
them remembering their own adventures,) in the
uncouth names and wild imagery into which he thus
plunges. He delights, as Milton delighted, in the
rhythmic grandeur of semi-barbaric names, each with
its associations of mystery and wonder.
( 1) The question lies more or less in the region of conjecture. Hi*
migration to Sicily is assigned by different writers now to this, now to
that cause, and is. placed by some before, by some after, the de-.ith <>'
Gelon. I follow Hermann (f.'pusc. ii., fie Ckorn E"intu ) in ilie hypo-
thesis that the accounts may be reconciled by u£s>uuiing tiiie* or won
distinct journeys.
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
(2.) As thp Greeks were thus stimulated in their
intellectual life by the spirit of discovery, so also were
they by their struggle for political freedom against the
"tyranny" of Peisistratos and his sons, and by the
contest — imminent as ^schylos was growing up to
manhood, and over before any of his extant tragedies
were composed — with the non-Hellenic races gathered
uuder the command, first of Dareios and then of
Xerxes. What Spain was to the poets of England
under Elizabeth, (to return to the analogy already
suggested,) Persia was to those of Greece, and the
victory of Salamis had its analogue in the overthrow
of the Armada. It was the lot of Sophocles, then a
mere stripling, to lead the choral band that celebrated
that victory. It was the work of ^Eschylos, in the
Persians, (probably the earliest of his extant plays,) to
give it a yet more illustrious and lasting monument ;
to bring before an Athenian audience the strange
dresses, and the servile prostrations, and the wild
wailings, and the strange-sounding names of the de-
feated invaders. But beyond the limits of that play
we find traces of the same feeling. The pride and
pomp of the " barbarian " are instanced in the embroi-
dered tapestry which Clyttemnestra spreads for the
march of Agamemnon, in order that he may bring
upon himself the wrath of the Hellenic Gods, (Agam.
892.)
(3.) I am disposed to assign a larger share of influ-
ence upon the character and poetry of ^schylos than
is commonly recognised, to that strange mysterious
personage who appeared for a short moment on the
stage of Athenian history about seventy years kefore
LIFE OF ^SCHYLOS.
his birth, (B.C. 596,) Epirnenides, the prophet of Crete.
Scanty as are the materials for any history of the man
or of his teaching, it is clear that at the time his fame
was like in kind and almost equal in degree to that ot
Pythagoras.1 The ascetic life, (it was said that no
man ever saw him eat;) the ecstatic state which issued
in prophetic utterances, and led men to think that he
was communing with the Gods ; the sleep, prolonged
through fifty years, out of which he woke with a new
and heaven-taught wisdom ; — all this invested him in
the eyes of the Greeks with a mysterious, supernatural
character.2 Like Balaam the son of Beor, he was sent
for from far countries to bless or to curse, to teach
men how to purify their land from the guilt of blood,
to appease their dread of the unseen Powers. His
arrival at Athens in obedience to the summons which
called him to their help, when pestilence and discoid
seemed to proclaim the wrath of the Gods against the
guilt which the " bloody Louse " of the Alcmaeonidaa
had brought upon the land bv their treacherous murder
of Kylon and his adherents, must have left a deep
impression. Echoes of his teaching (so far as that
teaching has come down to us in fragmentary notices)
are found in .ZEschylos.
(a.) The prophet refers all his power to predict to
the wisdom which he had gained in his long slumber,
(1) It has been often said, as by Cicero, (Tiac. Disp. if. 10,) fhat
JEschylos was " non poeta solum, Bed etiara Pytlwgoreus ; " and Mr.
Paley, in his Preface, has enlarged on the thought, and pointed out many
interesting coincidences between the poet and the philosopher. For the
most part, however, they belong to tenets characteristic of both Pytha-
goras and Epimenides, and the derivation is more easily traceable in the
ease of the latter than of the former.
(2) Comp. Heinrich's elaborate monograph, Epimenidet atu Kreta,
Where all that is known about him is brought together and discussed,
and JIoeck'B Kreta, iii. 2, s. 11.
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
and which was renewed in visions of the night.1 Tha
poet proclaims —
" And slowly dropping on the heart in deep,
Comes woe-recording care,
And makes the unwilling yield to wiser thoughts.**
— Again, v. 173.
(fc.) The idea of a transmitted pollution cleaving to
a family from generation to generation, sin becoming
the penalty of sin, until some one comes who, by
penitence and prayer, and rites of expiation, obtains
pardon and deliverance, was that which had brought
Epimenides to Athens. He is pre-eminently the
"purifier," the "prophet-healer," the servant of
Apollo in the work of cleansing and clearing the guilty,
as that god is brought before us in the Eumenides. It
is needless to point out that this is throughout the
key-note of tbe Oresteian trilogy. We meet it in
Clyta3mnestra's reference to the Alastor, the avenging
fiend, with whom she identifies herself (A/jam, v. 1478)
in her hope that her crime will —
" At last have freed my house
From madness that sets each man's hand 'gainst each/'
— (Agam. v. 1552 ;)
in the stress which Orestes lays on the rites of purifi-
cation that have cleansed him, (Eumen. v. 423.) The
more generalised teaching,
" But how to hlot the guilt of kindred hlood,
This needs a great atonement, many victims
falling to many Gods, to heal the woe,"
—(Suppl. v. 444,)
U) Ulaximua Tyr. xxxviii. 3.
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
almost reproduces the process by which Epimenides is
said to have purified Athens by turning loose a flock
of sheep, black and white mingled, and sacrificing them
to the Gods at whose altars they fell, erecting an altar,
if they rested where none existed previously, to the
UNKNOWN or to an unnamed GOD. Even the sacrifice
of Iphigeneia has a parallel in the story preserved by
Atben&os (xiii. 8), that a noble youth, Cratinos, had
immolated himself, with the sanction of the Cretan
prophet, to appease the wrath of the Gods.
(c.) Epimenides, it is said, on leaving Athens, told
its inhabitants to erect on the Areiopagos1 two unhewn
stones as altars to Outrage (vflpis) and Shamelessness.
They were to look on those personified attributes as
the demons who had vexed their city, and whom they
must entreat never again to trouble them. It is im-
possible, I think, not to recognise an echo of that
teaching, (1) in the reverence which 2Eschylos shows
in the last play of the Oresteian trilogy for the court
of the Areiopagos ; and (2) in the like personification
of the self-same evil Powers —
" But Outrage (u/3p«c) done of old,
Is wont to breed another Outrage still,
Sporting its youth in human miseries,
At once, or whensoe'er the fixed time cornea."
— Agam., 738.
(d.) The Cretan prophet is said to have done much
to naturalise at Athens the worship of the Chthoniau
Goddesses, (dwelling, i.e., in the thick darkness below
the Earth,) known as the Erinuyes or Euiuenides, wha
(1) Clem. Alex., frotrept., p. tti; Cicero, Uf, L<yibu*t ii. It.
LIFE OF JESCHYLOS.
are so prominent in the poetry of ^Eschylos.1 The
temple to them, which stood on the Areiopagos, and
which is glorified in the closing scene of the trilogy,
was said to have been built under the direction oi
Epimenides.
(«.) The seer is said to have been at one time on
the point of dedicating a temple to the Muses, when a
voice from heaven bade him stop, and be for the future
a worshipper of Zeus only.2 Whatever view we may
take of this, as indicating a step upwards te a mono-
theistic creed, we cannot fail to see a close parallel to
it in the words of the dramatist —
" 0 Zens — whate'er He be,
Jt that nnme please him well,
By that on him I call,
Weighing all other names, I fail to guess
Aught else but Zeus." — Agam., v. 155.
(/.) Lastly, Epimenides is said to have restrained
the unmeasured barbaric wailing over the dead to
which the women of Athens had till then been accus-
tomed.3 And here, too, his teaching is echoed by
JEschylos. He brings that kind of wailing forward in
the Persians as characteristic of barbarian manners ;
he hardly ever speaks of it but in connection with
some barbaric name, Mariandynian, Kissian, or the
like ; he puts into the mouth of Eteocles a vehement
protest against it, (Seven ag. Thebes, vv. 169-190.)
With a genius so formed and fashioned, ^Eschylos
followed the leading of the time, and entered on hii
Diog. Laert., i. 12; Plutarch., Solon., 0. IS.
2) Dio£. Laert., i. 10.
riutarcb., Solon., c. 12.
LIFE OF -SSCHYLOS.
work as a dramatic writer. He resembled Phrynichos,
as we have seen, in his choice of heroic legends or
contemporary history, instead of the revel mimes of
the older Dionysia. And the language in which the
tales were clothed rose also far above the earlier level.
He was the first of the Greeks to " build the lofty
rhyme,"1 to bring out the strange compound words,
" neck-breaking," "cumbrous," " pegged and wedged
and dove-tailed," as Aristophanes called them, coined
in the mint of his own brain ; to startle the eyes as
•vrell as the ears of his audience with figures of mon-
strous forms of animals, winged dragons, beasts half-
cock and half-horse, half-goat and half-stag, like those
that draw the chariots of Okeauos in the Prometheus,
of Athena in the FAimenides ; to array his actors in
stately robes, so gorgeous that they were afterwards
copied by priests in temples and by the hierophants
of mysteries;2 to trust to the " sensation " caused by
the presence of actors who were prominent through
the whole action of a play, but never opened their lips,
or spoke but a single sentence.3 If we would appre-
ciate his dramas as we read them, without the acces-
sories which accompanied them as they were performed,
we must remember that they were in a high degree
spectacles rather than poems, — with but few speakers,
but with all the scenic effect of dresses, processions,
and decorations.
(1) Aristoph., Fr»ys, 943. (2) Athen., 1. p. 21.
(3) Anstoph., Fioys, w. 906-912. In this apparently he followed
Phrynichos. it probably belonged to his earlier manner. No instance
Of it occurs in the seven extant tragedies. Aristophanes refers to
Achilles and Niobe as the characters thus represented. In the Libattaa-
Pourers, however, Pylades, though present throughout the greater part of
the action 01 the play, spunks but ouce.
IFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
The personal temperament of the man seems to have
been in harmony with these characteristics of hia
genius. Vehement, passionate, irascible ; writing his
tragedies (as later critics judged) as if half-drunk,
doing (as Sophocles said of him) what was right in
his art without knowing why;1 following the impulses
that led him to strange themes and dark problems,
rather than aiming at the perfection of a complete, all-
sided culture ; frowning with shaggy brows, like a wild
bull, glaring fiercely, and bursting into a storm of
wrath when annoyed by critics or rival poets ; a
Marlow rather than a Shakspeare : this i& the por-
trait sketched by one who must have painted a figure
still fresh in the minds of the Athenians.2 Such a man,
both by birth and disposition, was likely to attach
himself to the aristocratic party, and to look with
scorn on the claims of the demos to a larger bhare of
power. His ancestors had fougLt against Peisistratos,
and he too entered his protect against that form of
government which the Greeks called a tyranny, the
despotism of a political adventurer, self-raised to sove-
reign power, without the divine sanction which attached
to the old hereditary kings who traced their descent
from Zeus himself.3 Through his whole life, he was
faithful to his early creed. There is hardly a play in
which some political bias in that direction may not be
distinctly traced. The time of his greatest popularity
was during the ascendancy first of Aristeidcs and then
of Kimon. When his star waned before the clearer,
calmer, less fitful light of Sophocles, the change syn-
(1) Athan., X. p. 428. (2) Aristovh.. Frogs, v». 802-86*
(a) bee the passages quoted ill p. lu.
LIFE OF .iESCHYLOS.
chronised with the rise of Pericles to political supre-
macy. It was natural with such a character that his
career as a dramatist and a man should be somewhat
more chequered than that of his great successor.
Sophocles was from first to last the favourite of the
Athenians, — easy, genial, contented. .^Eschylos —
quick to take offence, quick also to give it ; startling
men by strange tours deforce; coming into direct col-
lision with their feelings, moral, political, and religious ;
wounding them where they were most susceptible —
experienced the mutability of popular favour in a more
than ordinary degree. The incidents of his life, so
far as they are known to us, seem to point to a series
of irritations, misunderstandings, and temporary aliena-
tions between him and his countrymen.
The date B.C. 499 is fixed for his first dramatic con-
test with Pratinas and Choerilos.1 He was not suc-
cessful ; but the excitement of the competition drew
BO great a crowd of spectators, that the wooden
scaffolding on which they sat gave way.2 Partly hurt
at his defeat, partly urged by the spirit of adventure,
he went, as has been said, in the same year to Sicily.
His absence did not last long. He was at Athens
when the expedition of Datis and Artaphernes threat-
ened the liberties of Greece, and he and his brother
Kynspgeiros fought at Marathon. Like all who took
part in that first great battle in Athenian history, he
(1) The chronology depends on a combination of the two notices in
Buidas under the headings ^Escliylos and Pratimia.
('2) Pausan. AU. i. 4 ; buid;ts, i.e. It is interesting1 to note that thia
disaster led the Athenians to build their tirst stone theatre for the
Dionysiac festivals, and so prepared the w:iy for the stately buskin, and
the £orf<«ous dresses, and thu other bt.i^e eli'ects which .dischjios and Uu*
•auteniporaries were nut siow U> introduce.
C
*IX1T 1IFE OF JESCHYLOS.
looked back on it as the great glory of his life. "When
he wrote his own epitaph, in advanced age and in a
distant land, it was to record, not that he had been a
poet and had won thirteen prizes from the Athenian
people, but that the " plain of Marathon and the long-
haired Mede " could attest his well-tried valour.1
The glory of Marathon was, however, probably fol-
lowed by the mortification of another defeat. The
Athenians (already pushing forward to intellectual as
well as military excellence) wanted for those who had
fallen in the battle an elegy that should be worthy of their
fame, and when the prize was awarded to Simonides,
^Eschylos, it is said, was irritated at his failure, and
again took his departure for Sicily in B.C. 488.z Gelon
was at that time rising to power, and with him, almost
sharing his authority, was his brother Hieron. In that
prince, the patron of poets and philosophers, the friend
(1) The epitaph is given, p. xlvii.
(2) The two epitaphs are given in th« Anthologia Grosea, and may be
rendered as follows : —
SIJIONIDBS.
Farewell, ye heroes, warriors famed in fight,
Ye youth of Athens, horsemen strong in might,
Who for your goodly country gave your prime,
And in the sight of all of Helliis' clime,
Fought against myriads with a faith sublime 1
.328CHYLO8.
These valiant swordsmen gloomy Fate laid low.
In act to free the plains where roam the sheep,
But still for those who yielded to the blow
Lives glory, though in Ossa's dust they sleep.
The two elegiac poems here given are identified with the Marathonisn
epitaphs by Stanley, in his notes on the Life of ^schylos, with a " facile
crederem," (ii. p. 172) ; by Droysen. (ii. p. 302) ; and by Bunsen, (God in
History, ii. p. 153), without any qualification. I agree, however, with
Bode (Geidiicfitr, des HtUenisctien [Hchtkunst, ii. p. 262; iii. p. '2li>,) in look-
ing on the conjecture as very uncertain in either case. That ascribed
to ^schylos seems to refer to some unrecorded act of heroism on the part
at the Thessalians, and is indeed described in some MSB. as written
£v their warriors.— See Jacobs' ^nUwUjg. israta, notee ua Book vu,
LIFE OF JKSCUYLOS.
erf Pindar and Simonides, — immortalised by the forme*
as victor at Olympic games, — he found a liberal patron.
Sicily became almost a second home to him, a place of
refuge after any trouble or disappointment in his own
city. This time, however, his absence was not of long
duration, and in the interval between Marathon and
Salamis, in B.C. 484, he was for the first time success-
ful in his competition with those who had been the
leading dramatic poets, Pratinas, Phrynichos, and
Choerilos. It was the beginning of a series of thirteen
like successes.1 Most, if not all, the prizes awarded
to him were obtained between that date and B.C. 470.
It was the period when the policy of Kimon and Aris-
teides was in the ascendant, when the Eupatrids were*
yet able to resist the encroachments of the democracy.
With that policy then, as afterwards, ZEschylos identi-
fied himself. He was the poet of the conservative
party, as Sophocles was afterwards the representative
poet of the cultivated liberalism of that of Pericles.
Of the plays now extant, the Persians stands first in
order of time. Written, as it was, within eight years
of the battle of Salamis, it appealed to those in whose
memories every incident of the battle was yet iresh-
The vividness and minuteness of the account there
given of the engagement seems to indicate that he
himself, like his brother Arneinias, had a large share
in the glory of the day.2 It has accordingly the in-
(1) The total number of dramas ascribed to him is stated by Snidas a*
ninety, by the anonymous biographer as seventy. We have the titles of
*eventy-eight.
(2) To Ameinias the Athenians awarded the aristeia, or prize of valour,
M to the man who, of all the Greeks that fought at Salamis, had done the
worthiest deeds. Some years afterwards, when 2Eschylos was accused of
impiety, as having divulged the mysteries, and was on the point of being
•toned, Amoiniita was said to havo shown the arm, the baud of which. had
SLXXvi LIFE OF /ESCHYLOS.
terest of being a contemporary record by an eye-
witness, and represented before eye-witnesses, and
gives, we may well believe, a truer account than that
which we find forty years later in Herodotos, when
there had been time for the growth of numerous em-
bellishments, approaching in some instances almost to
the character of legends. The drama itself is for us,
perhaps, apart from this fact, one of the least interest-
ing of the seven extant plays. At the time, it was
probably accepted as worthy of the triumph which it
celebrated. To understand the Persians, we must
think of it as a spectacle, performed before thousands
of those who had fought themselves, or had had
brothers or fathers in the battle, exulting over the
thought that the Gods had fought for them, and that
their enemies had been defeated. The nearest ana-
logue in literature, in spite of the difference in form, is
found in the Song of Deborah. The close of that
hymn, picturing, as it does, the mother of Sisera look-
ing out of her lattice, anticipating tidings of victory
when she is about to hear those of utter failure, sug-
gests a theme which, with a nation of greater dramatic
power than the Hebrews, might have been developed
as ^schylos does tho like emotions in the mother of
Xerxes. In each case the poem supplies facts which
the history, compiled at a later period, omits or
colours.1 In both there is the same fiery glow, the
t>««i lost at PnlnmiB, and with that to have pleaded his brother's cans«.
The judges yielded to the appeal, mid gave a verdict of acquittal. Thia
apparently WHS the trial of which Clement of Alexandria, in the passag*
already quoted, gives so different an account.— Julian. V.H. v. 19.
(1) Comp., e.g., the account of the disaster which befell the Persians a«
they crossed the frozen Stiymon, (fern. vv. 500—510,1 and that of thg
destruction of the hosts of Jabin as they crossed thf swollen torrent ol
the Kihhou (Judg. v. 21, 24.
LIFE OF .SSCHYLOS.
same sense of a victory over aliens. In the work of
the Athenian, we must not forget that what seems to
us as we read it, the monstrous iteration of interjec-
tions, cries, lamentations, must have been, as it was
performed, one of its most striking features. It was
because these wailings, and tearing of hair, and beat-
ing of breasts, and rending of robes, were regarded as
especially Asiatic and barbarous, that the Athenians
loved to listen to, and to look on them, when they
were associated with the defeat and disgrace of their
foes. Their own civilisation had raised them above
these violent displays of grief, and from the time of
Solon, who had legislated against them, even wives
and mothers had learnt to bear the deaths of those
they loved with a more decent and tranquil sorrow.
The success which had attended this treatment of a
naval engagement, led -ZEschylos, in his next trilogy,
probably in the following year, (B.C. 471,) to take
another equally warlike, (" fall of Ares," as Aristo-
phanes calls it,) and to represent in The Seven who
fonyht against Thebex the incidents of a siege, the war-
riors heading the storming-party, each bearing his
shield, the leaders with some device and motto painted
on it in bright colours, the women of the besieged city
going in procession to offer their prayers at the shrinea
of the Gods, the scouts looking out from the ramparts,
and bringing back word of the disposition of the
enemy's forces, and the issue of the conflict. The fact
that he was writing of a mythical, not of an actual war
in which living men had taken part, robs The Seven
against Thebes, indeed, of the interest which attaches
to the Persians. But here also there was a political
1IFK OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
purpose mingling with the poet's work. The bearing
of the play was directed against the policy of aiming
at the supremacy of Athens by attacking other Greek
states. It brought before men the horrors that attend
the capture of a city, and led them to ask whether
these horrors should be perpetrated on a Hellenic city
by those who spoke the same Hellenic speech, (Seven
ag. Thebes, vv. 78-168.) It maintained, that is, the
policy of Aristeides as against that of Themistocles,
and when the words were uttered which described a
statesman and a general "who sought to be just in
deed as well as name,"1 (v. 588,) the enthusiasm
which burst out from an audience raised to the highest
pitch of excitement, showed that the skill of the poet
had not been wasted.
Within a few years, (in B.C. 4G8,) the career of suc-
cess was interrupted by the rising genius of a poet of
higher culture, and the first prize at the Dionysian
festival was awarded to Sophocles, then in his twenty-
ninth year. The defeat was, perhaps, the more mor-
tifying as occurring under the direction of Kimon, the
leader of the party to which ^Eschylos had attached
himself.8 It led him to leave Athens for a time, and to
visit Sicily. Other causes may have contributed to that
decision. He had incurred, it is said, at some period
the date of which it is not easy to fix, the displeasure
of the Athenians by introducing in his drama some of
the mystic rites which were confined to the initiated
few. The spectators, seeiug on the stage what many
among them knew to belong to the mysteries of Eleu«
(1) Plutarch, Arist. o. 8.
U) Plutarch, A"i«i. ComD. the account in my Life o
LIFE OF jESCHYLOS.
eis, were roused to a wild frenzy, and rushed upon the
poet, who, as himself acting, was on the stage. His
life was in danger, and he only escaped by fleeing to
the altar of Dionysos as to the privilege of sanctuary.
By the intercession of members of the court of Areio-
pagos, he was rescued, brought to a more formal trial,
and acquitted.1 If the Prometheus, the date of which
is uncertain, had been performed before this time, it
may well have contributed to shock the feelings of the
Athenians. He had probably, as has been before
stated, been previously acquainted with the country,
and had already come within the attraction of the pa-
tronage extended by Hieron to artists and men of
letters. Here, it is said, he composed dramas, the
subject-matter of which was taken from local legends,
—The Women of JEtna, and the like ; and,, at the
request of Hieron, reproduced the Persians on the
stage of Syracuse. Here too he may have heard of
the ravages of the great volcanic eruption of B.C. 477,
to which he refers in his Prometheus, (vv. 870-380,)
even if he had not been one of the actual spectators
during his previous visit.
The date assigned to the Suppliants rests upon the
assumption that it is connected with the alliance be-
(l) The account is given by Eustratnis (p. 40) in a passage quoted by
I/obeck, (Aglanph. i. 12.) The trilogy which gave occasion to the suspi-
cion is said to have included the plays of Sisyphos, Iphigeneia, and (Edipus.
Lobeck inclines to the belief, not that there was any disclosure of the
•eeret dnctrineg of the mysteries, (if indeed there were any such,) but that
eome solemn stag* procession, like that which we find at the close of the
EumcniUes, startled the Athenians by its resemblance to that with which
the initiated were familiar: It is in connexion with this charge that w«
meet with the two versions of the stO7-y given respectively by Mlia*
and Clement of Alexandria— (1.) That his brother Ameinias pleaded fur
him with his handless arm ; (!i.) That he defended himself by asserting
thai, he hail never been initiated in the mysteries, and therefore could not
diwlge them.
LIFE OF ^SCHYLOS.
tween Argos and Athens, which was entered on io
B.C. 461, and the war with the Persian forces in
Egypt, upon which the Athenians had entered aa
allies of the Libyan prince Inaros and a section of the
Egyptian population.1 That connexion accounts for
the popularity of a tragedy in which, as in the Per-
sians, we find more of the excellence of a spectacle
than a poem. The object was to represent the ene-
mies of another race with whom they were in conflict,
as more barbarous and insolent than the Persians
themselves. The allusions to the wolves of Hellas
as stronger than the dogs of Egypt ; to the barley-
bread and wine of the Hellenes as better than the
byblos fruit and beer of the Egyptians, (SuppL, vv.
740-930 ;) the implied reminder that there might be
found affinities of race and religion among some of the
Egyptians, in spite of diversities of dress and com-
plexion ; — all these had, we may well believe, a sig-
nificance at the time which it is difficult for us now to
estimate.
The date of the trilogy of which the Prometheut
Bound forms a part, is more a matter of conjecture
than that of any other of the plays of .ZEschylos.
SoiLe, on the strength of the reference to /Etna,
(v. 874,) have supposed it to have been written shortly
after the eruption took place B.C. 477 ; others have
referred it to B.C. 470. In the absence of more direct
evidence, it is open to maintain as probable that it
belongs to the period after he had returned from Sicily,
when allusions to its phenomena would be natural,
and after the attention of the Athenians had beea
Cl) Thuo i. 102-104.
LIFK OF /ESCHYLOS. xli
drawn, by the force of circumstances, to the legends
of Egypt. The prominence given to the episode of
lo and Epaphos is hardly intelligible, unless it is
taken in connexion with the position which that legend
occupies in the Suppliants. The pervading unity of
thought in the two plays, so far as they both deal
with the seeming caprice and cruelty of Zeus, and yet
imply an ultimate prevalence of his compassion, be-
longs to another region of inquiry. It may be touched
on here as at least strengthening the circumstantial
evidence of the probable nearness of the two plays as
to the date of their composition. It is possible that
the lines in which Prometheus generalises his expe-
rience as to the ingratituc^a of princes —
" For somehow this disease in sovereignty •
Inheres, of never trusting to one's friends,"
— ,1'rom., 230) —
may have had their origin in some slight which the
irascible poet may have thought he had received at the
hands of Hieron.
The date of the Oresteian trilogy is fixed, both by
external and internal evidenca, at B.C. 458. In the
ten years which had passed since the first success of
Sophocles, the greater part of which had been spent
by ^schylos abroad, the principles to which the latter
were most opposed had made rapid progress. He
found on his return new men, new measures, a new
philosophy, a new taste in poetry. The old order of
the days of Marathon was passing away. Men who
could claim no connexion with Eupatrid descent were
pressing forward to the foremost place of power. The
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
institutions which were held most sacred as the safe-
guard of Athenian religion were criticised and attacked.
The court of Areidpagos, which had exercised an awful
and undefined authority in all matters connected,
directly or indirectly, with the religious life of the
state, was covertly attacked under the plea of reform-
ing its administration. Oracles and divinations no
longer commanded men's reverence and trust. There
were whispers that men were beginning to say that
there was no God, or that the old name of Zeus was
to pass away before those of a Supreme Intelligence,
or a measureless Vortex. And the leader of the move-
ment in all its bearings upon religion, politics, art, and
thought, was one who inherited the curse of the Alc-
mseonidae, against whom the aristocratic party had
revived the memory of that curse, who had been sus-
pected himself of sacrilege and scepticism an account
of his connexion with Anaxagoras.
It is impossible to mistake the bearing of the whole
trilogy upon the state of things thus described. We
hear the protest of the poet of conservatism against
the coming changes, and his praise of the old Eupa«
trids, in the words which proclaim, —
" Great gain it is to meet with lords who own
Ancestral wealth. But whoso reap full crops
They never dared to hope for, these in all,
And beyond measure, to their slaves are harsh."
— Ayatn., 1010-13.
The excellence of a constitutional government, such
as the Athenians had inherited, and the necessity of
reverence as its safeguard, is urged in the speech of
Athena :
LIFE OF ./ESCHYLOS. xliii
44 1 give my counsel to you, citizens,
To reverence and guard well that form of state
Which is nor lawless nor tyrannical,
And not to cast all fear from out the city."
— Eumen., 666-9.
The scepticism of those who could not trace a divine
order in the mingled course of human life and its
events, meet with his rebuke in terms which must
have suggested a direct application to some well-known
individual teacher like Anaxagoras :
" Yea, one there was who said
The Gods deign not to care for mortal men,
By whom the grace of things inviolable
Is trampled under foot :
No fear of God had he." — Agam., 360-4.
The idea cf a curse hanging over the doers of guilt to
the third and fourth generation, was dwelt upon aa
illustrated at every stage by the history of the sons of
Atreus : while the poet at once saved himself from the
charge of making God the author of man's evil, and
sharpened the edge of his attack upon the democratic
leader, by declaring that the curse was transmitted
because each generation accepted and reproduced the
deeds of its fathers :
" There lives an old saw, framed in ancient days,
In memories of men, that high estate,
Full grown, brings forth its young, nor childless dies,
But that from good success
Springs to the race a woe insatiable.
But I, apart from all,
Hold this my creed alone:
For impious act it is that offspring breeds
Like to their parent stock."
He proclaims, as the burden of his prophecy, that—
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
" Recklessness of old
Is wont to breed another Recklessness." — Agam., 731-96.
The natural exultation of Pericles and his party, such
as we find later in the Funeral Oration of Thuc. ii.
35-46, in the material prosperity and political greatness
of Athens, is met with the warning that all such pros-
perity is hollow and uncertain :
" But Justice shineth bright
In dwellings that are dark and dim with smoke,
And honours life law-ruled,
While gold-decked homes conjoined with hands denied
She with averted eyes
Hath left, and draweth near
To holier things, nor worships might of wealth,
If counterfeit its praise." — Agam., 750.
" Of high, o'erflowing health
There is no limit fixed that satisfies ;
For evermore disease, as neighbour close,
"Whom but a wall divides,
Upon it presses, and man's prosperous state
Moves on its course, and strikes
Upon an unseen rock." — Agam., 971.
All tendencies to new and more philosophical thoughts
of the Gods than those of the Greek people, are re-
pressed by the protest already quoted :
"Weighing all other names, I fail to guess
Aught else but Zeus, if I would cast aside
Clearly, in very deed,
From off my soul this weight of vaguest care."
— Agam., 154.
The helief that man receives course! and guidance
from oracles and prophets, and in visions of the night,
is again and again asserted. Loxiae is the prophet of
h\s father Zeus, (Eumen. 19,) and the poet turns to—
LIFE OF ^SCHYLOS.
"Zeus, who leadeth men in wisdom's way,
And fixeth fast the law,
That pain is gain." — Agam.t 170.
The belief that men incurred a guilt by deeds of vio-
lence and wrong, and yet could be cleansed from that
guilt by rites of expiation, such as Epimenides had
taught and practised, is the key-note, as has been
already shown, both of the Libation- P our ers and the
Eumenides. The very ceremonies of purification are
dwelt on, like those of supplication, with a manifest
delight. And, lastly, the whole scheme and interest of
the trilogy culminates in the assertion, in the last play,
of the divine authority of the Areiopagos, Personal
gratitude for the help which the leading members of
that court had given to the poet-prophet of their party
in his hour of peril may have combined with his reli-
gious convictions to lead him to rush to the rescue
when it too was imperilled. It is represented as insti-
tuted by the guardian Goddess of the State :
" This council I establish pure from bribe,
Reverend, and keen to act, for those that sleep
An ever- watchful sentry of the land." — £umen.t 674.
Even the Argive alliance, as part of the policy of those
who defended the jurisdiction of the Areiopagos, is
dwelt 011 as that which shall —
" Last as law for evermore." — Eutnen., 643.
It was, in part, owing to the earnestness which made
the Oresteian trilogy the channel through which to utter
the deepest convictions of his heart, that it rises to
xlvi LIFE OF JESCHYLOS.
such a high pre-eminence over all the other works ol
JSschylos. But in part, also, that pre-eminence is dne
to the gradual ripening of powers that had at first
been spasmodic and irregular in their action. The
poet had profited even by the discipline of defeat, and
had learnt some lessons from the higher finish and
more conscious art of his younger rival.1 Written at
the age of sixty, and but three years before his death,
the trilogy exhibits all his powers in their full perfec-
tion. There is a far deeper human interest, a fuller
unfolding of human passions, than we find in the Per-
sians, the Suppliants, or the Seven against Thebes.
While the " spectacle" element was not wanting, it was
no longer the chief source of interest. Of all the earlier
plays, the Prometheus is the only one which at all
approaches to it in greatness, and that is but a frag-
ment of a whole, requiring the two lost companion
plays to enable us to judge fairly of its excellence. No
character in any other can be compared with that ol
Clytajmnestra.
The actual result of the representation as a political
movement was disappointing. It did not stop the
action of the reforming party. The schemes of Ephi-
altes and Pericles were carried into effect, and the
Areiopagos, though not abolished, lost something of its
old power and more of its old glory. The introduction
in the Eumenides of a chorus of the avenging Erinnyes,
fifty in number, with masks of unequalled and horrible
ugliness, — serpents twisted in their hair, blood dropping
(1) Such, e.g., as the introduction of a third actor in the dialogues, more
elaborate and expressive dances, the "pantomime" which told a tale
without •words, tliu buskin, and the masks which increased the voluuia
at the voice.
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
from their eyes, a red tongue projecting between thedr
lips, — so startled the spectators that it was said to
have sent children into fits and frightened women into
miscarriage. Popular feeling was once more excited
against him. The old charges were probably raked up.
The poet of a failing party could not live harmoniously
with the Athenian demos. He left Athens soon after
the date of the trilogy, never to return, and settled
once more at Gela under the patronage of Hieron.
The three years that followed were spent in the
fullest activity as a writer. To this period some have
referred the repetition of the Persians and the compo-
sition of the Women of JEtna, which have been
assigned here to an earlier visit. He was, at all
events, a welcome and an honoured guest. His death,
if the account given be not mythical, was the result of
a strange casualty. An eagle seized a tortoise and
carried it off, dropped it that it might break the shell
and get at the flesh, and it fell upon the head of
^Eschylos, as he was in the act of writing, and killed
him on the spot. He was buried at Gela, and on his
monument was placed an epitaph which, it was said,
he had composed for himself, and which, in the absence
of all mention of what the Sicilians most honoured in
him, and the prominence given to what the poet looked
oja as the great glory of his life, has at least a strong
internal presumption in favour of its genuineness :
" This tomb the dust of J^schylos doth hide,
Euphorion's son, and fruitful Gela's pride;
How tried his valour Marathon may tell,
And long-haired Medes who knew it all too well."
The Athenians showed their reverence for hif
Xlviii '' LIFE OK .SSCHYLOS.
memory by a decree, that any one who would under-
take to represent his dramas should be supplied with a
giant from the public treasury to defray the cost.1
II.— THE THEOLOGY OF ^SCHYLOS.
The question, " What did this or that poet believe
as to the will of God, the government of the universe,
the destinies of mankind ?" seems to a large school of
critics an almost idle inquiry. " We are concerned,"
they say, " with the elements of perfection in his work,
not with his opinions or beliefs. The function of the
poet is that of the supreme artist, capable of sympa-
thising with all fixed moods and passing impulses of
man's nature, so far as to gain the power of repro-
ducing them, and therefore with his religious affections
among others. His own religious affections, if he have
any, are nought to us. He is called to
• Sit apart, holding no form of creed,
And contemplating all ; '
to be many-sided, myriad-minded, as Shakspeare and
Goethe were. Strong convictions, a definite creed,
may have their value, in the formation of character or
in various forms of action upon men ; but as regards
the poet's work, they are simply detrimental ; tending,
at the best, to a second-rate excellence, marring the
fair bloom and exquisite beauty of the artist's work-
manship, bringing it down to the level of hymns, or
sermons in verse, or didactic morality."
(1) It is argued, however, by Bahrn, in his De Vittt Jtschyli, that thii
rather implies that the dramas were not popular enough to be perlorrned
••nthout some such legislative protection.
LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS. lilt
The question thus raised is a wider one than can De
adequately discussed now. It may be conceded that
the power of entering into other forms of character,
and therefore into other forms of religious belief than his
own, is essential to the highest work of the poet, an indis-
pensable condition of the drama or the dramatic idyll.
But the critics who infer from this that the excellence
of the poet varies inversely as the strength of his
religious convictions, seem to forget — (1.) That this
contemplation of many creeds, this power of drama-
tising the inner life of each, is only possible when the
poet is the heir of many ages, and has himself lived
through a manifold experience. It belongs to the
latest period of national culture. One might almost
speak of it as a symptom of national decay. It comes,
when firm faith and strong emotion, bounding joy and
passionate hope, have died out ; and it is not easy to
strike the balance of what has been lost and gained
since the earlier days, when men sang and wrote
because " their heart was hot within them," and at
last the " fire kindled" and so they " spake with their
tongue." If there be in the history of most nations a
still earlier period, when their literature is more simply
objective, when, as yet, their minds are not vexed
with questions, it must be remembered that the second
stage is the fruit of a progress upwards, of thoughts
widening with the years ; and that, if there be a third
and higher stage of excellence, it must be found in a
combination of what was good in each, not by a mere
return, or effort to return, to the first. (2.) They
forget that many of the poems which have fixed them-
selves in men's hearts and memories — psalms, hymns,
d
LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
battle-songs — have been of the kind which they despise,
the utterance of strong emotion having its root in very
definite religious convictions. (3.) It is true that even
of those who are most many-sided, and seem most
creedless, that they preach a creed, that they are then
at their highest point when they cease to bring before
us the dramatis persona of their ideal world, and utter
something which they have felt intensely, and therefore
speak strongly. Even of Goethe, Browning, and Ten-
nyson, we may say that the words of theirs which
dwell most with men, are those which bring some mes-
sage to them, offering, truly or falsely, some new
apocalypse. If this is not true of the " sovrano poeta "
<rf Greece, it is because he lived in that earliest stage
of progress when the problems of life are hardly more
felt by men than they are by a vigorous and healthy
child, when even the widest sympathy could only
bring him into contact with human passions, and could
not draw within the range of his art, materials that were
then non-existent. And of Shakspeare it is only true
in part. If there is no utterance of religious convic-
tion, there is, as has been often shown, a pervading
reverence for the Christian life of England in the form
which made it most conspicuously national.1 And of
some poets, whom no critic will venture to place on
the lower level of the second class, — of the unknown
author of the book of Job, of Lucretius, and Dante,
and Milton, — it is conspicuously true, that their belief
is part of their poetry ; that they wrote poems to give
utterance to it; that unless we understand it, the
(1) Comp. especially Archbishop Trench's Ktrmnn at At 8tr»t/ord Ftt-
IfMl* and Bishop Wordsworth's SUaJun>eart anU tltt Jtiiblt.
LIFE OF JESCHYLOS. II
poems themselves are as a dead letter to us. "Would
those who bid us look only to the artistic perfection oi
the works of Sophocles and .^Eschylos, regard an in-
quiry into the teaching of the book of Job as to the
divine government of the world, as beyond the province
of true criticism ?
And if we have already learnt to see, as we have
seen in the case of .ZEschylos, that any given poet
throws himself, with all the intensity of his nature,
into the cause of one party against another in a great
political controversy, if that controversy were inex-
tricably blended with all the movements of thought,
feeling, taste, that affect men's inner as well as outer
life, then we may well believe that his poetry would be
pervaded by his religious convictions also. Even if
they be regarded as a disturbing force, they must yet
be taken into account, if we wish to understand the
special excellences and the special defects of his genius.
If authority were needed for such an inquiry into the
theology of JEschylos, it might be found in the copious
and interesting literature which has gathered round it.1
What we have seen then of this political action on
the part of JEschylos will help us to estimate his
position in relation to the religious history of Greece.
We cannot place him with the great thinkers, who,
(1( The mere tities -would fill a page. I name, (1.) as most accessible
to the English reader, Miiller's Dissertation on the Etmtenides ; the chapters
on the Greek Dramatists in Bunsen's God in History : Mr. B. F. West-
cott's masterly article on "^Escliylos as a Kelipious Teacher," in the
Contemporary Review for Nov. 1806; a paper by Mr. Paley on "Chtho-
nian AVorship," in the Journal of Philnlngy for June, 1868 ; the section*
bnaring on this subject in A. W. Schleg-el'R Ifistory of Dramatic Literature.
in Grote's and Thiilwall's Histories of Greece, in Miiller and L)onaldson'«
Vistiiry nf Gr>ek Literature ; and (2.) as worth consulting by those who
ha^e the opportunity, Klausen's Theolngmaena jEsc/tyli ; Dronke's Dit
rtliyinsen und sHUichen Vorstellungen de-s jEschylns tiud Sup/inkles, and
Nagelsbach's Kachkomerische Thtologit dei Griecltischtn yoJuaiaubent.
til LIFE OP .SSCHYLOS.
like Socrates and Plato, recognised the corrupting cha-
racter of much of the current mythology, and would
fain have banished it from their polity, who, in part at
least, seem to stand forth as witnesses to the Divine
unity, whose conformity with popular worship is but a
tolerance of that which is imperfect, because the perfect
is not yet come. His belief does not stand on the
same level as the Theism of Anaxagoras, or the Pan-
theism or Atheism of Diagoras. When he speaks of
the Gods, it is neither with the serenity of Sophocles,
as looking to eternal laws that belong altogether to a
different region of thought, nor with the ill- concealed
Voltairian irony of Euripides. He is the Calderon, not
the Goethe of Greek literature. He takes his thoughts
of the Gods from Homer and Hesiod — from the latter
even more than the former — and (with some notable
exceptions) abides by them. He is conservative in
religion as in politics ; looks with real alarm on the
decay of reverence in the demos of Athens and among
the young men of culture ; would have sympathised,
we may believe, with Aristophanes in his attack on
Socrates as unsettling their minds ; with Nikias in his
respect for omens, his reverence for the dead, his
shrinking from over-much prosperity ; with the alarm
and irritation caused by the mutilation of the Hermae-
busts, and the alleged proi'anation of the Mysterien :l
perhaps even with tnose who condemned the -preacher
of righteousness" who hai dwelt amon£ iiurn to drink
the hemlock.
(11 The fact that he had been himself charged with a lite offrpec TronUI
toot have made him less tolerant of an offence, the animus ot which waa, Of
btciiiud to him, so different from that winch had actuated him.
LIFE OF jESCHYLOS. lifi
lie starts then with a belief that the myths of Greece
represent the facts of the Divine history, and is not
troubled by questions and doubts about them. Zeus
reigns supreme, after having deposed Cronos, as Cronos
had deposed Uranos :
" Nor He who erst was great,
Full of the might to war,
Avails now : He is gone,
And He who next came hath departed too,
His victor meeting." — Again., 162-168.
The Titans rose against him in support of the old
order, and he hurled them down to Tartaros, or buriec1
them beneath volcanoes. The Olympian deities who
reign under him with a limited jurisdiction, are his
sons and daughters. He governs with inexorable
severity ; just, but with little sympathy for the suffer-
ings of mankind. Their progress towards knowledge
and power and culture under the teaching of Prome-
theus is displeasing to him. He punishes the "phi-
lanthropy" of the more benevolent Titan by a penalty
that is to last for ages. All this lay, however, in the
remote past. In the age in which the Hellenes lived
and acted, the deliverer of the Titan had come ; a
vicarious death had freed him from his agony j1 there
had been a solution of what seemed harsh and unjust
in the government of Zeus. He looked on man with a
more benignant eye. The worshipper could think of
Him as po longer arbitrary in his chastisement. It is
obvious that this recognition of a Supreme Ruler over
(1) This is implied in the fact that the Prnmtthtus Unbound was the
third play of the trilof*y, and that the mode of deliverance w;is found in
the readiness of Cheiroa to bear the penalty of itulh in Prometheus'
•toad, and go to work out a redemption for him.
LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
many Gods might clothe itself in lofty words, sima«
latmg almost the language of a monotheistic creed ;
" Safe, by no fall tripped-up
The full- wrought deed decreed by brow of Zeus:
For dark and shadowed o'er
The pathways of the counsels of His heart,
And difficult to see.
And from high-towering hopes He hurleth dowm
To utter doom the heir of mortal birth ;
Yet sets He in array
No forces violent :
All that God works is effortless and calm :*
Seated on loftiest throne,
Thence, though we know not how,
He works His perfect will." — Supply 85-94.
0» this, —
" 0 King of kings, and bleit
Above all blessed ones,
And power most mighty of the mightiest ;
O Zeus of high estate,
Hear this our prayer." — Ibid., 618-521.
Or this, —
" He is our Father, author of our life,
The King whose right hand worketh all His will,
Our line's great Author, in His counsels deep
Recording things of old,
Directing all His plans, the great Work-master, Zeua.
For not, as suppliant sitting at the beck
Of strength above his own,
Reigns He subordinate to mightier powers,
ft) Comp. the recurrence of the same thought in the words of ApoUt
l» fcaua., ver. 620—
" But all thinps else He tnrneth up onfl down,
And orders without toil or wcurrneaa."
LIFE OF jESCHYLOS.
Nor does He pay His homage from below
While one sits throned in majesty above :
Act is for Him as speech
To hasten what ilis teeming mind resolves."
— Ibid., 684-530.
If Fragm. 293 be genuine, we have a yet clearei
pantheistic, if not monotheistic creed:
" The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven,
Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all."
But with all this, the believing polytheist is still
there. Artemis, Apollo, Hera, are to him real, not
imaginary beings, each with a region of activity and a
delegated sovereignty, as much as they were to Homer.
The primary meaning of the myths of Hellas, as we
explain them, as symbols of the changes of day and
night, dawn and sunset, has for him passed away into
the dim distance, and he sees it not. Attributes have
become persons ; men's wandering fancies have crys-
tallised and hardened. A change had come, however,
over the religion of Greece since the Homeric age. It
is inherent in the nature of Polytheism that a promi-
nence is given to the worship, now of this deity, and
now of that ; that new rites, symbols, mysteries, con-
fraternities, rise up to meet the ever-restless fears or
fancies of men's hearts ; that these come more or less
into collision with each other. The story of the
migration of Apollo from Delos to Delphi, of Orpheus
and the mysteries which he founded, indicates a tran-
sition from the Homeric thought of the Sun, as slaying
men with its arrows of pestilence, to that of the Giver
of light, the Revealer of secrets, the Prophet of his
father Zeus, (Eumen., v. 19.) That of the travels of
M LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
Dionysos, of the throng of Ma;nads who followed him,
of the fate of Pentheus, and of Orpheus himself, indi-
cates a struggle between the calmer and the more
•violent cultus, — between the inspiration which issues
in wisdom and poetry, and that which shows itself in
the abdication, by man's reason, of its sovereignty over
his brute nature. And in this conflict, JEschylos, true
to the influence of Epimenides,1 is clearly on the side
of the former. Frequent as are the appeals to Zeus,
Apollo, Athena, it is noticeable that no single invo-
cation of Dionysos is found in the extant plays. In the
lost tetralogy of the Lycuryeia, which had the adven-
tures of Dionysos for its subject, he seems to have
brought in the death of Orpheus as the servant of
Apollo, a martyr in the cause of sun-worship.2 Whether
in that stage of his religious development the issue of
the whole drama was a reconciliation of the conflicting
powers, like that which we see in the Eumenides, and
must assume in the Prometheus Unbound, is a question
•which we have not data to answer. In either case, the
absence of the name of Dionysos from ^Eschylos, as
compared with its prominence in Sophocles and Euri-
pides, is striking and significant.3
(1) The Cretan prophet is described bv Epiphanius, folio-wins? some old
tradition, as having been a priest of Alithras, the Pereiai. analogue ol
Apollo.
(2) I take the following account of the play from an extract from
Eratosthenes, given by Ahrens in his dissertation on the Fragment* ol
.aCsohylos, (Midot., 1842.)
" Biit Orpheus paid no honour to Dionysos, holding the Sun, -whom
lUso lie called Apollo, to be. the greatest of the Gods. And rising up by
night, before the earliest dawn, he was wont to go to the mountain called
Pangteos, and there to wait for the Sun, that he might look on him as he
first ••ose. Wherefore Dionysos WHS wroth, and sent the B^ssarid women
against him," (analogous to the Maenads and Thyiads, which are more
familiar names to us.) "as JEsrhylos the poet Rays, and they tore him in
pieces, and cast out his limbs one by one. And the Muses gathered them
together, and buried them in the place called Lcibethra."
(8) Petersen, in an interesting monograph on Die Delphitcke Festeyclua,
LIFE OF JKSCHYLOS. Ivii
WitL the same tendency in his choice among the'
**Gods many and Lords many" of the Greek Pantheon,
we may note the prominence which he gives to the
Chthonian as distinguished from the Olympian Gods,
to those who dwell in darkness as contrasted with
those who dwell in light. He turns to the worship of
Demeter, as initiated, it may be, in the mysteries which
had their local habitation in his native deme.1 He
dwells, with devoutest reverence on the thought,
(speaking of Hades where the Chthonian Gods had
their dwelling,) that —
"... There, as men relate, a second Zeus
Judges men's evil deeds, and to the dead
Assigns their last great penalties." — Suppl., 226, 227.
Bo in like tone he speaks in the same play of—
" The Avenger terrible,
God that destroyeth, who not e'en in Hades
Gives freedom to the dead." — Ibid., 409, 410.
The same feeling leads him to dwell on the office of
Hermes as the escort of the souls of the dead, and to
introduce the spectres of the dead, as in the Persians
pp. 24, 25, mges that in the inner theology of Delphi, the contending1
claims had been reconciled mainly through the teaching of the Orphic
Confraternities, and that Zeus, Hades, Apollo, and Liionysos were all
recognised for one and the self-same Power, manifesting itself in many
Trays. He refers especially to the strange treatise of Plutarch, De El
*vvd Ddphns, as showing that Dionysos, Zagreus, Phoabos, Apollo,
Aidoneus, were all tnanifestatioca of the Divine Unity, of which that
mystic word was, as he interpret* it, the symbol. With this we may
oornpare the remarkable verse quoted by Justin .Martyr, (CoAurt. ad Grax.t
O. 15J ad from Orpheus.
" There is one Zeus, one Hades, and one Sun,
One Dionysos, yea, one God in all."
In all such passages, however, there is the risk of our trnnsferring to an
parlier age the Pantheistic specul .it ions which were specially chantcterijtM
<rf the later periods of Greek thought.
(1) Comp. note ou p. xv.
Mil LIFE OF jESCHYLOS.
and Eumenides, as actors in his plays. But above all
other deities of darkness, he fastens on the Erinnyes
as the ministers of divine vengeance,1 at first terrible
and wrathful, seeking nothing less than the life-blood
of their victim, in conflict with Apollo as the God of
light, cast out by Zeus, having no share in the banquet
of Olympian Gods, but at last confining their work
within the limits of what is required by the law of
retribution, or is enough to deter others from crime, or
to bring the offender to repentance. In some sense
they are older and more venerable than Zeus himself:
M This lot the all-pervading Destiny
Hath spun to hold its ground for evermore,
That we should still attend
On him on whom there rests the guilt of blood
Of kin shed causelebsly."
. * . . — Lumen., 320-21.
It is their task to do the work which would interfere
with the calm bliss of the Olympian Gods. At first
their office seems simply terrible. The sins of the
father are visited on the children to the third and
fourth generation. An Ate cleaves to the house,
thirsting for blood, breeding new evils, making sin at
once the punishment of past and the parent of future
gin, until at last the entail of curses is cut off by the
purification of one on whom the inherited curse has
fallen, and by the favour of the propitiated Gods. The
Erinnyes become the Eumenides — gentle, benignant,
(1) On this subject Muller's Treatise On the Eumenides is of special
interest. The Erinnyes are, as he interprets them, the personification, of
the passionate impulses of righteous wrath, which first burst out in
curses, then work in acts of vengeance, then are tempered down into
moral indignation against Evil.
LIFE OF J1CSCIIYLOS. fix
blessing. Panic terror passes into the awe and revo-
rence without which there is no safety for the individual
or the state. The law of retribution still remains,
" For unto them the lot is given
All things human still to order,"
— (Eumen., 890,)
but there is no longer any rivalry or antagonism :
" Dread and mighty,
With the Undying is Erinnys,
And with Those beneath the earth too.**
— JZumen.f 910.
The . prominence thus given to the representatives
and agents of divine Vengeance shows the kind of
questions which lay deepest in the poet's heart, and
the answer which he had found for them. Was there
a righteous government ? Was the ruler of Gods and
men capricious like the kings of earth ? Was He
enslaved by some higher law of destiny, which moved
on its way in a darkness that none could penetrate,
and to which even He was subject?1 It has often
been said that this was the theory of the universe
which .ZEschylos embraced, that the underlying thought
in all Greek tragedy, and pre-eminently in his, is that
(1) The language in the Promttheus, w. 519, 530, is apparently at
variance with the sovereignty of Zeus, Necessity seems supreme over
Zens himself. He too cannot est-ape his destiny. What that destiny is,
the Titan boasts that he knows, but will not utter. On the other hand.
When questioned
" Who then directs Necessity's career t"
His answer is,
" Fates triple-formed, Erinnyes unforgettinfr."
And so fer as we may think of this as not merely the boast of deflonw
put into the lips of the rebel, but expressing the poet's own thoughts, wa
we thrown back upon his touching as to the functions of those Erinnyei
n the Orestei'in trilosry, in which thry appear as subordinate U). or at
toast in harmony with, tbo mind of Zens.
LIFE OF ^ESCHYLOS.
of a curse cleaving causelessly to a given race, genera-
tion after generation, against which man struggles
vainly, each effort to escape only riveting the chaina
more firmly. If any explanation is at hand of the
dark mystery of evil, it is that prosperity, as such,
makes men obnoxious to the jealous wrath of the Goda
or of their ruler.
It would be far truer, I believe, to say that this is
precisely the theory of the divine government which
2Eschylos lived to denounce and protest against. That
it was one of the natural solutions of the problems
presented by the strange chances and changes of life,
that men who had come to think of God as even such
an one as themselves might be led to accept it, is clear
enough. It is the key-note of the theology of Hero-
dotus.1 " God is a jealous God," not in the Hebrew
sense, as demanding all man's heart, but as envious of
man's success, afraid of his independence, aiming his
thunderbolts at the loftiest trees simply because they
are the loftiest. Against such a theory the heart of
.ZEschylos revolted. He craved for a tluodikaa, and
came forward in the spirit, one might almost say, of an
Alhanasius contra viandum, to attack the prevailing
creed.
" There lives an old saw, framed in ancient days
In memories of men, that high estate
Full grown brings forth its young, nor childleas dies,
But that from good success
Springs to the race a woe insatiable.
liut I, apart from all,
Hold this my creed, alone '
For impious act it is that offspring breeds.
(1) Compare Herod. L 32 ; iii. 40 ; viL 10, 16, 121.
LIFE OF JESCHYLOS. Ld
Like to their parent stock :
For still in every house
That loves the right, their fate for evermore
Hath issue good and fair." — Again., 727-737.
If prosperity seemed to be followed by disaster, it waa
because men yielded to the temptations which it
brought with it, and became wanton, haughty, reck-
less. The sequence of evils might always be traced to
the fountain-head of some sin which might have been
avoided, but which, once committed, went on with
accelerating force. At every stage each evil act re-
ceived its just recompense of reward, but that very
recompense was brought about through the instru-
mentality of a fresh transgi'ession waiting in its turn
its punishment. The woes of Atreus' line, the curse
that rested on the house of CEdipus, the misery of
Tro'ia, are all referred to a root-sin which remained
unrepented and unatoned for. And the sins which
presented themselves to the poet's mind as certain to
be most fruitful in these transmitted curses, are those
which offend against the primaiy relations of human
fellowship. Murder, especially when the blood which
has been shed is that of kindred ; lust, especially when
it works regardless of the obligations that bind host to
guest, and guest to host ; defiance of the Gods, as seen
in impious speech or act, in surrendering suppliants or
plundering temples, — these are the crimes for which
the Erinnyes come as avengers. Zeus is, in a special
sense, the God of the stranger, the God of host and
guest, the protector of those who flee to him for
succour. At times we seem to be hearing the very
echoes of a higher apocalypse of the truth. JE&chylo»
LIFE OF .&SCHYLOS.
proclaims in Greece, as Ezekiel had done on the banka
of Chebar, that " the soul that sinneth, it shall die ; "
that men have no right to extend the law of retribution
beyond the limits of justice, or to impute their own
evil to the sins of their ancestors, or to the irresistible
decrees of God. He too protests against the doctrine
that " the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and that the
children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezek. xviii. 2-4).
It was indeed the defect of the teaching of -ZEschylos
that it generalised too hastily, that he seemed to him-
self to have discovered the solution of all problems in
the tangled web of human life. Like the friends of
Job, he pressed his theory of retribution to the con-
clusion that all suffering implied guilt ; that where
prosperity ceased to smile on men, it was because they
had forfeited their right to it. It was characteristic of
Sophocles that, with a clearer appreciation of the
truth, he brought into prominence the fact that there
are phenomena which the theory does not explain,
evils which seem to originate altogether in sins of igno-
rance, strange chances and changes which the theory
of Nemesis, no less than that of the jealousy of the Gods,
fails to help us to explain. Not losing his faith in the
Divine Righteousness, maintaining the eternal authority
of the laws of Truth and Right, he is yet compelled to
confess that there is much in the actual order of the
world that is altogether incomprehensible. He balances
the retributive theory of 2Eschylos as the teaching of
Ecclesiastes, or the closing chapters of the Book of Job
itself, balance that of Eliphaz the Temanite.
What is indicated with more or less distinctness in
the change of name from theErinnyes to Eumenides ii
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS.
brought out explicitly as one of the great laws of the
divine government. The evils which follow on guilt
may, rightly accepted, be an education. In the discipline
of suffering, in the " reproof of life," in the vaO^p-aTa
which are also fia.6fnj.ara, men may find that which
raises Ihem out of recklessness, insolence, outrage, to
"self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control," to all that
the Hebrew meant by " wisdom," all that the Greek
meant by vvfypofrvvr). And this comes of God :
** 'Tis Zeus who leadeth men in wisdom's way,
And fixeth fast the law,
That pain is gain ;
And slowly dropping on the heart in sleep
Comes woe-recording care,
And makes the unwilling yield to wiser thoughts.**
— Again., 170-74*
" Justice turns the scale
For those to whom through pain
At last comes wisdom's gain."
— Ibid., 241.
* There are with whom 'tis well
That awe should still abide
As watchman o'er their souls :
Calm wisdom gained by sorrow profits much.**
— Eumen., 491-94.
But with this recognition of a moral discipline by
which men —
" Slay rise on stppping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher tilings,"
there is also a consciousness, dim and dark, as of on«
groping after a truth which he feels rather than sees,
that this is not enough. Whether the phenomenon be
one of that parallelism in religious feeling which often
LIFE OF jESCHYLOS.
meets us in races that have had no contact with each
other, or be due to the influence of Semitic thought
passing from Phoenikia to the " isles of Chittim," and
so through Epinienides to Greece, we need not now
discuss. It is enough to note the fact that in the
theology of JEschylos, as in the ritual which tha
Cretan prophet had introduced, and which was propa-
gated by the Orphic and other mystic brotherhoods,
the sufferer who groans under the burden of guilt
needs, over and aoove the discipline of suffering and a
life ruled by law, purification and atonement ; that the
purification must be wrought by blood poured or
sprinkled on the man who sought it ; that he needs
the mediation of another in order. that the purification
may be accomplished ; that to render this office is the
greatest kindness which friend can show to friend, or
host to suppliant guest ; that when this is done be
may once more draw near, " with contrite heart,"
" harmless and pure," to the temples of the Gods.
One who took this belief of the world's history as
manifesting God's righteous judgment — a belief every
way analogous to that which is dominant in the Old
Testament — would not be likely to look forward to a
life after death as redressing the anomalies of the
present, or compensating for its imperfections. But
the consciousness of immortality was as strong in him
as in the Hellenic race generally ; stronger, it may be,
than it was among the great body of the Jews. And
with this conviction he can but look forward to that
future as continuing and completing the retribution.
There, in that other world, sits the " second Zous,"
arbo awards to each man's deeds their final doom,
LIFE OF .ffiSCHYLOS. Izt
(Suppl. v. 227.) There the kings and the great onei
of the earth still retain something of their old preroga-
tives. Still they hold some fellowship with the living,
feel shame and ignominy when funeral honours are
refused to them, can pass out of Hades where they
dwell, to haunt and vex those who have wronged
them, (as in the case of Clytaemnestra,) or be sum-
moned by prayers and incantations (as are Agamemnon
and Dareios) to help those whom they have loved-.
And there, too, in that world of the dead, are the
Erinnyes still carrying on their appointed task. There
is no sleep of death for the doer of evil. They are —
** A terror of the living and the dead." — Eumen., 312.
"Death sets not free from their attacks." — Ibid., 322.
" With the Undying is Erinnys,
And with Those beneath the earth too ;
And full clearly and completely
Work they all things out for mortal*,
Giving these the songs of gladness,
Those a life bedimmed with weeping."
— Ibid., 910-15.
Does the law of continuity hold good there also ?
Were the Erinnyes, as they did their work in the
world of the dead, recognised even there as the
Eumenides ? Is the connexion between suffering and
education, between " pain " and " gain," projected
into that other life ? These questions lay then, as
they lie now, behind the veil, shrouded in a mist and
darkness which men seek in vain to penetrate. It may
be that .ffischylos felt that it would be ill to lose either
the vague terror or the wider hope. To them he givei
no answer.
Uvi LIFE OF JESCHYLOS.
There remains yet one other of the problems of tha
world's history on which it is interesting to note what
we find in the teaching of -ZEschylos. We ask the
"whence?" as well as the " whither ?" of the human
race. How has it come to be as it is ? Has it fallen
from some paradise state, some Golden Age, each
generation becoming feebler and more corrupt than its
predecetsors, or made its way onwards, through a long
succession of ages, to its present culture, giving in
that progress the pledge of yet further advancement ?
The former was the dominant idea in Greek legend. It
was adopted by Hesiod ( Works and Days, vv. 106-171,)
it took form in the mytlios of Pandora, from whose
fatal gifts all man's ills had come. But here, as in his
theory of the divine law of retribution, .ZEschylos seems
to strike out a new path for himself, and to anticipate,
by a bold conjecture, conclusions that have been
arrived at slowly, and after a long induction, by
modern paleontologists : —
" Like forms
Of phantom-dreams, through all their length of life,
They muddled all at random ; did not know
Houses of brick that catch the sunlight's warmth^
Is or yet the work of carpentry. They dwelt
In hollowed holes like swarms of tiny ants,
In sunless depths of cavern ; and they had
No certain signs of winter, nor of spring
Flower-laden, nor of summer with her fruits ;
But without counsel fared their whole life long."
—Prom., 465-4G5.
It may be questioned whether Sir Charles Lyell or
Sir John Lubbock could have given a better picture of
the state of mankind in the so-called "atone- period."
LIFE OF .(ESCHYLOS.
And out of this they were raised by Prometheus, as
the representative of a divine Wisdom sympathising
with man's infirmities, becoming tha " light that
lighteth every man," at first in seeming antagonism to
the Ruler of Heaven, but at last brought into entire
harmony with that Supreme Will. The gift of fire
came, and with it new capacities and new thoughts, a
strange mastery over brute creatures and the brute
elements of nature, like that on which Sophocles
dwells in the memorable chorus of the Antigone —
"Many the things that strange and wondrous are,
None stranger and more wonderful than u.an."
— Antiy., v. 332.
In representing this as bringing down the wrath
of Zeus on the beneficent Titan, .ZEschylos did but
unconsciously embody on the one hand the law of
sacrifice, which has made all the great benefactors and
teachers of mankind achieve their task, and win their
victory, through suffering ; and on the other, the truth,
that the first result of the possession and the con-
sciousness of enlarged powers is a new self-assertion,
the spirit of independence and rebellion against the
control of a divine order, the " many inventions " that
tend to evil, an outburst of impiety and lawlessness,
needing the discipline of punishment before it can bo
brought round again into a nobler harmony. Men
" become as Gods," and " then* eyes are opened to
discern good and evil," but it is to " know that they
are naked," and to " eat bread in the sweat of their
brow." During this process the government under
•which men live appears stern, arbitrary, tyrannical.
kviii LIFE OF ^SCHYLOS.
The eagle's fangs rend the heart of the hero Titan who
represents the intellect of mankind as a race, the mind
that belongs to all, in its defiant self-assertion. The
struggle and the agony must last till Cheiron comes of
his own free will to bear the pains of death, and so
deliver him.
With this, as being, as all thinkers have felt, among
the noblest of the " unconscious prophecies of heathen-
dom," among the profoundest anticipations of an
eternal truth, in the form of a mythos, of which the
writer felt rather than discerned the meaning, I close
this present essay. Far as it has been from an ex-
haustive treatment of a subject which might well claim
a volume to itself, it may yet revive, I trust, in those
who know .2Eschylos already, some recollections of
what most interested them as they read, and answer
some questions which that perusal raised ; and help
those who enter on the study of his dramas for the
first time, to do so with a better prospect of under-
standing and appreciating him.
THE PERSIANS
ARGUMENT.
When Xerxes came to the throne of Persia, remembering how kit
father Dareios had sought to subdue tJie land of tJie Hellenes,
and seeking to avenge the defeat of Datis and Artaphernes on
the field of Marathon, },e gathered together a mighty host of all
nations under his dominion, and led them against Hellas.
And at first fie prospered and prevailed, crossed thtt Hellespont,
and defeated the Spartans at Thermopylae, and took the city of
Athens, from which the greater part of its citizens had fled.
But at last he and his armament met with utter overthrow at
Salamis. Meawehile Atossa, the mother of Xerxes, with her
handmaids and the elders of the Persians, waited anxiously a,t
Susa, wliere woj the palace of t/te great king, for tidings of her
yote.— Within two years after the battle of Salamis, the feeling1 of
national exultation was met by Phrynichos in a tragedy bearing the title
of The Pkoe.nikians, and having for its subject the defeat of Xerxes. As
he had come under the displeasure of the Athenian dr.mot for having
brought on the stage the sufferings of their Ionian kinsmen in his Cap-
ture of Mttetos, he was apparently anxious to regain his popularity by a
' sensation ' drama of another kind ; and his success seems to have
prompted JEschylos to a like attempt live years later, B.C. 473. The
Tetralogy to which the play belonged, and which gained the first prize on
its representation, included the two tragedies (unconnected in subject)
of Phineut and GUiucos, nnd the satiric drama of Promrtkeus the. f'irestealer.
The play has, therefort, the interest of being strictly a contemporary
narrative of the battle of Salamis and its immediate consequences, by one
who may himself have been present at it, and whose brother Ameinias
(Herod, viii H3) had distinguished himself in it by a special act of heroism.
As such, making all allowance for the influence of dramatic exigencies,
and the tendency to colour history so as to meet the tastes of putriotie
Athenians, it may claim, where it differs from the story told by lierodo-
tos, to be a more trustworthy record. And it has, we must remember,
the interest of beirg the only extant drama of its class, the eiily tragedy
the subject of which is not taken from the cycle of heroic myths, but
from the national history of the time. Far below ths Oresteian Trilogy,
as it may seem to us, as a work of art, having more the character of a
spectacle than a poem, it was, we may well believe, unusually successful
at the time, and it is said to have been chosen by Iliero for reproduction
at Syracuse after Jischylos bad settled there under bis patronage.
ATOSSA.
Messenger.
Ghost o
XERXES.
Ohorus of Persian Elders.
THE PERSIANS.
SCENE. — Susa, in front of the palace of 'XERXES, the Toml
f>f DAREIOS occupying the position of the thymele.
Enter Chorus of Persian Elders.
We the title bear of Faithful, l
. Friends of Persians gone to Hellas,
"Watchers left of treasure city,*
. Gold-abounding, whom, as oldest,
Xerxes hath himself appointed,
He, the offspring of Dareios,
As the warders of his country.
And about our king's returning,
And our army's, gold-abounding,
Over-much, and boding evil,
Does my mind within me shudder "
(For our whole force, Asia's offspring,
Now is gone), and for our young chief
Sorely frets : nor courier cometh,
Nor any horseman, bringing tidings
To the city of the Persians.
From Ecbatana departing,
Susa, or the Kissian fortress,'
(1) " The Faithful," or " trusty," seems to have been a special title of
honour given to the veteran councillors of the king, (Xenoph. Anab. L
15), just as that of the "Immortals" was chosen for his body-guard.
(Herod, vii. 83.)
(2) Susa was pre-eminently the treasury of the Persian kings (Herod.
V. 49 ; Strabo, xv. p. 731), their favourite residence in spring, as Ecbatana
in Media was in summer and Babylon in winter.
(3) Kissia was properly the name of the district in which Susa stood ;
but here, and in v. 123, it is treated as if it belonged to a separate city.
Throughout the play there is, indeed, a lavish use of Persian barbaric
names of persons and places, without a very minute regard to historical
•ccura;y.
THE PERSIANS.
Forth they sped upon their journey,
Some in ships, and some on horses,
Some on foot, still onward marching,
In their close array presenting
Squadrons duly armed for battle : **
Then Amistres, Artaphernes,
Megabazes, and Astaspes,
Mighty leaders of the Persians,
Kings, and of the great King servants,1
March, the chiefs of mighty army.
Archers they and mounted horsemen.
Dread to look on, fierce in battle,
Artembares proud, on horseback,
And Masistres, and Iinseos, *
Archer famed, and Pharandakes,
And the charioteer Sosthanes.
Neilos mighty and prolific
Sent forth others, Susikanes,
Pegastagon, Egypt's offspring,
And the chief of sacred Memphis ;
Great Arsames, Ariomardos,
Ruler of primeval Thebae,
And the marshmen,2 and the rowers,
Dread, and in their number countless. *°
And there follow crowds of Lydians,
Very delicate and stately,3
(1) Here, aa in Herodotos and Greek writers generally, the title, " the
Kin;?," or " the great King," was enough. It could be understood only
of the Persian. The latter name had been borne by the kings of Assyria.
(2 Kings xviii. 28.) A little later it passed into the fuller, more boastful
form of " the King of kings."
(2) The inhabitants of the Delta of the Nile, especially those of the
marshy districts near the Heracleotic month, were famed as supplying
the best and bravest soldiers of any part of Egypt- — Comp. Thucyd. £
110.
(3) The epithet was applied probably by ^sohylos to the Lydians pro-
perly so called, the barbaric race with whom the Hellenes had little or
nothing in common. They, in dress, diet, mode of life, their distaste for
the contests of the arena, seemed to *he Greeks thf- very type of effemi-
nacy. The Ionian Greeks, howvtr, were brought under the same
influence, and gradually acquired the same character. The suppression
of the name of the lonians in the list of the Persian forces may be noticed
as characteristic. The Athenian poet would not bring before an Athenian
Audience ths slmine of their Asiat
THE PERSIANS.
Who the people of the mainland
Eulo throughout, — whom Mitragathes
And brave Arkteus, kingly chieftains,
Led, from Sardis, gold-abounding,
Hiding on their many chariots,
Three or four a-breast their horsea,
Sight to look upon all dreadful.
And the men of sacred Tmolos l
Rush to place the yoke of bondage
On the neck of conquered Hellas. *
Mardon, Tharabis, spear-anvils,2
And the Mysians, javelin -darting;*
Babylon too, gold-abounding,
Sends a mingled cloud, swept onward,
Both the troops who man the vessels,
And the skilled and trustful bowmen ;
And the race the sword that beareth,
Follows from each clime of Asia,
At the great King's dread commandment.
These, the bloom of Persia's greatness,
Now are gone forth to the battle ;
And for these, their mother country,
Asia, mourns with mighty yearning ;
Wives and mothers faint with trembling
Through the hours that slowly linger,
Counting each day as it passes.
STHOPH. L
The king's great host, destroying cities mighty,
Hath to the land beyond the sea passed over,
Crossing the straits of Athamantid Helle,4 *
On raft by ropes secured,.
!1) Tmolos, sacred as being the mythical birth-place of Dionysos.
2) " Spear-anvils," ac., meeting the spear of their foes as the anvils
Would meet it, turning its point, themselves steadfast and immovable.
(3) So Herodotos (vii. 74) in his account of the army of Xerxes de-
scribes the Mysians as using for their weapons those darts or "javelins"
made by hardening thfe ends in the fire.
(4) Helle the daughter of Athamas, from whom the Hellespont took its
name. For the description oi the pontoons formed by boats, which wer«
moored together with cables and finally covered with faggote, cum p.
Herod, vii. 36.
THE PERSIANS.
And thrown- his path, compact of many a vessel,
As yoke upon the neck of mighty ocean.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Of populous Asia thus the mighty ruler
'Gainst all the land his God-sent host directeth
In two divisions, both by land and water,
Trusting the chieftains stern,
The men who drive the host to fight, relentless —
He, sprung from gold-born race, a hero god-like.1 "
STBOPH. II.
Glancing with darkling look, and eyes as of ravening
dragon,
With many a hand, and many a ship, and Syrian chariot
driving,2
He upon spearmen renowned brings battle of conquering
arrows.3
ASTISTBOPR. II.
Yea, there is none so triod as, withstanding the flood of
the mighty,
To keep within steadfast bounds that wave of ocean re-
sistless ;
Hard to fight is the host of the Persians, the people stout-
hearted.
MKSODK.
Yet ah ! what mortal can ward the craft of the God
all-deceiving ?
* Who, with a nimble foot, of one leap is easily sovereign Y
(1) " Gold-born," te., descended from Perseus, the child of Dana§.
(<J) Syrian, either in the vague sense in which it became almost syno-
nymous with Assyrian, or else showing that Syria, properly so culled,
retained the fame for chariots which it had had at a period as early aa
the time of the Hebrew Judges, (Judg. y. 3.) Herodotos (vii. 140) gives
an Oracle of Delphi in whicli ths same epithet appears.
(3) The description, though put into the mouth of Persians, is meant
to flatter Hellenic pride. The Persians and their army were for the most
part light-armed troops only, barbarians equipped with javelins or bows.
In the sculptures of fersepolis, as in those of Nineveh and Khorsabad,
this mode of warfare is throughout the most conspicuous. They, the
Hellenes, were the hoplites, warriors of the spear and the shield, the
cuirass and the greaves.
THE PERSIANS.
For Ate", fawning and kind, at first a mortal be-
traying, **
Then in snares and meshes decoys him,
Whence one who is but man in vain doth, struggle to
'scape from.
STKOPH. TTT.
For Fate of old, by the high Gods' decree,
Prevailed, and on the Persians laid this task,
Wars with the crash of towers,
And set the surge of horsemen in array,
And the fierce sack that lays a city low. ***
ASTISTBOPH. ITT.
But now they learnt to look on ocean plains,1
The wide sea hoary with the -violent blast,
Waxing o'er confident
In cables formed of many a slender strand,
And rare device of transport for the host.
STBOPH. IV.
So now my soul is torn,
As clad in mourning, in its sore affright,
Ah m«? ! ah me ! for all the Persian host I "
Lest soon our country learn
That Susa's mighty fort is void of men.
ASTISTBOPH. IV.
And through the Kissians' town
Shall echo heavy thud of hands on breast.
Woe ! woe ! when all the crowd of women speak
This utterance of great grief,
And byssine robes are rent m agony.
STBOPH. V.
For all the horses strong,
And Lost that march on foot,
(1) A touch of Athenian exultation in their life as seamen. To them
the sea was almost a home. Theywere familiar with :l from childhood.
To the Persians it was new and untried. They had a new lesson to
learn, late iu the history of the nation, late in the lives of individual
•uldiers.
IO THE PERSIANS.
Like swarm of bees, have gone with, him who led "•
The vanguard of the host.
Crossing the sea-washed, bridge-built promontory
That joins the shores of either continent.1
AimsTEOpn. V.
And beds with tears are wet
In grief for husbands gone,
And Persian wives are delicate in grief,
Each yearning for her lord ;
And each who sent her warrior- spouse to battle ll8
Now mourns at home in dreary solitude.
But come, ye Persians now,
And sitting in this ancient hall of ours,
Let us take thought deep-counselling and wise,
(Sore need is there of that,)
How fareth now the great king Xerxes, he
"Who calls Dareios sire,
Bearing the name our father bore of old ?
Is it the archer's bow that wins the day?
Or does the strength prevail "•
Of iron point that heads the spear's strong shaft P
But lo ! in glory like the face of gods,
The mother of my king, my queen, appears :
Let us do reverent homage at her feet ;
Tea, it is meet that all
Should speak to her with words of greeting kind.
Enter ATOSSA. in a chariot of state.
Chor. O sovereign queen of Persian wives deep-zoned,
Mother of Xerxes, reverend in thine age,
Wife of Dareios ! hail !
'Twas thine to join in wedlock with a spouse
Whom Persians owned as God,*
(1) The bridge of boats, •with the embankment raised tipon it, fa
thought of as a new headland putting out from the one shore and reach-
ing to the other.
(2) Stress is laid by the Hellenic poet, as in the Agamemnon, (v. 895,)
and in v. 707 of this May, on the tendency of the East to give to its kings
the &Aiuee and the signs of homage which were due only to the Uoda.
THE PERSIANS. II
And of a God thou art the mother too,
Unless its ancient Fortune fails our host.
Atoss. Yes, thus I come, our gold-decked palace
leaving,
The bridal bower Dareios with me slept in.
Care gnaws my heart, but now I tell you plainly
A tale, my friends, which may not leave me fearless,
Lest boastful wealth should stumble at the threshold,
And with his foot o'erturn the prosperous fortune
That great Dareios raised with Heaven's high blessing.
And twofold care untold my bosom haunteth :
We may not honour wealth that has no warriors,
Nor on the poor shines light to strength proportioned ;
Wealth without stint we have, yet for our eye we
tremble ; "°
For as the eye of home I deem a master's presence.
Wherefore, ye Persians, aid me now in counsel;
Trusty and old, in you lies hope of wisdom.
C'fwr. Queen of our land ! be sure thou need'st not
utter
Or thing or word twice o'er, which power may point to ;
Thou bid'st us counsel give who fain would serve thee.
Atoss. Ever with many visions of the night l
Am I encompassed, since my son went forth,
Leading a mighty host, with aim to sack
The land of the lonians. But ne'er yet
Have I beheld a dream so manifest
As in the night just past. And this I'll tell thee :
There stood by me two women in fair robes ;
And this in Persian garments was arrayed,
And that in Dorian came before mine eyes ;
In stature both of tallest, corneliest size ;
And both of faultless beauty, sisters twain
The Hellenes might deify a dead hero, but not a living sovereign. On
different grounds the Jews shnink, as in the stories of Nebuchadnezzar
and Dareios, (Dan. iii. 6,) from all such acts.
(1) In the Greek, as in the translation, there is a change of metre, in-
tended apparently to represent the transition from the tone of eagei
•xcitem'.-ut to the ordinary level of discourse.
It THE PERSIANS.
Of the same stock.1 And they twain had their homes,
One in the Hellenic, one in alien land.
And these two, as I dreamt I saw, were set **>
At variance with each other. And my son
Learnt it, and checked and mollified their wrath,
And yokes them to his chariots, and his collar
He places on their necks. And one was proud
Of that equipment,2 and in harness gave
Her mouth obedient ; but the other kicked,
And tears the chariot's trappings with her hands,
And rushes off uncurbed, and breaks its yoke
Asunder. And my son falls low, and then
His father comes, Dareios, pitying him.
And lo ! when Xerxes sees him, he his clothes "^
Rends round his limbs. These things I say I saw
In visions of the night ; and when I rose,
And dipped my hands in fountain flowing clear,8
I at the altar stood with hand that bore
Sweet incense, wishing holy chrism to pour
To the averting Gods whom thus men worship.
And I beheld an eagle in full flight
To Phoebos' altar-hearth ; and then, my friends, M0
I stood, struck dumb with fear ; and next I saw
A kite pursuing, in her winged course,
And with his claws tearing the eagle's head,
Which did nought else but crouch and yield itself.
Such terrors it has been my lot to see,
And yours to hear : For be ye sure, my son,
If he succeed, will wonder-worthy prove ;
(1) "With reference either to the mythos that Asia and Europa were both
daughters of Okeanos, or to the historical fact that the Asiatic Ionian*
and the Dorians of Europe •were hoth of the same Hellenic stock. The con-
trast between the long flowing robes of the Asiatic women, and the short,
scanty kilt-like dress of those of Sparta must be borne in mind if we
would see the picture in its completeness.
(2) Athenian pride is flattered with the thought' that they had resisted
while the Ionian Greeks had submitted all too willingly to the yoke of the
Barbarian.
(3) Lustrations of this kind, besides their genond significance in
cleansing from defilement, hiid a special force as charms to turn asida
dangers threatened by foreboding dreams.— Couip. Aristopu. Vrogt, f .
U04; 1'ersius, Sat. ii. 1&
THE PERSIANS. IJ
But if he fail, still irresponsible
He to the people, and in either case,
He, should he but return, is sovereign still.1
Chor, We neither wish, O Lady, thee to frighten
O'ermuch with what we say, nor yet encourage :
But thou, the Gods adoring with entreaties,
If thou hast seen aught ill, bid them avert it,
And that all good things may receive fulfilment
For thee, thy children, and thy friends and country. **
And next 'tis meet libations due to offer
To Earth and to the dead. And ask thy husband,
Dareios, whom thou say'st by night thou sawest,
With kindly mood from 'neath the Earth to send thee
Good things to light for thee and for thine offspring,
While adverse things shall fade away in darkness.
Such things do I, a self-taught seer, advise thee
Iii kindly mood, and any way we reckon
That good will come to thee from out these omens.
Atoss. Well, with kind heart, hast thou, as first
expounder,
Out of my dreams brought out a welcome meaning
For me, and for my sons ; and thy good wishes,
May they receive fulfilment I And this also,
As thou dost bid, we to the Gods will offer "•
And to our friends below, when we go homeward.
But first, my friends, I wish to hear of Athens,
Where in the world do men report it standeth ?*
Chor. Far to the West, where sets our king the Sun-God.
A toss. Was it this city my son wished to capture ?
Chor. Aye, then would Hellas to our king be subject.
A toss. And have they any multitude of soldiers ?
Vhor. A mighty host, that wrought the Medes much
mischief.
(1) The political bearing of the passage as contrasting this characteristic
of the despotism of Persia with the strict account to which all Athenian
generals were subject, is, of course, unmistakable.
(2) The question, which seems to have rankled in the minds of the
Athenians, is recorded as an historical fact, and put into the mouth of
Dareios by Herodotos, (v. 101.) He had asked it on hearing that Sardii
had been attacked and burnt by them.
THE PERSIANS.
Atoss. And what besides P Have they too -wealth
sufficing ?
Chor. A fount of silver have they, their land's trea-
sure.1 9M
Atoss, Have they a host in archers' skill excelling ?
Chor. Not so, they wield the spear and shield and
bucklers."
Atosa. "What shepherd rules and lords it o'er their
people ?
Chor. Of no man are they called the slaves or subjects.
Atoss. How then can they sustain a foe invading ?
Chor. So that they spoiled Dareios' goodly army.
Atoss. Dread news is thine for sires of those who 're
marching.
Chor. Nay, but I think thou soon wilt know the whole
truth ;
This running one may know is that of Persian : *
For good or evil some clear news he bringeth.
Enter Messenger.
Mess. O cities of the whole wide land of Asia I
O soil of Persia, haven of great wealth !
How at one stroke is brought to nothingness
Our great prosperity, and all the flower
Of Persia's strength is fallen ! Woe is me I
'Tis ill to be the first to bring ill news ;
Yet needs must I the whole woe tell, ye Persians :
All our barbaric mighty host is lost.4
(tj The words point to the silver mines of Lanreion, which had been
worked under Peisistratos, and of which this is the first mention in Greek
literature.
12) Once more the contrast between the Greek hoplite and the light-
arnicd archers of the invaders is dwelt upon. The next answer of the
Chonis dwells upon the deeper contrast, then prominent in the minds
of all Athenians, between their democratic freedom and the despotism of
Persia. Comp. Herod, v. 78.
(3) The system of postal communications by means 'A couriers which
DsTeios had organized had made their speed in running proverbial,
(Herod, viii. 97 )
(4) With the characteristic contempt of a Greek for other race*,
^Eschylos makes the Persians speak of themselves throughout as 'barb**
' 'barbaric.'
THE PERSIANa
BTROPH. I*
CAor. O piteous, piteous woe !
O strange and dread event !
Weep, O ye Persians, hearing thie great grief I
Mess. Yea, all things there are ruined utterly ;
And I myself beyond all hope behold
The light of day at home.
AXTISTBOPH. I.
Chor. O'er-long doth life appear
To me, bowed down with years,
On hearing this unlooked-for misery.
Mess. And I, indeel, being present and not hearing
The tales of others, can report, ye Persians,
What ills were brought to pass.
STEOPH. II.
CJior. Alas, alas ! in vain
The many-weaponed and commingled host
Went from the land of Asia to invade
The soil divine of Hellas.
Mess. Pull of the dead, slain foully, are the coasts
Of Salamis, and all the neighbouring shore.
ANTISTROPH. II. .
Chor. Alas, alas ! sea-tossed
The bodies of our friends, and much disstained :
Thou say'st that they are drifted to and fro
*In far out-floating garments.1
Mesa. E'en so ; our bows availed not, but the host
Has perished, conquered by the clash of ships.
STBOPH. III.
Chor. Wail, raise a bitter cry M*
And full of woe, for those who died in fight.
How eveiy way the Gods have wrought out ill,
Ah me ! ah me, our army all destroyed.
Mess. O name of Salamis that most I loathe I
Ah, how I groan, remembering Athens too I
(I) Perhaps — " On planks that floated onward,"
Or — *' Onl and and sea fax spreading.'*
THE PERSIANS.
ASTWTBOPH. III.
Chor. Yea, to her enemies
Athens may well be hateful, and our minds
Eemember how full many a Persian wife
She, for no cause, made widows and bereaved.
Atoss. Long time I have been silent in my woa,
Crushed down with grief; for this calamity
Exceeds all power to tell the woe, or ask.
Yot still we mortals needs must bear the griefs
The Gods send on us. Clearly tell thy tale,
Unfolding the whole mischief, even though
Thou groan'st at evils, who there is not dead,
And which of our chief captains we must mourn,
And who, being set in office o'er the host,
Left by their death that office desolate.
Mess. Xerxes still lives and sees the light of day.
Atoss. To my house, then, great light thy words have
brought,
Bright dawn of morning after murky night.
Mess. Artembares, the lord of myriad horse,
On the hard flinty coasts of the Sileni
Is now being dashed ; and valiant Dadakes,
Captain of thousands, smitten with the spear,
Leapt wildly from his ship. And Tenagon,
Best of the true old Bactrians, haunts the soil
Qf Aias' isle ; Lilaios, Arsames,
And with them too Argestes, there defeated,
Hard by the island where the doves abound,1
Beat here and there upon the rocky shore.
[And from the springs of Neilos, 2Egypt's stream,
Arkteus, Adeues, Pheresseues too,
These with Pharnuchos in one ship were lost ;]
Matallos, Chrysa-born, the captain bold
Of myriads, leader he of swarthy horse
(1) Possibly Salami's itself, as famed for the doves which were reared"
there as sacred to Aphrodite, but possibly also one of the smaller island*
in the Saronic gulf, which the epithet would be enough to designate tor
an Athenian audience. The " coasts of the Sileni " in v. 305 are identified
\rf bchoiiosts with Salamis.
THE PERSIANS IJ
Some thrice ten thousand strong, has fallen low,
His red beard, hanging all its shaggy length,
Deep dyed with blood, and purpled all his skin.
Arabian Magos, Bactrian Artames,
They perished, settlers in a land full rough.
[Amietris and Amphistreus, guiding well
The spear of many a conflict, and the noble
Ariomardos, leaving bitter grief
For Sardis ; and the Mysian Seisames.]
With twelve score ships and ten came Tharybis ;
Lyrnsoan he in birth, once fair in form,
lie lies, poor wretch, a death inglorious dying :
And, first in valour proved, Syennesis,
Kilikian satrap, who, for one man, gave
Most trouble to his foes, and nobly died. **
Of leaders such as these I mention make,
And out of many evils tell but few.
Atoss. "Woe, woe : I hear the very worst of ills,
Shame to the Persians, cause of bitter wail ;
But tell me, going o'er the ground again,
How great the number of the Hellenes' navy,
That they presumed with Persia's armament
To wage their warfare in the clash of ships.
Mess. As far as numbers went, be sure the ships
Of Persia had the better, for the Hellenes ***
Had, as their total, ships but fifteen score,
And other ten selected as reserve.1
And Xerxes (well I know it) had a thousand
Which he commanded — those that most excelled *
In speed were twice five score and seven in number ;
So stands the account. Deem'st thou our forces less
In that encounter ? Nay, some Power above
Destroyed our host, and pressed the balance down
With most unequal fortune, and the Gods
Preserve the city of the Goddess Pallas.
(1J Perhaps — " And ten of these selected as reserve."
(2) As regards the number of the Persian ships, 1000 of average, and
207 of special swiftness. jEschylos agrees with Herodotus, who tnres tin
total of 1207. The latter, however, reckons the Greek ships not at 3l\X
but 378 (vii. 89, viii. 48).
0
13 THE PERSIANS.
Atnss. Is the Athenians' city then unsacked ? "*
Jl/«ss. Their men are left, and that is bulwark strong.1
Atoss. Ne^t tell me how the fight of ships begau.
Who led the attack ? Were those Hellenes the first,
Or was't my son, exulting in his strength ?
Mess. The author of the mischief, O my mistress,
Was some foul fiend or Power on evil bent ;
For lo ! a Hellene from the Athenian host J
Came to thy son, to Xerxes, and spake thus,
That should the shadow of the dark night come,
The Hellenes would not wait him, but would leap *8
Into their rowers' benches, here and there,
And save their lives in secret, hasty flight.
And he forthwith, this hearing, knowing not
The Hellene's guile, nor yet the Gods' great wrath,
Gives this command to all his admirals,
Soon as the sun should cease to burn the earth.
With his bright rays, and darkness thick invade
The firmament of heaven, to set their ships
In three-fold lines, to hinder all escape,
And guard the billowy straits, and others place **
In circuit round about the isle of Aias :
For if the Hellenes 'scaped an evil doom,
And found a way of secret, hasty flight,
It was ordained that all should lose their heads.*
Such things he spake from soul o'erwrought with pride,
For he knew not what fate the Gods would send ;
And they, not mutinous, but prompt to serve,
Then made their supper ready, and each sailor
Fastened his oar around true-fitting thole
(1) The fact that Athens had actually been taken, and its chief build-
ings plundered and laid waste, was, of course, not a pleasant one for tb«
poet to ('.well on. It could hardly, however, be entirely passed over, and
this is the one allusion to it. In the truest sense "it was still "un-
sacked : " it had not lost its most effective defence, its -nost precious
treasure.
(2) As the story is told by Herodotos, (viii. 75,) this was Sikinnos, the
slavt of Theroistocles, and the stratagem was the device of that com-
mande* to save the Greeks from the disgrace and ruin of a aauve gui ptot
flight in all directions.
(3) The Greeks never beheaded thoir criminals, and the punishment it
mentioned as be-ng specially characteristic of the barbaric Persian)
THE PERSIANS. 19
And when the sunlight vanished, and the night
Had come, then each man, master of an oar,
Went to his ship, and all men bearing arms,
And through the long ships rank cheered loud to rank ;
And so they sail, as 'twas appointed each,
And all night long the captains of the fleet
Kept their men working, rowing to and fro ;
Night then came on, and the Hellenic host
In no wise sought to take to secret flight.
And when day, bright to look on with white steeds,
O'erspread the earth, then rose from the Hellenes "*
Loud chant of cry of battle, and forthwith
Echo gave answer from each island rock ;
And terror then on all the Persians fell,
Of fond hopes disappointed. Not in flight
The Hellenes then their solemn paeans sang :
But with brave spirit hasting on to battle.
With martial sound the trumpet fired those ranks ;
And straight with sweep of oars that flew through foam,
They smote the loud waves at the boatswain's call ;
And swiftly all were manifest to sight. **
Then first their right wing moved in order meet ; l
Next the whole line its forward course began,
And all at once we heard a mighty shout, —
" 0 sons of Hellenes, forward, free your country;
Free too your wives, your children, and the shrines
Built to your'fathers' Gods, and holy tombs
Your ancestors now rest in. Now the fight
Is for our all." And on our side indeed
Arose in answer 'din of Persian speech,
And time to wait was over ; ship on ship ***
iJashed its bronze-pointed beak, and first a barque
Of Hellas did the encounter fierce begin,1
And from Phosnikian vessel crashes off
(1) The j^srinetans and Megarians, according to the account pre-
served by Uiodoros, (xi. 18,) or the Lacedaemonians, according to He-
rod otos, (viii. (55.)
(2) This may be meant to refer to the achievements of Ameinias of
Pallene, who appears in the traditional life of -K.schylus as his youngest
brother.
20 THE PERSIANS.
Her carved prow. And each against his neighbour
Steers his own ship : and first the mighty flood
Of Persian host held out. But when the ships
Were crowded in the straits,1 nor could they give
Help to each other, they with mutual shocks,
With beaks of bronze went crushing each the other,
Shivering their rowers' benches. And the ships
Of Hellas, with manoeuvring not unskilful,
Charged circling round them. And the hulls of shipa ***
Floated capsized, nor could the sea be seen,
Strown, as it was, with wrecks and carcases ;
And all the shores and rocks were full of corpses.
And every ship was wildly rowed in fight,
All that composed the Persian armament.
And they, as men spear tunnies,2 or a haul
Of other fishes, with the shafts of oars,
Or spars of wrecks went smiting, cleaving down;
And bitter groans and wailings overspread
The wide sea- waves, till eye of swarthy night **
Bade it all cease : and for the mass of ills,
Not, though my tale should run for ten full days,
Could I in full recount them. Be assured
That never yet so great a multitude
Died in a single day as died in this.
Atosa. Ah, me ! Great then the sea of ills that breaks
On Persia and the whole barbaric host.
Mess. Be sure our evil fate is but half o'er :
On this has supervened such bulk of woe,
As more than twice to outweigh what I've told. **"
Atoss. And yet what fortune could be worse than this ?
Say, what is this disaster which thou tell'st,
That turns the scale to greater evils still ?
Mesa. Those Persians that were in the bloom of life,
(1) Se., in Herod, viii. fiO, the strait between Salamis and the mainland.
(2) Tunny-fishing has always been prominent in the occupations of th«
Mediterranean coasts, and the sailors who formed so large a part ol
every Athenian audience would be familiar with the process here de-
scribed, of striking or harpooning them. Aristophanes (ll'eupi, 1087)
coins (or uses) the word "to tunny" (Vvvvd^ta} to express the act
Corap Herod. 1. 62.
THE PERSIANS. 21
Bravest in heart and noblest in their blood,
And by the king himself deemed worthiest trust,
Basely ar.d by most shameful death have died.
Atoss. Ah ! woe is me, my friends, for our ill fate I
What was the death by which thou say'st they perished F
Mess. There is an isle that lies off Salamis,1
Small, with bad anchorage for ships, where Pan,
Pan the dance-loving, haunts the sea-washed coast.
There Xerxes sends these men, that when their foes,
Being wrecked, should to the islands safely swim,
They might with ease destroy th' Hellenic host,
And save their friends from out the deep sea's paths ;
But ill the future guessing : for when God
Gave the Hellenes the glory of the battle,
In that same hour, with arms well wrought in bronze
Shielding their bodies, from their ships they leapt,
And the whole isle encircled, so that we ***
Were sore distressed,2 and knew not where to turn ;
.For here men's hands hurled many a stone at them ;
And there the arrows from the archer's bow
Smote and destroyed them ; and with one great rush,
At last advancing, they upon them dash
And smite, and hew the limbs of these poor wretches,
Till they each foe had utterly destroyed.
[And Xerxes when he saw how deep the ill,*
Groaned out aloud, for he had ta'en his seat,
With clear, wide view of all the army round,
On a high cliff hard by the open sea ;
And tearing then his robes with bitter cry, -lt
And giving orders to his troops on shore,
(1) 8e., Psyttaleia, lying between Ralamis and the mainland. Pausanwa
(i. .'i'i-82) describes it in hit* time as Laving no artistic shrine or statue,
but full everywhere of roughly-carved images of Pan, to whom the island
was sacred, it lay just opposite the entrance to the Peiraoa. The con-
nexion of Pan with fcSolamis and its adjacent islands seems implied ia
Sophocles, Aias. 695.
(2) The manoeuvre was, we learn from Ilerodotos (viii. 95), the work of
Aristeides, the personal friend of .^Eschylos, and the statesman with
whose policy he had most sympathy.
(3) The lines are noted as probably a spurious addition, by a weaker
baud, to the text, as introducing surplusage, as inconsistent with LLarodv*
toe, and as faulty in their metrical structure.
THE PERSIANS.
He sends them off in foul retreat. This grief
Tis thine to mourn besides the former ills.]
Atoss. 0 hateful Power, how thou of all their hopes
Hast robbed the Persians ! Bitter doom my son
Devised for glorious Athens, nor did they,
The invading host who fell at Marathon,
Suffice ; but my son, counting it his task
To exact requital for it, brought on him
So great a crowd of sorrows. But I pray,
As to those ships that have this fate escaped, ***
Where did'st thou leave them ? Can'st thou clearly tell ?
Mess. The captains of the vessels that were left,
With a fair wind, but not in meet array,
Took flight : and all the remnant of the army
Fell in Boeotia — some for stress of thirst
About the fountain clear, and some of us.
Panting for breath, cross to the Phokians' land,
The soil of Doris, and the Melian gulf,
Where fair Spercheios waters all the plains
With kindly flood, and then the Achaean fields °*
And city of the Thessali received us,
Famished for lack of food ; l and many died
Of thirst and hunger, for both ills we bore ;
And then to the Magnetian land we came,
And that of Macedonians, to the stream
Of Axios, and Bolbe's reed-grown marsh,
And Mount Pangaios and the EcLmian land.
And on that night God sent a mighty frost,
"Unwonted at that season, sealing up
The whole course of the Strymon's pure, clear flood ; *
And they who erst had deemed the Gods as nought, *"*
Thou prayed with hot entreaties, worshipping
Both earth and heaven. And after that the host
(1) So Herodotos (viii. 115) describes them as driven by hunger to eat
even pi-ass and leaves.
i'2) No trace of this pnssMEre over the frozen fitrymon appears in Hero-
dotos, who leaves thw reader to imagim- that it was crossr.l, as before, by
a bridge. It is hardly, indeed, consistent with dramatic probability
i.hsit the courier should have remained to watch the whole retreat of tlio
defeated army; and on this and other grounds, the latter part of tltt
ryeech has been rejected by some critics aa a later addition.
THE PERSIANS.
Ceased from its instant calling on the Gods,
It crosses o'er the glassy, frozen stream;
And whosoe'er set forth before the rays
Of the bright God were shed abroad, was saved ;
For soon the glorious sun with burning blaze
Reached the mid-stream and warmed it with its flame,
And they, confused, each on the other fell.
Blest then was he whose soul most speedily
Breathed out its life. And those who yet survived
And gained deliverance, crossing with great toil
And many a pang through Thrake, now are come,
Escaped from perils, no great number they,
To this our sacred land, and so it groans,
This city of the Persians, missing much
Our country's dear-loved youth. Too true my tale,
And many things I from my speech omit,
Ills which the Persians suffer at God's hand.
Chor. O Power resistless, with what weight of woe
On all the Persian race have thy feet leapt !
A toss. Ah ! woe is me for that our armv lost !
0 vision of the night that cam'st in dreams, K0
Too clearly did'st thou shew me of these ills !
But ye (to Chorus) did judge them far too carelessly;
Yet since your counsel pointed to that course,
1 to the Gods will first my prayer address.
And then with gifts to Earth and to the Dead,
Bringing the chrism from my store, I'll come.
For our past ills, I know, 'tis all too late,
But for the future, I may hope, will dawn
A better fortune ! But 'tis now your part
In these our present ills, in counsel faithful
To commune with the Faithful ; and my son,
Should he come here before me, comfort him,
And home escort him, lest he add fresh ill
To all these evils that we suffer now. [£**#.
Chor. Zeus our king, who now to nothing
Bring'st the army of the Persians,
Multitudinous, much boasting ;
14 THE PERSIANS.
And •with gloomy woe hast shrouded
Both Ecbatana and Susa ; ,
Many maidens now are tearing
With their tender hands their mantles,
And with tear-floods wet their bosoms,
In the common grief partaking ;
And the brides of Persian warriors,
Dainty even in their wailing,
Longing for their new-wed husbands,
Eeft of bridal couch luxurious,
With its coverlet so dainty,
Losing joy of wanton youth-time,
Mourn in never-sated wailings.
And I too in fullest measure
Eaise again meet cry of sorrow,
Weeping for the loved and lost ones.
STROPH. I.
For now the land of Asia mourneth sore,
Left desolate of men,
'Twas Xerxes led them forth, woe ! wool
'Twas Xerxes lost them all, woe ! woe I
'Twas Xerxes who with evil counsels sped
Their course in sea-borne barques.
Why was Dareios erst so free from harm,
First bowman of the state,
The leader whom the men of Susa loved,
AXTISTBOPH. I.
While those who fought as soldiers or at sea,
These ships, dark-hulled, well-rowed,
Their own ships bore them on, woe ! woe I
Their own ships lost them all, woe ! woe I
Their own ships, in the crash of ruin urged,
And by Ionian hands ? 1
The king himself, we hear, but hardly 'scapes,
Through Thrake's wide-spread steppes,
And paths o'ei which the tempests wildly sweep.
(1} The lonians, not of the Asiatic Ionia, but of Attioa.
THE PERSIANS.
STBOPH. II.
And they who perished first, ah me I "*
Perforce unburied left, alas !
Are scattered round Kychreia's shore,1 woe ! woe I
Lament, mourn sore, and raise a bitter cry,
Grievous, the sky to pierce, woe ! woe I
And let thy mourning voice uplift its strain
Of loud and full lament.
AVTISTROPH. .TT.
Torn by the whirling flood, ah me I
Their carcases are gnawed, alas !
By the dumb brood of stainless sea, woe ! woe I **
And each house mourneth for its vanished lord ;
And childless sires, woe ! woe !
Mourning in age o'er griefs the Gods have sent,
Now hear their utter loss.
STROPH. HI.
And throughout all Asia's borders
None now own the sway of Persia,
Nor bring any more their tribute,
Owning sway of sovereign master.
Low upon the Earth, laid prostrate,
Is the strength of our great monarch.
ANTISTROFH. III.
No more need men keep in silence
Tongues fast bound : for now the people
May with freedom speak at pleasure ;
For the yoke of power is broken ;
And blood-stained in all its meadows
Holds the sea-washed isle of Aias
What was once the host of Persia.
He-enter ATOSSA.
Atoss. Whoe'er, my friends, is vexed in troublous
times, *•
(1) Kychreia, the archaic name of Salamis.
86 THE PERSIANS.
Knows that when once a tide of woe sets in,
A man is wont to fear in everything,;
But when Fate flows on smoothly, then to trust
That the same Fate will ever .send fair gales.
So now all these disasters from the Gods
Seem in mine eyes filled full of fear and dread,
And in mine ears rings cry unpaeanlike,
So great a dread of all has seized my soul :
And therefore now, without or chariot's state
Or wonted pomp, have I thus issued forth
From out my palace, to my son's sire bringing
Libations loving, gifts propitiatory,
Meet for the dead ; milk pure and white from cow
Unblemished, and bright honey that distils
From the flower- working bee, and water drawn
From virgin fountain, and the draught unmarred
From mother wild, bright child of ancient vine ;
And here too of the tree that evermore
Keeps its fresh life in foliage, the pale olive,
Is the sweet-smelling fruit, and twined wreath?
Of flowers, the children of all-bearing earth.1 **
But ye, my friends, o'er these libations poured
In honour of the dead, chant forth your hymns,
And call upon Dareios as a God :
While I will send unto the Gods below
These votive offerings whioh the earth shall drink.
[Goes to the tomb o/DAKEios in the centrt
of the stage.
Chor. 0 royal lady, honoured of the Persians,
Do thou libations pour
To the dark chambers of the dead below;
And we with hymns will pray
The Powers that act as escorts of the dead
To give us kindly help beneath the earth.
But oh, yc holy Ones in darkness dwelling,
THE PERSIANS.
Hermes and Earth, and thou, the Lord of Hell,
Send from beneath, a soul
Up to the light of earth ;
For should he know a cure for these our ilia,
He, he alone of men, their end may tell.
STBOPH. I.
Doth he, the blest one hear,
The king, like Gods in power,
Hear mo, as I send forth
My cries in barbarous speech,
Yet very clear to him, —
Sad, varied, broken cries
So as to tell aloud
Our troubles terrible ? **
Ah, doth he hear below ?
AUTISTBOPH. I.
But thou, 0 Earth, and ye,
The other Lords of those
Beneath the grave that dwell J
Grant that the godlike one
May come from out your home,
The Persians' mighty God,
In Susa's palace born ;
Send him, I pray you, up,
The like of whom the soil
Of Persia never hid.
STROPH. H.
Dear was our chief, and dear to us his tomb,
For dear the life it hides ; ••
Aidoneus, 0 Aidoneus, send him forth,
Thou who dost lead the dead to Earth again,
*Yea, send Dareios. . . What a king was he I
AVTISTKOPH. II.
For never did he in war's bloody woe
Lose all his warrior-host,
But Heaven-taught Counsellor the Persians called him,
THE PERSIANS.
And Heaven-taught Counsellor in truth he proved,
Since he still ruled his hosts of subjects welL
STEOPH. in.
Monarch, 0 ancient monarch, come, oh, come,
Come to the summit of sepulchral mound,
Lifting thy foot encased
In slipper saffron-dyed,
And giving to our view
Thy royal tiara's crest : *
Speak, 0 Dareios, faultless father, speak.
ANTISTBOPH. III.
Yea, come, that thou, 0 Lord, may'st hear the woes,
Woes new and strange, our lord has now endured ;
For on us now has fallen
A dark and Stygian mist,
Since all the armed youth
Has perished utterly ;
Speak, 0 Dareios, faultless father, speak.
EPODB.
O thou, whose death thy friends
Bewail with many tears,
*Why thus, 0 Lord of lords,
*In double error of wild frenzy born,
Have all our triremes good
Been lost to this our land,
Ships that are ships no more, yea, ships no more P
The Ghost of DAREIOS appears on the summit of tfo
mound.
Dar. O faithful of the Faithful, ye who were
Companions of my youth, ye Persian elders,
What troubles is 't my country toils beneath ?
The whole plain groans, cut up and furrowed o'er,*
(1) The description obviously gives the state dress of the Persian king*.
They alone wore the tiara erect. — Xen. Kyrop. viii. 3, 13.
(2) Either that he has felt the measured tread of the mourners round
kie tomb, as they went wailing round and round, or that he baa heard
THE PERSIANS. 29
And I, beholding now my queen beloved
Standing hard by my sepulchre, feared much, **
And her libations graciously received ;
But ye wail loud near this my sepulchre,
And shouting shrill with cries that raise the dead,
Te call me with your plaints. No easy task
Is it to come, for this cause above all,
That the great Gods who reign below are apter
To seize men than release : yet natheless I,
Being great in power among them, now am come.
Be quick then, that none blame me as too late ; *
What new dire evils on the Persians weigh ?
Chor. I fear to look on thee, ••
Fear before thee to speak,
With all the awe of thee I felt of old.
Dar. But since I came by thy complaints persuaded,
From below rising, spin no lengthened tale ;
But shortly, clearly speak, and tell thy story,
And leave awhile thine awe and fear of me.
Chor. I dread thy wish to grant,
*I dread to say thee nay,2
Saying things that it is hard for friends to speak.
Dar. Nay, then, since that old dread of thine prevents
thee,
Do thou \to ATOSSA], the ancient partner of my bed, 10°
My noble queen, from these thy plaints and meanings
Cease, and say something clearly. Human sorrows
May well on mortals fall ; for many evils,
Some on the sea, and some on dry land also,
Happen to men if life be far prolonged.
Atoss. 0 thou, who in the fate of fair good fortune
Excelled'st all men, who, while yet thou sawest
The sun's bright rays, did'st lead a life all blessed,
Admired, yea, worshipped as a God by Persians,
the rush of armies, and seen the plain tracked by chariot- wheels, and
comes, not knowing all these things, to learn what it means.
(1) The words point to the widespread belief that when the souls of
the dead were permitted to return to earth, it was with strict liiaiUtUuu*
•s to the time of their leave of absence.
(2j Perhaps— " I dread to speak the truth."
JO THE PERSIANS.
Now, too, I count thee blest in that thou died'st
Before thou saw'st the depth of these our evils.
For now, Dareios, thou shalt hear a story
Full, yet in briefest moment. Utter ruin,
To sum up all, is come upon the Persians. <n*
Dar. How so ? Hath plague or discord seized my
country ?
Atoss. Not so, but all the host is lost near Athens.
Dar. What son of mine led that host thither, tell me ?*
Atoss. Xerxes o'er-hasty, emptying all the mainland.
Dar. Made he this mad attempt by land or water ?
Atoss. By both ; two lines there were of two great
armies.
Dar. How did so great a host effect its passage ?
Atoss. He bridged the straits of Helle, and found
transit.
Dar. Did he prevail to close the mighty Bosporos ?
, Atoss. So was it; yet some God, it may be, helped
him. 72«
Dar. Alas ! some great God came and stole his wisdom.
Atoss. Yea, the end shows what evil he accomplished.
Dar. And how have they fared, that ye thus bewail
them?
Atoss. The naval host, o'ercome, wrecked all the land-
force.
Dar. What ! is the whole host by the spear laid pros-
trate?
Atoss. For this doth Susa's city mourn her losses.
Dar. Alas, for that brave force and mighty army !
Atosa. The Bactrians all are lost, not old men merely.
Dttr. Poor fool ! how he hath lost his host's fresh vigour !
Atoss. Xerxes, they say, alone, with but few
others ....
Dar. What is his end, and where ? Is there no safety?
Atoss. Was glad to gain the bridge that joins two
mainlands.
(1) According to Herodotos (vii. 226) two brother* of Xerxes fell at
Tbnrmopylce.
THE PERSIANS. 3!
Dar. And has he reached this mainland? Is that
certain ?
Atoss. Yea, the report holds good. Here is no discord.1
Dar. Ah me ! Full swift the oracles' fulfilment I
And on my son hath Zeus their end directed.
I hoped the Gods would work them out more slowly;
But when man hastens, God too with him worketh.
And now for all my friends a fount of evils
Seems to be found. And this my son, not knowing, ***
In youth's rash mood, hath wrought ; for he did purpose
To curb the sacred Hellespont with fetters,
As though it were his slave, and sought to alter
The stream of God, the Bosporos, full-flowing,
And his well-hammered chains around it casting,
Prevailed to make his mighty host a highway ;
And though a mortal, thought, with no good counsel,
To master all the Gods, yea, e'en Poseidon.
Nay, was not my poor son oppressed with madness ?
And much I fear lest all my heapod-up treasure
Become the spoil and prey of the first comer.
Atoss. Such things the o'er-hasty Xerxes learns from
others, "°
By intercourse with men of evil counsel ; *
Who say that thou great wealth for thy son gained'st
By thy spear's might, while he with coward spirit
Does his spear-work indoors, and nothing addeth
Unto his father's glory. Such reproaches
Hearing full oft from men of evil counsel,
He planned this expedition against Hellas.
Dar. Thus then a deed portentous hath been wrought,
Ever to be remembered, su.ch as ne'er
Falling on Susa made it desolate,
Since Zeus our king ordained this dignity,
Xhat one man should be lord of Asia's plains,
(1) As Herodotos (viii. 117) tells the story, the bridge had been broken
by tempest before Xerxes reached it.
(2) Probably Mardonios and Onomacritos the Athenian soothsayer ai6
referred to, who, according to Herodolos (vii. 0, viii. IWJ were the ckM
inatigatori of the expedition.
32 THE PERSIANS.
Where feed her thousand flocks, and hold the rod **
Of sovran guidance : for the Median first l
Ruled o'er the host, and then his son in turn
Finished the work, for reason steered his soul;
And Kyros came as third, full richly blest,
And ruled, and gained great peace for all his friends ;
And he won o'er the Lydians and the Phrygians,
And conquered all the wide Ionian land ; 2
For such his wisdom, he provoked not God.
And Kyros' son came fourth, and ruled the host ;
And Mardos fifth held sway, his country's shame,* "*
Shame to the ancient throne ; and him with guile
Artaphrenes 4 the brave smote down, close leagued
With men, his friends, to whom the work was given.
[Sixth, Maraphis and seventh Artaphrenes,]
And I obtained this post that I desired,
And with a mighty host great victories won.
Yet no such evil brought I on the state ;
But my son Xerxes, young, thinks like a youth,
And all my solemn charge remembers not ; .
For know this well, my old companions true, **
That none of us who swayed the realm of old,
Did e'er appear as working ill? like these.
Chor. What then, 0 King Dareios ? To what end
Lead'st thou thy speech ? And how, in this our plight,
Could we, the Persian people, prosper best ?
Dar. If ye no more attack the Hellenes' land,
(1) Astyages, the father-in-law of Kyaxares and grandfather of Kyroa.
In this case ^Eschylos must be supposed to accept Xenophon's statement
that Kyaxares succeeded Astyages. Possibly, however, the Median may
be Kyaxares I., the father of Astyages, and so the succession here would
harmonise with that of Herodotos. The whole succession must be
looked on as embodying the loose, floating notions of the Athenians as
to the history of their great enemy, rather than as the result of inquiry.
(2) Stress is laid on the violence to which the Asiatic lonians had suc-
cumbed, and their resistance to which distinguished them from the
Lydians or Phrygians, whose submission had been voluntary.
(3) Mardos. Under this name we recognise the Pseudo-Smerdis of
Herodotos, (iii. 67,) who, by restoring the dominion of the Median Magi,
the caste to which he himself belonged, brought shame upon the
Persiana
(4) Possibly another form of Intaphernes, who appears in Herodotot
(iii. 70} us one of the seven conspirators against the Magian Pseudo-
BraerdiB.
THE PERSIANS. 3J
E'en, though the Median host outnumber theirs.
To them the very land is true ally.
Chor. What meanest thou ? How fights the land for
them ?
Dar. *It slays with famine those vast multitudes. 79°
Chur. We then a host, select, compact, will raise.
Dar. Nay, e'en the host which now in Hellas stays1
Will ne'er return in peace arid safety home.
Chor. How say'st thou ? Does not all the barbarous
host
Cross from Europa o'er the straits of Hell£ ?
Dar. But few of many; if 'tis meet for oiie
Who looks upon the things already done
To trust the oracles of Gods ; for they,
Not these or those, but all, are brought to pass :
If this be so, then, resting on vain hopes,2 *"
He leaves a chosen portion of his host :
And they abide where, watering all the plain,
Asopos pours his fertilising stream
Dear to Boeotian land ; and there of ills
The topmost crown awaits them, penalty
Of wanton outrage and of godless thoughts ;
For they to Hellas coming, held not back
In awe from plundering sculptured forms of Gods '
And burning down their temples ; and laid low
Are altars, and the shrines of Gods o'erthrown,
E'en from their base. They therefore having wrought
Deeds evil, now are suffering, and will suffer
Evil not less, and not as yet is seen 8W
*E'en the bare groundwork of the ills, but still
(1) The force of 300,000 men left in Greece under Mardonios, (Herod,
viii. 113,) afterwards defeated at Fliitaea.
(2) Comp. the speech of Mardonios urging his plan on Xerxes, (Herod,
viii. 100.)
(3) This was of course a popular topic with the Athenians, whose own
temples had been outraged. Hut other sanctuaries also, the temp es at
Delphi and Abae had snared the same fate, and these sins against tha
Gods of Hellas were naturally connected in the thought* of the Greeks
with the subsequent disasters of the Persians. In Egypt these outrage!
had an iconoclastic character. In Athens they were a retaliation for tha
destruction of the temple at Sardis, (Herod, v. 1U2.)
D
34 THE PERSIANS.
They grow up to completeness. Such a stream
Of blood and slaughter soon shalf flow from them
By Dorian spear upon Platsean. ground,1
And heaps of corpses shall to children's children,
Though speechless, witness to the eyes of men
That mortal man should not wax overproud ;
Per wanton pride from blossom grows to fruit,
The full corn in the ear, of utter woe,
And reaps a tear-fraught harvest. Seeing then,
Such recompense of these things, cherish well
The memory of Athens and of Hellas ; 8ao
Let no man in his scorn of present fortune,
And thirst for other, mar his good estate;
Zeus is the avenger of o'erlofty thoughts,
A terrible controller. Therefore now,
Since voice of God bids him be wise of heart,
Admonish him with counsel true and good
To cease his daring sacrilegious pride ;
And thou, 0 Xerxes' mother, old and dear,
Go to thy home, and taking what apparel
Is fitting, go to meet thy son ; for all *3°
The costly robes around his limbs are torn
To rags and shreds in grief's wild agony.
But do thou gently soothe his soul with words ;
For he to thee alone will deign to hearken;
But I must leave the earth for darkness deep :
And ye, old men, farewell, although in woe,
And give your soul its daily bread of joy;
!For to the dead no profit bringeth wealth.
[Exit, disappearing in the earth.
Chor, I shudder as I hear the many woes
Both past and present that on Persians fall.
Atoss. [0 God, how many evils fall on me I *
And yet this one woe biteth more than all,
(1° Tho reference to the prominent part taken by the Peloponnesion
forces in the battle of Tlatseee is probably due to the political sympathies
of the dramatist.
(2) The speech of Atossa is rejected byl'uley.on internal grounds, afl
ipuiious.
THE PERSIANS.
Hearing my son's shame in the rags of robes
That clothe his limbs. But I will go and take
A fit adornment from my house, and try
To meet my son. We will not in his troubles
Basely abandon him whom most we love.]
STBOPH. I.
Chor. Ah me ! a glorious and a blessed life
Had we as subjects once,
When our old king, Dareios, ruled the land, **
Meeting all wants, dispassionate, supreme,
A monarch like a God.
AOTISTBOPH. I.
For first we showed the world our noble hosts ;
And laws of tower-like strength
Directed all things ; and our backward march
After our wars unhurt, unsuffering led
Our prospering armies home.
STBOPH. IL
How many towns he took,
Not crossing Halys' stream * **
Nor issuing from his home,
There where in Strymon's sea,
The Acheloian Isles 2
Lie near the coasts of Thrakian colonies.
AXTISTBOFII. II.
And those that lie outside the ./Egaean main.
The cities girt with towers,
They hearkened to our king ;
And those who boast their site
By Helle's full, wide stream,
Propontis with its bays, and mouth of Pontos broad. m
(1) Apparently an allusion to the oracle given to Croosos, that he, if he
crossed the Halys, should destroy a gre;it kingdom.
(2) The name originally given to the Echinades, a group of islands at
the mouth of the Acheloos, was applied generically to all islands lying
near the mouth of great rivers, and here, probably, includes linbroa.
I'iiasos, and Saiuotlirake.
36 THE PERSIANS.
BTBOPH. III.
And all the isles that lie
Facing the headland jutting in the sea,*
Close bound to this our coast ;
Lesbos, and Samos with its olive groves;
Chios and Paros too ;
Naxos and Myconos, and Andros too
On Tenos bordering.
ANTISTBOPH. UL
And BO he ruled the isles
That lie midway between the continents,
Lemnos, and Icaros,
Ehodos and Cnidos and the Eyprian towns, m
Paphos and Soli famed,
And with them Salamis,
Whose parent city now our groans doth cause ; '
EPODB.
And many a wealthy town and populous,
Of Hellenes in the Ionian region dwelling,
He by his counsel ruled,;
His was the unconquered strength of warrior host,
Allies of mingled race.
And now, beyond all doubt,
In strife of war defeated utterly,
We find this high estate
Through wrath of God o'erturned,
And we are smitten low,
By bitter loss at sea.
Enter XERXES in kingly apparel, lut with hit robes rent,
with Attendants.
Xer. Oh, miserable me !
Who this dark hateful doom
That I expected least
(1) The geography is somewhat obsctrre, but the words seem to refer to
the portion of the islands that are named as opposite (in a southerly direc-
tion) to the promontory of the Troad.
(2) Salamis in Kypros had been colonised byTeukros, the son of Aias,
and had received its name in remembrance of the island in the Saroiue
Onll.
THE PERSIANS.
Have met with as my lot,
With what stern mood and fierce
Towards the Persian race
Is God's hand laid on us !
What woe will come on me ?
Gone is my strength of limb,
As I these elders see.
Ah, would to Heaven, 0 Zeus,
That with the men who fell
Death's doom had covered me I
Ctuvr. Ah, woe, O king, woe ! woe !
For the army brave in fight,
And our goodly Persian name,
And the fair array of men,
Whom God hath now cut off !
And the land bewails its youth
Who for our Xerxes full,
For him whose deeds have filled
*Hades with Persian souls ;
For many heroes now
*Are Hades-travellers,
Our country's chosen flower,
Mighty with darts and bow ;
*For lo ! the myriad mass "^
Of men has perished quite.
Woe, woe for our fair fame I
And Asia's land, 0 King,
Is terribly, most terribly, o'erthrown.
Xer. I then, oh misery !
Have to my curse been proved
Sore evil to my country and my race.
Chor. Yea, and on thy return
I will lift up my voice in wailing loud,
Cry of sore-troubled thought,
As of a mourner born
In Mariandynian land,1 *•
Lament of many tears.
(1) The Mariandynians, a JPaphlagoman tribe, conspicuous for their
j8 THE PERSIANS.
AJTTISTBOPH. I.
Jfer. Tea, titter ye a wail
Dreary and full of grief;
For lo ! the face of Fate
Against me now is turned.
Chor. Tea, I will raise a cry
Dreary and full of grief,
Giving this tribute due
To all the people's woes,
And all our loss at sea,
Troubles of this our State
That mourn eth for her sons ;
Tea, I will wail full sore,
"With flood of bitter tears.
STROPH. II.
S.er, For Ares, he whose might
Was in our ships' array,
Giving victory to our foes,
Has in lonians, yea,
lonians, found his match,
And from the dark sea's plain,
And that ill-omened shore,
Has a fell harvest reaped.
Chor. Tea, wail, search out the whole ;
Where are our other friends ?
Where thy companions true,
Such as Pharandakes,
Susas, Pelagon, Psammis, Dotamas,
Agdabatas, Susiskanes,
From Ecbatana who started P
. II.
JCcr. I left them low in death,
Falling from Tyrian ship,
On Salaminian shores,
Beating now here, now there,
On the hard rock-girt coast.
orgiastic worship of Adonis, bad become proverbial for the wildneM of
tbeu plaintive dirges.
THE PERSIANS. 39
Cher. Ah, where Pharnuchos then,
And Ariomardos brave ?
And where Sevalkes king,
Lilsoos proud of race,
Memphis and Tharybis,
Masistras, and Artembarea,
Hystoechmas ? This I ask.
STROPH. HI.
Xer. Woe ! woe is me !
They have looked on at Athens' ancient towers,
Her hated towers, ah me !
All, as by one fell stroke,
Unhappy in their fate
Lie gasping on the shore.
Chor. And he, thy faithful Eye,1 «•
"Who told the Persian host,
Myriads on myriads o'er,*
Alpistos, son and heir
Of Batanochos old
*****
And the son of brave Sesames,
Son himself of Megabates.
Parthos, and the great CEbares,
Did'st thou leave them, did'st thou leave them P
Ah, woe ! ah, woe is me,
For those unhappy ones !
Thou to the Persians brave
Tellest of ills on ills.
ANTISTBOPH. III.
Xer. Ah, thou dost wake in me
The memory of the spell of yearning love
JFor comrades brave and true,
(1) The name seems to have bpen an official title for some Inspector-
General of the Army. Comp. Aristoph. Ac/tarn, v. 92.
(2) As in the account which Herodotos gives (vii. 60) of the way in
which the army of Xerxes was numbered, sc., by enclosing 10,000 men in
a given space, and then filling it again and again till the whole array had
passed through.
THE PERSIANS.
Telling of cursed ills,
Yea, cursed, hateful doom ;
And lo, within my frame
My heart cries out, cries out.
Chor. Yea, another too we long for,
Xanthes, captain of ten thousand
Mardian warriors, and Anchares
Arian born, and great Arsakes
And Diaexis, lords of horsemen,
Kigdagatas and Lythhnnas,
Tolmos, longing for the battle :
*Much I marvel, much I marvel,1
For they come not, as the rear-guard
Of thy tent on chariot mounted.2
STBOPH. IV.
Xer. Gone those rulers of the army.
Char. Gone are they in death inglorious.
X er. Ah woe ! ah woe ! Alas ! alas I
Chor. Ah ! the Gods have sent upon us
111 we never thought to look on,
Eminent above all others ;
Ne'er hath Ate seen its equal.
AXTISTBOPH. IV.
Smitten we by many sorrows,
Such, as come on men but seldom.
Chor. Smitten we, 'tis all too certain. . .
Xer. Fresh woes ! fresh, woes ! ah me I
Chor. Now with adverse turn of fortune,
With Ionian seamen meeting,
Fails in war the race of Persians.
STBOPH. V.
Xer. Too true. Yea I and that vast host of mine
Are smitten down.
(1) Another reading gives—
" They are buried, they are buried."
(2) Perhaps referring to the waggon-chariots in which the rider re-
elined at ease, either protected by a canopy, or, as in the Assyrian sculp-
tures and perhaps in the East generally, overshadowed by a large umbreUf
which an cuuuci holds over him.
THE PERSIANS. 4!
Chor. Too true — the Persians' majesty and might
Have perished utterly.
Xer. Sees' t thou this remnant of my armament ?
Chor. I see it, yea, I see. 1001
Xer. (pointing to his quiver.} Dost see thou that which
arrows wont to hold ?. . .
Chor. "What speak'st thou of as saved P
Xer. This treasure-store for darts.
Chor. Few, few of many left I
Xer. Thus we all helpers lack.
CJwr. Ionian soldiers flee not from the spear.
AjrnsTBOPH. V.
Xer. Tea, very bravo are they, and I Have seen
Unlooked-for woe.
Chor. Wilt tell of squadron of our sea-hor^e ships
Defeated utterly ?
Xer. I tore my robes at this calamity.
Chor. Ah me, ah me, ah me ! *••
Xer. Ay, more than all ' ah me's ' I
Chor. Two-fold and three-fold ilia I
Xer. Grievous to us — but joy,
Great joy, to all our foes !
Chor. Lopped off is all our strength*
Xer. Stripped bare of escort 1 1
Chor. Tea, by sore loss at sea
Disastrous to thy friends.
STBOPH. VL
Xer. Weep for our sorrow, weep,
Tea, go ye to the house.
Chor Woe for our griefs, woe, woe I
Xer. Cry out an echoing cry.
Chor. Ill gift of ills on ills. «•
Xer. Weep on in wailing chant.
Chor. Oh! ah! Oh! ah!
Xer. Grievous our bitter woes.
Chor. Ah me, I mourn them son*
THE PERSIANS.
AvnsTBOPH. VL
Xer. Ply, ply your hands and groan ;
Tea, for my sake bewail
Chor. I weep in bitter grief.
Xer. Cry out an echoing cry.
Chor. Yea, we may raise our voice,
0 Lord and King, in wail.
Xer. Eaise now shrill cry of woe.
Chor. Ah me ! Ah ! "Woe is me ! . **•
Xer. Yea, with it mingle dark. . . . •
Chor. And bitter, grievous blows.
STBOPH. VII.
Xer. Tea, beat thy breast, and cry
After the Mysian type.
Chor. Oh, misery ! oh, misery !
Xer. Yea, tear the white hair off thy flowing beard.
Chor. Yea ; with clenched hands, with clenched hands,
I say,
In very piteous guise.
Xer. Cry out, cry out aloud.
Chor. That also will I do.
AXTISTBOPH. VU,
Xer. And with thy fingers tear
Thy bosom's folded robe.
Chor. Oh, misery ! oh, misery !
Xer. Yea, tear thy hair in wailing for our host.
Chor. Yea, with clenched hands, I say, with clenched
hands,
In very piteous guise.
Xer. Be thine eyes wet with tears.
Chor. Behold the tears stream down.
Xer. Eaise a re-echoing cry.
Chor. Ah woe ! ah woe !
Xer. Go to thy home with wailing loud and long.
Chor. 0 land of Persia, full of lamentations !
THE PERSIANS. 43
Xer. Through the town raise your cries.
Chor. We raise them, yea, we raise. "^
Xer. Wail, wail, ye men that walked so daintily.
Chor. O land of Persia, full of lamentations I
Woe ; woe !
Xer. Alas for those who in the triremes perished *
Cher. With, broken cries of woe will I escort thee.
[Exeunt in procession, wailing, and
rtnding their rubet.
THE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST
THEBES
ARGUMENT.
When (Edti'piis Icing of Thebes discovered that he had unknowingly
been the murderer of his father, and had lived in incest with
his mother, he blinded himself. And his two sons, Eteocles and
folyneiftes, wishing to banish the remembrance of these horrors
from the eyes of men, at first kept him in confinement. And
he, being wroth with them, prayed that they might divide their
inheritance with the sword. And they, in fear lest the prayer
should be accomplished, agreed to reign in turn, each for a year,
and Eteocles, as the elder of the two, took the first turn. But
wJien at the end of the year Polyneikes came to ask for the king-
dom, Eteocles refused to give way, and sent him away empty. So
Polt/neikes went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastos
the king of that country, and gathered together a great army
under six great captains, himself coming as the seventh, and led
it against Tliebes. And so tJtey compassed it about, and at
each of the seven gates of the city teas statiored one of th*
divisions of tlie army.
Hote.—Tht Sfven against Thtbu appears to have been produced B.O. <T3,
tie year after The Pennant.
gramatts
ETEOCLES.
Scout.
ISMENE.
ANT1GON3.
Herald.
Chorut of Theban Maidf**.
THE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST
THEBES.
SCENE. — Thebes in front of the Acropolis.
Enter ETEOCLES, and crowd o/Theban Citizens.
Eteoc. Ye citizens of Cadmoa, it behoves
That one who standeth at the stern of State
Guiding the helm, with eyes unclosed in sleep,
Should speak the things that meet occasion's need.
For should we prosper, God gets all the praise :
But if (which God forbid !) disaster falls,
Eteocles, much blame on one head falling,
Would find his name the by- word of the State,1
Sung in the slanderous ballads of the town ;
Yes, and with groanings, which may Zeus the Avertor,
True to his name, from us Cadmeians turn !
But now 'tis meet for all, both him who fails
Of full-grown age, and him advanced in years,
Yet boasting still a stalwart strength of frame,
And each in life's full prime, as it is fit,
The State to succour and the altars here
Of these our country's Gods, that never more
Their votive honours cease, — to help our sons,
And Earth, our dearest mother and kind nurse ;
For she, when young ye crept her kindly plain,
Bearing the whole charge of your nourishment,
Beared you as denizens that bear the shield,
(1) Probably directed against the tendency of the Athenians, M
•hown in their treatment of Jliltiades, and later in that of Thukydidec
to punish Uieir unsuccessful generals, " pour ctxaurager Us autra."
Jt
50 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
That ye should trusty prove in this her need. "
And now thus far God turns the scale for us ;
For unto us, beleaguered those long days,
War doth in most things with God's help speed well,
But now, as saith the seer, the augur skilled,1
Watching with ear and mind, apart from fire,
The birds oracular with mind unerring,
He, lord and master of these prophet-arta,
Says that the great attack of the Achseans
This very night is talked of, and their plots
Devised against' the town. But ye, haste all
Unto the walls and gateways of the forts ; •
Hush ye full-armed, and fill the outer space,
And stand upon the platlbrnis of the towers,
And at the entrance of the gates abiding
Bo of good cheer, nor fear ye overmuch
The host of aliens. "Well will God work all.
And I have sent my scouts and watchers forth.
And trust their errand is no fruitless one.
I shall not, hearing them, bo caught with guile.
\_Kxeuid Citizens.
Enter one of the Scouts.
Mess. King of Cadmeians, great Eteoclos,
I from the army come with tidings clear, *
And am myself eye-witness of its acts ;
For seven brave warriors, leading armed bands,
Cutting a bull's throat o'er a black-rimmed shield,
And dipping in the bull's blood with their hands,
Swore before Ares, Enyo,2 murderous Fear,
That they would bring destruction on our town,
And trample under foot the tower of Cadmos,
Or dying, with their own blood stain our soil;
And they memorials for their sires at home
Placed with their hands upon Adrastos' car,3 **
(1) Teiresias, ns in Sophocles, (Antig. v. 1005,) sitting, thonph Wind,
And listening, as the birds flit by him, and the flames burn steadily or
fitfully ; u various reading gives " apart from sight."
(2) Enyo, the goddess of war, and companion ~f Ares.
(3) Aiuphiaraos the seer had prophesied that Adrastoa alone should
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Weeping, but no wail uttering with their lipa,
For courage iron-hearted breathed out fire
In manliness unconquered, as when lions
Flash, battle from their eyeballs. And report
Of these things does not linger on the way.
I left them casting lots, that each might take,
As the lot fell, his station at the gate.
Wherefore do thou our city's chosen ones
Array with speed at entrance of the gates ;
For near already is the Argive host,
Marching through clouds of dust, and whitening foam **
Spots all the plain with drops from horses' mouths.
And thou, as prudent helmsman of the ship,
Guard thou our fortress ere the blasts of Ares
Swoop on it wildly ; for there comes the roar
Of the land- wave of armies. And do thou
Seize for these things the swiftest tide and time;
And I, in all that comes, will keep my eye
As faithful sentry ; so through speech full clear,
Thou, knowing all things yonder, shalt be safe.
[Exit.
Eteoc. O Zeus and Earth, and all ye guardian Gods I
Thou Curse and strong Erinnys of my sire ! w
Destroy ye not my city root and branch,
With sore destruction smitten, one whose voice
Is that of Hellas, nor our hearths and homes ; *
Grant that they never hold in yoke of bondage
Our country free, and town of Cadmos named;
But be ye our defence. I deem I speak
Of what concerns us both ; for still 'tis true,
A prosperous city honours well the Gods.
Enter Chorus of Theban Maidens in solemn procession At
suppliants.
Chor. ~L in wild terror utter cries of woe ;
return home in safoty. On his car, therefore, the other chieftains him*
the clasps, or locks of hair, or other memorials which in the event oi
their death were to be taken to their parents.
(1) The Hellenic feeling, such as the Flatteans appealed to in tb«
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
An army leaves its camp and is let loose :
Either the vanguard of the horsemen flowa, **
And the thick cloud of dust,
That suddenly is seen,
Dumb herald, yet full clear,
Constrains me to believe ;
And smitten with the horses' hoofs, the plain
Of this my country rings with noise of war ;
It floats and echoes round,
Like voice of mountain torrent dashing down
Resistless in its might.
Ah Gods ! Ah Goddesses I
Ward off the coming woe.
With battle-shout that rises o'er the walls,
The host whose shields are white 1 *
Marches in full array against our city.
Who then, of all the Gods
Or Goddesses, will come to help and save P
Say, shall I fall before the shrines of Goda P
O blessed Ones firm fixed !
'Tis time to clasp your sacred images.
Why linger we in wailing overmuch ?
Hear ye, or hear ye not, the din of shields P
When, if not now, shall we
Engage in prayer with peplos and with boughs P *
I hear a mighty sound ; it is the din **
Not of a single spear.
O Ares ! ancient guardian of our land I
What wilt thou do ? Wilt thou betray thy land ?
O God of golden casque,
Peloponnesian war, {Thuc. iii. 58, 59,) that it was noble and right fof
Hellenes to destroy a city ot the barbariiins, but that they should spare
one belonging to n people of their iwn stock.
(1) The characteristic featili e of •she Argive soldiers was, that they bore
a shield painted white, (comp. Sophocles, Antig. v. 114.) The leaders
alone appear to have embellished this with devices and mottoes.
(2) In solemn supplications, the litanies of the ancient world, especially
in those to Pallas, the suppliants carried with them in procession the
shawl or ptploa of the Goddess, and with it enwrapt her statue. To carry
boughs of trees in the hands was one of the uniform, probably indiapens-
»ble, accompaniments of such procession*.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 5J
Look on our city, yea, with favour look,
The city thou did'st love.
And ye, ye Gods who o'er the city rule.
Come all of you, come all.
Behold the band of maidens suppliant,
In fear of bondage foul ;
For now around the town
The wave of warriors bearing sloped crestg,
With blasts of Ares rushing, hoarsely sounds : *
But thou, O Zeus ! true father of us all,
Ward off, ward off our capture by the foe.
STBOPH. L
For Argives now surround the town of Cadmos,
And dread of Ares' weapons falls on us ;
And, bound to horses' mouths,
The bits and curbs ring music as of death ;
And seven chief rulers of the mighty host,
With warriors' arms, at each of seven tall gates,
Spear- armed and harnessed all,
Stand, having cast their lots.
****••
MESODB.
And thou, 0 Zeus-born power in war delighting, **
O Pallas ! be our city's saviour now :
And Thou who curb'st the steed,
Great King of Ocean's waves,
Poseidon, with thy trident fish-spear armed,1
Give respite from our troubles, respite give !
And Thou, 0 Ares, guard the town that takes
Its name from Cadmos old,8
Watch o'er it visibly.
(1) The word* recall our thoughts to the original use of the trident,
which became afterwards a symbol of Poseidon, as employed by the sailor*
of Hellas to spear or harpoon the larger fish of the Archipelago. Comp.
Pert. v. 426, where the slaughter of a defeated army is compared to tunny-
fishing.
(2) Cadmos, probably " the man from the East," the Phoenician who
hod founded Thebes, and sown the dragon's seed, and taught men a
Semitic alphabet for the non-Semitic speech of Hellas.
54 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
AjrrisTROPH. I.
And them, 0 Kypris, of our race the mother,
Ward off these ills, for we are thine by blood :
To thee in many a prayer,
"With voice that calls upon the Gods we cry,
And unto thee draw near as suppliants :
And Thou, Lykeian king, Lykeian be,1
Foe of our hated foes,
For this our wailing cry ;
And Thou, O child of Leto, Artemis,
Make ready now thy tow.
STBOPH. II.
Ah ! ah ! I hear a din of chariot wheels
Around the city walls ;
0 Hera great and dread I
The heavy axles of the chariots groan, **
O Artemis beloved !
And the air maddens with the clash of spears;
What must our city bear ?
What now shall come on us ?
When will God give the end ?
AXTISTROPH. II.
Ah! ah ! a voice of stones is falling fast
On battlements attacked; a
O Lord, Apollo loved,
A din of bronze-bound shields is in the gates ;
And oh ! that Zeus may give M>
A faultless issue of this war we wage I
And Thou, O blessed queen,
As Guardian Oiica known,5
Save thy seven-gated seat.
(1) "Worthy of his name a* the Wolf-destroyer, mighty to destroy hi»
foes.
(2) Possibiv, ".from battlements attacked." In the primitive siegei
of (jreek warfare stones were used as missiles alike by besieged and be-
eie:rers.
(3) The name of Onca belonged especially to the The! an worship oi
Pallas, and was said to have been of Phtmikian origin, introduced by
Cadmos. There seems, however, to have been a town Onkee in Bujotia,
with which the name was doubtless connected.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 55
STBOPH. HL
And ye, all-working Gods,
Of either sex divine,
Protectors of our towers,
Give not our city, captured by the spear,
To host of alien speech.1
Hear ye our maidens ; hear,
As is most meet, our prayers with outstretched hands.
AUTISTT.OPH. ILL.
O all ye loving Powers,
Compass our State to save ;
Show bow that State ye love ;
Think on our public votive offerings,
And as ye think, oh, help :
Be mindful ye, I pray,
Of all our city's rites of sacrifice.
Re-enter ETEOCLES.
Eteoc. (to the Chorus.} I ask you, O ye brood intoler-
able,
Is this course best and safest for our city ?
"Will it give heart to our beleaguered host.
That ye before the forms of guardian Gods
Should wail and howl, ye loathed of the wise;*
Ne'er be it mine, in ill estate or good,
To dwell together with the race of women ;
For when they rule, their daring bars approach,
And when they fear, alike to house and State
Comes greater ill : and now with these your mshings
Hither and thither, ye have troubled sore
Our subjects with a coward want of heart ;
(1) " Alien," on account of the difference of dialect between the speech
of Argos and that of Boeptia, though both were Hellenic.
(2) The vehemence with which Eteocles reproves the wild frenzied
wailing of the Chorus may be taken as an element of the higher cuUtira
showing itself in Athenian life, which led Solon to restrain such lamenta-
tions by special laws, (Plutarch, Solon, c. 20.) Here, teo, we note io
.<£.- chylos an echo of the teaching of -Lpirnenidea.
56 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
And do your best for those our foes without ; **
And we are harassed by ourselves within.
This comes to one who dwells with womankind.
And if there be that will not own my sway,
Or man or woman in their prime, or those
"Who can be classed with neither, they shall take
Their trial for their life, nor shall they 'scape
The fate of stoning. Things outdoors are still
The man's to look to : let not woman counsel.
Stay thou within, and do no mischief more.
Hear'st thou, or no ? or i-poak I to the deaf?
. STROPH. I.
Chor. Dear son of (Edipus, •*
I shuddered as I heard the din, the din
Of many a chariot's noise,
When on the axles creaked the whirling wheels,
*And when 1 .aeard the sound
*0f fire-wrought curbs within the horses' mouths.
Eteoc. "What then ? Did ever yet the sailor flee
From stern to stein, and find deliverance so,
While his ship laboured in the ocean's wave ? *
ANTISTROPIT. I.
Chor. Nay, to the ancient forms
Of mighty Powers I rushed, as trusting Gods ;
And when behind the gates
Was heard the crash of fierce and pelting storm, **
Then was it, in my fear,
I prayed the Blessed Ones to guard our city.
Eteoc. Pray that our towers hold out 'gainst spear of
foes.*
Chor. Do not the Gods grant these things ?
(1) As now the sailor of the Mediterranean turns to the irnnpe of his
patron saint, so of old he ran in his distress to the figure of his Crod upon
the prow of his ship, (often, as in Acts xxviii. 11, that of the Dioscuri,)
and called to it for deliverance, (comp. Jonah i. 8.)
(2) Eteocles seems to wish for a short, plain prayer for deliveranoq,
instead of the cries and supplications and vam repetitions of the Chorus.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 57
fteoc. Nay, the Goda,
Bo say they, leave the captured city's walls.1
STBOPH. EL
Chor. Ah ! never in my life
May all this goodly company of Gods
Depart ; nor may I see
This city scene of rushings to and fro,
*And hostile army burning it with fire I
Eteoc. Nay, call not on the Gods with counsel base ;
Obedience is the mother of success,
Child strong to save. Tis thus the saying runs,
ANTISTBOPH. H.
CJior. True is it ; but the Gods
Have yet a mightier power, and oftentimes,
In pressure of sore ill,
It raises one perplexed from direst woe,
When dark clouds gather thickly o'er his eyes.
Eteoc. 'Tis work of men to offer sacrifice
And victims to the Gods, when foes press hard ;
Thine to be dumb and keep within the house.
BTKOPH. III.
Chor. 'Tis through the Gods we live
In city unsubdued, and that our towers
"Ward off the multitude of jealous foes.
What Power will grudge us this ?
Eteoc. I grudge not your devotion to the Gods ;
But lest you make my citizens faint-hearted
Be tranquil, nor to fear's excess give way.
(1) The thought thns expressed was, that the Gods, yielding: to the
mightier law of destiny, or in their wrath at the guilt of men, left
the city before its capture. The feeling was all but universal. Its two
representative instances are found in Virgil, ^E/i. 351 —
" Excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis
Di quibus imperium hoc steterat ; "
and the narrative given alike by Tacitus, (flisl. v. 13,) and Josephni
(Brll. J'td. vi. 5, 8,) that the cry "Let us depart hence," was heard at
midnight through the courU of the Temple, before the destruction at
Jerusalem.
58 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
ANTISTBOPH. HI.
Chor. Hearing but now a din
Strange, wildly mingled, I with shrinking fear
Here to our city's high Acropolis,
Time-hallowed spot, have come •*•
Etcoc. Nay, if ye hear of wounded men or dying,
Bear them not swiftly off with wailing loud ;
*For blood of men is Area' chosen food.1
Chor. Hark ! now I hear the panting of the steeds.
Eteoc. Clear though thou hear, yet hear not overmuch.
Chor. Lo ! from its depths the fortress groans, be-
leaguered.
Eteoc. It is enough that I provide for this.
Chor. I fear : the din increases at the gates.
Eteoc. Be still, say nought of these things in the city.
Chor. O holy Band ! 2 desert ye not our towers. ***
Eteoc. A curse fall on thee ! wilt thou not be still ?
Chor. Gods of my city, from the slave's lot save me I
Eteoc. 'Tis thou enslav'st thyself and all thy city.
Chor. Oh, turn thy darts, great Zeus, against our
foes!
Eteoc. Oh, Zeus, what race of women thou hast given
us !
Chor. A sorry race, like men whose city falls.
Eteoc. What ? Cling to these statues, yet speak words
of ill?
Chor. Fear hurries on my tongue in want of courage.
Eieoc. Could'st thou but grant one small boon at my
prayer
Chor. Speak it out quickly, and I soon shall know.
Eteoc. Be still, poor fool, and frighten not thy friends.
Chor. Still am I, and with others bear our fate.
Eteoc. These words of thine I much prefer to those •
And further, though no longer at the shrines,
Pray thou for victory, that the' Gods fight with us .
(1) Se., Blood must be shed in war. Ares would not be Ares without
it. It is better to take it as it comes.
(2) Sc., the company of Gods, Pallas, Hera and the others whom the
Chorus had invoked.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 59
And when my prayers thou hearest, then do thou
Raise a loud, welcome, holy paean-shout,
The Hellenes' wonted ciy at sacrifice ;
So cheer thy friends, and check their fear of foes;
And I unto our country's guardian Gods, **
Who hold the plain or watch the agora,
The springs of Dirke, and Ismenos' stream ;-—
If things go well, and this our city's saved,—-
I vow that staining with the blood of sheep
The altar-hearths of Gods, or slaying bulls,
We'll fix our trophies, and our foemen's robes
On the spear's point on consecrated walls,
Before the shrines I'll hang.1 Pray thou this prayer,
Not weakly wailing, nor with vain wild sobs,
For no whit more thou'lt 'scape thy destined lot : "*
And I six warriors, with myself as seventh,
Against our foes in full state like their own,
Will station at the seren gates' entrances,
Ere hurrying heralds and swift-rushing words
Come and inflame them in the stress of need. [Exit.
BTBOPH. I.
Chor. My heart is full of care and knows not sleep,
By panic fear o'ercome ;
And troubles throng my soul,
And set a-glow my dread
Of the great host encamped around our walls,
As when a trembling dove
Fears, for her callow brood, **
The snakes that come, ill mates for her soft nest ;
For some upon our towers
March in full strength of mingled multitude ;
And what will me befall ?
And others on our men on either hand
Hurl rugged blocks of stone.
(1) Reference to this custom, •which has passed from Papnn temple*
into Christian churches, is found in the Agamemnon, v. 662. It was
connected, of course, with the general practice of offering1 as ex votot
any personal ornaments or clothing as a token of thanksgiving for special
mercies.
THE SEVKN AGAINST THESES.
In every way, ye Zeus-born Gods, defend
The city and the host
That Cadmos claim as sire.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
What better land will ye receive for this,
If ye to foes resign
This rich and fertile clime,
And that Dirksean stream,
Goodliest of founts by great Poseidon sent
Who circleth earth, or those
Who Tethys parent call?1
And therefore, O ye Gods that guard our city,
Sending on those without
Our towers a woe that robs men of their life,
And makes them lose their shield,
Gain glory for these countrymen of mine ;
And take your standing-ground,
As saviours of the city, firm and true,
In answer to our cry
Of wailing and of prayer.
STBOPH. IL
For sad it were to hurl to Hades dark
A city of old fame,
The spoil and prey of war,
With foulest shame in dust and ashes laid,
By an Achaean foe at God's decree ;
And that our women, old and young alike,
Be dragged away, ah me .'
Like horses, by their hair
Their robes torn off from them.
And lo, the city wails, made desolate,
While with confused cry
The vrretched prisoners meet doom worse than death.
Ah, at this grievous fate
I shudder ere it comes.
(I) Siren and stream* as the childra of Tethys and Okeaaoc.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THESES. 6l
AjtTISTBOPH. EL.
And piteous 'tis for those whose youth, is fresh,
Before the rites that cull
Their fair arid first-ripe fruit,
To take a hateful journey from their homes.
Nay, but I say the dead far better far a
Than these, for when a city is subdued
It bears full many an ill.
This man takes prisoner that,
Or slays, or burns with fire ;
And all the city is denied with smoke,
And Ares fans the flame
In wildest rage, and laying many low,
Tramples with foot unclean
On all men sacred hold.
STBOPH. III.
And hollow din is heard throughout the town,
Hemmed in by net of towers ;
And man by man is slaughtered with the spear,
And cries of bleeding babes,
Of children at the breast,
Are heard in piteous wail,
And rapine, sister of the plunderer's rush ;
Spoiler with spoiler meets,
And empty-handed empty-handed calls,
Wishing for share of gain,
Both eager for a portion no whit less,
For more than equal lot
With what they deem the others' hands have found,
AXTISTBOPH. m.
And all earth's fruits cast wildly on the ground,
Meeting the cheerless eye
Of frugal housewives, give them pain of heart;
And many a gift of earth
In formless heaps is whirled
Iii waves of nothingness ;
62 THK SEVEN AGAINST THKBES.
And the young maidens know a sorrow new ;
For now the foe prevails,
And gains rich prize of wretched captive's bed; "*
And now their only hope
Is that the night of death will come at last,
Their truest, beet ally,
To rescue them from sorrow fraught with tears.
Enter ETEOCLES, followed ly his Chief Captains,
and by the Scout.
Semi-Clior. A. The army scout, so deem I, brings to us,
Dear friends, some tidings new, with quickest speed
Plying the nimble axles of Ir.s feet.
Semi-Char. B. Yea, the king's self, the son of GEdipus,
Is nigh to hear the scout's exact report;
And has1;e denies him too an even stop.
Mess. I knowing well, will our foes' state report, *"
How each his lot hath stationed at the gates.
At those of Prcetos, Tydeus thunders loud,
And him the prophet suffers not to cross
Ismenos' fords, the victims boding ill.1
And Tydeus, raging eager for the fight,
Shouts like a serpent in its noon-tide scream,
And on the prophet, CEcleus' son, heaps shame,
That he, in coward fear, doth crouch and fawn
Before the doom and peril of the fight.
And with such speech he shakes his triple crest,
O'ershadowing all his helm, and 'neath his shield
Bells wrought in bronze ring out their chimes of fear ;
And on his shield he bears this proud device, —
A firmament enchased, all bright with stars ;a
(1) Here, as in v. 571, Tydeus appears aa the real leader of the expedi-
tion, who had persuaded Adrastos find the other chiefs to join in it, and
Amphiaraos, the prophet, the son of (Ecleus, as haying all a onj,' foreseen
its disastrous issue. The account of the expedition in the (Edipus at
Colonos (1300—1330) maybe compared with this.
(2) The legend Df the Medusa's head on the shield of Athena shows 1h*
practice of thus decorating shields to have been of remote date. In
Homer it does not appeal- as common, and the accoiint (riven of the shield
of Aclullt* lays stress upon the work of the artist (UepUwatos) wl*»
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 63
And in the midst the full moon's glittering orb,
Sovran of stars and eye of Night, shines forth.
And thus exulting in o'er boastful arms,
By the stream's hank he shouts in lust of war,
[E'en as a war-horse panting in his strength
Against the curb that galls him, who at sound
Of trumpet's clang chafes hotly.] Whom wilt thou
Set against him ? "Who is there strong enough
When the bolts yield, to guard the Prcetan gates P "*
Eteoc. No fear have I of any man's array ;
Devices have no power to pierce or wound,
And crest and bells bite not without a spear }
And for this picture of the heavens at night,
Of which thou tellest, glittering on his shield,
*Perchance his madness may a prophet prove ;
For if night fall upon his dying eyes,
Then for the man who bears that boastful siga
It may right well be all too truly named, *•
And his own pride shall prophet be of ilL
And against Tydeus, to defend the gates,
I'll set this valiant son of Astacos ;
Noble is he, and honouring well the throne
Of Eeverence, and hating vaunting speech.
Slow to all baseness, unattuned to ill :
And of the dragon-race that Ares spared l
He as a scion grows, a native true,
E'en Melanippos ; Ares soon will test
His valour in the hazard of the die :
And kindred Justice sends him forth to war,
For her that bore him foeman's spear to check. ***
BTBOPH. I.
Chor. May the Gods grant my champion good success !
wrought the shield in relief, not, as here, upon painted insignia. They
were obviously common in the time of JEschylos.
( 1 ) The older families of Thebes boasted that they spiang from the sur-
vivors of the Sparti, who, sprang from the Dragon's teeth, waged deadly
war against each other, till all but five were slain. The later settlers, who
were said to have come with Cadinoa, stood to these as the ' • greater '' M
the "lesaer ytntu "
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
For justly he goes forth
For this our State to fight ;
But yet I quake with fear
To see the deaths of those who die for friends.
Mess. Yea, may the Gods give good success to him!
Tho Electran gates have fallen to Capaneus,
A second giant, taller far than he
Just named, with boast above a mortal's bounds;
Aud dread his threats against our towers (0 Fortune, *"*
Turn them aside !) — for whether God doth will,
Or willeth not, ho says that he will sack l
The city, nor shall e'en the wrath of Zeus,
On the plain swooping, turn him from his will;
And the dread lightnings and hot thunderbolts
He likens to the heat of noon-day sun.
And his device, the naked form of one
Who baars a torch ; and bright the blaze shines forth
And in gold characters ho speaks the words,
" THE CITY I WILL BUKN." Against this man
Send forth .... but who will meet him in the fight P °*
Who, without fear, await this warrior proud ?
Eteoc. Herein, too, profit upon-profit comes;
And 'gainst the vain and boastful thoughts of men,
Their tongue itself is found accuser true.
Threatening, equipped for work is Capaneus,
Scorning the Gods : and giving speech full play,
And in wild joy, though mortal, vents at Zeus,
High in the heavens, loud-spoken foaming words.
And well I trust on him shall rightly come
Fire-bearing thunder, nothing likened then
To heat of noon-day sun. And so 'gainst him, m
Though very bold of speech, a man is set
Of fiery temper, Polyphonies strong,
A trusty bulwark, by the loving grace
Of guardian Artemis* and other Goda.
Describe another, placed at other gates.
(1) So in the Antigone of Sophocles, (v. 134,) Capanens apear* iw the
special representative of boastful, rt'ckl>?Bs impiety.
(2) Artemis, ua UIMJ of the special IxuUea to whom Thebes wa»
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 65
ANTISTKOPH. I.
Chor. A curse on him who 'gainst our city boasts !
May thunder smite him down **
Before he force his way
Into my home, and drive
Mo from my maiden bower with haughty spear I
Mess. And now I'll toll of him who by the gates
Stands next ; for to Eteoclos, as third,
To march his cohort to Ne'istian gates,
Leaped the third lot from upturned brazen helm :
And he his mares, in head-gear snorting, whirls,
Full eager at the gates to fall and din ;
Their whistling nozzles of barbaric mode,
Are filled with loud blast of the panting nostrils.1
In no poor fashion is his shield devised ; **
A full-armed warrior climbs a ladder's rungs,
And mounts his foeman's towers as bent to sack;
And he too cries, in words of written speech,
That " NOT E'EN ARES FROM THE TOWERS SHALL DRIVB
HIM."
Send thou against him some defender true,
To ward the yoke of bondage from our State.
Eteoc. Such would I send now ; by good luck indeed
He has been sent, his vaunting in his deeds,
Megareus, Creon's son, who claims descent
From those as Sparti known, and not by noise
Of neighings loud of warlike steeds dismayed, **
Will he the gates abandon, but in death
Will pay our land his nurture's debt in full,"
Or taking two men, and a town to boot,
(That on the shield,) will deck his father's house
With those his trophies. Of another tell
The bragging tale, nor grudge thy words to me.
(1) Apparently an Asiatic invention, to increase the terror of an nttacl;
of war-chariots.
(2) The phrase and thought were almost proverbial in Athens. Men,
as citizens, were thought of as fed at a common table, bound to contribute
their gifts to the common stock. When they offered up their lives in
battle, they were giving, as Pericles says, (Thucyd. ii. 4.3,) their noblect
"contribution," paying in full their subscription to the society of which
they were members.
I
66 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
BTBOPH. n.
Chor. Him I -wish good success,
0 guardian of my home, and for his foes
All ill success I pray ;
And since against our land their haughty words
With maddened soul they speak,
May Zeus, the sovran judge,
With fiery, hot displeasure look on them ! 4
Mess. Another stands as fourth at gates hard by,
Onca- Athena's, with a shout of war,
Hippomedon's great form and massive limbs ;
And as he whirled his orb, his vast shield's disk,
1 shuddered ; yea, no idle words I speak.
No cheap and common draughtsman sm-e was lie
Who wrought this cunning ensign on his shield:
Typhon emitting from his lips hot blast
Of darkling smoke, the flickering twin of fire :
And round the belly of the hollow shield
A rirn was made with wreaths of twisted snakes.
And he too shouts his war-cry, and in frenzy,
As man possessed by Ares, hastes to battle,
Like Thyiad, darting terror from his eyes.1
'Gainst such a hero's might we well may guard;
Already at the gates men brag of rout.
Eteoc. First, the great Onca-Pallas, dwelling nigh
Our city's gates, and hating man's bold pride,
Shall ward him. from her nestlings like a snake
Of venom dread ; and next Hyperbios,
The stalwart son of O3nops, has been chosen,
A hero 'gainst this hero, willing found
To try his destiny at Fortune's best.
No fault has he in form, or heart, or arms;
And Hermes with good reason pairs them off;
KOI man with man will fight as enemy,
And on their shields they'll bring opposing Gods;
For this man beareth Typhon, breathing fire,
(1) Thyiad, another name for the Maenads, the frenzied attendant*
Dionysoe.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 6*
A.nd on Hyperbios' shield sits father Zeus,
Pull firm, with burning thunderbolt in hand;
And never yet has man seen Zeus, I trow,
O'ercome. Such then the favour of the Gods,
Wo with the winners, they with losers are : l
Good reason then the rivals so should fare,
If Zeus than Typhon stronger be in fight,
And to Hyperbios Zeus will saviour prove,
As that device upon his shield presents him.
A.VTISTROT'H. H.
Chor. Now do I trust that he
Who bears upon his shield the hated form
Of Power whom Earth doth shroud,
Antagonist to Zeus, unloved by men
And by the ageless Gods,
Before those gates of ours
To his own hurt may dash his haughty head. "•
Mess. So may it be ! And now the fifth I tell,
Who the fifth gates, the Northern, occupies,
Hard by Amphion's tomb, the son of Zeus ;
And. by his spear he swears, (which he is bold
To honour more than God or his own eyes,)
That he will sack the fort of the Cadineians
With that spear's might. So speaks the offspring fair
Of mother mountain-bred, a stripling hero;
And the soft down is creeping o'er his cheeks, B3°
Youth's growth, and hair that floweth full and thick ;
And ho with soul, not maiden's like his name,*
But stern, with flashing eye, is standing there.
Nor stands he at the gate without a vaunt ;
For on his brass-wrought buckler, strong defence,
Full-orbed, his body guarding, he the shame
Of this our city bears, the ravenous Sphinx,
With rivets fixed, all burnished and embossed ; '
(1) Sc., in the legends of Typhon, not he, but Zens, had proved th«
conqueror. The warrior, therefore, who chose Typhon for his badee wa«
identifying himself -with the losing, not the winning side.
(2) The name, as we HI e toid in v. 642, is Partnenopsuos, the maiden-faced.
(3J The Sphinx, besides its general character aa an emblem of terror,
68 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
And under her she holdeth a Cadmeian,
That so on him most arrows might be shot.
No chance that he will fight a peddling fight, .
Nor shame the long, long journey he hath come,
Parthenopseos, in Arcadia born :
This man did Argos welcome as a guest,
And now he pays her for her goodly rearing,
And threatens these our towers with . . . God avert it I
Eteoc Should the Gods give them what they plan
'gainst us,
Then they, with those their godless boastings high,
Would perish shamefully and utterly.
Arid for this man of Arcady thou tell'st of,
We have a man who boasts not, but his hand
Sees the right thing to do ; — Actor, of him "•
I named but now the brother, — who no tongue
Divorced from deeds will e\er let within
Our gates, to spread and multiply our ills,
Nor him who bears upon his foeman's shield
The image of the hateful venomed beast ;
But she without shall blame him as he tries
To take her in, when she beneath our walls
Gets sorely bruised and battered.1 And herein,
If the Gods will, I prophet true shall prove.
STBOPH. IIL
Chor. Thy words thrill through my breast ;
My hair stands all on end,
To hear the boastings great
Of those who speak great things
Unholy. May the Gods
Destroy them in our land !
Mess. A sixth I tell of, one of noblest mood,
Amphiaraos, seer and warrior famed ;
He, stationed at the Homoloian gates,
had. of course, a special meaning as directed to the Thebans. The Trarrioi
who bore it th ea toned to renew the old days when the monster whom
CEdipus had overcome had laid waste their city.
(1) Se., the Sphinx on his shield will not be allowed to enter the city.
It will only serve as a mark, attracting men to attack both it and th«
warrior who bears it.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 69
Reproves the mighty Tydeus with sharp -words
As ' murderer,' and ' troubler of the State,1
' To Argos teacher of all direst ills,
' Erinnys' sumpnour,'2 ' murder's minister,'
Whose counsels led Adrastos to these ills.
*And at thy brother Polyneikes glancing
With eyes uplifted for his father's fate,
And ending, twice he syllabled his name,3
And called him, and thus speaketh with his lips :•—
"A goodly deed, and pleasant to the Gods,
Noble for after age to hear and tell,
Thy father's city and thy country's Gods
To waste through might of mercenary host !
And how shall Justice stay thy mother's tears?* **
And how, when conquered, shall thy fatherland,
Laid waste, become a true ally to thee ?
As for myself, I shall that land make rich,8
A prophet buried in a foeman's soil :
To arms ! I look for no inglorious death."
So spake the prophet, bearing full-orbed shield
Wrought all of bronze, no ensign on that orb.
He wishes to be just, and not to seem,6
(1) The quarrel between Tydeus and the seer Amphiaraos had been
already touched upon.
(2) I have used the old English word to express a term of like technical
rise in Athenian law processes. As the " sumpnour " called witnesses or
parties to a suit into court, so Tydeus had summoned the Erinnys to do
her work of destruction.
(3) Sc., so pronounced his name as to emphasize the significance of its
two component parts, as indicating that he who bore it was a man of
much contention.
(4) The words are obscure, but seem to refer to the badge of Polyneikes,
the figure of Justice described in v. 643 as on his shield. How shall
that Justice, the seer asks, console Jocasta for her son's death t Another
rendering gives,
" And how shall Justice quench a mother's life !"
the " mother " being the country against which Polyneikes wars.
(5) The words had a twofold fulfilment, (1) in the burial of AmphiaraoB,
in the Theban soil ; and (2) in the honour which accrued to Thebes after
his death, through the fame of the oiacle at his shrine.
(6) The passage cannot be passed over without noticing the old tradi-
tion, (Plutarch, Aritteid. c. 3,) that when the actor uttered these words, ha
and the whole audience looked to Aristeides, surnamed the Just, aa
recognising that the words were true of him as they were of no one else,
," instead of ' just," is, however, a very old various reading.
7O THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Reaping full harvest from his soul's deep furrows,
Wheiice ever new and noble counsels spring. •**
I bid thee send defenders wise and brave
Against him. Dread is he who fears the Gods.
Eteoc. Fie on the chance that brings the righteous mail
Close-mated with the ungodly ! In all deeds
Nought is there worse than evil fellowship,
A crop men should not reap. Death still is found
The harvest of the field of frenzied pride ;
For either hath the godly man embarked
With sailors hot in insolence and guile,1
And perished with the race the Gods did loathe J **
Or just himself, with citizens who wrong
The stranger and are heedless of the Gods,
Falling most justly in the self-same snare,
By God's scourge smitten, shares tho common doom.
And thus this seer I speak of, CEcleus' son,
Eighteous, and wise, and good, and reverent,
A mighty prophet, mingling with the godless
*And men fall bold of speech in reason's spite,
Who take long march to reach a far-off city,1
If Zeus BO will, shall be hurled down with them. "*
And he, I trow, shall not draw nigh the gates,
Not through faint-heart or any vice of mood,
But well he knows this war shall bring his death,
If any -fruit is found in Loxias' words;
And He or holds his speech or speaks in season.
Yet against him the hero Lasthenes,
A foe of strangers, at the gates we'll set ;
Old is his mind, his body in its prime,
His eye swift-footed, and his hand not slow
To grasp the spear from 'neath the shield laid bare:* **
Yet 'tis by God's gift men must win success.
(1) If the former reference to Aristeides be admitted, we can scarcely
avoid seeing in this passage an allusion to Themistocles, »s one with
whose reckless and democratic policy it was dangerous for the more con-
servative leader to associate himself.
(2) The far-off city, not of Thebes, but Hades. In the legend of Thebet,
the earth opened and swallowed up Amphiaraos, as in 583.
(3) The short spear was usually carried under the shelter of the shield i
when brought into action, it wa», of course, laid bare.
THE SEVEX AGAINST THEBES.' J\
Chor. Hear, 0 ye Gods ! our prayerg,
Our just entreaties grant,
That so our State be blest,
Turn ye the toils of war
Upon the invading host.
Outside the walls may Zeus
With thunder smite them low !
Mess. The seventh chief then who at the seventh gate
stands,
Thine own, own brother, I will speak of now,
What curses on our State he pours, and prays •*
That he the towers ascending, and proclaimed
By herald's voice to all the territory,
And shouting out the captor's paean-cry,
May so tight with thee, slay, and with thee die ;
Or driving thee alive, who did'st him wrong,
May on thee a vengeance wreak like in kind.
So clamours ho, and bids his father's Gods,
His country's guardians, look upon his prayers,
[And grant them all. So Polyneikes prays.]
And he a new and well- wrought shield dotn boar,
And twofold sign upon it riveted ; •*
For there a woman with a stately tread
Leads one who seems a warrior wrought in gold :
Justice she calls herself, and thus she speaks :
" I WILL BRETO BACK THIS MAN, AKD HE SHALL HAVE
THE CITY AND HIS FATHER'S DWELLING-PLACE."
Such are the signs and mottoes of those men ;
And thou, know well whom thou dost mean to send :
So thou shalt never blame my heraldings ;
And thou thyself know how to steer the State.
Eteoc. O frenzy-stricken, hated sore of Gods I *"
O woe-fraught race (my race !) of OZdipus !
Ah me ! ny father's curse is now fulfilled ;
But neither is it meet to weep or wail,
Lest ciy more grievous on the issue come,
Of Polyneikes, name and oinen true,
71 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
We soon shall know what way his badge shall end,
Whether his gold-wrought letters shall restore him,
His shield's great swelling words with frenzied soul.
Ail if great Justice, Zeus's virgin child,
Ruled o'er his words and acts, this might have been; **
But neither when he left his mother's womb,
Nor in his youth, nor yet in ripening age,
Nor wl eti his beard was gathered on his chin,
Did Justice count him meet for fellowship ;
Nor do I think that she befriends him now
In this great outrage on his father's land.
Yea, justly Justice would as falsely named
Be known, if she with one all-daring joined.
In this I trust, and I myself will face him :
Who else could claim a greater right than I ? "*
Brother with brother fighting, king with king,
And foe with foe, I'll stand. Come, quickly fetch
My greaves that guard against the spear and stones.
Chor. Nay, dearest friend, thou son of (Edipus,
Be ye not like to him with that ill name.
It is enough Cadmeian men should fight
Against the Argives. That blood may be cleansed;
But death so murderous of two brothers born,
This is pollution that will ne'er wax old.
Eteoc. If a man must bear evil, let him still 68U
Be without shame — sole profit that in death.
[No glory comes of base and evil deeds].
Chor. What dost thou crave, my son ? Let no ill fate,
Frenzied and hot for war,
Carry thee headlong on ;
Check the first onset of an evil lust.
Eteoc. Since God so hotly urges on the matter,
Let all of Laios' race whom Phoebos hates,
Drift with the breeze upon Cokytos' wave.
Chor An over-fierce and passionate desire
Stirs thee and pricks thee on
To work an evil deed
Of guilt of blood thy hand should never shed. *•
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Eteoc. Nay, my dear father's curse, in full-grown hate.
Dwells on dry eyes that canuot shed a tear.
And speaks of gain before the after-doom.
Clutr. But be not thou urged on. The coward's name
Shall not be thine, for thou
Hast ordered well thy life.
Dark-rolied Erinnys enters not the house,
"Wiien at men's hands the Gods
Accept their sacrifice.
Eteoc. As for the Gods, they scorned us long ago,
And smile but on the offering of our deaths ;
What boots it then on death's doom still to fawn ?
Chor. Nay do it now, while yet 'tis in thy power ; l
Perchance may fortune shift
With tardy change of mood,
And come with spirit less implacable :
At present fierce and hot
She waxeth in her rage.
Eleoc. Yea, fierce and hot the Curse of (Edipus;
And all too true the visions of the night,
My father's treasured store distributing.
Chor. Yield to us women, though thou lov'st us not.
Eteoc. Speak then what may be done, and be not long. "*
Chor. Tread not the path that to the seventh gate leads.
Eteoc. Thou shalt not blunt my sharpened edge with
words.
Chor. And yet God loves the victory that submits.*
Eteoc. That word a warrior must not tolerate.
Chor. Dost thou then haste thy brother's blood to shed ?
Eteoc. If the Gods grant it, he shall not 'scape harm.
[Exeunt ETEOCLES, Scout, and Captains.
STROPH. L
Chor. I fear her might who doth this whole house wreck,
(1) Perhaps " since death is nigh at hind."
(2) The Chorns means that if Eteocles would allow himself to be over-
come in this contest of his wishes with their prayers, the Gods would
honour that defeat as if i' were indeed a victory. He mikes answer thai
the very thought of beinpr overcome implied in the word "defeat" il
is one which tin; true warrior cuuuiot bear.
74 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
The Goddess unlike Gods,
The prophetess of evil all too true,
The Erinnys of thy father's imprecations, w
Lest she fulfil the curse,
O'er- wrathful, frenzy-fraught,
The curse of (Edipus,
Laying his children low.
This Strife doth urge them on.
ANTISTBOPH. L
And now a stranger doth divide the lots,
The Chalyb,1 from the Skythians emigrant,
The stern distributor of heaped-up wealth,
The iron that hath assigned them just so much
Of land as theirs, nu more,
As may suffice for them
As grave when they shall fall,
Without or part or lot
In. the broad-spreading plains. 1*
STUOPH. H.
And when the hands of each
The other's blood have shed,
And the earth's dust shall drink
The black and clotted gore,
Who then r.an purify ?
Who cleanse them from the guilt P
Ah me ! O sorrows new,
That mingle with the old woes of our house I
ANTISTBOPH. H.
I tell the ancient tale
Of sin that brought swift doom ; **
Till the third ago it waits,
Since Laios, heeding not
Apollo's oracle,
(Though spoken thrice to him
(1) The ' Chalyb stranger ' is the sword, thought of as taking its naip*
from the Skythian tribe of the Chalybes, between Colchis and Armenia,
i'oiurh tlw Tlir&kitUis iiiio Greece.
TUK SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
In Pythia's central shrine,)
That dying childless, he should save the State.
STBOPH. EH.
But he by those he loved full rashly swayed,
Doom for himself begat,
Hi* rnunleier (Edipus,
Who dared to sow in field
Unholy, whence he sprang,
A root of blood-flecked woe.
Madness together brought
Bridegroom and bride accursed.
ANTISTHOPH. TTT.
And now the sea of evils pours its flood;
This falling, others rise,
As with a triple crest,
Which round the State's atern roara;
And but a bulwark slight,
A tower's poor breadth, defends : "*
And lest the city fall
With its two kings I fear.
STBOPH. IV.
*And that atonement of the ancient curse
Receives fulfilment now ; l
*And when they ccme, the evils pass not by.
E'en so the wealth of sea-adventurers,
When heaped up in excess,
Leads but to cargo from the stern thrown out.*
AXTISTROPII. IV.
For whom of mortals did the Gods so praise,
And fellow- worshippers, ™
*And race of those who feed their flocks and herds,*
(1) The two brothers, i.e., are set at one again, but it is not in the bonds
of friendship, but in those of death.
(2) Tiie image meets us again in Agam. 980. Here the thought is, that
a man too prosperous is like a ship too heavily freighted. He must part
with a portion of his possession in order to save the rest. Not to part
with them leads, when the storm rages, to an enforced abandonment and
Utter loss.
(3) Another reading gives —
"And race of those who crowd the Agora."
76 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
As much as then they honoured CEdipus,
Who from our country's bounds
Had driven the monster, murderess of men P
STBOPH. V.
And when too late he knew,
Ah, miserable man ! his wedlock dire,
Vexed sore with that dread shame,
With heart to madness driven,
He wrought a two-fold ill,
And with the hand that smote his father's life
*Blinded the eyes that might his sons have seen.
AXTISTROPH. V.
And with a mind provoked
By nurture scant, he at his sons did hurl *
His curses dire and dark,
(Ah, bitter curses those !)
That they with spear in hand
Should one day share their father's wealth ; and I
Fear now lest swift Erinnys should fulfil them.
Enter Messenger.
Mi-ss. Be of good cheer, ye maidens, mother-reared ;
Our city has escaped the yoke of bondage,
The boasts of mighty men are fallen low,
And this our city in calm waters floats,
And, though by waves lashed, springs not any leak.
Our fortress still holds out, and we did guard
The gates with champions who redeemed their pledge.
In the six gateways almost all goes well ;
But the seventh gate did King Apollo choose,*
(1) This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of
the curse •which CEdipus had launched upon his sons. An alternative
rendering is —
And with a mind enraged
At thought of what they we're whom he had reared,
He at his sons did hurl
His curses dire and dark.
(2) Be., when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gat%
and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebuus.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 7J
Seventh mighty chief, avenging Laios' want
O*. -ounsel on the sons of CEdipus.
Chor. What new disaster happens to our city?1 "*
Mesa. The city's saved, but both the royal brothers, . . .
Chor. Who ? and what of them ? I'm distraught with fear.
Mess. Be calm, and hear : the sons of CEdipus, ....
Chor. Oh wretched me ! a prophet I of ill I
Mess. Slain by each other, earth has drunk their blood.
Chor. Came they to that ? 'Tis dire ; yet tell it me.
Mess. Too true, by brother's hand our chiefs are slain.
Chor. What, did the brother's hands the brother slay?
Mesa. No doubt is there that they are laid in dust.
Chor. Thus was there then a common fate for both ?
Mess. *Yea, it lays low the whole ill-fated race.
Chor. These things give cause for gladness and for
tears, 81°
Seeing that our city prospers, and our lords,
The generals twain, with woll-wrought Skythian steel,
Have shared between them ail their store of goods,
And now shall have their portion in a grave,
Borne on, as spake their father's grievous curse.*
Mess. [The city's saved, but of the brother-kings
The earth has drunk the blood, each slain by each.]
Chor. Great Zeus ! and ye, O Gods I
Guardians of this our town,
Who save in very deed
The towers of Cadmos old, **
Shall I rejoice and shout
Over the happy chance
That frees our State from harm ;
Or weep that ill-starred pair,
The war-chiefs, childless and most miserable,
Who, true to that ill name
Of Polyneikes, died in impious mood,
Contending overmuch ?
(1) 1 follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from
Hermann.
12) There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are " borne OB," btl4
ft u QM the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre.
78 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
STBOPH.
Oh dark, and all too true
That curse of CEdipus and all his race,1
Au evil chill is falling on my heart, •"
And, like a Thyiad wild,
Over his grave I sing a dirge of grief,
Hearing the dead have died by evil fate,
Each in foul bloodshed steeped ;
Ah me I Ill-omened is the spear's accord.'
ANTISTBOPH.
Tt hath wrought out its end,
And hath not failed, that prayer the father poured ;
And Laios' reckless counsels work till now :
I fear me for the State ;
The oracles have not yet lost their edge ;
O men of many sorrows, ye have wrought
This deed incredible ;
Not now in word come woes most lamentable.
[As the Chorus are speaking, the todies of ETEOCLE8
and POLYNEIKES are brought in solemn procession by
Theban Citizens.
EPODB.
Yea, it is all too clear,
The herald's tale of woe comes full in sight ;
Twofold our cares, twin evils born of pride,
Murderous, with double doom,
Wrought unto full completeness all these ills.
What shall I say ? What else
Are they than woes that make this house their home ?
But oh ! my friends, ply, ply with swift, strong gale,
That even stroke of hands upon your head,3
(1) Not here the curse uttered by CKdipus, but that which rested on
him and all his kin. There is ppssib'y on allusion to the curse which
Pelops is said to have uttered against Laios when ha stole his son Chry-
sippos. Comp. v. 837.
(3) As in v. 763, we read of the brothers as mnde one in death, so now
of the conoord which is wrought out by cumlict, the concord, i.e., of the
grave.
(3) The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pasi
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 79
In funeral order, such as evermore
O'er Acheron sends on
*That bark of State, dark-rigged, accursed its voyage,
Which nor Apollo visits nor the sun,1
On to the shore unseen,
The resting-place of all.
PSMENE and ANTIGONE are seen approaching in mourn-
ing garments, followed by a procession of women wail*
ing and lamenting.']
!For see, they come to bitter deed called forth,
Ismene and the maid Antigone,
To wail their brothers' fall ;
With little doubt I deem,
That they will pour from fond, deep-bosomed breasts
A worthy strain of grief :
But it is meet that we,
Before we hear their cry, •"
Should utter the harsh hymn Erinnys loves,
And sing to Hades dark
The Paean of distress.
0 ye, most evil-fated in your kin,
Of all who gird their robes with maiden's band,
1 weep and wail, and feigning know I none,
That I should fail to speak
My sorrow from my heart.
STBOPII. L
Semi-Chor. A. Alas ! alas !
Men of stern mood, who would not list to friends,
Unwearied in all ills, Clt
from the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of
mourners at a funeral, beatin<? on their breasts. But, perhaps, the call
is addressed to the mourners who are seen approaching with Ismene and
Antigone.
(1) The thought is drawn from the theorit or pilgrim-ship, which went
wi*h snow-white sails, and accompanied by joyful pfeans, on a solemn
mission from Athens to Delos. In contrast with this type of joy, JEsehyloa
draws the picture of the boat of Charon, which passes over the
gloomy pool accompanied by the sighs and gestures of bitter lamentation.
So, in the old Attic legend, the ship that annually carried seven youths
and maidens to the Hinftaur of Crete was conspicuous lor its block
•ttila.
8O THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Saizing your father's house, O wretched ones
With the spear's murderous point.
Semi-Chor. B. Yea, wretched they who found 8
wretched doom,
With havoc of the house.
AvrisTBora. L
Kemi-Chor. A. Alas! alas!
Ye who laid low the ancient walls of home,
On sovereignty, ill won,
Your eyes have looked, and ye at last are brought
To concord by the sword.
Bfmi-Chor. 13. Yea, of a truth, the curse of CEdipua **
Erinnys dread fulfils.
STBOPH. H.
Semi-Chor. A. Yea, smitten through the heart,
Smitten through sides where flowed the blood of brothers.
Ah me ! ye doomed of God !
Ah me ! the curses dire
Of deaths ye met with each at other'? hands!
Semi-Chor. B. Thou tell'st of men death-smitten
through and through,
Both in their homes and lives,
With wrath beyond all speech,
And doom of discord fell,
That sprang from out the curse their father spake.
AKTIBTBOPH. IL
Bfmi-Chor. A. Yea, through the city runs
A wailing cry. The high towers wail aloud ;
Wails all the plain that loves her heroes well ;
And to their children's sons
The wealth will go for which
The strife of those ill-starred ones brought forth death.
Semi-Chor. B. Quick to resent, they shared their for-
tune so,
That each like portion won ;
*Nor can their friends regard
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 8l
Their umpire without blame ; •**
Nor is our voice in thanks to Ares raised.
STBOPH. ILL
Semi-Chor. A. By the sword smitten low,
Thus are they now ;
By the sword smitten low,
There wait them . . . Nay,
Doth one perchance ask what ?
Shares in their old ancestral sepulchres.
Semi-Chor. B. *The sorrow of the house is borne to
them
By my heart-rending wail.
Mine own the cries I pour ;
Mine own the woes I weep,
Bitter and joyless, shedding truest tears •*•
Prom heart that faileth, even as they fall,
For these two kingly chiefs.
ANTISTBOPH. PH.
Scmi-Chor. A, Yes ; one may say of them,
That wretched pair,
That they much ill have wrought
To their own host ;
Yea, and to alien ranks
Of many nations fallen in the fray.
Semi-Chor. B. Ah! miserable she who bare those twain,
'Bove all of women born
Who boast a mother's name ! M0
Taking her son, her own,
As spouse, she bare these children, and they both,
By mutual slaughter and by brothers' hands,
Have found their end in death.
STBOPH. IV.
Semi-Chor. A. Yes; of the same womb born, and
doomed both,
* Not as friends part, they fell,
In strife to madness pushed
In this their quarrel's end.
a
82 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Semi-CJior. B. The quarrel now is hushed,
And in the ensanguined earth their lives are blent ; *"
Full near in blood are they.
Stern umpire of their strifes
Has been the stranger from beyond the sea,1
Fresh from the furnace, keen and sharpened steel.
Stern, too, is Ares found,
Distributing their goods,
Making their father's curses all too true.
ANTISTROPH. IV.
Semi-Chor. A. At last they havo their share, ah,
wretched ones !
Of burdens sent from God. •*•
And now, beneath them lies
A boundless wealth of earth.
Semi-Chor. B. O ye who your own race
Have made to burgeon out with many woes I
Over the end at last
The brood of Curses raise
Their shrill, sharp cry of lamentation loud,
The race being put to flight of utmost rout,
And Ate's trophy stands,
Where in the gates they fell ;
And Fate, now both are conquered, rests at last. •*
Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE, followed ly mourning
maidens?
Ant. Thou wast smitten, and thou smotest.
Ism. Thou did'st slaughter, and wast slaughtered.
(1) The 'Chalyb,' or iron sword, which the Hellenes had imported
from the Skythians. Comp. w. 70, 80.
(2) The lyrical, operatic character of Greek tragedies has to be borne in
mind as we read passages like that which follows. They were not meant
to be read. Uttered in a passionate recitative, accompanied by expres-
sive action, they probably formed a very effective element in the actual
representation of the tragedy. We may look on it as the only extant
specimen of the kind of wailing which was characteristic of Eastern
trarials, and which was slowly passing away in Greece under the influence
of a higher culture. The early fondness of .aSschylos for a finale of this
nature is seen also in The fernant, and in a more solemn and subdued
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 83
Ant. Thou with spear to death did'st smite him.
Ism. Thou with spear to death wast smitten.
Ant. Oh, the woe of all your labours 1
lam. Oh, the woe of all ye suffered I
Ant. Pour the cry of lamentation.
Ism. Pour the tears of bitter weeping.
Ant. There in death thou liest prostrate.
lam. Having wrought a great destruction.
STEOPH.
Ant. Ah ! my mind is crazed with wailing.
Ism. Yea, my heart within me groaneth.
Ant. Thou for whom the city weepeth !
Ism. Thou too, doomed to all ill-fortune I
Ant. By a loved hand thou hast perished.
7am. And a loved form thou hast slaughtered.
Ant. Double woes are ours to tell of.
Ism. Double woes too ours to look on.
A nt. * Twofold sorrows from near kindred.
Ism. * Sisters we by brothers standing.
Ant. Terrible are they to tell of.
Ism. Terrible are they to look on.
Chor. Ah me, thou Destiny,
Giver of evil gifts, and working woe,
And thou dread spectral form of QEdipus,
And swarth Erinnys too,
A mighty one art thou.
ANTTSTROPH.
Ant. Ah me ! ah me ! woes dread to look on «...
Ism. Ye showed to me, returned from exile.
Ant. Not, when he had slain, returned he.
Ism. Nay, he, saved from exile, perished. m
Ant. Yea, I trow too well, he perished.
Ism. And his brother, too, ho murdered.
Ant. Woeful, piteous, are those brothers!
form, in the Eimenides. The feeling that there was something barbaric
in these outward displays of grief, showed itself alike in the legislation ol
Solon, and the eloquence of Pericles.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Ism. Woeful, piteous, all they suffered I
Ant. Woes of kindred wrath enkindling I
lam. Saturate with threefold horrors 1
Ant. Terrible are they to tell of.
Ism. Terrible are they to look on.
Cher. Ah me, thou Destiny,
Giver of evil gifts, and stern of soul,
And thou dread spectral form of CEdipus,
And swarth Erinnys too,
A mighty one art thou.
EPODX.
Ant. Thou, then, by full trial knowest . •
lam. Thou, too, no whit later learning. . .
Ant. When thou cam'st back to this city.1 .
Ism. Eival to our chief in warfare.
Ant. Woe, alas ! for all our troubles I
Ism. Woe, alas ! for all our evils I
Ant. Evils fallen on our houses !
lam. Evils fallen on our country I
Ant. And on me before all others. . . .
lam. And to me the future waiting. ...
Ant. Woe for those two brothers luckless I
Ism. King Eteocles, our leader !
Ant. Oh, before all others wretched 1
Ism. ......
Ant. Ah, by At£ frenzy-stricken !
lam. Ah, where now shall they be buried P
Ant. There where grave is highest honour.
Ism. Ah, the woe my father wedded I
Enter a Herald.
Her. 'Tis mine the judgment and decrees to publish
Of this Cadmeian city's counsellors :
It is decreed Eteocles to honour,
For his goodwill towards this land of ours, 101°
(1) Here, and perhaps throughout, we must think of Antigone aa
addressing and looking on the corpse of Polyneikes, Ismene on that of
Etwclee.
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 85
With seemly burial, such as friend may claim ;
For warding off our foes he courted death ;
Pure as regards his country's holy things,
Blameless he died where death the young beseems ;
This then I'm ordered to proclaim of him.
But for his brother's, Polyneikes' corpse,
To cast it out unburied, prey for dogs,
As working havoc on Cadmeian land,
Unless some God had hindered by the spear
Of this our prince ; 1 and he, though dead, shall gain
The curse of all his father's Gods, whom he
[Pointing to PO
With alien host dishonouring, sought to take
Our city. Him by ravenous birds interred
Ingloriously, they sentence to receive
His full deserts ; and none may take in hand
To heap up there a tomb, nor honour him
With shrill- voiced wailings ; but he still must lie,
Without the meed of burial by his friends.
So do the high Cadmeian powers decree.
Ant. And I those rulers of Cadmeians tell,*
That if no other care to bury him,
I will inter him, facing all the risk,
Burying my brother : nor am I ashamed
To thwart the State in rank disloyalty ;
Strange power there is in ties of blood, that we,
Born of woe-laden mother, sire ill-starred,
Are bound by : therefore of thy full free-will,
Share thou, my soul, in woes he did not will,
Thou living, he being dead, with sister's heart.
And this I say, no wolves with ravening maw,
(1) Perhaps—
" Unless some God had stood against the spear
This chief did wie d."
(2) The speech of Antigone becomes the startinp-point, in the hands of
Sophocles, of the nohlest of his tragedies. The denijil of burial, it will be
remembered, was looked on as not merely an indignity and outrage
against the feelings of the living, but as depriving the souls of the dead,
or all rest and peace. As such it was the punishment of parricides and
traitors.
86 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.
Shall tear his flesh — "No ! no ! let none think that I
For tomb and burial I will scheme for him, M—
Though I be but weak woman, bringing earth.
Within my byssine raiment's fold, and so
Myself will bury him ; let no man think
(I say't again) aught else. Take heart, my soul!
There shall not fail the means effectual.
Her. I bid thee not defy the State in this.
Ant. I bid thee not proclaim vain words to me.
Her. Stern is the people now, with victory flushed.
Ant. Stern let them be, he shall not tombless lie.
Her. And wilt thou honour whom the State doth
loathe ?
Ant. * Yea, from the Gods he gets an honour due.1 10B*
Her. It was not so till he this land attacked.
Ant. He, suffering evil, evil would repay.
Her. Not against one his arms were turned, but all.
Ant. Strife is the last of Gods to end disputes :
Him I will bury ; talk no more of it.
Her. Choose for thyself then, I forbid the deed.
Chor. Alas ! alas ! alas !
Ye haughty boasters, race- destroying,
Now Fates and now Eiinnyes, smiting
The sons of GZdipus, ye slew them,
With a root-and-branch destruction.
What shall I then do, what suffer?
What shall I devise in counsel ?
How should I dare nor to weep thee,
Nor escort thee to the burial ?
But I tremble and I shrink from
All the terrors which they threatened,
They who are my fellow-townsmen.
(1) The •words are obscure enough, the point lying, it may be, in their
ambiguity. Antigone here, as in the tragedy of Sophocles, pleads that
the Gods have pardoned ; they still command and love the reverence for
the dead, which she is nbout to show. The herald catches up her words
and takes them in another sense, as though all the honour he had met
with from the Gods had been defeat, and death, and shame, as the reward
«f his sacrilege. Another rendering, however, gives—
" Yes, so the Gods have done with honouring him."
THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 87
Many mourners thou (looking to the bier of
ETEOCLES) shalt meet with;
But he, lost one, unlamented,
With his sister's wailing only
Passeth. Who with this complieth. P
Semi-Chor. A. Let the city doom or not doom
Those who weep for Polyneikes ;
We will go, and we will bury, **
Maidens we in sad procession ;
For the woe to all is common,
And our State with voice uncertain,
Of the claims of Eight and Justice ;
Hither, thither, shifts its praises.
Semi-Chor. B, We will thus, our chief attending,
Speak, as speaks the State, our praises :
Of the claims of Eight and Justice ; l
For next those the Blessed Eulers,
And the strength of Zeus, he chiefly
Saved the city of Cadmeians
From the doom of fell destruction,
From the doom of whelming utter,
In the flood of alien warriors.
[Exeunt ANTIGONE and Semi- Chorus A., fol-
lowing the corpse of POLYNEIKES ; ISMENE
and Semi- Chorus B. that of ETEOCLES.
(1) The words are probably a protest against the changeablcness ol
the Athenian dcwoe, ot> stcu b-peciaUy in their treatment of Aristeidaa.
PROMETHEUS I30OTD.
ARGUMENT.
In ihe old time, when Cronos was sovereign of the Gods, Zeus,
whom he had begotten, rose up against him, and the Gods wert
divided in their counsels, some, the Titans chiefly, siding with
the father, and some with tJie son. And Prometheus, the son
of Earth or Themis, though one of the Titans, supported Zeus,
as did also Okeanos, and by his counsels Zeus obtained the
victory, and Cronos was chained in Tartaros, and the Titans
buried under mountains, or kept in bonds in Hades. And t/ien
Prometheus, seeing the miseries of the race of men, of whom
Zeus took little heed, stole the fire which till then had belonged
to none but Heph&stos and was used only for the Gods, and
gave it to mankind, and taught them many arts whereby tJieir
wretchedness was lessened. But Zeus being wroth with Pro-
metheus for this deed, sent Hephastos, with his two helpers,
Strength and Force, to fetter him to a rock on Caucasos.
And in yet another story was the cruelty of the Gods made
known. For Zeus loved lo, t/ie daughter of Inachos, king of
Argos, and she was haunted by visions of the night, telling her
of his passion, and she told her father thereof. And Inachos,
tending to the God at Delphi, was told to drive lo forth from
her home. And Zeus gave her the horns of a cow, and Hera,
who hated her because she was dear to Zeus, sent with her a
gadfly that stung her, and gave her no rest, and drove her over
many lands.
Note.— The play is believed to have been the second of a Trilogy, of
which the first was Prometheus the Fire-giver, and the third Prowctiicvt
Jlramatis
PROMETHEUS.
OKEANOS.
HEPH.E8T08.
HERMES.
STRENGTH.
FORCE.
ChoriM of Ocean Nymph?
PKOMETHEUS BOUND.
SCENE. — Skythia, on the heights of Caucasoa. Th»
JEuxine seen in the distance.
Enter HEPH^ESTOS, STRENGTH, and FORCE, leading
PROMETHEUS in chains.1
Strength. Lo ! to a plain, earth's boundary remote,
We now are come, — the tract as Skythian known,
A. desert inaccessible : and now,
Hephaestos, it is thine to do the hests
The Father gave thee, to these lofty craga
To bind this crafty trickster fast in chains
X)f adamantine bonds that none can break ;
\For he thy choice flower stealing, the bright glory
yOf fire that all arts spring from, hath bestowed it
(On mortal men. And so for fault like this
lie now must pay the Gods due penalty,
That he may learn to bear the sovereign rule M
Of Zeus, and cease from his philanthropy.
Heph. 0 Strength, andthou, O Force, the hest of Zeus,
As far as touches you, attains its end,
And nothing hinders. Yet my courage fails
(1) The scene seems at first an exception to the early conventional rule,
which forbade the introduction of a third actor on the Greek stage. But
it has been noticed that (1) 1'orce does not speak, and (2) Prometheus
does not speak till Strength and Force have retired, and that it is there-
fore probable that the whole work of nailing is done on a lay fig-ore or
effigy of some kind, and that one of the two who had before taken part in
the dialogue then speaks behind it in the character of Prometheus. So
the same actor must have appeared in succession as Okeanoa, lo, and
94 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
To bind a God of mine own kin by force
To this bare rock where tempests wildly sweep ;
And yet I needs must muster courage for it :
'Tis no slight thing the Father's words to scorn.
0 thou of Themis [to PKOMETUEUS] wise in counsel son,
Full deep of purpose, lo ! against my will,1
1 fetter theo against thy will with bonds
Of bronze that none can loose, to this lone height,
Where thou shalt know nor voice nor face of man,
But scorching in the hot blaze of the sun,
Shalt lose thy skin's fair beauty. Thou shalt long
(For starry-mantled night to hide day's sheen,
(For sun to melt the rime of early dawn ;
And evermore the weight of present ill
Shall wear thee down. Unborn as yet is he
Who shall release thee : this the fate thou gain'st
As due reward for thy philanthropy.
For thou, a God not fearing wrath of Gods,
In thy transgression gav'st their power to men ;
And therefore on this rock of little ease
Thou still shalt keep thy watch, nor lying down,
Nor knowing sleep, nor ever bending knee ;
And many groans and wailings profitless
Thy lips shall utter ; for the mind of Zeus
Remains inexorable. Who holds a power
But newly gained 2 is ever stern of mood.
^treiigth. Let be ! Why linger in this idle pity P
Why dost not hate a God to Gods a foe,
Who gave thy choicest prize to mortal men ?
Ifeph. Strange is the power of kin and intercourse.8
(1) Prometheus (Forethought] is the son of Themis (RighC) the second
occupant of the Pythian Oracle (Eumen. v. 2.) His sympathy with man
leads him to impart the gift which raised them out of savage animal life,
and for this Zeus, who appears throughout the play as a hard taskmaster,
sentences him to fetters. Hepheestos, from horn this fire had been
stolen, has a touch of pity for him. Strength, who comes as the servant,
not of Hephsestos, but of Zeus himself, acts, as such, with merciless cruelty.
(2) The generalised statement refers to Zeus, as having but recently
expelled Cronos from his throne in Heaven.
(3) Hephsestos, as the great fire-worker, had taught Prometheus to BM
the fire which lie afterwards bestowed on men.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 95
Strength. I own it ; yet to slight the Father's words, **
How may that be ? Is not that fear the worse ?
Heph. Still art thou ruthless, full of savagery.
Strength. There is no help in weeping over him :
Spend not thy toil on things that profit not.
Heph. O handicraft to me intolerable !
Strength. Why loath' st thou it ? Of these thy present
griefs
That craft of thine is not one whit the cause.
Heph. And yet I would some other had that skill.
Strength. *A11 things bring toil except for Gods to
reign ; l
For none but Zeus can boast of freedom true. 60
Heph. Too well I see the proof, and gainsay not.
Strength. Wilt thou not speed to fix the chains on him,
Lest He, the Fat her, see thee loitering here ?
He^h. Well, here the handcuffs thou may'st see pre-
pared.
Strength. In thine hands take him. Then with all thy
might
Strike with thine hammer ; nail him to the rocks.
Heph. The work goes on, I ween, and not in vain.
Strength. Strike harder, rivet, give no whit of ease :
A wondrous knack has he to find resource,
Even where all might seem to baffle him.
Heph. Lo ! this his arm is fixed inextricably.
Strength. Now rivet thou this other fast, that lie
May learn, though sharp, that he than Zeus is duller.
Heph. No one but he could justly blame my work.
Strength. Now drive the stern jaw of the adamant
wedge
Eight through his chest with all the strength thou hast.
Heph. Ah me ! Prometheus, for thy woes I groan.
Strength. Again, thou'rt loth, and for the foes of Zeua
Thou graanest : take good heed to it lest thou
fcJre long- with cause thyself commiserate.
Heph. Thou see'st a sight unsightly to our eyes.
f i) Peihups, " All might is ours except o'er Gods to rule."
96 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Strength. I see this man obtaining his deserts : "
Nay, cast thy breast-chains round about his ribs.
Heph. I must needs do it. Spare thine o'er much bid-
ding ;
Go Ihou below and rivet both his legs.1
Strength. Nay, I will bid thee, urge thee to thy work.
Heph. There, it is done, and that with no long toil.
Strength. Now with thy full power fix the galling
fetters :
Thou hast a stern o'erlooker of thy work.
Heph. Thy tongue but utters words that match thy
form.2
Strength. Choose thou the melting mood ; but chide
not me
For my self-will and wrath and ruthlessness. *°
Heph. Now let us go, his limbs are bound in chains.
Strength. Here then wax proud, and stealing what
belongs
To the Gods, to mortals give it. What can they
Avail to rescue thee from these thy woes ?
Falsely the Gods have given thee thy name,
Prometheus, Forethought ; forethought thou dost need
To free thyself from this rare handiwork.
[Exeunt HEPEUESTOS, STRENGTH, and FORCB,
leaving PKOMETHEUS on the rock.
Prom.3 Thou firmament of God, and swift-winged
winds,
Ye springs of rivers, and of ocean waves
That smile innumerous ! Mother of us all, M
0 Earth, and Sun's all-seeing eye, behold,
1 pray, what I a God from Gods endure.
(1) The words indicate that the effigy of Prometheus, now nailed to the
rock, was, as being that of a Titan, of colossal size.
(2) The touch is characteristic as showing that here, as in the Eumenides,
2Eschylos relied on the horribleness of the masks, as part of the machinery
ol his plays.
(3) The silence of Prometheus up to this point was partly, as has been
said, consequent on the conventional laws of the Greek drama, but it ia
also a touch of supreme insight into the heroic temper. In the presencn
of his torturers, the Titan will not utter even a groan. When they ai*
gone, he appeals to thu symp.aUy oi
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 97
Beheld in what foul case
I for tori thousand years
Shall struggle in my woe,
In these unseemly chains.
Such doom the new-made Monarch of the Blest
Hath now devised for me.
Woe, woe ! The present and the oncoming pang
I wail, as I search out
The place and hour when end of all these ills
Shall dawn on me at last. **
What say I ? All too clearly I foresee
The things that come, and nought of pain shall be
By me unlooked-for ; but I needs must bear
My destiny as best I may, knowing well
The might resistless of Necessity.
And neither may I speak of this my fate,
Nor hold my peace. For I, poor I, through giving
Great gifts to mortal men, am prisoner made
In these fast letters ; yea, in fennel stalk l
I snatched the hidden spring of stolen fire,
Which is to men a teacher of all arts, **
Their chief resource. And now this penalty
Of that offence I pay, fast riveted
In chains beneath the open firmament.
Ha! ha! What now ?
What sound, what odour floats invisibly P *
Is it of God or man, or blendinjr both !'
And has one come to this remotest rock
To look upon my woes '1 Or what wills he P
(1) The legend is from Hesiod, (Theogon. v. 567.) The fennel, or narfhex.
•eems to have been a large umbelliferous plant, with a large stem filled
With a sort of pith, which was used when dry as tinder. Stalks were car-
ried as wands (the thyrsi) by the men .and women who joined in Baccha-
nalian processions. In modern botany, the name is given to the plant
which produces Asafu-tida, and the stem of which, from its resinous
character, would burn fieely. and so connect itself with the Promethean
myth. On the other hand, the Narthex Asafaetida is found at present
only in Persia, Afghanistan, and the I'unjiiub.
(2) The ocean nymphs, like other divine ones, would be anointed with
ambrosial unguents, and the odour would be wafted before them by the
rustling of their wings. This too we may think of as port of the " stag*
•fleets" of the play.
H
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Behold me bound, a God to evil doomed,
The foe of Zeus, and held
In hatred by all Gods **
Who tread the courts of Zeus:
And this for my great love,
Too great, for mortal men.
Ah me ! what rustling sounds
Hear I of birds not far ?
With the light whirr of wings
The air re-echoelh :
All that draws nigh to me is cause of fear.1
Enter Chorus of Ocean Nymphs, with wings, floating
in the air.2
Chor. Nay, fear thou nought : in love
All our array of wings •
In eager race hath come m
To this high peak, full hardly gaining o'er
Our Father's mind and will ;
And the swift-rushing breezes bore me on :
For lo ! the echoing sound of blows on iron
Pierced to our cave's recess, and put to flight
My shamef'ast modesty,
And I in unshod haste, on winged car,
To thee rushed hit herward.
Prom. Ah me ! ah me !
Offspring of Tuthys blest with many a child, **
Daughters of Old Okeanos that rolls
Bound all the earth with never-sleeping stream.
Behold ye me, and see
With what chains fettered fast,
I on the topmost crags of this ravine
Shall keep my sentry-post unenviable.
Chor. I see it, O Prometheus, and a mist
(1) The -words are not those of a vaprue terror only. Tha sufferer fcnr^rs
thiit his tormentor is to come to him before long on wings, and therefore
the sound ns of the flip-lit of birds is fill I of terrors.
(2) By some stujre ineuhiinism the Chorus i cumins in the ail' till verse
Z80, when, at the request of Prometheus, thtj- aiigat.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 99
Of fear and full of tears comes o'er mine eyes,
Thy frame beholding thus,
Writhing on these high rocks ***
In adamantine ills.
New pilots now o'er high Olympos rale,
And with new-fashioned laws
Zeus reigns, down-trampling right,
And all the ancient powers He sweeps away.
Prom. Ah ! would that 'neath the Earth, 'neatli Hades
too,
Home of the dead, far down to Tartaros ***
Unfathomable He in fetters fast
In wrath had hurled me down :
So neither had a God
Nor any other mocked at these my woes ;
But now, the wretched plaything of the winds, V
I suffer ills at which my foes rejoice.
Chor. Nay, which of all the Gods
Is so hard-hearted as to joy in this ?
Who, Zeus excepted, doth not pity thee
In these thine ills ? But He,
Ruthless, with soul unbent,
Subdues the heavenly host, nor will He cease * **
Until his heart be satiate with power,
Or some one seize with subtle stratagem
The sovran might that so resistless seemed.
Prom. Nay, of a truth, though put to evil shame,
In massive fetters bound,
The Ruler of the Gods
Shall yet have need of me, yes, e'en of me,
To tell the counsel new
That seeks to strip from him
His sceptre and his might of sovereignty.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
In vain "will He with words
Or suasion's honeyed charms
Sooth me, nor will I tell
Through fear of his stern threats,
Ere He shall set me free
From these my honds, and make,
Of his own choice, amends
For all these outrages.
Chor. Full rash art thou, and yield'st
In not a jot to bitterest form of woe ;
Thou art o'er-free and reckless in thy speech :
But piercing fear hath stirred
My inmost soul to strife ;
For I fear greatly touching thy distress,
As to what haven of these woes of thine '
Thou now must steer : the son of Cronos hath
A stubborn mood and heart inexorable.
Prom. I know that Zeus is hard,
And keeps the Eight supremely to himself;
But then, I trow, He'll bo
Full pliant in his will,
When Ho is thus crushed down.
Then, calming down his mood
Of hard and bitter wrath,
He'll hasten unto me,
As I to him shall haste,
For friendship and for peace.
Chor. Hide it not from us, tell us all the tale :
"For what offence Zeus, having seized thee thus,
So wantonly and bitterly insults thee :
If the tale hurt thee not, inform thou us.
Prom. Painful are these things to me e'en to speak I
Painful is silence ; everywhere is woe.
For when the high Gods fell on mood of wrath,
And hot debate of mutual strife was stirred,
Some wishing to hurl Cronos from his throne,
That Zeus, forsooth, might reign ; while others strove,
Eager that Zeus might never rule the Gods :
PROMETHEUS BOUND. IOI
Then I, full strongly seeking to persuade
The Titans, yea, the sons of Heaven and Earth,
Failed of my purpose. Scorning subtle arts,
With counsels violent, they thought that they
By force would pain full easy mastery.
But then not once or twice my mother Themis
And Earth, one form though bearing many names,*
Had prophesied the future, how 'twould run,
That not by strength nor yet by violence,
But guile, should those who prospered gain the day.
And when in my words I this counsel gave,
They deigned not e'en to glance at it at all.
And then of all that offered, it seemed best
To join my mother, and of mine own will,
Not against his will, take my side with Zeus,
And by my counsels, mine, the dark deep pit
Of Tartaros the ancient Cronos holds,
Himself and his allies. Thus profiting
By me, the mighty ruler of the Gods **
Repays me with these evil penalties :
For somehow this disease in sovereignty
Inheres, of never trusting to one's friends.*
And since ye ask me under what pretence
He thus maltreats me, I will show it you :
For soon as He upon his father's throne
Had sat secure, forthwith to divers Gods
He divers gifts distributed, and his realm
Began to order. But of mortal men
He took no heed, but purposed utterly
To crush their race and plant another new;
And, I excepted, none dared cross his will ;
But I did dare, and mortal men I freed
From passing on to Hades thunder-stricken ;
(1) The words leave it uncertain -whether Themis is identified wi*h
Earth, or, as in the Kummitles. (v. 2.) di ting-uish •(! f -om her. The iLa a
a-* a class, then, children of Oi-eanos ai d Chthon (another name fir
L*nil or Earth,) are i he kin lied rathe • , him the brothers of Pi ometheus.
(8) The generalising word- her", as in v. 35, appeal to the Athenian
hatred oi uU lhat was represented by the words tyrant and tyranny.
IO2 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
And therefore am I bound beneath these woes,
Dreadful to suffer, pitiable to see :
And I, who in my pity thought of men
More than myself, have not been worthy deemed
To gain like favour, but all ruthlessly
I thus am chained, foul shame this sight to Zeus.
Chor. Iron- hearted must he be and made of rock **•
Who is not me ved, Prometheus, by thy woes :
Fain could I wish I ne'er had seen such things,
And, seeing them, am wounded to the heart.
I'nt'iti. Yea, I am piteous for my friends to see.
Chor. Did'st thou not go to farther lengths than this ?
From. I made men cease from contemplating death.1
A Chor. What medicine did'st thou find for that disease ?
Prom. Blind hopes I gave to live and dwell with
them.
Chor. Great service that thou did'st for mortal men !
Prom. And more than that, I gave them fire, yes I. zei
Chor. Do short-lived men the flaming fire possess ?
Prom. Yea, and i'ull many an art they'll learn from it.
Chor. And is it then on charges such as these
That Zeus maltreats thee, and no respite gives
Of many woes ? And has thy pain no end ?
Prom. End there is none, except as pleases Him.
Chor. How shall it please ? What hope hast thou P
See'st not
That thou hast sinned ? Yet to say how thou sinned'st
Gives me no pleasure, and is pain to thee.
Well ! let us leave these things, and, if we may,
Seek out some means to 'scape from this thy woe. *"
Prom. 'Tis a light thing for one who has his foot
Beyond the reach of evil to exhort
And counsel him who suffers. This to me
Wat all well known. Yea, willing, willingly
(1) The stite desc ibad is that of men \vho " 1 hrough fear of death are
ah their lif.'time subject to boi d'jre. hat state, the paient of all
8np rstitiui. fos ere. I tli slavi li awe in which Z us deliph i d. Promc-
iu-;us. l£pie? ntinfc the active intellect fit' in..in, bet tows new powers, new
Interests, new houus, wh.ch at Li.-t iLvert thu.u fro... that icar.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
I sinned, nor will deny it. Helping men,
I for myself found trouble : yet I thought not
That I with such dread penalties as these
Should wither here on these high-towering crags,
Lighting on this lone hill and ueighbourless.
Wherefore wail not for these my present woes,
But, drawing uigh, my coming fortunes hear,
That ye may learn the whole tale to the end.
Nay, hearken, hearken ; show your sympathy
With him who suffers now. 'Tis thus that woe,
Wandering, now falls on this one, now on that.
Chor. Not to unwilling hearers hast thou uttered,
Prometheus, thy request,
And now with nimble foot abandoning
My swiftly rushing car,
And the pure aether, path of birds of heaven, ***
I will draw near this rough and rocky land,
For much do I desire
To hear this tale, full measure, of thy woes.
Enter OKEA^OS, on a car drawn by a ivingcd grypJton.
Okean. Lo, I come to thee, Prometheus,
Beaching goal of distant journey,1
Guiding this my winged course?)
By my will, without a bridle ; S
And thy sorrows move my pity.
Force, in part, I deem, of kindred
Leads me on, nor know I any,
Whom, apart from kin, I honour "°
More than thee, in fuller measure.
This thou shalt own true and earnest :
I deal not in glozing speeches.
Come then, tell me how to help thee :
Ne'er shalt thou say that one more friendly
Is found than unto thee is Okean.
Prom. Let be. What boots it ': Thou then too art come
il) The home of Okeanos was in the far west, HI the boundary f the
great, stream surniuneUiijj the whole world, irom which, he too.c hu
104 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
To gaze upon my sufferings. How did'st dare
Leaving the stream that bears thy4 name, and caves
Hewn in the living rock, this land to visit,
Mother of iron ? What then, art thou come
To gaze upon my fall and offer pity ? *•
Behold this sight : see here the friend of Zeus,
Who helped t.o seat him in his sovereignty,
With what foul outrage I am crushed by him !
Okean. I see, Prometheus, and I wish to give thee
My best advice, all subtle though thou be.
Know ihou thyself,1 and fit thy soul to moods
To thee full new. New king the Gods have now ;
But if thou utter words thus rough and sharp,
Perchance, though sitting far away on high, B0
Zeus yet may hear thee, and his present wrath
Seem to thee but as child's play of distress.
Nay, thou poor sufferer, quit the rage thou hast,
And seek a remedy for these thine ills.
A tale thrice-told, perchance, I seem to speak :
Lo ! this, Prometheus, is the punishment
Of thine o'er lofty speech, nor art thou yet
Humbled, nor yieldest to thy miseries,
And fain would' st add fresh evils unto these.
But thou, if thou wilt take me as thy teacher, "•
Wilt not kick out against the pricks ; 3 seeing well
A monarch reigns who gives account to none.
And now I go, and will an effort make,
If I, perchance, may free thee from thy woes ;
Be still then, hush thy petulance of speech,
Or knowest thou not, o'er-clever as thou art,
That idle tongues must still their forfeit pay ?
Prom. I envy thee, seeing thou art free from blamo
Though thou shared'st all, and in my cause wast bold ; s
(1) <~>ne of the siyings of the Seven Sages, already recognised and
jnoted as a familiar vroverb.
(2) See note on Again. 1602.
(3) Inlhe mythos, Ukeanos had given hi* daughter Tlesione in mar-
riape to Pro etheus after th .- theft of fire, and thus had Men .iiied himself
w.tli his transgression.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Nay, let ine be, nor trouble thou thyself ;
Thou wilt not, canst not soothe Him ; very hard
Is He of soothing. Look to it thyself,
Lest thou some mischief meet with in the way.
. Okean. It is thy wont thy neighbours' minds to school
Far better than thine owu. 1'rom deeds, not words,
I draw my proof. But do not draw me back
When I. am hasting on, for lo, I deem,
I deem that Zeus will grant this boon to me,
That I should free thee from these woes of thine.
Pram. I thank thee much, yea, ne'er will cease to
thank ;
For thou no whit of zeal dost lack ; yet take,
I pray, no trouble for me ; all in vain
Thy trouble, nothing helping, e'en if thou
Should'st care to take the trouble. Nay, be still ;
Keep out of harm's way ; sufferer though I be,
I would not therefore wish to give my woes
A wider range o'er others. No, not so :
For lo ! my mind is wearied with the grief
Of that my kinsman Atlas,1 who doth stand
In the far West, supporting on his shoulders
The pillars of the earth and heaven, a burden
His arms can ill but hold : I pity too
The giant dweller of Kilikian caves, "*
Dread portent, with his hundred hands, subdued
By force, the mighty Typhon,2 who arose
(1) In the Thengony of Hesiod, (v. 509,) Prometheus and Atlis appear M
th" sons of tw > sistt/rs. As other Titans were thought of as buried under
volcanoes, so thi . one wa< identified with the mountain which had been
seen bv traveller* to Western Africa, or in the seas beyond it, rising like
a column t<> support the vault o. heaven. In Herodotos (iv. 174) and all
la vv writers, the name is given to the chain of mountains in Lybia, as
one time volcanic. Homer ( Odyss. i. 531 represents him as holding the
pillars which separate hea-.en from oiuth; nesiod (Thtogon. v. 517) aa
himself standing near the Hesperides. (this too points t.^ Teneriffe) sus-
tai1 ing th • heavens with his he id and shoulders.
(2) Th - volcanic charac.er of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability
to earthquakes which has marked nearly i-very period of its history, led
men to connect it also with the traditions o. Uie Titans, some accordingly
106 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
'Gainst all the Gods, with sharp and dreadful jawa
Hissing out slaughter, and from out his eyes
There flushed the terrihle brightness as of one
Who would lay low the sovereignty of Zeus.
But Ihe unsleeping dart of Zous came on him,
Down-arwooping thunderbolt that breathes out flame,
Which from his lofiy boas! ings startled him,
For he i' the heart was struck, to ashes burnt, **
His strength all thunder- shattered; and he lies
A helpless, powerless carcase, near the strait
Of the great sea, last pressed beneath the roots
Of ancient JEtna, where on highest peak
Hephrestos sits and smites his iron red-hot,
From whence hereafter streams of fire shall burst,1
Devouring with fierce jaws the golden plains
Of fruitful, fair Sikelia. Such the wrath
That Typhon shall belch forth with bursts of storm,
Hot, breathing fire, and unapproachable,
Though burnt and charred by thunderbolts of Zeus. 3tt
Not inexperienced art thou, nor dost need
My teaching : save thyself, as thou know'st how;
And I will drink my fortune to the dregs,
Till from his wrath the mind of Zeus shall rest.8
Okean. Know'st thou not this, Prometheus, even this,
Of wrath's disease wise words the healers are ?
Prom. Yea, could one soothe the troubled heart in
time,
Nor seek by force to tame the soul's proud flesh.
Okean. But in due forethought with bold daring blent,
What mischief see'st tho\i lurking ? Tell me this. 39°
Prom. Toil bootless, and simplicity full fond.
placing the home of Typhon in Phrygia, some near Sardis, some, as here,
in Kilikia. Hesiod ( '] heognn. v. 820) describes Typhon (or Typhoeus) oa
a serpent-monster hissing out fire ; Pindai (J'yt/t. i. 30, viii. 21) as lying
with his head and i>reast crushed bei.eath the weight of 21£tnu, and his
feet extending1 ,o fumse.
(1) The words point pr bably to an eruption, then fresh ia mtn'f
memorie-, which ad happened B.C. 476.
(2) Bv sonic editors this opoech from "No, not so," to " th-u knotr ;t
tow," is assigned to ULt-ouus.
PROMETHKUS BOUND.
Okean. Let me, I pray, that sickness suffer, since
Tis best being wise to have not wisdom's show.
From. Nay, but this error shall b« deemed as mine.
Okean. Thy word then clearly sends mo home at once.
Prom. Yea, lest thy pity for me make a foe. . . .
Okean. What ! of that new king on his mighty throne *
Prom. Look to it, lest his heart be vexed with thee.
Okean. Thy fate, Prometheus, teaches me that lesson.
Prom. Away, withdraw ! keep thou the mind thou
hast. 40«
Okean. Thou urgest me who nm in act to haste ;
For this my bird four-footed flaps with wings
The clear path of ilia eether; and full fain
Would he bend knee in his own stall at home. [Exit.
STKOPH. L
Chor. I grieve, Prometheus, for thy dreary fate,
Shedding from tender eyes
The dew of plenteous tears ;
With streams, as when the watery south wind blows,
My cheek is wet ; iie
For lo ! these things are all unenviable,
And Zeus, by his own laws his sway maintaining,
Shows to the elder Gods
A mood of haughtiness.
ANTISTROPH. I.
And all the country echoeth with the moan,
And poureth many a tear
For that magnific power
Of ancient days far-seen that thou did'st share
With those of one blood sprung ;
And all the mortal men who hold the plain *•
Oi holy Asia as their land of sojourn,
They grieve in sympathy
For thy woes lamentable.
STROPIT. n.
And they,- the maiden band who find their home
On distant Colchian coasts,
108 PEOilETHEUS BOUND.
Fearless of fight,1
Or Skythian horde in earth's remotest clim«,
By far Maeotic lake ; t
AXTISTBOPH. IL
*And warlike glory of Arabia's tribes,'
Who nigh to Caucasus **
In rock-fort dwell,
An army fearful, with sharp-pointed spear
Baging iii war's array.
STBOPH. TTT.
One other Titan only have I seen,
One other of the Gods,
Thus bound in woes of adamantine strength-
Atlas, who ever groans
Beneath the burden of a crushing might,
The out-spread vault of heaven.
ANTISTBOPH. m.
And lo ! the ocean billows murmur loud ***
In one accord with him ; *
The sea-depths groan, and Hades' swarthy pit
Re-echoeth the sound,
And fountains of clear rivers, as they flow,
Bewail his bitter griefs.
Prom. Think not it is through pride or stiff self-will
That I am silent. But my heart is worn,
Self-contemplating, as I see myself
Thus outraged. Yet what other hand than mine
(1) These are, of course, the Amazons, who were believed to have oome
through Thiake from the Tauric Chersones'-s, and had left traces of their
name ;md habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus.
(2) Beyond the plains of Skythia, and the l;ike Mseotis (the sea of Azov)
there would be the great river Okeanos, which was belie . ed to flow round
the earth.
(3) Sarmatia has been conjectured instead of Arabia. No Greek
author sanct ons the extension of the latter name to so remote a region
as that north of the Caspian.
(4) The Greek leaves the ob;ect of th-1 sympathy undefined, but it
•eems better to refer it to that which Atlas receives from the wa.cte of
waters around, and the dark world bent-.-ith, than to the pity shown to
Prometheus. This had already been dwelt oil iii li
PROMETHEUS BOUND. IO9
Gave these young Gods in fulness all their gifts ?
But these I speak not of ; for I should tell
To you that know them. But those woes of men,1 **
List ye to them, — how they, before as babes,
By me were roused to reason, taught to think ;
And this I say, not finding fault with men,
But showing my good-will in all I gave.
For first, though seeing, all in vain they saw,
And hearing, heard not rightly. But, like forms
Of phantom- dreams, throughout their life's whole length
They muddled all at random ; did not know
Houses of brick that catch the sunlight's warmtli,
Nor yet the work of carpentry. They dwelt
In hollowed holes, like swarms of tiny ants, **
In sunless depths of caverns ; and they had
No certain signs of winter, nor of spring
Flower-ladeu, nor of summer with her fruits ;
But without counsel fared thoir whole life long,
Until I showed the risings of the stars,
And settings hard to recognise.2 And I
Found Number for them, chief device of all,
*Groupings of letters, Memory's handmaid that,
And mother of the Muses.3 And I first
Bound in the yoke wild steeds, submissive made **
Or to the collar or men's limbs, that so
They might in man's place bear his greatest toils ;
And horses trained to love the rein I yoked
To chariots, glory of wealth's pride of state ; *
Nor was it any one but I that found
(1) The passage that follows [has for modern palaeontologists the inte-
rest of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society,
and trie condition of mankind during what has been called the " Stone •*
period. Comp. Lucretius, v. 955-984.
(2) Comp. Mr. Blakesiey's note on Herod, ii. 4, as showing that here
there was the greater risk of faulty observation.
(3) Another reading gives perhaps a better sense —
" Memory, handmaid true
And mother of the Muses."
(4) In '"'reece, as throughout the East, the ox was used for all agricul-
tural labours, the horse by the noble awl the rich, either in war chariot*,
or stately processions, o: in chariot races in the great Barnes.
IIO PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Sea-crossing, canvas-winged cars of ships:
Such rare designs inventing (wretched me !)
For mortal men, I ; et have no device
15y which to free myself from this my woe.1
Chor. Foul shame thou sufferest: of thy sense be-
reaved, *• '
Thou errest greatly : and, like leech unskilled,
Thou losest heart when smitten with disease,
And know'st not how to find the remedies
Wherewith to heal thine own soul's sicknesses.
Prom. Hearing what yet remains ihou'lt wonder more,
What arts and what resources I deviled :
And this the chief: if any one fell ill,
There was no help for him, nor healing food,
Nor unguent, nor yet potion ; but for want
Of drugs they wasted, till I showed to them
The blendinyrs of all mild medicaments,2 *90
Wherewith they ward the attacks of sickness sore.
1 gave them many modes of prophecy ; 3
And I first taught them what dreams needs must prove
True visions, and made known the ominous sounds
Full hard to know ; and tokens by the way,
And flights of taloned birds I clearly marked,—
Those on the right propitious to mankind.
And those sinister, — and what form of life
They each maintain, and what their enmities
Each with the other, and their loves and friendships ; "^
And of the inward parts the plumpness fcmooth,
(1) Compare with this the account of the inventions of Falamedes in
Sophocles, Fragm. 379.
(2i Herf we can recognise the knowledge of one who had studied in
the schools of Pythagoras, or had at any rate picked up their terminology.
A more immediate connexion mav perhaps be traced with the influence
of Epimenides, who was said to have spent many rears in searching
out the healing virtu s of plants, and to have written books about them.
(3) The lines that follow form almost a manna, of the art of divinatior
as then practised. The "ominou- sounds" include ch.ince words,
strai ge cries, nny unexpected utterance that conn cted itself with men'i
feai s for the future. The flights of birds were watched by t ;>e diviner
as he faced the north, and s > the region on the right h:md was that of the
sunrise, light, blessedness ; on the left there were dai kness and gloom
and death.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. Ill
And with what colour they the Gods would please,
And the streaked comeliness of gall and liver :
And with burnt limbs enwrapt in fat, and chine,
I led men on to art full difficult :
And I gave eyes to omens drawn from fire,
Till then dim-visioned. So far then for this.
And 'neath the earth the hidden boons for men,
Bronze, iron, silver, gold, who else could say "•
That he, ere I did, found them ? None, I know,
Unless he fain would babble idle words.
In one short word, then, loai'ii the truth condensed,—
All arts of mortals from Prometheus spring.
Clior. Nay, bo not thou to men so over-kind,
While thou thyself art in sore evil case ;
For I am sanguine that thou too, released
From bonds, shalt be as strong as Zeus himself.
Prom. It is not thus that Fate's decree is fixed ;
But I, long crushed with twice ten thousand woes ***
And bitter pains, shall then escape my bonds ;
Art is far weaker than Necessity.
Chor. Who guides the helm, then, of Necessity P
Prom. Fates triple-formed, Eriunyes unforgetting.
Chor. Is Zeus, then, weaker in his might than these ?
Prom. Not even He can 'scape the thing decreed.
Chor. What is decreed for Zeus but still to reign P
Prom. Thoumay'st no further learn, ask thou no more.
Chor. 'Tis doubtless some dread secret which thou
hidest.
Prom. Of other theme make mention, for the time K*
Is not yet come to utter this, but still
It must be hidden to the uttermost ;
For by thus keeping it it is that I
Escape my bondage foul, and these my pains.
STKOPH. L
Chor. Ah ! no'er may Zeus the Lord,
Whose sovran sway rules all,
His strength in conflict set
Ill PROMETHKUS BOUND.
Against my feeble will !
Nor may I fail to serve
The Gods with holy least
Of whole burnt-otferiugs,
Where the stream ever flows
That bears my father's name,
The great Okeanos !
Nor may I sin in speech !
May this grace more and more
Sink deep into my soul
And never fade away I
ASTIBTBOPH. L
Sweet is it in strong hope
To spend long years of life,
With bright and cheering joy
Our heart's thoughts nourishing.
I shudder, seeing thee
Thus vexed and harassed sore
By twice ten thousand woes ;
For thou in pride ot heart,
Having no fear of Zeus,
In thine own obstinacy,
Dost show for mortal men,
Prometheus, love o'erinuch.
STBOPH. n.
See how that boon, dear friends,
For thee is bootless found.
Say, where is any help ?
What aid from mortals comes P
Hast thou not seen this brief and powerless life,
Fleeting as dreams, with which man's purblind race
Is fast in fetters bound ?
Never shall counsels vain
Of mortal men break through
The harmony of Zeus.
ANTISTROPH. n.
This lesson have I learnt
J&OMKTHKUS BOUND. II]
Beholding thy sad fate,
Prometheus ! Other strains
Come back upon my a hid,
When I sang wedding hymns around thy bath,
And at thy bridal bed, when thou did'st take
In wedlock's holy bands
One of the same sire born,
Our own Hesione,
Persuading her with gifts
As wife to share thy couch.
Enter Io inform like a fair woman with a heifer' I horrw,1
fo/lowtd by the Spectre of ARGOS.
Io. What land is this? What people? Whom
shall I
Say that I see thus vexed
With bit and curb of rock P
For what oll'ence dost thou
Bear fatal punishment ?
Tell me to what far land
I've wandered here in woe.
Ah mo ! ah mo !
Again the gadfly stings me miserable.
Spectre of Argos, thou, the earth-born one—
Ah, keep him off, 0 Earth !
I fear to look upon that herdsman dread, *•
Him with ten thousand eyes :
Ah Io ! he cometh with his crafty look,
Whom Earth refuses even dead to hold ; *
(1) 80 lo was represented, we are told, by Greek sculptors, (Herod, ii.
41.) as Isis w.is by those of- Egypt. Tiie points ot cont:ict between the
myt.i of Io and that bf Prometheus, as adopted, or perhaps developed, by
JKschylos, are — (1) that from er the destined deliverer of the chained
Tit n is to come ; (2) that both were suffering from the cruelty of Zeus ;
(Ifj that the wanderings of lo gave scope for the wild tales of far coun-
tries on which the imagination of the Athenians fed greedily. But, as
the Suppliants may serve to show , the story itself had a strange fascina-
tion for hiiu. In the birth of Epaphos, and Jo's release from ner frenzy,
he saw, it may be, a reconciliation of what had seemed hard to reconcile,
* solution of the problems of the world, like in kind to that which wag
•hadowed forth in the lost Prometheus Unbound.
(2) Arpos had been slain by Hermes, and his eyes transferred by Han
to the tail of the peacock, and that bird was thenceiorth sacred to her.
I
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
But coming from beneath
lie hunts mo miserable,
And drives me famished o'er the sea-beach Rand.
STBOPH.
And still his waxened reed-pipe soundeth clear
A soft and slumberous strain ;
O heavens ! 0 ye Gods 1 **
Whither do these long wanderings lead me on?
For what offence, O e=on of Cronos, what,
Hast thou thus bound mo fast
In these great miseries ?
All me ! ah me !
And why with terror of the gadfly's sting
Dost thou thus vex me, frenzied in my soul?
Burn me with fire, or bury me in earth,
Or to wild sea-beasts give me as a prey t
Nay, grudge me not, O King,
An answer to my prayers : "
Enough my many-wjindeivd wanderings
Have exercised my -soul,
Nor have I power to lcjam
How to avert the woe.
(To Promethnis}. Hear'st thou the voice of maiden
crowned with horns ?
Prom. Surely I heard the maid by gadfly driven,
Daughter of Inachos, who wanned the heart
Of Zeus with love, and now through Hera's hate
Is tried, perforce, with wanderings over-long ?
AXTISTBOPH.
lo. How is it that thou speak'st my father's name ?
Tell me, the suffering one, •"
Who art thou, who, poor wretch,
Who thus so truly nam'st me miserable,
And tell'st the plague from Heaven,
Which with its haunting stings
Wears me to death ? Ah woe !
And I with famished and unseemly bounds
Rush madly, driven by Hera's jealous craft.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Ah, vrho of all tliat suffer, bom to woe,
Have trouble like the pain that I endure?
But thou, make clear to me
What yet for ine remains,
What remedy, what healing for my pangs.
Show me, if thou dost know:
Speak out and toll to me,
The maid by wanderings vexed.
Prom. I will say plainly all thou seek'st to know;
Not in dark tangled riddles, but plain speech,
As it is meet that friends to friends should speak ;
Thou see'st Prometheus who gave fire to men. **
lo. 0 thou to men as benefactor known.
Why, poor Prometheus, sufferest thou this pain?
Prom. I have but now mine own woes ceased lo wail.
lo. Wilt thou not then bestow this boon on me ?
Prom. Say what thou seflk'st, for I will tell thee all.
In. Tell me, who fettered thee in this ravine ?
Prom. The counsel was of Zeus, the hand Hephsestos*.
I<>. Of what offence dost thou the forfeit pay ?
Prom. Thus much alone am I content to tell.
lo. Tell me, at least, besides, what end shall come e*°
To my drear wanderings ; when the time shall be.
Prom. Not to know this is better than to know.
lo. Nay, hide not from me what I have to boar.
Prom. It is not that I grudge the boon to thee.
lo. Why then delayest thou to tell the whole ?
Prom. Not from ill will, but loth to vex thy soul.
lo. Nay, care thou not beyond what pleases me.
Prom. If thou desire it I must speak. Hear then.
Chor. Not yet though ; grant me share of pleasure too,
Let us first ahk the tale of her great woe, **$
While she unfolds her life's consuming chances;
Her future sufferings let her learn from thee.
Prom. 'Tis thy work, To, to grant these their wish,
On other grounds and as thy father's kin : l
(I) luachos the father of lo (identified with the Arrive river of the earn*
name) was, like all rivers, a so of Okeanos, and therefore brother to UM
nyn phs whr* had coine to see Prometheus.
Il6 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
For to bewail and moan one's evil chance,
Here where one trusts to gain a pitying tear
From those who hear, — this is not labour lost.
Jo. I know not how to disobey your wish ;
So ye shall learn the whole that ye desire
In speech full clear. And yet I blush to tell **
The storm that came from God, and brought the loss
Of maiden face, what way it seized on me.
For nightly vis ons coming evermore
Into my virgin bower, sought to woo me
With glozing words. " O virgin greatly blest,
Why art thou sH'll a virgin when thou might'st
Attain to highest wedlock ? For with dart
Of passion for thee Zeus doth glow, and fain
Would make thee his. And thou, O chLd, spurn not
The bed of Zeus, but go to Lerna's field, *T*
Where feed thy father's flocks and herda,
That so the eye of Zeus may find repose
From this his craving." With such visions I
Was haunted every evening, till 1 dared
To tell my father all these drenms of night,
And he to Pytho and Dodona sent
Full many to consult the Gods, that he
Might learn what deeds and words would please Heaven's
lords.
And they came bringing speech of oracles
Shot with dark sayings, dim and hard to know.
At last a clear word came to Inachos
Charging him plainly, and commanding him
To thrust Die from my country and my home,
To stray at large l to utmost bounds of earth ;
And, should he gainsay, that the fiery bolt
Of Zeus should come and sweep away his race.
And he, by Losias' oracles induced,
w*»in^ti wiicn.- i IK .v iiiM-'i. i jic inic vi iv, nn uif t 'iiuc utrvunru IAJ /^t'US 8Q
animalised in form, was thus shadowed forth in the very language of the
Oracle
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 117
Thrust me. against his will, against mine too,
And drove me from my home ; but spite of all,
Tho curb of Zeus constrained him this to do. *"
And then forthwith my face and mind were changed ;
And horned, as ye see me, stung to the quick
By biting gadfly, I with maddened leap
Hushed to Kerchneia's fair and limpid stream,
And fount of Lerna.1 And a giant herdsman,
Argos, full rough of temper, fo' lowed me,
With many an eye beholding, on my track :
And him a sudden and unlooked-for doom
Deprived of life. And I, by gadfly stung,
By scourge from Heaven am driven from land to land.7*0
What has been done thou hearest. And if thou
Can'st tell what yet remains of woe, declare it;
Nor in thy pity soothe me with false words ;
For hollow words, I deem, are worst of ills.
Chor. Away, away, let be :
Ne'er thought I that such tales
Would ever, ever come unto mine ears ;
Nor that such terrors, woes, and outrages,
Hard to look on, hard to bear, 7lt
Would chill my soul with shai'p goad, double-edged.
Ah fate! Ah fate !
I shudder, seeing lo's fortune strange.
Prom. Thou art too quick in groaning, full of fear :
Wait thou a while until thou hear the rest.
Chvr. Speak thou and tell. Unto the sick 'tis sweet
Clearly to know what yet remains of pain.
Prom. Tour former wish ye gained full easily.
Your first desire was to learn of her "*
The tale she tells of her own sufferings ;
Now therefore hear' the woes that yet remain
For this poor maid to bear at llera's hands.
And thou, O child of Inachos ! take heed
(t) Lerm was a lake near the mouth of the fnachoo close to the aea.
Kerchneia may perhaps be identified with the K«u.Lrt<e, the havrjn oj
Korinth in later geographies.
Il8 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
To these my words, tbat thou may'st hear the goal
Of all thy wanderings. First then, turning hence
Towards the sunrise, tread the untilled plains,
And thou shalt reach the Skythian nomads, those1
"Who on smooth-rolling waggons dwell aloft
In wicker house3, with far-darting bows 'T*
Duly equipped. Approach thou not to these,
But trending round the coasts on which the surf
Beats with loud murmurs,2 traverse thou that clime.
On the left hand there dwell the Chulybes,3
Who work in iron. Of these do thou beware,
For fierce are they and most inhospitable ;
And thou wilt reach the river fierce and strong,
True to its name.4 This seek not thou to cross,
For it is hard to ford, until thou come
Tc Cauca-os itself, of all high hills
The highest, where a river pours its strength
From the high peaks themselves. And thou must cross 7*°
Those summits near the stars, must onward go
Towards the south, where thou shalt find the host
Of the Amazons, hating men, whose home
Shall one day be around Thermodon's bank,
By Themiskyra,6 where the ravenous jaws
Of Salinydvssos ope upon the sea,
Treacherous to sailors, stepdame stern to ships,*
(1} Tl-e wicker huts use! by Skythian or Thrakian nomads (the Cal-
mucks of modern geographers) are described by Herodotos (iv. 46) and
are still in use.
(2) Sc., the N.E. boundary of the Euxine, where spurs of the Caucasoa
ridge approach the sea.
(3) The Chalybes are placed by geographers to the south of Colchis.
The description of the text indicates a locality farther to the north.
(4) Probably the Araxes, which the Greeks would connect with a word
conveying the idea of a torrent dashing on the rocks. The description
•eems to imply a river flowing into the Enxine from the Caucasos, and
the conditioa it fulfilled by the Hypanis or Koulian.
(5) When tbs Amazons appear in contact with Greek his'ory, they are
found in Thrace. But they had come from the coast of Pontos, and ne.tr
tli • mouth of the Thermodon, (The.rmek.) The words of Prometheus point
to yet earlier migrations from the East.
(6) Here, as in Soph. Antig. (970) the name Salmydessos represents the
rockbound,. havenless coast from the promontory i f Thynias to the en-
trancf? of the Bosporos, which had given to the Black Sea its earlier name
of Axenos, the "inhospitable."
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 119
And ttey with right good-will shall be thy guides;
And thou, hard by a broad pool's narrow gates,
Wilt pass to the Kimmerian isthmus. Leaving
This boldly, thou must cross Mreotic channel ; l 7*
And there shall be great fame 'mong mortal men
Of this thy journey, and the Bosporos 3
Shall take its name fromthee. And Europe's plain
Then quitting, thou shalt gain the Asian coast.
Doth not the all-ruling monarch of the Gods
Seein all ways cruel ? For, although a God,
He, seeking to embrace this mortal maid,
Imposed these wanderings on her. Thou hast found,
O maiden ! bitter suitor for thy hand ;
For great as are the ills thou now hast heard,
Know that as yet not e'en the prelude's known. ™
lo. Ah woe ! woe ! woe !
Prom. Again thou groan' st and criest. What wilt do
When thou shalt learn the evils yet to come ?
Chor. What ! are thei e troubles still to come for her ?
Prom. Yea, stormy sea of woe ?nost lamentable.
lo. What gain is it to live ? Why cast I not
Myself at once from this high precipice,
And, dashed to earth, be free from all my woes ?
Far better were it once for all to die
Than all one's days to suffer pain and grief.
Prom. My struggles then full hardly thou would' et
bear,
For whom there is no destiny of death ;
For that might bring a respite from my woes :
But now there is no limit to my pangs
Till Zeus be hurled out from his sovereignty.
lo. What ! shall Zeus e'er be hurled from his high,
state ?
(1) The track is here in some confusion. From the Amazons south ol
the Caucasos, lo is to find her way to lie Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea)
and the Kimmcriiin Bospor s, which flows into the Sea of Azov, and so to
return to Asia.
(2) Her , as i i a hundred o' her instances, a false etymology has become
the parent of a m th. The name Posporos is probably Asiutie uut Urcek,
ind lias an entirely dilTereiit a.uuiiicuUou.
I2O PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Prom. Thou would'st rejoice, I trow, to see that fall.
Ic. How should I not, when Zeus so foully wrongs me f
Prom. That this is so thou now may'st hear from me.
lo. Who then shall rob him of his sceptred sway ? **°
Prom. Himself shall do it by his own rash plans.
lo. But how ? Tell this, unless it briugeth harm.
Prom. He shall wed one for whom one day he'll grieve.
lo. Heaven-born or mortal ? Tell, if tell thou may'sc.
Prom. Why ask'st thou who ? I may not tell thee that.
lo. Shall his bride hurl him from his throne of might ?
Prom. Yea ; she shall bear child mightier than hia
sire.
lo. Has he no way to turn aside that doom ?
Prom. No, none ; unless I from my bonds be loosed.1
lo. Who then shall loose thee 'gainst the will of
Zeus ? '"
Prom. It must be one of thy posterity.
lo. What, shall a child of mine free thee from ills ?
Prom. Yea, the third generation after ten.2
lo. No more thine oracles are clear to me.
* Prom. Nay, seek not thou thine own drear fate to
know.
lo. Do not, a boon presenting, then withdraw it.
Prom. Of two alternatives, 111 give thee choice.
lo. Tell me of what, then give me leave to choose.
Prom. I give it then. Choose, or that I should tell
Thy woes to come, or who shall set mo free.
CVior. Of these be willing one request to grant
To her, and one to me ; nor scorn my words :
Tell her what yet of wanderings she must bear,
And me who shall release thee. This I crave.
Prom. Since ye are eager, I will not refuse
(1) The lines refer to the story that Zeus loved Thetis the daughter of
Kerens, i:nd followed her to Csiueasos, but bstained from marriage with
her because Prometheus warned him that the child bora of that union
should overthrow his father. Here thefiture is used of what was still
contingent only. In the lost pi <y of the Trilogy the myth was possibly
brought to its conclusion and connected with the release ot Prometheus.
(2) lleracles, whose geneajopy was traced throuph Alcmena, Perseua,
Daiiae, Danaoa, and seven ot:.er names, to Epap..os and lo.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 121
To utter fully all that ye desire.
Thee, lo, first I'll tell thy wanderings wild,
Thou, write it in the tablets of thy mind.
When thou shalt cross the straits, of continents
The boundary,1 take thou the onward path
On to the fiery-hued and sun-tracked East. M*
[And first of all, to frozen Northern blasts
Thou'lt come, and there beware the rushing whirl,
Lest it should come upon thee suddenly,
And sweep thee onward with the cloud-rack wild ;} *
Crossing the sea-surf till thou come at last
Unto Kisthene's Gorgoneian plains,
Where dwell the grey-haired virgin Phorkides,8
Three, swan-shaped, with one eye between them all
And but one tooth ; whom nor the sun beholds
With radiant beams, nor yet the moon by night:
And near tnern are their wingM sisters three,
The Gorgons, serper t-tressed, and hating men,
Whom mortal wight may not behold and live. **
* Such is one ill I bid thee guard against ;
Now hear another monstrous sight : Beware
The sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that never bark,*
The Gryphons, and the one-eyed, mounted host
Of Arimaspians, who around the stream
That flows o'er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell : 5
(1) Probably the Kimmerian Bosporos. The Tanais or Phasis has,
however, been conjectured.
(2) The history of the piissage in brackets is curious enough to call for a
note. They are not in any extant, but they are found in a passage quoted
by Galen (v. p. 454,) as from the Prometheus Bound, and are inserted here
by Mr. Paley.
(3) Kisthene belongs to the geography of legend, lying somewhere on
the shore of the great ocean-riv«jr in Lybia or Ethiopia, at the en i of the
world, a great mountain in the far west, Beyond the Hesperides, the
dwelling-place, as here, of the Gorgons, the daughters of Phorkys.
Those first-named are the Graiw.
(4) Here, like the " winged hound" of v. 1043, for the eagles that are
the messengers of Zeus.
(5) We are carried buck again from the fabled West to the fabled East.
The Arimaspians, with one eye, and the Grypes or Gryphons, (the griffins
of medinoval her;ddry,) quadrupeds with the uings and beaks of eagles,
were placed by most writers (Herod, iv. 13, 27) in the north of Europe,
in or beyond th • terra incoijnita of Skythia. The mention of the " ford of
Pluto " and Ethiopia, however, may possibly imply (if we identify it, aa
I2S PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Draw not thou nigh to them. But distant land
Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell
By the sun's fountain,1 ^Ethiopia's stream :
By its banks wend thy way until thou come
To that great fall where from the Bybline hilla *"
The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood ;
And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land,
Three-angled, where, O lo, 'tis decreed
For thee and for thy progeny to fouud
A far-off colony. And if of this
Aught seem to thee as stammering speech obscure,
Ask yet again and learn it thoroughly :
Far more of leisure have I than I like.
CJwr. If thou hast aught to add, aught left untold
Of her sore-wasting wanderings, speak it out;
But if thou hast said all, then grant to us
The boon we asked. Thou dost not, sure, forget it.
Prom. The whole course of her journeying she hath
heard,
And that she know she hath not heard in vain
I will tell out what troubles she hath borne
Before she came here, giving her sure proof
Of these my words. The greater bulk of things
I will pass o'er, and to the very goal
Of all thy wanderings go. For when thou cam'st
To the Molossian plains, and by the grove a
Of lofry-ridged Dodona, and the shrine
Oracular of Zeus Thesprotian,
And the strange portent of the talking oaks,
Mr. Paley does, with the Tartessos of Spain, or Boetis— Guadalquivir)
that .aSschylos followed another leg-end which placed them iu the West.
Thef e is possibly a paroimmosia between Pluto, the God of Hades, and
Plutos, the ideal God of riches.
(1) The niiine was applied by later writers (Quintus Curtius, iv. 7, 22 ;
Lucretius, vi. H48) to the fountain in the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the
great O.".sis. The " river ^Etliiops " may be purely imaginary, but it
may also suggest the possibility of some vague knowledge of the Niirer.
or more probably of the N'ile itself in the upper r. jfions of its course.
The " Bybline hills" carry the name Byblos, which we only reivi of al
belonging to a town in the Delia, to the Second Cataract.
0!) GJiap, Sophocles, Tracltin, v. 1168.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. I2J
By which full clearly, not in riddle dark,
Thou wast addressed as noble spouse of Zeus, —
II aught of pleasure such things give to thee,—
Thence strung to frenzy, thou did'st rush along
The sea-coast's path to Ehea's mighty gulf,1
In backward way from whence thou now art vexed,
And for all time to come that reach of sea,
Know well, from thee Ionian shall be called,
To all men record of thy joumeyings. ***
These then are tokens to thee that my mind
Sees somewhat more than that is maniiest.
What follows (to the Chorus) I will speak to you and her
In common, on the track of former words
Returning once again. A city stands,
Cunobos, at its country's farthest bound,
Hard by the mouth and silt-bank of the Nile;
There Zeus shall give thee back thy mind again,2
With hand that works no terror touching thee, —
Touch only — and thou then shalt bear a child
Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, " Touch-born," "*
Swarthy of hue, whose lot shall be to reap
The whole plain watered by the broad-streamed Neilos :
And in the generation fifth from him
A household numbering fifty shall return
Against their will to Argos, in their flight
From wedlock with their cousins.3 And they too,
(Kites but a little space behind the doves)
With eager hopes pursuing marriage rites
Beyond pursuit shall come ; and God shall grudge
To give up their sweet bodies. And the laud
(1) The Adriatic or Ionian Onlf.
(2) In the Suppliants, Zeus is said to hare soothed her, and restored he*
to her hum;m consciousness by his "d vine t>i lathings." The thought
underlying the legend may be taken either as a distortion of some primi-
tive tradition, or as one of the " unconscious prophecies " of heathenism.
The deliverer is not to be born after the common manner of men, and is
to have a divine as well as a human p-irentnge.
(3) Kee the argument of t.ie S>ippli<nits, who, as the daughters of Danaos,
descended from Kpaphos, are here referred to. The passage is noticeable
ns showing that the theme of that tragedy waa already present to tha
poet's thoughts.
124 PB.OMETHEUS BOUND.
Pelasgian l shall receive them, when by stroke
Of woman's murderous hand these men shall lie
Smitten to death by daring deed of night : •*
For every bride shall take her husband's life,
And dip in blood the sharp two-edged sword
(So to my foes may Kypris show herself!) *
Yet one of that fair band shall love persuade
Her husband not to slaughter, and her will
Shall lose its edge ; and she shall make her choice
Bather as weak than murderous to be known.
And she at Argos shall a royal seed
Bring forth (long speech 'twould take to tell this clear) **
Famed for his arrows, who shall set me free 3
From these my woes. Such was the oracle
Mine ancient mother Themis, Titan-born,
Gave to me ; but the manner and the means, —
That needs a lengthy tale to tell the whole,
And thou can'st nothing gain by learning it.
lo. Eleleu! OhfcEleleu!4
The throbbing pain inflames me, and the mood
Of frenzy-smitten rage ;
The gadfly's pointed sting,
Not forged with fire, attacks,
And my heart beats against my breast with fear. 90*
Mine eyes whirl round and round :
Out of my course I'm borne
By the wild spirit of fierce agony,
And cannot curb my lips,
And turbid speech at random dashes on
Upon the waves of dread calamity.
(1) Argos. So in the Suppliants, Pelasgos is the mythical king of the
Apian land who receives them.
(2) Hypermnwstrn, who spared Lynceus, and by him became the
mother of Abas and a line of Argive kings.
' (3) Heracles, who came to Caucasos, and with his arrows slew the eagle
that devoured Prometheus.
(4) The word is simply an interjection of pain, but one so cbaracteristio
that I have thought it better to reproduce it than to give any Eugli&h
equivalent.
FKOMETHRUS BOUND. I«5
STBOPB. L
Chor. Wise, very wise was he
Who first in thought conceived this maxim sage,
And spread it with his speech,1 —
That the best wedlcck is with equals found,
And that a craftsman, born to work with hands,
Should not desire to wed
Or with the soft luxurious heirs of wealth, ••
Or with the race that boast their lineage high.
ANTISTBOPH. L
Oh ne'er, oh ne'er, dread Fates,
May ye behold me as the bride of Zeus,
The partner of his couch,
Nor may I wed with any heaven-born spouse I
For I shrink back, beholding lo's lot
Of loveless maidenhood,
Consumed and smitten low exceedingly
By the wild wanderings from great Hera sent t
STBOPH. n.
To me, when wedlock is on equal term*, V0
It gives no cause to fear : .
Ne'er may the love of any of the Gods,
The strong Gods, look on me
With glance I cannot 'scape I
AXTISTBOPH. EL
That fate is war that none can war against,
Source of resourceless ill ;
Nor know I what might then become of me '.
I see not how to 'scape
The counsel deep of Zeus.
Prom. Tea, of a truth shall Zeus, though stiff of will,
Be brought full low. Such bed of wedlock now
Is he preparing, one to cast him forth ••
In darkness from his sovereignty and throne.
And then the curse his father Cronos spake
(1) The ma-rim, " Marry with a woman thine equal," was ascribed to
Pittaoos.
126 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Shall have its dread completion, even that
He littered when he left his ancient throne ;
And from these troubles no one of the Gods
But me can clearly show the way to 'scape.
I know the time and manner : therefore now
Let him sit fearless, in his peals on high
Putting his trust, and shaking in his hands
His darts fire-breathing. Nought shall they avail
To hinder him from falling shamefully **•
A fall intolerable. Such a combatant
He arms against himself, a marvel dread,
Who shall a fire discover mightier far
Than the red levin, and a sound more dread
Than roaring of the thunder, and shall shiver
That plague sea-born that cause th earth to quake,
The trident, weapon of Poseidon's strength :
And stumbling on this evil, he shall learn
How far apart a king's lot from a slave's.
Chor. What thou dost wish thou mutterest against
Zeus.
Prom. Thinga that shall, be, and things I wish, I
speak. **
Chor. And must we look for one to master Zeus ?
Prom. Yea, troubles harder far than these are his.
Chor. Art not afraid to vent such words as these ?
Prom. What can I fear whose fate is not to die ?
Chor. But He may send on thee worse pain than this.
Prom. So let Him do : nought finds me unprepared.
Chor. Wisdom is theirs who Adrasteia worship.1
Prom. Worship then, praise and flatter him that
rulos;
My care for Zeus is nought, and less than nought:
Let Him act, let Him rule this little while,
(I; TLe Euhemerism of later scholiasts derived the name from a king
Adrastos, who was said to have been the first to build a temple to Nemesis,
and so the power thus worshipped was called after his name. A better
etymology leads us to see in it the idea of the " inevitable " law of retri-
butiou working unseen by men, and independently even of the arbitrary
will of the Gods, acid bringing destruction upon the proud and haughty.
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 1X7
E'en as He will ; for long He shall not rule
Over the Gods. But lo ! I see at hand
The courier of the Gods, the minister
Of our new sovereign. Doubtless he has come
To bring me tidings of some new device.
Enter HERMES.
Herm. Thee do I speak io, — thee, the teacher wise,
The bitterly o'er-bitter, who 'gainst Gods
Hast sinned in giving gifts to short-lived men—
I speak to thee, the filcher of bright fire.
The Father bids thee say what marriage thou
Dost vaunt, and who shall hurl Him from his might ;
And this too not in dark mysterious speech,
But tell each point out clearly. Give me not,
Prometheus, task of double journey. Zeus
Thou seest, is not with such words appeased.
Prom. Stately of utterance, full of haughtiness
Thy speech, as fits a messenger of Gods.
Ye yet are young in your new rule, and think
To dwell in painless towers. Have I not
Seen two great rulers driven forth from thence P *
And now the third, who reigneth, I shall see
In basest, quickest fall. Seem I to thee 9I0
To shrink and quail before these new-made Goda P
Far, very far from that am I. But thou,
Track once again the path by which thou earnest ;
Thou shalt learn nought of what thou askest me.
Herm. It was by such self-will as this before
That thou did'st bring these sufferings on thyself.
Prom. I for my part, be sure, would never change
My evil state for that thy bondslave's lot.
Herm. To be the bondslave of this rock, I trow,
Is better than to be Zeus' trusty herald ! "•
Prom. So it is meet the insulter to insult.
Herm. Thou waxest proud, 'twould seem, of this thy
doom.
UJ Comp. Again. 162-6.
138 PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Prom. Wax proud ! God grant that I may fcee my foei
Thus waxing proud, and thee among the rest !
Uerm. Dost blame me then for thy calamities ?
Prom. In one short sentence — all the Gods I hate,
Who my good turns -with evil turns repay.
Herm. Thy words prove thee with no slight madness
plagued.
Prom. If to hate foes be madness, mad I am.
Herm. Not one could bear thee wert thou pros-
perous. IOM
Prom. Ah me !
Herm. That word is all unknown to Zeus,
Prom. Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.
Herm. Yet thou at least hast not true wisdom learnt. *
Prom. I had not else addressed a slave like thee.
Herm. Thou wilt say nought the Father asks, 'twould
seem.
Prom. Fine debt I owe him, favour to repay.
Herm. Me as a boy thou scornest then, forsooth.
Prom. And art thou not a boy, and sillier far,
If that thou thinkest to learn aught from me ?
There is no torture nor device by which 10W
Zeus can impel me to disclose these things
Before these bonds that outrage me be loosed.
Let then the blazing levin-flash be hurled ;
With white- winged snow-storm and with earth-born
thunders
Let Him disturb and trouble all that is ;
Nought of these things shall force me to declare
Whose hand shall drive him from his sovereignty.
Herm. See if thou findest any help in this.
Prom. Long since all this I've seen, and formed my
plans. 10>°
Herm. 0 fool, take heart, take heart at last in time,
To form right thoughts for these thy present woes.
Prom. Like one who soothes a wave, thy speech in vain
Vexes my soul. But deem not thou that I,
Fearing the will of Zeus, shall e'er bocome
PROMETHEUS BOUND. 129
As womanised in mind, or shall entreat
Him whom I greatly loathe, with upturned hand,
In woman's fashion, from these bonds of mine
To set me free. Far, far am I from that.
Ilerm. It seems that I, saying much, shall speak in
vain;
For thou in nought by prayers art pacified,
Or softened in thy heart, but like a colt
Fresh harnessed, thou dost champ thy bit, and strive,
And fight against the reins. Yet thou art stilf
In weak device ; for self-will, by itself,
In one who is not wise, is less than nought.
Look to it, if thou disobey my words,
How great a storm and triple wave of ills,1
Not to be 'scaped, shall come on thee ; for first,
With thunder and the levin's blazing flash
The Father this ravine of rock shall crush,
And shall thy carcase hide, and stern embrace
Of stony arms shall keep thee in thy place. 1**1
And having traversed space of time full long,
Thou shalt come back to light, and then his hound,
The winged hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle,
Shall greedily make banquet of thy flesh,
Coming all day an uninvited guest,
And glut himself upon thy liver dark.
And of that anguish look not for the end,
Before some God shall come to bear thy woes,
And will to pass to Hades' sunless realm,
And the dark cloudy depths of Tartaros.* 105°
Wherefore take heed. No feigned boast is thi«,
(1) Either a mere epithet of intensity, as in onr "thrice blest," or
rising from the supposed fcict that every third wave was larg-er and more
impetuous than the others, like the Jtuctm decutnama of the Latins, or
from the sequence of three great waves which some have noted as a com-
mon ph< notm-non in storms.
(2) Here apun we have a strange shadowing forth of the mystery of
Atonement, and what we have learnt to cull vicarious " satisfaction.
)n the later leg-end, Cheiron, suffering from the agony of his wounds, re-
•ig-ns his immortality. >tnrl submits to dieiu place of the ever-living dieatl1
to which I'romethua was doomed.
X
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
But spoken all too truly ; for the lipa
Of Zeus know not to speak a lying speech,
But will perform each single "word. And thou,
Search well, be wise, nor think that self-willed pride
Shall ever better prove than counsel good.
Chor. To us doth Hermes seem to utter words
Not out of season ; for he bids thee quit
Thy self-willed pride and seek for counsel good.
Hearken thou to him. To the wise of soul
It is foul shame to sin persistently.
Prom. To me who knew it all
He hath this message borne ;
And that a foe from foes
Should suffer is not strange.
Therefore on me be hurled
The sharp-edged wreath of fire ;
And let heaven's vault be stirred
With thunder and the blasts
Of fiercest winds ; and Earth
From its foundations strong,
E'en to its deepest roots,
Let storm-wind make to rock ;
And let the Ocean wave,
With wild and foaming surge,
Be heaped up to the paths
Where move the stars of heaven. ;
And to dark Tartaros
Let Him my carcase hurl,
With mighty blasts of force :
Yet me He shall not slay.
Herm. Such words and thoughts from one
Brain-stricken one may hear.
What space divides his state
From frenzy ? What repose
Hath he from maddened rage ?
But ye who pitying stand
And share his bitter griefs,
Quickly from hence depart,
PROMETHEUS BOUND. I|J
Lest the relentless roar
Of thunder stun your souL
Chor, With other words attempt
To counsel and persuade,
And I will hear : for now
Thou hast this word thrust in
• That we may never bear.
How dost thou bid me train
My soul to baseness vile P
With him I will endure
Whatever is decreed.
Traitors I've learnt to hate,
Nor Is there any plague *•
That more than this I loathe
Herm. Nay then, remember y*
What now I say, nor blame
Your fortune : never say
That Zeus hath cast you down
To evil not foreseen.
Not so ; ye cast yourselves :
For now with open eyes,
Not taken unawares,
In Ate's endless net
Ye shall entangled be
By folly of your own. Bli
[A pause, and then flashes of lightning and
peals of thunder.1
Prom. Yea, now in very deed,
No more in word alone,
The earth shakes to and fro,
And the loud thunder's voice
Bellows hard by, and blaze
(1) It is noticeable that both .SIschylos and Sophocles havs left ru tra-
gedies which end in a thunderstorm as an element of effect. But the
contrast between the Prometheus and the (Edipus at Oolonos as to the im-
pression left in the one case of serene reconciliation, and in the other of
Violent antagonism, is hardly less striking th.m the resemblance in th«
outward phenomena, which are common to the two.
FKOMKTHEUS BOUND.
The flashing levin-fires ;
And tempests whirl the dust,
And gusts of all wild winds
On one another leap,
In wild conflicting blasts,
And sky with sea is blent r
Such is the storm from Zeus
That comes as working fear,
In terrors manifest.
O Mother venerable I
O JEther 1 rolling round
The common light of all,
See'st thou what wrongs I bear?
THE SUPPLIANTS.
ARGUMENT.
, after many wanderings, had found refuge in j^gypt, ant,
having been touched by Zeus, had given birth to Epaphos, it
came to past that he and his descendants ruled over the region
of Canopos, near one of tJie seven mouths of Neilos. And in
the Jifth generation there were two brothers, Danaos and
JEyyptos, the sons of Belos, and the former had fifty daughters
and the latter fifty sons, and JSgyptos sought the daughters of
Danaos in marriage for his sons. And they, looking on the
r.wi'iage as unholy, and hating those who wooed them, took
fii-jhi and came to Argot, where Pelasgos then ruled as king,
*? to the land whence lo, from whom, they sprang, had come.
And thither the sont of AZgyptot followed them in hot pursuit.
Jlramalia Jltrscm*.
PELASGOS, foV20 of Argon,
Herald.
Choru$ of the daughters of LIANAOS.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
SCENE. — Argos, the entrance of the gates. Statues oj
Zzus, ARTEMIS, and other Gods, placed against the
watts.
[Enter Chorus of the Daughters of DANAOS,1 in the dress
of Egyptian women, with the houghs of suppliants
in their hands, and fillets of white wool twisted
round them, chanting as they move in processicn to
take up their position round the thymek.
Zeus, the God of Suppliants, kindly
Look on this our band of wanderers,
That from banks at mouths of Neilos,
Banks of finest sand, departed 1 *
Yea, we left the region sacred,
Grassy plain on Syria's borders,8
Not for guilt of blood to exile
By our country's edict sentenced,
But with free choice, loathing wedlock,
Fleeing marriage-rites unholy
"With the children of 2Egyptos.
And our father Danaos, ruler,
Chief of council, chief of squadrons,
Playing moves on fortune's draught-board,*
(1) The daughters of Danaos arc always represented as fifty in number.
It seems probable, however, that the vocal chorus was limited to twelve,
the others appearing as mutes.
(2) The alluvial deposit of the Delta.
<8) Syria is used obviously with a certain geographical vagueness, as
including all that we know as Palestine, and the wilderness to the south
of it, and so as conterminous with Egypt.
(4) Elsewhere in 2Eschylos (Agam. 33, Fr. 132) we trace allusion to gamea
played with dice. Here we have a reference to one, the details of which
138 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Choso what seemed the best of evils,
Through the salt ^ea-waves to hasten,
Steering to the land of Argos,
Whence our race has risen to greatness ;
Sprung, so honsts it, from the heifer
Whom the stinging gadfly harassed,
By the touch of Zeus love-breathing: *
And to what land more propitious
Could we come than this before us, *
Holding in our hand the branches
Suppliant, wreathed with white wool fillets P
O State ! O land ! O water gleaming 1
Ye the high Gods, ye the awful,
In the dark the graves still guarding ;
Thou too with them, Zeus Preserver,*
Guardian of the just man's dwelling,
Welcome with the breath of pity,
Pity as from these shores wafted,
TJs poor women who are suppliants.
And that swarm of men that follow,
Haughty offspring of .2Egyptos, *
Ere they set their foot among you
On this silt-strown shore,3 — oh, send them
Seaward in their ship swift-rowing ;
There, with whirlwind tempest-driven,
There, with lightning and with thunder,
There, with blasts that bring the storm-rain,
May they in the fierce sea perish,
Ere they, cousin-brides possessing,
Eest on marriage-beds reluctant,
Which the voice of right denies them I
•n not accurately known to us, but which seems to hare been analogous
to draughts or chess.
(1) See the whole story, given as in prophecy, in the Prometheus, v. 865-880.
(2) The invocation is addressed — (I) to the Olympian Gods in the
brightness of heaven ; (2) to the Chthonian deities in the darkness belo\r
the earth ; (3) to Zeus the 1-reserver, as the supreme Lord of both.
(3) An Athenian nudience would probably recognise in this a descrip-
tion of the swampy maidows near the coast of Lerna. The descendant*
of To had como to the very spot where the tragic history of their ancestor*
bed had its onyiii.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
STKOPH. L
And now I call on him, the Zeus-sprung steer,1 *
Our true protector, far beyond the sea,
Child of the heifer-foundress of our line,
Who cropped the flowery mead,
Born of the breath, and named from touch of Zeus.
*And lo ! the destined time
*Wrought fully with the name,
And she brought forth the " Touch-born," Epaphoa.
AJJTISTBOPH. I.
And now invoking him in grassy fields, *
Where erst his mother strayed, to dwellers hero
Telling the tale of all her woes of old,
I surest pledge shall give ;
And others, strange beyond all fancy's dream,
Shall yet perchance be found;
And in due course of time
Shall men know clearly all our history,
STBOPH. II.
And if some augur of the land be near,
Hearing our piteous cry,
Sure he will deem he hears
The voice of Tereus' bride,*
Piteous and sad of soul,
The nightingale sore harassed by the kite. *
Asnsr&ofB. TL,
*For she, driven back from wonted haunts and streams,*
Mourns with a strange new plaint
The home that she has lost,
And wails her son's sad doom,
How he at her hand died,
Meeting with evil wrath unmotherly ;
(1) The invocation passes on to Epaphos, as a guardian deity, able and
willing to succour his afflicted children.
(2) Philomela. See the tale as given in the notes to Agam. 1113.
(8) " Streams," aa flowing through the shady solitude of the grovel
Vfaich the nightingale frequented.
I4O THE SUPPLIANTS.
BTEOPH. HL
E'en so do I, to wailing all o'er-given,
In plaintive music of Ionian mood,1
*Vex the soft cheek on Neilos' banks that bloomed,
And heart that bursts in tears,
And pluck the flowers of lamentations loud,
Not without fear of friends, *
*Lest none should care to help
This flight of mine from that mist-shrouded snore.
ANTISTBOPH. HI.
But, O ye Gods ancestral ! hear my prayer,
Look well upon the justice of our cause,
Nor grant to youth to gain its full desire
Against the laws of right,
But with prompt hate of lust, our marriage bless.
*Even for those who come
As fugitives in war
The altar serves as shield that Gods regard.
STBOPH. IV.
May God good issue give I * •
And yet the will of Zeus is hard to scan :
Through all it brightly gleams,
E'en though in darkness and the gloom of chanoo
For us poor mortals wrapt.
ASTISTBOPH. IV.
Safe, by no foil tripped up,
The full- wrought deed decread by brow of Zeus ;
For dark with shadows stretch
The pathways of the counsels of hia heart,
And difficult to see.
STBOPH. V.
And from high-towering hopes He hurieth down *
To utter doom the heir of mortal birth ;
(1) "Ionian," as soft and elegiac, in contrast with the more military
character of Dorian music.
(2) In the Greek the paronomasia turns npon the supposed etymological
connexion between #£6eandri0///u. I have here, as elsewhere, attempted
an analogous rather than identical jeu de toot.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
Yet sets He in array
No forces violent ;
Ail that Gods work is effortless and calm:
Seated on holiest throne,
Thence, though we know not how,
He works His perfect will.
ANTISTBOPH. V.
Ah, let him look on frail man's wanton pride,
With which the old stock burgeons out anew,
By love for me constrained,
In counsels ill and rash, •*
And in its frenzied, passionate resolve
Finds goad it cannot shun ;
But in deceived hopes,
Shall know, too late, its woe.
STBOPB. VI.
Such bitter griefs, lamenting, I recount,
With cries shrill, tearful, deep,
(Ah woe ! ah woe !)
That strike the ear with mourner's woe-fraught cry,
Though yet alive, I wail mine obsequies ;
Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff,1
I greet (our alien speech
Thou knowest well, O land,) ••
And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate,
On robe of linen and Sidonian veiL
AJITMTROPH. VL
But to the Gods, for all things prospering well,
When death is kept aloof,
Gifts votive come of right.
Ah woe ! Ah woe !
Oh, troubles dark, and hard to understand I
(1) The Greek word which I have translated •' bluff" was one not
familiar to Attic ears, and was believed to be of Kyrenean origin.
^schrlos accordingly puts it into the lips of the daughters of Danaos, am
characteristic more or less of the " alien speech " of the land from which
they came.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
Ah, thither will these waters carry me P
Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff, M>
I greet (our alien speech
Thou knowest well, O land,)
And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate,
On robe of linen and Sidonian veil.
STBOPH. VII.
The oar indeed and dwelling, timber-wrought,
With sails of canvas, 'gainst the salt sea proof
Brought me with favouring gales,
By stormy wind unvexed ;
Nor have I cause for murmur. Issues good
May He, the all-seeing Father, grant, that, I, **•
Great seed of Mother dread,
In time may 'scape, still maiden undefiled,
My suitor's marriage-bed.
ANTISTBOPH. VTI.
And with a will that meets my will may She,
The unstained child of Zeus, on me look down,
*Our Artemis, who guards
The consecrated walls ;
And with all strength, though hunted down, uncaught,
May She, the Virgin, me a virgin free, ^
Great seed of Mother dread,
That I may 'scape, still maiden undefiled,
My suitor's marriage-bed.
STKOPH. VTH.
But if this may not be,
We, of swarth sun-burnt race,
Will with our suppliant branches go to him,
Zeus, sovereign of the dead,1
The Lord that welcomes all that come to him,
Dying by twisted noose **
(11 So in T. 235 Danaos speaks of the " second Zeus" who sit as Judge
in Hades. The feeling to which the Chorus gives utterance is that of—
"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheron ta movebo."
THE SUPPLIANTS. 143
If -wo the grace of Gods Olympian miss.
By thine ire, Zeus, 'gainst lo virulent,
The Gods' wrath seeks us out,
And I know well the woe
Comes from thy queen who reigns in heaven victorious ;
For after stormy wind
The tempest needs must rage.
ANTISTBOPH. VIII.
And then shall Zeus to words
Unseemly be exposed,
Having the heifer's offspring put to shame, **
Whom He himself begat,
And now his face averting from our prayers:
Ah, may he hear on high,
Tea, pitying look and hear propitiously I
By thine ire, Zeus, 'gainst lo virulent,
The Gods' wrath seeks us out,
And I know well the woe
Comes from thy queen, who reigns in heaven victorious ;
For after stormy wind 17°
The tempest needs must rage,
Danaos. My children, we need wisdom ; lo ! ye came
With me, your father wise and old and true,
As guardian of your voyage. Now ashore,
With forethought true I bid you keep my words,
As in a tablet-book recording them :
I see a dust, an army's voiceless herald,
Nor are the axles silent as they turn ;
And I descry a host that bear the shield,
And those that hurl the javelin, marching on
With horses and with curved battle-cars.
Perchance they are the princes of this land, **
Come on the watch, as having news of us ;
But whether one in kindly mood, or hot
With anger fierce, leads on this great array,
It is, my children, best on all accounts
To take your stand hard by this hill of Gods
144 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Who rulo o'er conflicts.1 Better far than towers
Are altars yea, a shield impenetrable.
But with all speed approach the shrine of Zeus,
The God of mercy, in your left hand holding
The suppliants' boughs wool-wreathed, in solemn guise,*
And greet our hosts as it is meet for us, ***
Coming as strangers, with all duteous words
Kindly and holy, telling them your tale
Of this your flight, unstained by guilt of blood ;
And with your speech, let mood not over-bold,
Nor vain nor wanton, shine from modest brow
And calm, clear eye. And be not prompt to speak,
Nor full of words ; the race that dwelleth here
Of this is very jealous : ? and be mindful
Much to concede ; a fugitive thou art,
A stranger and in want, and 'tis not meet
That those in low estate high words should speak.
Chor. My father, to the prudent prudently **
Thou speakest, and my task shall be to keep
Thy goodly precepts. Zeus, our sire, look on us !
Dan. Yea, may He look with favourable eye !
Cher. I fain would take my seat not far from thee.
[Chorus moves to the altar not far from
DANAOS.
Dan. Delay not then ; success go with your plan.
Chor. Zeus, pity us with sorrow all but crushed !
Dan. If He be willing, all shall turn out well.
Chor. .....
Dan. Invoke ye now the mighty bird of Zeus.4
(1) Some mound dedicated to the Gods, with one or more altars and sta-
tues of the Gods on it, is on the stage, and the suppliants are told to take
up their places there. The Gods of conflict who are named below, Zeus,
Apollo, Poseidon, presided generally over the three great games of
Greece. Hermes is added to the list.
(2) Comp. Libation-Pourers, 1024, Etimen. 44.
(3) The Argives are supposed to share the love of brevity which w*
commonly connect with their neighbours the Laconians.
(4) The "mighty bird of Zeus" seems here, from the answer of tho
Chorus, to mean not the "eagle" but the "sun," which roused men
from their sleep as the cock did, so that "cock-crow" and "sunrise"
were synonymous. It is, in any case, striking that Zeus, rather than
Apollo, appears as the Sun-God.
THE SUPPLIANTS. 145
Chor. We call the sun's bright rays to succour us.
Dun. Apollo too, the holy, in that Ilo, ***
A God, has tasted exile from high heaven.1
Chor. Knowing that fate, He well may feel for men.
Dan. So may He feel, and look on us benignly I
Chor. Whom of the Gods shall I besides invoke I*
Dan. I >ee this trident here, a God's great symbol.1
Chor. Well hath He brought us, well may He receive I
Dan. Here too is Hermes/ as the Hellenes know him.
Chor. To us, as free, let Him good herald prove.
Dun. Yea, and the common shrine of all these Goda
Adore ye, and in holy precincts sit,
Like swarms of doves in fear of kites your kinsmen, M
Foes of our blood, polluters of our race.
How can bird prey on bird and yet be pure ?
And how can he be pure who seeks in marriage
Unwilling bride from father too unwilling?
Nay, not in Hades' self, shall he, vain fool,
Though dead, "scape sentence, doing deeds like this j
For there, as men relate, a second Zeus 4
Judges men's evil deeds, and to the dead
Assigns their last great penalties. Look up,
And take your station here, that this your cause
May win its way to a victorious end.
• Enter the K±NQ on his chariot, followed ly Attendants.
King. Whence comes this crowd, this non- Hellenic
band, »
In robes and raiment of barbaric fashion
So gorgeously attired, whom now we speak to P
(1) The words refer to the myth of Apollo's banishment from heaven
and servitude under Admetos.
(2) In the Acropolis at Athens the impress of a trident was seen on the
rock, and was believed to commemorate the time whim Poseidon h.ui
claimed it as his own by setting vp his weapon there. Something o; tne
same kind seems here to be supposed to exist at Argos, where a like
legend prevailed.
(3) The Hellenic Hermes is distinguished from his Egyptian counter-
part, Thoth, as being different in form and accessories.
(4) A possible reference to the Egyptian Osiris, M lord or judffe of
Hadea. Cornp. v. 146.
It
146 THE SUPPLIANTS.
This woman's dress is not of Argive mode,
Nor from the climes of Hellas. How ye darod,
Without a herald even or protector,
Yea, and devoid of guides too, to come hither
Thus boldly, is to me most wonderful.
And yet 1heso boughs, as is the suppliant's wont,
Are set by you before the Gods of conflicts :
By this alone will Hellas guess arigh.t.
Much more indeed we might have else conjectured, "°
"Were there no voice to tell me on the spot.
CJior. Not false this speech of thine about our garb ;
But shall I greet thee as a citizen,
Or bearing Hermes' rod, or city ruling P1
King. Nay, for that matter, answer thou and speak
Without alarm. Paleechthon's son am I,
Earth-born, the king of this Pulasgic land ;
And named from me, their king,2 as well might be,
The race Pulasgic reaps our country's fruits ;
*And all the land through which the Stryinon pours **
Its pure, clear waters to the West I rule ;
And as the limits of my realm I mark
The laud of the Perrhaobi, and the climes
Near the Paeouians, on the farther side
Of Pindos, and the Dodonsean heights ; 8
And the sea's waters form its bounds. O'er all
Within these coasts I govern ; and this plain,
The Apian land, itself has gained its name
Long since from one who as a healer lived ; *
For Apis, coming from Naupactian land
(1) " Shall I," the Chorus asks, "speak to you aa a private citizen, or
M a herald, or as a king ? "
(2) It would appear from this that the king himself bore the name
Pelasgos. In some versions of the story he is so designated.
(3). The lines contain a tradition of the wide extent of the old Pelasgic
rule, including1 Thessalia, or the Pelasgic Argos, between the mouths of
Peneus and Pindos, Perrhsebia, Dodona, and finally the Apian land or
Peloponnesos.
(4) The true meaning of the word- " Apian," as applied to the Pelo-
ponnesos, seems to have been "distant." Here the myth is followed
Which represented it as connected with Apis the son of Telchin, (son ol
Apollo, in the sense of being' a physician-prophet,) who had freed th«
land from monsters.
THE SUPPLIANTS. I4J
That lies beyond th« straits, Apollo's son,
Prophet and healer, frees this land of ours **
From man-destroying monsters, which the soil,
Polluted with the guilt of blood of old,
By anger of the Gods, brought forth, — fierce plagues,
The dragon-brood's dread, unblest company ;
And Apis, having for this Argive land
Duly wrought out his saving surgery,
Gained his reward, remembered in our prayers ;
And thou, this witness having'at my hands,
May'st tell thy race at once, and further speak ;
Yet lengthened speech our city loveth not.
Chor. Full short and clear our tale. We boast that we
Are Argives in descent, the children true
Of the fair, fruitful heifer. And all this
"Will I by what I speak show firm and true.
King. Nay, strangers, what ye tell is past belief
For mo to hear, that ye from Axgos spring ;
For ye to Libyan women are most like,1
And nowise to our native maidens here.
Such race might Neilos breed, and Kyprian mould,
Like yours, is stamped by skilled artificers
On women's features ; and I hear that those
Of India travel upon camels borne, "*'
Swift as the horse, yet trained as sumpter-mules,
E'en those who as the 2Ethiops' neighbours dwell.
And hud ye borne the bow, I should have guessed,
Undoubtiug, ye were of th' Amazon's tribe,
Man-hating, flesh-devouring. Taught by you,
I might the better know how this can be,
That your descent and birth from Argoa come.
Chor. They tell of one who bore the temple-keys
Of Hera, lo, in this Argive land.
King. So was't indeed, and wide the fame prevails :
And was it said that Zeus a mortal loved ? **
(1) The description would seem to indicate — (1) that the daughter of
T)anaos appeared on the stage as of swarthy complexion ; and (2) that
Indians. /Ethiopians, Kyprians, and Amazons, were all thought of as in
this respect alike.
148 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Chor. And that embrace was not from Hera hid.
King. What end had then these strifes of sovereign Ones P
Chor. The Argive goddess made the maid a heifer.
King. Did Zeus that fair-horned heifer still approach P
Chor. So say they, fashioned like a wooing steer.
King. How acted then the mighty spouse of Zeus P
Chor. She o'er the heifer set a guard all-soeing.
King. What herdsman strange, all- seeing, speak'st
thouof?
Chor. Argos, the earth -horn, him whom Hermes
King. What else then wrought she on the ill-starred
heifer P
Chor. She sent a stinging gadfly to torment her.
[Those who near Neilos dwell an wstros call it.}
King. Did she then drive her from her country far P
Chor. All that thou say'st agrees well with our tale.
King. And did she to Canobos go, and Memphis ?
Chor. Zeus with his touch, an offspring then begets.
King. What Zeus - born calf that heiler claims as
mother ?
CJior. *He from that touch which freed named Epa-
phos. S1°
King, [What offspring then did Epaphos beget ?~\ l
Chor. Libya, that gains her fame from greatest land.
King. What other offspring, born of her, dost tell of?
Chor. Sire of my sire here, Belos, with two sons.
King. Tell me then now the name of yonder sage.
Chor. Danaos, whose broth'er boasts of fifty sous.
King. Tell me his name, too, with ungrudging speech.
Chor. .ZEgyptos : knowing now our ancient stock,
Take heed thou bid thine Argive suppliants rise.
King. Ye seem, indeed, to make your ancient claim
To this our country good : but how came ye
To leave your father's house ? What chance constrained
you ?
(1) The line is conjectural, but some question of this kind is implied is
the answer of the Chorus.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
Chor. 0 king of the Pelasgi, manifold
Are ills of mortals, and thou could'st not find
The self-same form of evil anywhere.
Who would have said that this unlooked-for flight
Would bring to Argos race once native here,
Driving them forth in hate of wedlock's couch?
King. What seek'st thou then of these the Gods oi
conflicts,
Holding your wool-wreathed branches newly-plucked ?
Clior. That I serve not JEgyptos' sons as slave.
King. Speak'st thou of some old feud, or breach of
right ? 33°
Clior. Nay, who'd find fault with master that one
loved?
King. Yet thus it is that mortals grow in strength.1
Chor. Time ; when men fail, 'tis easy to desert them.
King. How then to you may I act reverently ?
Chor. Yield us not up unto JEgyptos' sons.
I^ing. Hard boon thou ask'st, to wage so strange a war.
Chor. Nay, Justice champions those who fight with her.
King. Yes, if her hand was in it from the first.
Chor. Yet reverence thou the state-ship's stem thus
wreathed,*
King. I tremble as 1 see these seats thus shadowed. M0
STBOPH. I.
Chor. Dread is the •vrratii of Zeue, the God of sup-
pliants :
Son of Palsechthon, hear ,
Hear, 0 Pelasgic king, with kindly b.eart.
Behold me suppliant, exile, wanderer,
*Like heifer chased by wolves
Upon the lofty crags,
Where, trusting in her strength,
(1} By sacrificing personal likings to schemes of ambitkm, men and
women contract marriages which increase their power.
(a) The Gods of conflict are the pilots of the ship of the State. The
altar dedicated to them is as its stern ; the garlands and wan da of nip-
piiants which adorn it are as the decorations of thu vessel*.
ISO THE SUPPLIANTS.
She liftoth up her voice
And to the shepherd tells her tale of grief.
King. I see, o'ershadowed with the new- plucked
boughs,
*Bent low, a band these Gods of conflict own ;
And may our dealings with these home-sprung stran-
gers **
Be without peril, nor let strife arise
To this our country for unlooked-for chance
And unprovided 1 This our State wants not.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Chor. Yea, may that Law that guards the suppliant's
right
Free this our flight from harm,
Law, sprung from Zeus, supreme Apportioner,
But thou, [to the King,'] though old, from me, though
younger, learn :
If thou a suppliant, pity
Thou ne'er shalt penury know,
So long as Gods receive
Within their sacred shrines
Gifts at the hands of worshipper unstained.
King. It is not at my hearth ye suppliant eit ;
But if the State be as a whole denied, tu
Be it the people's task to work the cure.
I cannot pledge my promise to you first
Ere I have counselled with my citizens.1
STnopH. II.
Chor. Thou art the State — yea, thou the common-
wealth,
Chief lord whom none may judge ;
'Tis thine to rule the country's altar-hearth,
(1) Some editors have seen in this an attempt to enlist the constitu-
tional Hympathies or an Athenian audience in favour of the Argive knitf,
who will not act without consulting his assembly. There seems more
reason to think that the aim of the dramatist was in precisely the oppo-
site direction, and that the words which follow set forth his admiration
for the king? who can act, as compared with one ttho is tied and hampered
by restrictions.
TUB SUPPLIANTS.
With the sole vote of thy prevailing nod;
And thou on throne of state,
Sole -sceptred in thy sway,
Bringest each matter to its destined end ;
Shun thou the curse of guilt.
King. Upon my foes rest that dread curse of guilt I *"
Yet without harm I cannot succour you,
Nor gives it pleasure to reject your prayers.
In a sore strait am I ; fear fills my soul
To take the chance, to do or not to do.
ANTISTBOPH. II.
Chor. Look thou on Him who looks on all from heaven,
Guardian of suffering men
Who, worn with toil, unto their neighbours come
As suppliants, and receive not justice due :
For these the wrath of Zeus,
Zeus, the true suppliant's God,
Abides, bjr wail of sufferer unappeased.
King. Yet if 2Egyptos' sons have claim on thee
By their State's law, asserting that they come
As next of kin, who dare oppose their right ?
Thou must needs plead that by thy laws at home
They over thee have no authority.1
STROPH. III.
Chor. Ah ! may I ne'er be captive to the might
Of males ! Where'er the stars
Are seen in heaven, I track my way in flight,
As refuge from a marriage that I hate.
But thou, make Eight thy friend,
And hon DUT what the Gods count pure and true, ***
(1) By an Attic law, analogous in principle to that of the Jews, (Num.
xxxvi. 8; 1 Chron. xxiit. '22), heiresses were absolutely bound to marry
their next of kin, if he claimed his right. The king at once asserts this
as the law which was priuta facie applicable to the case, and declares hini-
eelf ready to surrender it if the petitioners can show that their own
municipal law is on the other side. He will not thrust his country's cus-
toms upon foreigners, who can prove that they live under a different rula.
but in the absence of evidence must act on the law which he in bound
officially to recognise.
15* THE SUPPLIANTS.
King. Hard is the judgment : choose not me as judge.
But, as I said before, I may not act
Without the people, sovereign though I be,
Lest the crowd say, should aiight fall out amiss,
" In honouring strangers, thou the State did'st ruin."
ANTISTR6PH. III.
Clior. Zeus, the great God of kindred, in these things
Watches o'er both of us,
Holding an equal scale, and fitly giving
To the base evil, to the righteous blessing.
Why, when these things are set
In even balance, fear'st thou to do right ? *"
King. Deep thought we noed that brings deliverance,
That, like a diver, mine eye too may plunge
Clear-seeing to the depths, not wine-bedrenched,
That these things may be harmless to the -State,
And to ourselves may issue favourably :
That neither may the strife make you its prey,
Nor that we give you up, who thus are set
Near holy seat of Gods, and so bring in
To dwell with us the Avenger terrible,
God that destroyeth, who not e'en in Hades •"
Gives freedom to the dead. Say, think ye not
That there is need of counsel strong to save ?
STKOPH. L
Chor. Take heed to it, and be
Friend to the stranger wholly faithful found ;
Desert not thou the poor,
Driven from afar by godless violence.
ASTISTBOPH. I.
See me not dragged away,
0 thou that rul'st the land ! from seat of Gods :
Know thou men's wanton pride,
And guard thyself against the wrath of Zeus.
STBOPH. II.
Endure not thou to see thy suppliant,
Despite of law, torn off,
THE SUPPLIANTS. 153
As horses by their frontlets, from the forma
Of sculptured deities,
Nor yet the outrage of their wanton hands,
Seizing these broidered robes.
AJITISTBOWI. n.
For know thou well, whichever course thou take,
Thy sons and all thy house
*Must pay in war the debt that Justice claims,
Proportionate in kind. **
Lay well to heart these edicts, wise and true,
Given by great Zeus himself.
King. Well then have I thought o'er it. To this point
Our ship's course drives. Fierce war we needs must risk
Either with these (pointing to the Gods') or those. Set fast
and firm
Is this as is the ship tight wedged in stocks ;
And without trouble there's no issue out.
For wealth indeed, were our homes spoiled of that,
There might come other, thanks to Zeus the Giver,
More than the loss, and filling up the freight ; ***
And if the tongue should aim its adverse darts,
Baleful and over-stimulant of wrath,
There might be words those words to heal and soothe.
But how to blot the guilt of kindred blood,
This needs a great atonement — many victims
Falling to many Gods — to heal the woe.
*I take my part, and turn aside from strife ;
Ajid I far rather would be ignorant
Than wise, forecasting evil. May the end,
Against my judgment, show itself as good !
Ghur. Hear, then, the last of all our pleas for pity.
King. I hear ; speak on. It shall not 'scape my
heed. «*
Chor. Girdles I have, and zones that bind my robes.
King. Such things are fitting for a woman's state.
Chor. With these then, know, as gool and rare de«
vice . . .
t$4 THE SUPPLIANTS.
King. Nay, speak. What word is this thou'lt utter
now ?
Chor. Unless thou giv'st our band thy plighted
word ....
King. "What wilt thou do with this device of girdles P
Chor. With tablets new these sculptures we'll adorn.
King. Thou speak'st a riddle. Make thy meaning plain.
Chor. Upon these Gods we'll hang ourselves at once.
King. I hear a word which pierces to the heart. *80
Chor. Thou see'st our meaning. Eyes full clear I've
given.
King. Lo then ! in many ways sore troubles come.
A host of evils rushes like a flood ;
A sea of woe none traverse, fathomless,
This have I entered ; haven there is none.
For if I fail to do this work for you,
Thou tellest of defilement unsurpassed ; *
And if for thee against vEgyptos' sons,
Thy kindred, I before my city's walls
In conflict stand, how can there fail to be
A bitter loss, to stain the earth with blood **
Of man for woman's sake ? And yet I needa
Must fear the wrath of Zeus, the suppliant's God ;
That dread is mightiest with the sons of men.
Thou, then, 0 aged father of these maidens !
Taking forthwith these branches in thine arms,
Lay them on other altars of the Gods
Our country worships, that the citizens
May all behold this token of thy coming,
And about me let no rash speech be dropped ;
For 'tis a people prompt to blame their rulers.
And then perchance some one beholding them, **
And pitying, may wax wrathful 'gainst the outrage
Of that male troop, and with more kindly will
The people look on you ; for evermore
Men all wish well unto the weaker side.
(1) Sc., the pollution which the statues of the Gods would contract tf
they saiiied into execution their threat of suicide.
THE SUPPLIANTS. 155
Dan. This boon is counted by us of great price,
To find a patron proved so merciful.
And thou, send with us guides to lead us on,
And tell us how before their shrines to find
The altars of the Gods that guard the State,
*And holy places columned round about;
And safety for us, as the town we traverse.
Not of like fashion is our features' stamp ; ** *
For Neilos rears not race like Inachos.1
Take heed lest rashness lead to bloodshed here ;
Ere now, unknowing, men have slain their friends.
King (to Attendants'). Go then, my men; full well the
stranger speaks .;
And lead him where the city's altars stand,
The seats of Gods ; and see ye talk not not much
To passers-by as ye this traveller lead,
A suppliant at the altar-hearth of Gods.
[Exeunt DANAOS and Attendants.
Clior. Thou speak' st to him; and maybe go as bidden 1
But what shall I do ? What hope giv'st thou me ?
King. Leave here those boughs, the token of your
grief. **
Chor. Lo ! here I leave them at thy beck and word.
King. Now turn thy steps towards this open lawn.
Chor. What shelter gives a lawn unconsecrate ? a
King. We will not yield thee up to birds of prey.
Chor. Nay, but to foes far worse than fiercest dragons.
King. Good words should come from those who good
hare heard.
Chor. No wonder they wax hot whom fear enthrals.
King. But dread is still for rulers all unmeet.
Chor. Do thou then cheer our soul by words and deeds.
King. Nay, no long time thy sire will leave thea
lorn ; «°
(1) Inachos, the river-God of Argos, and' as such contrasted \ritli
Neilos.
(•2) i.e., " Unconsecrate," marked out by no barriers, accessible to all,
and therefore seeming to offer but little prospect of a safe asylum. Tha
pl;ice described seems to have been an open piece of turf rather than •
grove of ti ted.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
And I, all people of the land convening,
Will the great mass persuade to kindly words ;
And I will teach thy father what to say.
Wherefore remain and ask our country's Gods,
With suppliant prayers, to grant thy soul's desire,
And I will go in furtheiance of thy \vish :
Sweet Suasion follow us, and Fortune good I [Exit.
STEOPH. L
CJior. 0 King of kings ! and blest
Above all blessed ones,
And Power most mighty of the mightiest I
O Zeus, of high estate ! •*
Hear thou and grant our prayer I
Drive thou far off the wantonness of men,
The pride thou hatest sore,
And in the pool of darkling purple hue
Plunge thou the woe that comes in swarthy barque.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Look on the women's causo ;
Hecall the ancient tale,
Of one whom Thou did'st love in time of old,
The mother of our race :
Eemember it, O Thou
Who did'st on lo lay thy mystic touch.
We boast that we are come
Of consecrated land the habitants, ••
And from this land by lineage high descended.
STROPH. II.
Now to the ancient track,
Our mother's, I have passed,
The flowery meadow-land where she was watched,—
The pastures of the herd,
Whence lo, by the stinging gadfly driven,
Flees, of her sense bereft,
Passing through many tribes of mortal men ;
And then by Fate's decree
THE SUPPLIANTS. 157
Crossing the billowy straits,
On either side she leaves a continent.1 ***
ANTISTROPH. IL
Now through the Asian land
She hastens o'er and o'er,
Hight through the Phrygian fields where feed the flocks ;
And passes Teuthras' fort,
Owned by the Mysians,2 and the Lydian plains ;
And o'er Kilikian hills,
And those of far Pamphylia rushing on,
By ever-flowing streams,
On to the deep, rich lands,
And Aphrodite's home in wheat o'erflowing.'
STBOPH. in.
And so she cometh, as that herdsman winged **
Pierces with sharpest sting,
To holy plain all forms of life sustaining,
Fields that are fed from snows,*
Which Typhon's monstrous strength has traversed,*
And unto Neilos' streams,
By sicily taint untouched,8
Still maddened with her toil of ignominy,
By torturing stings driven on, great Hera's frenzied slave.
ANTISTBOPH. m.
And those who then the lands inhabited,
Quivered with pallid fear, *•
!t) Comp. the narrative as given in Prometheus Bound, vr. 660, et seq.
2) Teuthras' fort, or Teuthrania, is described by Strabo (xii. p. 571) a*
lying between the Hellespont and Mount Sipylos, in Magnesia.
(3) Kypros, as dedicated to the worship of Aphrodite, and famous for
its wine, and oil, and corn,
(4) The question, what caused the mysterious exceptional inundntiona
of the Nile, occupied, as we see from Herodotos (it. c. 19-27), the minds
of the Greeks. Of the four theories which the historian discusses,
.^schylps adopts that which referred it to the melting of the snows on the
mountains of central Africa,
(5) Typhen, the mythical embodiment of the power of evil, was fabled
to have wandered over Egypt, seeking- the body of Osiris. Isis, to baffle
him, placed coffins in all parts of Egypt, all empty but the one which con-
tained the body.
(6) The fame of the Nile for the purity of its water, after the earthly
matter held in solution had been deposited, seems to have been as great in
the earliest periods of its history as it is now.
158 THE SUPPLIANTS.
That filled their soul at that unwonted marvel,
Seeing that monstrous shape,
The human joined with brute,
Half heifer, and half form of woman fair : l
And sore amazed were they.
Who was it then that soothed
Poor lo, wandering in her sore affright,
Driven on, and ever on, by gadfly's maddening sting f
STBOPH. IV.
Zeus, Lord of endless time
[Was seen All-working then ;"]
He, even He, for by his sovereign might
That works no ill, was she from evil freed ; **
And by his breath divine
She findeth rest, and weeps in floods of tears
Her sorrowing shame away ;
And with new burden big,
Not falsely ' Zeus-born ' named,
Bhe bare a son that grew in faultless growth,
ANTISTBOPH. IV.
Prosperous through long, long years ;
And so the whole land shouts with one accord,
" Lo, a race sprung from him, the Lord of life,
In very deed, Zeus-born! •*
"Who else had checked the plagues that Hera sent ? "
This is the work of Zeus :
And speaking of our race
That sprang from Epaphos
As such, thou would'st not fail to hit the mark.
STBOPH. V.
Which of the Gods could I with right invoke
As doing juster deeds ?
He is our Father, author of our life,
(1) To was represented as a woman with a heifer's head, and was pro-
bably a symbolic representation of the moon, with her crescent horns.
Sometimes the transformation is described (as in v. 294} in words which
imply a more thorough change.
THE SUPPLIANTS. I$g
The "King -whose right hand worketh all his will,
Our line's great author, in his counsels deep
Eecording things of old,
Directing all his plans, the great work-master, Zeiufc
ANTISTBOPH. V.
For not as subject hastening at the beck
Of strength above his own,1
Beigns He subordinate to mightier powers; *°
Nor does He pay his homage from below,
While One sits throned in majesty above;*
Act is for him as speech,
To hasten what his teeming mind resolves.
Re-enter DANAOS.
Dan. Be of good cheer, my children. All goes well
With those, who dwell here, and the people's voice
Hath passed decrees full, firm, irrevocable.
Chor. Hail, aged sire, that telPst me right good news I
But say with what intent the vote hath passed,
And on which side the people's hands prevail.
Dan. The Argives have decreed without division,
So that my aged mind grew young again ; **•
For in full congress, with their right hands raised
Eustled the air as they decreed their vote
That we should sojourn in their land as tree,
Free from arrest, and with asylum rights ;
And that no native here nor foreigner
Should lead us off; and, should he venture force,
That every citizen who gave not help
Dishonoured should be driven to exile forth.
Such counsel giving, the Pelasgian King •*•
Gained their consent, proclaiming that great wrath
(1) Perhapa-
" For not as subject sitting 'neath the sway
Of strength above his own."
(2) The passage takes its place union;; the noblest utterances of a faith
passing- above the popular polytheism to the thought of one sovereign
Will ruling and guiding all things, as Will,— without effort, in the calm-
ness of a power irresistible.
l6O THE SUPPLIANTS.
Of Zeus the God of suppliants ne'er would let
The city wax in fatness, — warning them
That double guilt l upon the State would come,
Touching at once both guests and citizens,
The food and sustenance of sore disease
That none could heal. And then the Argive host.
Hearing these things, decreed by show ot hands,
Not waiting for the herald's proclamation,
So it should be. They heard, indeed, the crowd
Of those Pelasgi, all the winning speech,
The well- turned phrases cunning to persuade ;
But it was Zeus that brought the end to pass.
Chor. Come then, come, let us speak for Argives
Prayers that are good for good deeds done; **
Zeus, who o'er all strangers watches,
May He regard with his praise and favour
The praise that comes from the lips of strangers,
*And guide in all to a faultless issue.
STBOPH. I.
Half-Chor. A. Now, now, at last, ye Gods of Zeua
begotten,2
Hear, as I pour my prayers upon their race,
That ne'er may this Pelasgic city raise
From out its flames the joyless cry of War,
War, that in other fields
Beapeth his human crop :
For they have mercy shewn,
And passed their kind decree, «•
Pitying this piteous flock, the suppliants of great Zeus.
AjfTISTBOPH. I.
They did not take their stand with men 'gainst women
Casting dishonour on their plea for help,
(1) Double, as involving1 a sin against the laws of hospitality, BO far am
the suppliants were strangers— a sin against the laws ot kindred, so fiir am
they might claim by descent the rights ot citizenship.
(2) If, as has been conjectured, the tragedy was written with a view to
the alliance between Argos and Athens, made in B.C. 461, this choral oda
must have been the centre, if not of the dramatic, at all events of th«
political interest of the play.
THE SUPPLIANTS. l6l
*But looked to Him who sees and works from heaven,
*Full hard to war with. Yea, what house could bear
To sea Him on its roof
Casting pollution there ? *
Sore vexing there he sits.
Yes, they their kin revere,
Suppliants of holiest Zeus ; **
Therefore with altars pure shall they the Gods delight.
STBOPH. II.
Therefore from faces by our boughs o'ershadowed '
Let prayers ascend in emulous eagerness :
Ne'er may dark pestilence
This State of men bereave ;
May no fierce party-strife
Pollute these plains with native carcases ;
And may the bloom of youth
Be with them still uncropt ;
And ne'er may Aphrodite's paramour, **
Ares the scourge of men,
Mow down their blossoms fair I
AJJTISTP.OPH. H.
And let the altars tended by the old
*Blaze with the gifts of men with hoary hairs ;
So may the State live on
In full prosperity !
Let them great Zeus adore,
The strangers' God, the one Supreme on high,
By venerable law
Ordering the course of fate.
And next we pray that ever more and more
Earth may her tribute bear,
And Artemis as Hecate preside s
O'er woman's travail-pangs.
(1) The image is that of a bird of evil omen, perched upon the roof, and
defiling the house, while it uttered its boding cries.
(2) The suppliants' boughs, so held as to shade the face from view.
(3) The name of Hecate connected Artemis as, on the one side, with
the unseen world of Hades, so, on the other, with child-birth, and the
purit nations that followed on it.
1C
THE SUPPLIANTS.
STBOPH. IIL
Let no destroying strife come on, invading
This city to lay waste,
Setting in fierce array
"War, with its fruit of tears.
Lyreless and danceless all,
And cry of people's wrath ;
And may the swarm of plagues,
Loathly and foul to see,
Abide far off from these our citizens,
And that Lykeian king, may He be found
Benignant to our youth ! l
ASTISTROPH. HI.
And Zeus, may He, by his supreme decree,
Make the earth yit Id her fruits
Through all the seasons round,
And grant a plenteous brood
Of herds that roam the fields !
May Heaven all good gifts pour,
And may the voice of song
Ascend o'er altar shrines,
TJnmarred by sounds of ill !
And let the voice that loves with lyre to blend
Go forth from lips of blameless holiness,
In accents of great joy !
STBOPH. IV.
*And may the rule in which the people share
Keep the State's functions as in perfect peace,
E'en that which sways the crowd,
*Which sways the commonwealth,
By counsels wise and good ;
And to the strangers and the sojourners
May they grant rights that rest on compacts sure,
(1) The name Lykeian, originally, perhaps, simply representing
Apollo as the God of Light, came afterwards to be associated with tha
might of destruction (the Wolf-destroyer) and the darts of pestilence
and sudden death.. The prayer is therefore that he, the Uestroyer,
may hearken to the suppliants, and spare the people for whom thej
pray.
THE SUPPLIANTS. l6j
Ere War is roused to arms,
So that 110 trouble come I
ANTISTUOPH. IV.
And the great Gods who o'er this country watch,
May they adore them in the land They guard,
With rites of sacrifice,
And troops with laurel boughs,
As did our sires of old !
For thus to honour these who gave us life,
This stands as one of three great laws on high,1
Written as fixed and firm,
The laws of Eight revered.
Dan. I praise these seemly prayers, dear children
mine.
But fear ye not, if I your father speak
Words that are new, and all unlooked-for by you ;
For from this station to the suppliant given
I see the ship ; too clear to be mistaken
The swelling sails, the bulwark's coverings,
And prow with eyes that scan the onward way,'
But too obedient to the steerman's helm,
Being, as it is, unfriendly. And the men
Who sail in her with swarthy limbs are seen,
In raiment white conspicuous. And I see ***
Full clear the other ships that come to help ;
And this as leader, putting in to shore,
Furling its sails, is rowed with equal stroke.
Tis yours, with mood of calm and steadfast soul,
To face the fact, and not to slight the Gods. ,
And I will come with friends and advocates ;
For herald, it may be, or embassy,
May come, and wish to seize and bear you off,
Grasping their prey. But nought of this shall be ;
(1) The " thr«>€ great laws '* were those ascribed to Triptolemos, " t«
honour parents, to worship the Gods with the fruits of the earth, to hart
neither man nor boost."
(2) The Egyptian ships, like those of many other Eastern countries,
had eyes (the eyes of Osiris, as they were called} painted on theii pom.
164 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Fear ye not them. It were well done, however.
If we should linger in our help, this succour w
In no wise to forget. Take courage then ;
In their own time and at the appointed day,
"Whoever slights the Gods shall pay for it.
STBOPH. I.
Chor. I fear, my father, since the swift-winged ships
Are come, and very short the time that's left.
A shuddering anguish makes me sore afraid,
Lest small the profit of my wandering flight.
I faint, my sire, for fear.
Dan. My children, since the Argives' vote is passed,
Take courage : they will fight for thee, I know. *"
AjfTISTROPH. I.
Chor. Hateful and wanton are JEgyptos' sons,
Insatiable of conflict, and I speak
To one who knows them. They in timbered ships,
Dark-eyed, have sailed in wrath that hits its mark,
With great and swarthy host.
Dan. Yet many they shall find whose arms are tanned
In the full scorching of the noontide heat.1
STBOPH. II.
Chor. Leave me not here alone, I pray thee, father I
Alone, a woman is as nought, and war
Is not for her. Of over-subtle mind,
And subtle counsel in their souls impure,
Like ravens, e'en for altars caring not, —
Such, such in soul are they.
"Dan That would work well indeed for us, my children,
Should they be foes to Gods as unto thee.
AXTISTBOPH. II.
Chor. No reverence for these tridents or the shrines
Of Gods, my father, will restrain their hands :
(11 A side-thrnst, directed by the poe',, wl.o had fought at Marathon,
against the growing effeminacy of the Athenian youth, many of whom
were learning to shrink Irom all activity and exposure that might spot!
tlttar complexion*. Comp. 1'lato, Phuedroa, p. 23U.
THtt SUPPLIANTS. 165
Full stout of heart, of godless mood unblest,
JFed to the full, and petulant as dogs,
And for tho voice of high Gods caring not,—
Such, such in soul are they.
Dan. Nay, the tale runs that wolves prevail o'er dogp; Tfc
And byblos fruit excels not ear of corn.1
Chor. But since their minds are as the minds of brutes,
Eestless and vain, we must beware of foi*ce.
Dan. Not rapid is the getting under weigh
Of naval squadron, nor their anchoring,
Nor the safe putting into shore with cables.
Nor have the shepherds of swift ships quick trust
In anchor-fastenings, most of all, as now,
When coming to a country havenless ;
And when the sun has yielded to the night,
That night brings travail to a pilot wise, T*
[Though it be calm and all the waves sleep still ;]
So neither can this army disembark
Before the ship is safe in anchorage.
And thou beware lest in thy panic fear
Thou slight the Gods whom thou hast called to help.
The city will not blame your messenger,
Old though he be, being young in clear voiced-thought.
Exit.
STBOT>H. L
Chor. Ah, me ! thou land of jutting promontory
Which justly all revere,
What lies before us ? Whore in Apian land
Shall we a refuge find,
If still there be dark hiding anywhere P
Ah ! that I were as smoke
fll The saying is somewhat dark, but the meaning seems to be that if
the dogs" of Egypt are strong, the "wolves" of Argos are stronger ;
that the wheat on which the Hellenes lived g;ive greater strength tolimts
and sinew than the " byblos fruit" on which the Egyptian soldiers and
wilors habitually lived. Some writers, however, have seen in the lart
line, rendered—
" The byblos fruit not always bears full ear,"
A proTeib like the English.
1 There's many a slip
'Twutt the ciip and the lip."
166 THE SUPPLIANTS.
That riseth full and black
Nigh to the clouds of Zeus,
Or soaring up on high invisible,
Like dust that vanishes,
Pass out of being with no help from wings t
AXTISTBOPH. L
*E'en so the ill admits not now of flight ;
My heart in dark gloom throbs ;
My father's work as watcher brings me low ;
I faint for very fear,
And I would fain find noose that bringeth death,
In twisted cordage hung,
Before the man I loathe
Draws near this flesh of mine :
Sooner than that may Hades rule o'er me
Sleeping the sleep of death I
STEOPH. IL
Ah, might I find a place in yon high vault,
Where the rain-clouds are passing into snow,
Or lonely precipice
Whose STimmit none can see,
Eock whore the vulture haunts,
Witness for me of my abysmal fall,
Before the marriage that will pierce my heart
Becomes my dreaded doom !
ANTISTBOPH. IL
I shrink not from the thought of being the prey
Of dogs and birds that haunt the country round j
For death shaW. make me free
From ills all lamentable :
Yea, let death rather come
Than the worse doom of hated marriage-bed I
What other refuge now remains for me
That marriage to avert ?
THE SUPPLIANTS. 167
STBOPH. ITL
Yea, to the Gods raise thou
Cloud-piercing, wailing cry
Of songs and litanies,
Prevailing, working freedom out for me :
And thou, O Father, look,
Look down upon the strife,
"With glance of wrath against our enemies
From eyes that see the right ;
"With pity look on us thy suppliants,
O Lord of Earth, 0 Zeus omnipotent I
AXTISTBOPH. IH.
For lo ! -3Sgyptos' house,
In pride intolerable,
O'er-masculine in mood,
Pursuing me in many a winding course,
Poor wandering fugitive,
With loud and wild desires,
Seek in their frenzied violence to seize :
But thine is evermore
The force that turns the balance of the scale :
What comes to mortal men apart from Thee t
Ah! ah! ah! ah!
*Here on the land behold the ravisher
• Who comes on us by sea !
*Ah, may'st thou perish, ravisher, ere thou
Hast stopped or landed here !
*I utter cry of wailing loud and long,
*I see them work the prelude of their Crimea)
Their crimes of violence.
Ah ! ah ! Ah me !
Haste in your flight for help !
The mighty ones are waxing fat and proud.
By sea and land alike intolerable.
Be thou, 0 King, our bulwark and defence !
l68 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Enter Herald of the sons of EYPTOS' advancing to the
daughters of DAXAOS.
Her. Haste, haste with all your speed unto the barque.
Chor. Tearing of hair, yea, tearing now will come,
And print of nails in flesh,
And smiting off of heads,
With murderous stream of hlood.
Her. Haste, haste ye, to that barque that yonder lies,
Ye wretches, curse on you.
STROPH. L
Chor. Would thou had'st met thy death
Where the salt waves wildly surge,
Thou with thy lordly pride,
In nail-compacted ship :
*Lo ! they will smite thee, weltering in thy blood, MC
*And drive thee to thy barque.
Her. I bid you cease perforce, the cravings wild
Of mind to madness given.
Ho there ! what ho ! I say; •*
Give up those seats, and hasten to the ship :
I reverence not what this State honoureth.
AXTISTBOPH. L
Chor. Ah, I may ne'er again
Behold the stream where graze the goodly kine,
Nourished and fed by which 1
The blood of cattle waxes strong and full I
*As with a native's right,
*And one of old descent,
I keep, old man, my seat, my seat, I say.
Her. Nay, in a ship, a ship thou shalt soon go, **
With or without thy will,
By force, I say, by force •
(1) The words recall the vision of the "seven well-favoured kine and
fat-fleshed," which " came out of the river," as Pharaoh dreamed,
(Gen. xli. 1, 2,) and which were associated so closely with the fertility
which it ordinarily produced through the whole extent of the valley ol
the Nile.
THE SUPPLIANTS. 169
Come, come, provoke not evils terrible,
Palling by these my hands.
STBOPII. EL
CTior. Ah me ! ah me !
Would thou may'st perish with no hand to help,
Crossing the sea's wide plain,
In wanderings far and wide,
Whore Sarpedouian sand-bank1 spreads its length,
Driven by the sweeping blasts !
Her. Sob thou, and howl, and call upon the Goda : "*
Thou shalt not 'scape that barque from 2Egypt come,
Though thou should' st pour a bitterer strain of grief.
A.VTISTROPH. II.
Clior. Woe ! woe ! Ah woe ! ah woe,
For this foul wrong ! Thou utterest tearful things ;
Thou art too bold and insolent of speech.
*May mighty Nile that reared thee turn away
Thy wanton pride and lust
That we behold it not !
Her. I bid you go to jron ship doublo-prowed,*
With all your speed. Let no one lag behind ;
But little shall my grasp your ringlets spare.
[/Seizes on the leader of the Suppliants
STBOPH. III.
Clior. Ah me ! my father, ah !
The help of holiest statues turns to woe ;
He leads me to the sea,
With motion spider-like,
Or like a dream, a dark and dismal dream,
Ah woe ! ah woe ! ah woe !
0 mother Earth ! O Earth ! O mother mine I
Avert that cry of fear,
O Zeus, thou king ! 0 sou of mother Earth !
(1) Two dangerous low he.idlnnds seem to have been known by this
name, one on the coast of Kilikia, the other on that of the Thrakian
Chersonese.
(2) No traces of ships of this structure are found in Egyptian art; but,
if the reading be right, it implies the existence of boats of some kind, Ml
built that they could be steered from either end.
THE SVPPLIANTS.
Her. Nay, I fear not the Gods they worship here;
They did not rear nor lead me up to age. •*
AXTISTKOPH. III.
Chor. Near me he rages now,
• ••••••
That biped snake,
And like a viper bites me by the foot.
Oh, \voe is me ! woe ! woe !
O mother Earth !' 0 Earth ! O mother mine i
Avert that cry of fear.
0 Z:>us, thou king ! O son of mother Earth.
Her. If some one yield not, and to yon ship go,
The hand that tears her tunic will not pity.
STBOPH. IV.
Chor. Ho! rulers of the State! "•
Ye princes ! I am seized.
Her. It seems, since ye are slow to hear my words,
That I shall have to drag you by the hair.
ANTISTROPH. IV.
Chor. "We are undone, undone !
We suffer, prince, unlooked-for outrages.
Her. Full many princes, heirs of great JEgyptoa,
Ye soon shall see. Take courage ; ye shall have
No cause to speak of anarchy as there.
Enter KrxG followed by his Bodyguard.
King. Ho there ! "What dost thou ? and with what
intent
Dost thou so outrage this Pelasgic land ?
Dost think thou comest to a town of women ? 88C
Too haughty thou, a stranger 'gainst Hellenes,
And, sinning much, hast nothing done aright.
Her. What sin against the ri«ht have I then done ?
King. First, thou know'st not how stranger-guest
should act.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
Her. How so ? When I, but finding what I lost . . .
Sing. Whom among us dost thou then patrons call ?
Her. Hermes the Searcher, chiefest patron mine.1
King. Thou, Gods invoking, honourest not the Gods.
Her. The Gods of Neilos are the Gods I worship.
King. Ours then are nought, if I thy meaning catch. **
Her. These girls I'll lead, if no one rescues them.
King. Lay hand on them, and soon thou'lt pay the
cost.
Her. I hear a word in no wise hospitable.
King. Who rob the Gods I welcome not as guests.
Her. I then will tell ^Egyptos' children this.
King, This threat is all unheeded in my mind.
Her. But that I, knowing all, may speak it plain,
(For it is meet a herald should declare
Each matter clearly,) what am I to say ?
By whom have I been robbed of that fair band
Of women whom I claim as kindred ? Nay, tw
But it is Ares that shall try this cause,
And not with witnesses, nor money down,
Settling the matter, but there first must fall
Full many a soldier, and of many a life
The rending in convulsive agony.
King. Why should I tell my name ? In time thou'lt
know it,
Thou and thy fellow-travellers. But these maidens,
With their consent and free choice of their wills,
Thou muy'st lead off, if godly speech persuade them:
But this decree our city's men have made
With one consent, that we to force yield not
This company of women. Here the nail •"
Is driven tight home to keep its place full firm ; '
(1) Hermes, the guardian deity of heralds, is here described by thf
epithet, which marked him out as being also the patron of detectives.
Every stranger arriving in a Greek port had to place himself under a
proxenoa or patron of some kind. The herald, having no proxenoa among
the citizens, appeals to his patron deity.
(2) The words refer to the custom of nailing decrees, proclamations,
treaties, and the like, engraved on metal or marblo, upon the walls 01
temples or public buildings. Traajs of the same idea may possibly bt
I7» THE SUPPLIANTS.
These things are -written not on tablets only,
[Nor signed and sealed in folds of byblos-rolls ;"]
Thou hear'st them clearly from a tongue that speaks
With full, free speech. Away, away, I say :
And with all speed from out my presence haste.
Her. It is thy will then a rash war to wage :
May strength and victory on our males attend I
[Exit,
King. Nay, thou shalt find the dwellers of this land
Are also males, and drink not draughts of ale 93*
From barley brewed.l \_To the Suppliants.'] But ye, and
your attendants,
Take courage, go within the fenced city,
Shut in behind its bulwark deep of towers ;
Tea, many houses to the State belong,
And I a palace own not meanly built,
If ye prefer to live with many others
In ease and plenty : or if that suits better,
Ye may inhabit separate abodes.
Of these two offers that which pleases best
Choose for yourselves, and I as your protector, •*•
And all our townsmen, will defend the pledge
Which our decree has given you. Why wait'st thou
For any better authorised than these ?
Chor. For these thy good deeds done may'st thou in
good,
All good, abound, great chief of the Pelasgi I
But kindly send to us
Our father Danaos, brave and true of heart,
To counsel and direct.
His must the first decision be where we
Should dwell, and where to find
A kindly home ; for ready is each one
found in the promise to Eliakim that he shall be " as a nail in a tmn
place," (Isa. xxii. 23,) in the thanksgiving of Ezra that God had given
His people " a nail in his holy place," (Ezra ix. 8.)
(1) As before, the bread of the Hellenes was praised to the disparage-
ment of the " byblos fruit " of Egypt, so here their wine to that of thl
r, which was the ordinary drink of the lower classes.
THE SUPPLIANTS. I?3
To speak his word of blame 'gainst foreigners. "*
But may all good be ours I
And so with fair repute and speech of men,
Free from all taint of wrath,
So place yourselves, dear handmaids, in the land,
As Danaos hath for each of us assigned
Dowry of handmaid slaves,
t
Enter DANAOS followed ly Soldiers.
Dan. My children, to the Argives ye should pray,
And sacrifice, and full libations pour,
As to Olympian Gods, for they have proved,
With one consent, deliverers : and they heard
*A11 that I did towards those cousins there, •*
*Those lovers hot and bitter. And they gave
To me as followers these that bear the spear,
That I might have my meed of honour due,
And might not die by an assassin's hand
A death unlooked-for, and thus leave the land
A weight of guilt perpetual : and 'tis fit
That one who meet such kindness should return,
*From his heart's depths, a nobler gratitude ;
And add ye this to all already written,
Tour father's many maxims of true wisdom,
That we, though strangers, may in time be known ; **
For as to aliens each man's tongue is apt
For evil, and spreads slander thoughtlessly ;
But ye, I charge you, see ye shame me not,
With this your life's bloom drawing all men's eyes.
The goodly vintage is full hard to watch,
All men and beasts make fearful havoc of it,
Nay, birds that fly, and creeping things of earth;
And Kypris offers fruitage, dropping ripe,
*As prey to wandering lust, nor lets it stay ; l
And on the goodly comeliness of maidens •*•
(1) The -words present a striking parallelism to the erotic imagery of
the Sony «/ Soliraion : " Take us the loxes, the little foxes that spoil OHf
vuics, for 'our Tines have tender grapes" UL lal.
174 THE SUPPLIANTS.
Each passer-by, o'ercome with hot desire,
Darts forth the amorous arrows of the eye.
And therefore let us suffer nought of this,
Through which our ship has ploughed such width of sea,
Such width of trouble ; neither let us work
Shame to ourselves, and pleasure to our foes.
This two-fold choice of home is open tc you :
[Velasgos offers his, the city theirs,]
To dwell rent-free. Pull easy terms are these :
Only, I charge you, keep your father's precepts,
Prizing as more than life your chastity. "•
Chor. May the high Gods that on Olympos dwell
Bless us in all things ; but for this our vintage
Be of good cheer, my father; for unless
The counsels of the Gods work strange device,
I will not leave my spirit's former path.
STEOPH. I.
Semi- Chor. A. Go then and make ye glad the high
Gods, blessed for ever,
Those who rule our towns, and those who watch over our
city,
And they who dwell by the stream of Erasinos ancient.1
Semi-CJior. B. And ye, companions true,
Take up your strain of song. M0°
Let praise attend this city of Pelasgos ;
Let us no more no more adore the mouths of Neilos
With these our hymns of praise ;
ANTISTROPH. I.
Semi-Chor. A. Nay, but the rivers here that pour calm
streams through our country,2
(1) The Erasinos -was supposed to rise in Arcadia, in Mount Stym-
plmlos, to disappear below the earth, and to come to sight again in
Arfjolis.
(2) In this final choral ode of the Suppliants, as in that of the Seven
against Thel>e.8, we have the phenomenon of the division of the Chorus,
hitherto -united, into two sections of divergent thought and purpose.
Semi-Chorus A. remains steadfast in its purpose of perpetual virginity ;
Semi-Chorus B. relents, and is ready to accept wedlock.
THE SUPPLIANTS.
Parents of many a son, making glad the soil of out
meadows,
With wide flood rolling on, in full and abounding rich-
ness.
Semi-Chor. B. And Artemis the chaste,
May she behold our band
With pity ; ne'er be marriage rites enforced
On us by Kythereia : those who hate us,
Let that ill prize be theirs.
i STBOPH. IL
Semi-CTior. A. Not that our kindly strain does slight
to Kypris immortal ;
For she, together with Hera, as nearest to Zeus is mighty,
A goddess of subtle thoughts, she is honoured in mys-
teries solemn.
Semi-Chor. B. Yea, as associates too with that their
mother beloved, 102°
Are fair Desire and Suasion,1 whose pleading no man can
gainsay,
Yea, to sweet Concord too Aphrodite's power is entrusted,
*And the whispering paths of the Loves.
ANTISTBOPH. II.
Simi-Chor. A. Yet am I sore afraid of the ship that
chases us wanderers,
Of terrible sorrows, and wars that are bloody and hateful;
*Why else have they had fair gale for this their eager
pursuing ? 103°
Semi-Chor. D. Whate'er is decreed of us, I know that
it needs must happen ;
The mighty purpose of Zeus, unfailing, admits no trans-
gression :
(1) The two names were closely connected in the local worship of
Athens, the temples of Aphrodite and Peitho (Suasion) standing at the
south-west angle of the Acropolis. If any special purpose is to be
traced in the invocation, we may see it in the poet's desire to bring out
the nobler, more ethical side of Aphrodite's attributes, in contrast
with the growing tendency to look on her as simply the patroness el
brutal lust.
i;6 THE SUPPLIANTS.
*May this fate come to us, as to many women before us,
*Fate of marriage and spouse I
STBOPH. III.
Scmi-Chor. A. Ah, may groat Zeus avert
From me all marriage with wEgyptos' sous I
Semi-Cher. B. Nay, all will work for good.
Semi-Chor. A. Thou glozest that which will no glozing
bear. 10"
Semi-Chor. B. And thou know' at not what future
comes to us.
ANTISTBOPH. III.
Semi-Chor. A. How can I read the mind
Of mightiest Zeus, to sight all fathomless ?
Semi-Chor. B. "Well-tempered be thy speech!
Semi-Chor. A. What mood of calmness wilt thon
school me in ?
Semi-Chor. B. Be not o'er-raah in what concerns the
Gods.
STBOPH. IV.
Semi-Chor. A. Nay, may our great king Zeus avert
that marriage
With husbands whom we hate,
E'en He who, touching her with healing hand.
Freed lo from her pain,
Putting an end from all her wanderings,
Working with kindly force 1 IC*
ANTISTBOPH. V.
Semi-Chor. B. And may He give the victory to women!
I choose the better part,
Though mixed with ill ; and that the trial end
Justly, as I have prayed,
By means of subtle counsels which God gives
To liberate from ills.1
(1) The play, as acted, formed part of a trilogy, and the next play, th«
Danaids, probably contained the sequel of tlie story, the acceptance by th«
Suppliants of tie sons of .JEgyptos in marriage, the plot of Danaos I'oi
the destruction -if the bridegrooms on the wedding-night, and the execu-
tion of the deed of blood by all but Hyperiunestra.
ARGUMENT.
Tin years had passed sines Agamemnon, got, sf Atreus, king of
Mykenee, had led the Hellenes to Tro'ia to take vengeance on
Alexandras (also known as Paris}, son of Priam. For Paris
had basely wronged Menelaos, king of Sparta, Agamemnon s
brother, in that, being received by him as a guest, he enticed
his wife Helena to leave her lord and go with him to Tro'ia.
And now the tenth year had come, and Paris was slain, and
tlie city of the Tro'ians was taken and destroyed, and Aga-
memnon and tfo Hellenes were on their way homeward with
the spoil and prisoners they had taken. Hut meanwhile
Clytccmnestra tco, Agamemnon's queen, had been unfaithful,
and had taken as her paramour JEgisthos, son of that Thyestes
whom Atreus, his brotlier, had made to eat, unknowing, of the
Jlesh of his own children. And now, partly led by her adul-
terer, and partly seeking to avenge the death of her daughter
Jphigeneia, whom Agamemnon had sacrificed to appease the
wrath of Artemis, and partly also jealous because he was
bringing back Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, as his con-
cubine, she plotted with AZgisthos against her husband's life.
But this was done secretly, and she stationed a guard on the
roof of the royal palace to give notice when he saw the beacon -
fires, by which Agamemnon had promised that he would send
tidings that Tro'ia was taken.*
• The unfaithfulness of Clytwmnestra and the murder of Agamem-
non had entered into the Homeric cycle of the legends of the bouse
of Atreus. In the Odyssey, however, ^Egisthos is the chief agent in
this crime, (Odyss- iii- 264, iv. 91, 532, xi. 409); and the manner of it
differs from that which jEschylos has adopted. Clytwmnestra first
appears as slaying both her husband and Cassandra in Pindar (Pytk
persona.
Watchman.
Chorus of Argive Elder*.
CLYT^MNESTRA.
Herald, (TALTHYBIOt.)
AGAMEMNON.
CASSAKBKA.
JEGISTHOS.
AGAMEMNON.
SCENE. — Argos. The. Palace of AGAMEMNON ; statues
of the Oods in front. Watchman on the roof. Time,
night.
Watchman. I ask the Gods a respite from these toils,
This keeping at my post the whole year round,
Wherein, upon the Atreidse's roof reclined,
Like dog, upon my elbow, I have learnt
To know night's goodly company of stars,
And those bright lords that deck the firmament,
And winter bring to men, and harvest-tide ;
[The rising and the setting of the stars.]
And now I watch for sign of beacon-torch,
The flash of fire that bringeth news from Tro'ia,
And tidings of its capture. So prevails
*A woman's manly-purposed, hoping heart ; M
And when I keep my bed of little ease,
Drenched with the dew, un visited by dreams,
(For fear, instead of sleep, my comrade is,
So that in sound sleep ne'er I close mine eyes,)
And when I think to sing a tune, or hum,
(My medicine of song to ward off sleep,)
Then weep I, wailing for this house's chance,
No more, as erst, right well administered.
Well ! may I now find blest release from toils, *°
When fire from out the dark brings tidings good.
[Pauses, then springs up suddenly, seeing a light
in the distance.
Hail I thou torch-bearer of the night, that shedd'st
Light as of morn, and bringest full array
182 AGAMEMNON.
Of many choral bands in Argos met,
[Because of this success. Hurrah ! hurrah I
So clearly tell I Agamemnon's queen,
With all speed rising from her couch to raise
Shrill cry of triumph o'er this beacon-fire
Throughout the house, since Ilion's citadel
]s taken, as full well that bright blaxe shows. "
I, for my part, will dance my prelude now ;
[Leaps and dances.
For I shall score my lord's new turn of luck,
This beacon-blaze my throw of triple six.1
Well, would that I with this mine hand may touch.
The dear hand of our king when he comes home I
As to all else, the word is " Hush !" An ox J
Rests on my tongue ; had the house a voice
'Twould tell too clear a tale. I'm fain to speak
To those who know, forget with those who know not.
[Exit.
Enter Chorus of twelve Argive elders, chanting as they
march to take up their position in the centre of the stage.
A procession of women learntg torches is seen in the
distance.
Lo ! the tenth year now is passing *
Since, of Priam great avengers,
Menelaos, Agamemnon,
(1) The form of gambling1 from which the phrase is taken, had clearly
become common in Attica among the class to which the watchman was
w r posed to belong, and had given rise to proverbial phrases like that in
tin text The Greeks themselves supposed it to have been invented by
the Lydibng, (Herod, i. 94), or I'alamedes, one of the heroes of the tale of
Truia, but it enters also into Egyptian legends (Herod, ii. 12-2.) and it»
prevalence from remote antiquity in thefaither East, as in the Indian
story of Nala and Damaynnti, makes it probable that it originated there.
The game was commonly played, as the phrase shows, with three dice, the
highest throw being that which gave three sixes. JKschylos. it may bo
noted, appears in a lost drama, which bore the title of Paiameiles, to
have brought the game itself into his plot. It is referred to, as invented
by that hero, in a fragment of Sophocles, (f'r. 380,) and again in the
proverb,—
" The dice of Zeus have ever lucky throws."— (Fr. 763.)
(2) Here, also, the watchman takes up another common proverbial
phrase, belonging to the same group as that of " kicking p.gainst the
pricks " in v. 1624. He has his reasons for silence, weighty as would b*
the tread of an ex to close his lips.
AGAMEUNOK.
Double-throned and double-sceptred,
Power from sovran Zeus deriving —
Mighty pair of the Atreidse —
Raised a fleet of thousand vessels
Of the Argives from our country,
Potent helpers in their warfare,
Shouting cry of Ares fiercely ;
E'en as vultures shriek who hover,
"Wheeling, whirling o'er their eyrie,
In wild sorrow for their nestlings,
With their oars of stout wings rowing,
Having lost the toil that hound them
To their callow fledglings' couches.
But on high One, — or Apollo,
Zeus, or Pan, — the shrill cry hearing,
Cry of birds that are his clients,1
Sendeth forth on men transgressing,
Erinnys, slow but sure avenger ;
So against young Alexandras 3
Atreus' sons the great King sendeth,
Zeus, of host and guest protector :
He, for bride with many a lover,
Will to Danai give and Troians
Many conflicts, men's limbs straining,
When the knee in dust is crouching,
And the spear-shai't in the onset
Of the battle snaps asunder.
But as things are now, so are they,
So, as destined, shall the end be.
Nor by tears, nor yet libations
Shall he soothe the wrath unbending
Caused by sacred rites left fireless.* "
(1) The rultures stand, i.e., to the rnlers of Heaven, in the iame rela-
tion as the foreign sojourners in Athens, the Metoeca, did to the citizen*
under whose protection they placed themselves.
(2) Alexandros, the other name of Paris, the sedncer of Helen.
(3) The words, perhaps, refer to the grief of Menelaos, as leading him
to neglect the wonted sacrifices to Zeus, but it seems better to see in
them a reference to the sin of Paris. He, at least, who had carried off
his host's wile, had not oileied acceptable sacrifices, had neglected aiJ
184 AGAMEMNON.
We, with old frame little honoured,
Left behind that host are staying,
Besting strength that equals childhood*!
On our staff : for in the bosom
*0f the boy, life's young sap rushing,
Is of old age but the equal ;
Ares not as yet is found there :
And the man in age exceeding,
"When the leaf is sere and withered,
Goes with thi-ee feet on his journey ; * "
Not more Ares-like than boyhood,
Like a day-seen dream ho wanders.
[Enter CLYMEMXESTRA, followed by the procession
of torch-bearers.
Thou, of Tyndareus the daughter,
Queen of Argos, Clytsemnestra,
"What has happened ? what news cometh ?
What perceiving , on what tidings
Leaning, dost thou put in motion
All this solemn, great procession P
Of the Gods who guard the city,
Those above and those beneath us,
Of the heaven, and of the market, *
Lo ! with thy gifts blaze the altars ;
And through all the expanse of Heaven,
Here and there, the torch-fire rises,
With the flowing, pure persuasion
Of the holy unguent nourished,
*And the chrism rich and kingly
From the treasure-store's recesses.
Telling what of this thou canst tell,
What is right for thee to utter,
Be a healer of my trouble,
•aeriflcea to Zens Xcnios, the God of host and p-upnt. The allusion to th»
Bacrinee of Iphigeneia, which some (Donaldson and Paley) have found
b«re, and the wrath of Clytremnestra, which Agaraemnuu will fail to
toot he, seems more far-fetched.
(1) An allusion, such as the audience would catch and delipht in, to the
Well-known enigma of the Sphinx. Sue Sophocles, ('1 raiu.,) p. L
AGAMEMNON. 185
Trouble now my soul disturbing, **
* While anon fond hope displaying
Sacrificial signs propitious,
"Wards off care that no rest knoweth,
Sorrow mind and heart corroding.
£ The Chorus, tuking their places round the central
thymele, begin their song.1
STEOPETB.
Able am I to utter, setting forth
The might from omens sprang
*What met the heroes as they journeyed on,
(For still, by God's great gift,
My age, yet linked with strength,
*Breathes suasive power of song,)
How the Achseans' twin-throned majesty,
Accordant rulers of the youth of Hellas, ***
With spear and vengeful hand,
Were sent by fierce, strong bird 'gainst Teucrian shore,
Kings of the birds to kings of ships appearing,
One black, with white tail one,
Near to the palace, on the spear-hand side,
On station seen of all,
A pregnant hare devouring with her young,
Robbed of all runs to come :
(I] The Chorus, though too old to take part in the expedition, are yet
able to tell both of what passed as the expedition started, and of tha
terrible fulfilment of the omens which they had seen. The two eagles are,
of course, in the symbolism of prophecy, the two chieftains, Menelaos
and Agamemnon. The "white feathers" of the one may point to the
less heroic character of Menelaos : so, in v. 123, they are of " diverse
mood." The hare whom they devour is, in the first instance, Trola, and
so far the omen is good, portending the success of the expedition ; but,
as Artemis hates the fierceness of the eagles, so there is, in the eyes of
the seer, a dark token of danger from her wrath against the Atreidse.
Either their victory will be sullied by cruelty which will bring down ven-
geance, or else there is some secret sin in the past which must be atoned
for by a terrible sacrifice. In the legend followed by Sophocles, (E/ectr.
566,) Agamemnon had offended Artemis by slaying a doe sacred to her, aa
he was hunting. In the manifold meanings of such omens there is,
probably, a latent suggestion of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia by the two
chieftnins, though this was nt the time hidden from the sper. The fact
that they are »eeu on Uie right, uot ou the lull hand, was itself ominous
of good.
186 AGAMEMNON.
Wail as for Linos, wail, -wail bitterly,
And yet may good prevail ! l ia*
AjmSTBOPHJS.
And the -wise prophet of the avny seeing*
The brave Atreidso twain
Of diverse mood, knew those that tore the hare,
And those that led the host ;
And thus divining spake :
" One day this armament
Shall Priam's city sack, and all the herds
Owned by the people, countless, by the towers,
Fate shall with force lay low.
Only take heed lest any wrath of Gods *3°
Blunt the great curb of Tro'ia yet encamped,
Struck down before its time ;
For Artemis the chaste that house doth hate,
Her father's winged hounds,
Who slay the mother with her unborn young,
And loathes the eagles' feast.
Wail as for Linos, wail, wail bitterly ;
And yet may good prevail 1
EPODB.
" *For she, the fair One, though so kind of heart
To fresh-dropt dew from mighty lion's womb,*
And young that suck the teats
(1) The song of Linos, originally the dirge with which n\en mourned
for the death of Linos, the minstrel-son of Apollo and Uran»«, brother of
Orpheus, who was slain by Heracles,— a type, like Thammuz and Adonis,
of life prematurely closed and bright hopes never to be fulfilled, — had
come to be the representative of all songs of mourning. So Hesiod (in
Eustath. on Horn. 11., vii. 509) speaks of the name, as applied to all
funeral dirges o\er poets and minstrels. So Herodotos (ii. 79) compare*
it, as the type of this kind of music among the Greeks, with what ha
found in Egypt connected with the name of Maneros, the only son of the
first king ot Egypt, who died in the bloom of youth. The name had,
therefore, as definite a connotation for a Greek audience as the words
Miserere or Jubilate would have for us, and ought not, I believe, to disap-
pear from the translation.
(2) The comparison of a lion's whelps to dew-drops, bold as the fignr*
is, has something in it analogous to that with which we are more familiar,
describing the children, or the army of a, king, as the " dew " from "tbt
womb of the uioruiug " (Pa. ex. 3).
AGAMEMNON.
Of all that roam the fields, ***
*Yet prays Him bring to pass
The portents of those birds,
The omens good yet also full of dread
And Paean I invoke
As Healer, lest she on the Danai send
Delays that keep the ships
Long time with hostile blasts,
So urging on a new, strange sacrifice,
Unblest, uniVstivalled,1
By natural growth artificer of strife,
Bearing far other fruit than wife's true fear,
.For there abideth yet,
Fearful, recurring still,
Ruling the house, full subtle, unforgetting,
Vengeance for children slain." 2 *"
Such things, with great good mingled, Calchas spake,
In voice that pierced the air,
As destined by the birds that crossed our path
To this our kingly house :
And in accord with them,
Wail as for Linos, wail, wail bitterly;
And yet may good prevail.
STROPH. I.
O Zeus — whate'er He be,*
If that Name please Him well,
By that on Him I call :
(1) The sacrifice, i.e., was to he such as rould not, according to the ooo-
ternary ritual, form a feast for the worshippers.
(2) The dark words look at once before and after, back to the murder
of the sons of Thyestes, forward, though of this the seer knew not, to the
sacrifice of Iphigeneia. Clytwmnestra is the embodiment of the Ven-
geance of which the Chorus speaks.
(3) As a part of the drama the whole passage that follows is an asser-
tion by the Chorus that in this their trouble they will turn to no other
God. invoke no other name, but that of the Supreme 2eus. But it can
hardly be doubted that they have a meaning beyond this, and are tha
utterance by the poet of his own theology. In the second part of the
Promethean trilogy (all that we now know of it) he had represented Zeus-oa
ruling in the might of despotic sovereignty, the representative of a
Power which men could not resist, but also could not love, inflicting
needle** «uifej-iugs ou Uie sous of iaeu. Now be has grown wi»er. l'i»
l88 AGAMEMNON.
Weighing all other names I fail to guess
Aught else but Zeus, if I would cast aside,
Clearly, in very deed,
From off my soul this idle weight of care. **
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Nor He who erst was great,1
Pull of the might to war,
* Avails now ; He is gone ;
And He who next came hath departed too,
His victor meeting ; but if one to Zeus,
High triumph-praise should sing,
His shall be all the wisdom of the wise ;
STBOPH. II.
Yea, Zeus, who leadeth men in wisdom's way, "*
And fixeth fast the law,
That pain is gain ;
And slowly dropping on the heart in sleep
Comes woe-recording care,
And makes the unwilling yield to wiser thoughts :
And doubtless this too comes from grace of Gods,
*Seated in might upon their awful thrones.
AKTISTEOPH. II.
And then of those Achaean ships the chief,*
The elder, blaming not
Or seer or priest ;
sovereignty of Zens is accepted as part of the present order of the world ;
trust in Him brines peace ; the pain which He permits is the one only
way to wisdom. The stress laid upon the name of Zeus implies a wish to
cleave to the religion inherited from, the older Hellenes, as contrasted
with those with which their intercourse with the East had made the
Athenians familiar. Like the voice which came to Epimenides, as he
was building a sanctuary to the Muses, bidding1 him dedicate it not
to them but to Zeus, (Dio<r. Laert. i. 10,) it represents a faint approxi-
mation to a truer, more monotheistic creed than that of the popular
mythology.
( 1) The two mighty ones who have passed away are Uranos and Cronos,
the representatives in Greek mythology of the earlier stages of the
world's history, (1) mere material creation, (2) an ideal period of har-
mony, a golden, Saturnian aue, preceding the present order of divine
government with its mingled good and evil. Comp. Ifesiod. Theogon, 459.
(2) The Chorus returns, after its deeper speculative thought*, to it*
interrupted narrative.
AGAMEMNON. 189
But tempered to tho fate that on him smote. ... *•
When that Achaean host
Were vexed with adverse winds and falling stores,
Still kept where Chalkis in the distance lies,
And the vexed waves in Aulis ebb and flow ;
STIUJFH. HI.
And breezes from the Strymon sweeping down,
Breeding delays and hunger, driving forth
Our men in wandering course,
On seas without a port.
Sparing nor ships, nor rope, nor sailing gear,
With doubled months wore down the Argive host ; ***
And when, for that wild storm,
Of one more charm far harder for our chiefs
The prophet told, and spake of Artemis,1
In tone so piercing shrill,
The Atreidse smote their staves upon the ground,
And could not stay their tears.
AXTISTROPH. IIL
And then the old king lifted up his voice,
And spake, " Great woe it is to disobey;
Great too to slay my child, •*
The pride and joy of home,
Polluting with the streams of maiden's blood
Her father's hands upon the altar steps.
What course is free from ill ?
How lose my ships and fail of mine allies ?
'Tis meet that they with strong desire should seek
A rite the winds to soothe,
E'en though it be with blood of maiden pure ;
May all end well at last ! " *•
STBOPH. HI.
So when he himself had harnessed
To the yoke of Eate unbending,
(1) The seer saw his augury fulfilled. WLcn he uttered the name of
Artemis it was pregnant with all the woo wiiich be had breboded at th»
190 AGAMEMNON.
With a blast of strange, new feeling,
Sweeping o'er his heart and spirit,
Aweless, godless, and unholy,
He his thoughts and purpose altered
To full measure of all daring,
(Still base counsel's fatal frenzy,
Wretched primal source of evils,
Gives to mortal hearts strange boldness,)
And at last his heart ho hardened
His own child to slay as victim,
Help in war that they were waging,
To avenge a woman's frailty,
Victim for the good ships' safety.
ANTISTHOPH. in.
All her prayers and eager callings
On the tender name of Father,
All her young and maiden freshness,
They but set at nought, those rulers,
In their passion for the battle.
And her father gave commandment
To the servants of the Goddess,
When the prayer was o'er, to lift her,
Like a kid, above the altar,
In her garments wrapt, face downwards,—1
Yea, to seize with all their courage,
And that o'er her lips of beauty
Should be set a watch to hinder
Words of curse against the houses,
With the gag's strength silence-working.*
STEOPH. IV.
And she upon the ground
Pouring rich folds of veil in saffron dyed,
Cast at each one of those who sacrificed
A piteous glance that pierced,
(1) So that the blood may fall upon the altar, as the knife was drawn
across the throat.
(2) The whole passage should be compared with the magnificent de»
Bonptiwi in Lucretius i. U4-101.
AGAMEMNON.
Fair as a pictured form ; l
And wishing, — all in vain,—
To speak ; for oftentimes
In those her father's hospitable halls
She sang, a maiden pure with chastest song,
*And her dear father's life
That poured its threefold cup of praise to God,*
Crowned with all choicest good,
She with a daughter's love
Was wont to celebrate.
ANTISTBOPH. IV.
"What then ensued mine eyes
Saw not, nor may I tell, but Calchas' arts *•
Were found not fruitless. Justice turns the scale
For those to whom through pain
At last comes wisdom's gain.
*13ut for our future fate,
*Since help for it is none,
•Good-bye to it before it comes, and this
Has the same end as wailing premature ;
For with to-morrow's dawn
Jt will come clear ; may good luck crown our fate I
So prays the. one true guard,
Nearest and dearest found,
Of this our Apian land.3
{The Chief of the Chorus turns to CLYTVEACNESTRA, and
her train of liandmaida, who are seen approaching.
Chor. I come, 0 Clytaemneetra, honouring
(1) Beautiful an a picture, and aa motionless and silent also. The art,
young as it was, bad already reached the stage when it supplied to the
poet an ideal standard of perfection. Other allusions to it are found in
W. 774, 1300.
(2) The words point to the ritnal of Greek feasts, which assigned the
first libation to Zeus and the Olympian Gods, the second to the Heroes,
the third to Zeus in his special character as Saviour and Preserver ; the
last was commonly accompanied by a peean, hymn of praise. The life of
Agamemnon is described as one which had good cause to offer many
such libations. Iphigeneia had sung many such preans.
(3) The mythical explanation of this title for the Argive territory is
(bund in the Suppl, v. 256, and its real meaning will be discussed in u note
on that poaaage.
I9» AGAMEMNON.
Thy majesty : 'tis meet to pay respect
To a chief's wife, the man's throne empty left : *°
But whether thou hast heard good news, or else
In hopes of tidings glad dost sacrifice,
1 fain would hear, yet will not silence blame.
Clytcem. May Morning, as the proverb runs, appear
Bearing glad tidings from his mother Night ! '
Joy thou shalt learn beyond thy hope to hear ;
For Argives now have taken Priam's city.
Ckur. What ? Thy words sound so strange they flit by
me.
Clytcem. The Achseans hold Troi'a. Speak I clear
enough ? ati°
Chor. Joy creeps upon me, drawing forth my tears.
ClytcKm. Of loyal heart thine eyes give token true.
Chor. What witness sure hast thou of these events ?
Clytcem. Full clear (how else ?) unless the God deceive.*
Chor. Eeliest thou on dreams or visions seen ?
Clytcem. I place no trust in mind weighed down with
sleep.5
Chor. Hath then some wingless omen charmed thy
• soul?4
Clytcem. My mind thou scorn'st, as though 'twere but
a girl's.
Chor. What time has passed since they the city sacked ?
(1) To speak of Morning as the child of Night was, we may well
believe, among1 the earliest parables of nature. Ha its mythical form it
appears in Hesiod., (Thengon. 123,) but its traces are found wherever, as
among Hebrews, Athenians, Germans, men reckoned by nights rather
than by days, and spoke of " the evening and the morning " rather than
of "day and nipht."
(2) The God thought of is, as in v. 272, Hephsestos, as being Lord of
the Fire, that had brought the tidings.
(3) It is not without significance that Clytmmnestra scorns the channel
Of divine instruction of which the Chorus had spoken with such rever-
ence. The dramatist pu^s into her mouth the language of those who
scoffed at the notion that truth might come to the soul in " visions of the
night," when " deep sleep falleth upon men." So Sophocles puts like
thoughts into the mouth of Jocasta, ((Ed. King, w. 709, 858.)
(4) Omens came from the flk'ht of birds. An omen which was not
trustworthy, or belonged to some lower form of divination, might there-
fore be spoken of as "wingless." But the word may possibly be inten-
sive, not negative, " swU't-wiugf d," unU then refer genericilly to that
form of divination.
AGAMEMNON. 193
Clytcem. This very ni^ht, the mother of this morn. r*
Chor- What herald could arrive with speed like this ?
Clytcem, Hephsostos flashing forth bright flames from
Ida:
Beacon tc beacon from that courier-fire
Sent on its tidings ; Ida to the rook l
Hermsean named, in Lemnos : from the isle
The height of Athos, dear to Zeus, received
A third great torch of tlame, and lifted up,
So as on high to skim the broad sea's back,
The stalwart fire rejoicing went its way ;
The pine-wood, like a sun, sent forth its light
Of golden radiance to Makistos' watch ; *•
And he, with no delay, nor unawares
Conquered by sleep, performed his courier's part :
Far off the torch-light, to Euripos' straits
Advancing, tells it to Messapion's guards:
They, in their turn, lit up and passed it on,
Kindling a pile of dry and aged heath.
Still strong and fresh the torch, not yet grown dim,
Leaping across Asopos' plain in guise
Like a bright moon, towards Kithooron's rock,
Roused the next station of the courier flame. M0
And that far-travelled light the sentries there
Refused not, burning more than all yet named :
And then the light swooped o'er Gorgopis' lake,
And passing on to ^Egiplanctos' mount,
Bade the bright fire's due order tarry not ;
(I) The description that follows, over and above its general interest,
had, probably, for an Athenian audience, that of representing the actual
succession of beacon-stations, by which they, in the course of the wars
under Pericles, had actually received intelligence from the coasts of Asia.
A glance at the map will show the fitness of the places named— Ida,
Lemnos, Athos, Makistos, (a mountain in Kui O3a,) Mexsapion, (on the
coast of BcEotw,) over the plains of the Asopoa to Kithteron, in the souti
of the same province, then over Gorgopis, a bay of the Corinthian Gulf,
to JKgipbuictos in Megaris, then across to a headland overlooking the
Saronic Gulf, to the Araehnsean hill in Argolia. The word " c-iHcier-flre "
connects itself also with the system ol posts or messengers, which the
Persian kings seem to have been the first to organise, and which im-
pressed the minds both of Hebrews (Esth. viii. 14) and Greeks (Herod,
viii. 98) by their regular transmission of the king's edicts, or of special
news.
194 . AGAMEMNON.
And they, enkindling "boundless store, send oa
A mighty beard of flame, and then it passed
The headland e'en that looks on Saron's gulf,
Still blazing. On it swept, until it came
To Arachnoean heights, the watch-tower nearj
Then here on tho Atreidso's roof it swoops,
This light, of Ida's fire no doubtful heir.
Such is the ord(-r of my torch-race games ;
One from another taking up the course,1
But here the winner is both first and last ;
And this sure proof and token now I tell thee,
Seeing that my lord hath sent it me from Troi'a.
Chor. I to the Gods, O Queen, will pray hereafter,
But fain would I hear all thy tale again,
E'en as thou tell'st, and satiate my wonder.
Clytaj.m. This very day the Achaeans Troia hold.
I trow full diverse cry pervades the town :
Pour in the same vase vinegar and oil,
*Aud you would call them enemies, not friends ;
And so from conquerors and from captives now
(1) Our ignorance of the details of the LampadfpJioria, or " torcb-r.ic*
games," in honour of the fire-(iotl, Prometheus, mukes the allusion to
them somewhat obscure. As described by 1'uusaiiias, (I. xxx. 2,) the
runners started with lighted torches from the altar of Prometheus in the
Academeia and ran towards the city. The first who reached the goal wi.-h
his torch still burning became the winner. If all the torches were extin-
guished, then all were losers. As so described, however, there is no
succession, no taking the torch irom one and passing it on to another,
Lkc that described here and in the weU-known line of Lucretius, (ii. t6,)
" Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt."
(And they, as runners, pass the torch of life.)
On the other hand, there are descriptions which show that such a transfer
was the chief element of the game. This is, indeed, implied both in tins
passage and in the comparison between the game and the Persian courier-
system in Herod, viii. i!8. The two views may be reconciled by supposing
(1) that there were sets of runners, vying with each other as sunh, rather
than individually, or (2) that a runner whose speed failed him though
his torch kept burning, was allowe-1 to hand it on to another who w.<s
more likely to win the race, but whose torch was out. The next line
seems meant to indicate where the comparison failed. In the torch-race
which ClytOMTiriestra describes there had been no contest. One and the
self-same tire (the idea of succession passing into that of continuity) hiid
started and had reached the goal, and BO had won the prize. An alterna-
tive rendering would be, —
"lie wins who is first in, though starting last."
AGAMEMNON. 195
The cries of varied fortune one may hear.
For these, low-fallen on the carcases
Of husbands and of brothers, children too
By aged fathers, mourn their dear ones' death,
And that with throats that are no longer free. **
And those the hungry toil of sleepless guard,
After the battle, at their breakfast sets;
Not billeted in order fixed and clear,
But just as each his own chance fortune grasps,
They in the captive houses of the Troi'ans
Dwell, freed at last from all the night's chill frosts,
And dews of heaven, for now, poor wretches, they
Will sleep all night without the sentry's watch.;
And if they reverence well the guardian Gods
Of that new-conquered country, and their shrines, *•*
Then they, the captors, will not captured be.
Ah' ! let no evil lust attack the host
Conquered by greed, to plunder what they ought not :
For yet they need return in safety home,
Doubling the goal to run their backward race.1
*But should the host come sinning 'gainst the Gods,
•Then would the curse of those that perished
Be watchful, e'en though no quick ill might fall.
Such thoughts are mine, mere woman though I be.
May good prevail beyond all doubtful chance ! **
For I have got the blessing of great joy.
Glior. Thou, lady, kindly, like a sage, dost speak,
And I, on hearing thy sure evidence,
Prepare myself to give the Gods due thanks ;
For they have wrought full meed for all our tofl.
\Exit OLYT^M. with her train.
O Zeus our King ! O Night beloved,
Mighty winner of great glories,
"Who upon the towers of Troia
Casted'st snaro of closest meshes,
(I) The complete foot-race was always to the column which marked the
end of the course, round it, and back again. In getting to Xroia, there-
fore, but half the race was done.
196 AGAMEMNON.
So that none full-grown or youthful 3S°
Could o'erleap the net of bondage,
Woe of universal capture ; —
Zeus, of host and guest protector,
"Who hath brought these things, I worship ;
He long since on Alexandros
Stretched his bow that so his arrow
Might not sweep at random, missing.
Or beyond the stars shoot idly.
STBOPH. I.
Yes, one may say, 'tis Zeus whose blow they feel ;
This one may clearly trace:
They fared as He decreed :
Yea, one there was who said, S8°
" The Gods deign not to care for mortal men *
By whom the grace of things inviolable
Is trampled under foot."
No fear of God had he :
*Now is it to the children manifest '
Of those who, overbold,
Breathed rebel War beyond the bounds of Eight,
Their houses overfilled with precious store
* Above the golden mean.
*Ah ! let our life be free from all that hurts, "*
So that for one who gains
Wisdom in heart and soul,
That lot may be enough.
(1) Dramatically the •words refer to the practical impiety of evildoers
like Paris, with, perhaps, a half-latent allusion to that of Clytaemnestra.
lint it can hardly be doubted that for the Athenian audience it would
have a more special significance, as a protest against the growing scep-
ticism, what in a later age would have been culled the Epicureanism, of
the age of Pericles. It is the assertion of the belief of ./Eschylos in the
moral government of the world. The very vagueness of the singular,
"One there was," would lead the hearers to think of some teacher like
Anaxagoras, whom they suspected of Atheism.
(2) The Chorus sees in the overthrow of TroTa, an instnnce of this
righteous retribution. The audience were, perhaps, intended to thini
•Jso of the punishment which had fallen on the Persians for the saeri
tedious acts of their fathers. The " things inviolable' are the sanctities
of the ties of marriage and hospitality , both of which Paris had set at
nought.
AGAMEMNON. 197
Since still there is no bulwark strong in wealth
Against destruction's doom,
For one who in the pride of wantonness
Spurns the great altar of the Eight and Just.
AsnsTBOPH. L
TTim woeful, subtle Impulse urges on,
Eesistless in her might,
Ate's far- scheming child :
All remedy is vain.
It is not hidden, but is manifest,
That mischief with its horrid gleaming light ; **
And, like to worthless bronze,1
By friction tried and tests,
It turns to tarnished blackness in its hue :
Since, boy-like, he pursues
A bird upon its flight, and so doth bring
Upon his city shame intolerable :
And no God hears his prayer,
But bringeth low the unjust,
Who deals with deeds like this.
Thus Paris came to the Atridao's home, *°
And stole its queen away.
And so left brand of sshame indelible
Upon the board where host and guest had sat,
STROPH. IL
She, leaving to her countrymen at home
Wild din of spear and shield and ships of war,
And bringing, as her dower,
To Ilion doom of death,
Passed very swiftly through the palace gates,
Daring what none should dare ;
(1) Here, and again in v. 612, we have a similitude dmwn from the
metallurgy of Greek artists. Good bronze, made of copper and tin, takes
the green rust which collectors prize, but when rubbed, the brightness
reappears. If zinc be substituted for tin, as in our br;iss, or mixed
largely with it, the surface loses its polish, oxidizes and becomes black.
It i?. liowever. doubtful whether this combination of metals was at th«
time in use, and the words may simply refer to different degree* of excel-
lence in bronze properly so called.
IQ8 AGAMEMNON.
And many a wailing cry
They raised, the minstrel prophets of the house,
" Woe for that kingly home !
Woe for that kingly home and for its chiefs I
Woe for the marriage-bad and traces left
Of wife who loved her lord ! "
* There stands he silent ; foully wronged and yet
*Uttering no word of scorn,1
*In deepest woe perceiving she is gone ;
And in his yearning love
For one beyond the sea,
A ghost shall seem to queen it o'er the house ;
The grace of sculptured forms a
Is loathed by her lord,
And in the penury of life's bright eyes
All Aphrodite's charm
To utter wreck has gone.
AXTISTBOPH. H.
And phantom shades that hover round in dreams <M
Come full of sorrow, bringing vain delight ;
For va,in it is, when one
Sees seeming shows of good,
And gliding through his hands the dream is gone,
After a moment's space,
On wings that follow still
Upon the path where sleep goes to and fro.
Such are the woes at home
Upon the altar hearth, and worse than these.
(1) In a corrupt passage like (his, the text of which has been BO vn-
riously restored and rendered, it may be well to give at least one alterna-
tive version :
" There stands she silent, wi*h no honour met,
Nor yet wiih words of scorn,
Sweetest to see ot all that he has lost."
The words, as so taken, refer to the vision of Helen, described in th«
lines that follow. Another, for the line " In deepest woe," &c., ...
would give,
"Believing not he sees the lost one there."
(2) The art of Pheidias had already made it natural at Athens to speok
of king's as decorating their palaces'with the life-size busts or statuea at
those they loved.
AGAMEM.VON. 194
But on a wider scalo for those who went
Prom. Hollas' ancient shore,
J sore distress that causeth pain of heart
Is seen in every house.
Yea, many things there are that touch the quick;
Por those whom each did send
He knoweth ; but, instead
Of living men, there come to each man's home
Punereal xirns alone,
And ashes of the dead.
STBOPH. HI.
For Ares, trafficking for golden coin
The lifeless shapes of men,
And in the rush of battle holding scales,
Sends now from Ilion
Dust from the funeral pyre,
A burden sore to loving friends at home,
And bitterly bewailed,
Pilling the brazen urn
With well-smoothed ashes in the place of men;
And with high praise they mourn
This hero skilled and valiant in the fight,
And that who in the battle nobly fell,
All for another's wife :
And other words some murmur secretly ;
And jealous discontent
Against the Atreidae, champions in the suitt
Creeps on all stealthily ;
And some around the wall,
In full and goodly form have sepulture
There upon Ilion's soil,
And their foes' land inters its conquerors.
ANTISTKOPH. TTT.
And so the murmurs of their subjects rise
With sullen discontent,
A.nd do the dread work of a people's curse J
And now my boding fear
AGAMEMNON.
Awaits some news of ill,
As yet en wrapt in blackness of the night.
Not heedless are the Gods
Of shcdders of much blood,
And the dark -robed Erinnyes in due time,
By adverse chance of life, ao
Place him who prospers in unrighteousness
In gloom obscure ; and once among the unseen,
There is DO help for him :
Fame in excess is but a perilous thing;
For on men's quivering eyes
Is hurled by Zeus the blinding thunder-bolt,
I praise the good success
That rouses not God's wrath;
Ne'er be it mine a city to lay waste,1
Nor, as a prisoner, see
My life wear on beneath another's power I
EPODK.
And now at bidding of the courier flame,
The herald of good news,
A rumour swift spreads through the city streets, ***
But who knows clearly whether it be true,
Or whether God has mingled lies with it?
Who is so childish or so reft of sense,
As with his heart a-glow
At that fresh uttered message of the flame,
Then to wax sad at changing rumour's sound P
It suits the mood that sways a woman's mind
To pour thanksgiving ere the truth is seen :
Quickly, with rapid steps, too credulous,
The limit which a woman sets to trust
Advances evermore ; 2
And with swift doom of death m
A runour spread by woman perishes.
(1) Here again one may note a protest against the aggressive policy of
Pericles, an assertion of the principle that a nation should be contest
With independence, without aiming at supremacy.
(2) Perhaps passively, "Soon suffers tree; assers."
AGAMEMNON. 3OI
[As the Chorus ends, a Ilerald is seen approach-
ing, his head wreathed with dive.1
Soon wo shall know the sequence of the torches
Light-giving, and of all the beacon-fires,
If they be true ; or if, as 'twere a dream.
This sweet light coming hath beguiled our minds.
I see a herald coming from the shore,
With olive boughs o'ershadowod, and the dust,*
Dry sister-twin of mire,3 announces this,
That neither without voice, nor kindling blaze
Of wood upon the mountains, he will signal **
With smoke from fire, but either he will come,
With clear speech bidding us rejoice, or else . . . \jpautes.
The word opposed to this I much mislike.
Nay, may good issue good beginnings crown I
Who for our city utters other prayers,
May he himself his soul's great error reap !
Herald. Hail, soil of this my Argive fatherland.
Now in the light of the tenth year I reach thee,
Though many hopes are shattered, gaining one.
For never did I think in Argive land
To die, and share the tomb that most I craved. "°
Now hail ! thou land ; and hail ! thou light of day;
Zeus our great ruler, and thou Pythian king,
No longer darting arrows from thy bow.4
Full hostile wast thou by Scamandros' banks ,
Now be thou Saviour, yea, and Healer found,
O king Apollo ! and the Gods of war,
(1) As the play opens on the morning of the day ..n which Trola ww
taken, and now we have the arrivals, first, of the herald, and then ot
Agamemnon, after the capture has been completed, and the spoil divided,
and the fleet escaped a storm, an interval of some days must be supposed
between the two parts of the play, the imaginary law of the unities not-
withstanding.
(2) The customary adornment of heralds who brought good news.
Comp. Sophocles, (Xd. K. v. 83. The custom prevailed for many een-
taries. and is recognised by Dante, Purg. ii. 70, as usual in his time in
Italy.
(3) So in the Seven against Thebet, (v. 494,) smoke is called " the sister of
fire."
(4) A prol>a.We reference, not only to the story, but to the actual word*
at Homer, Ii. i. 45-62.
2O2 AGAMEMNON.
These I invoke ; my patron Ilermes too,
Dear herald, whom all heralds reverence,—
Those heroes, too, that sent us,1 — graciously
To •welcome back the host that war has spared. **
Hail, O ye royal dwellings, home beloved!
Ye solemn thrones, and Gods who face the sun I3
If e'er of old, with cheerful glances now
After long time receive our king's array.
For he is come, in darkness bringing light
To you and all, our monarch, Agamemnon.
Salute him with all grace ; for so 'tis meet.
Since he hath dug up Troi'a with the spade
Of Zeus the Avenger, and the plain laid waste j
Fallen their altars and the shrines of Gods ; fu
The seed of all the land is rooted out,
This yoke of bondage casting over Troia,
Our chief, the elder of the Atreidao, comes,
A man full blest, and worthiest of high honour
Of all that are. For neither Paris' self,
Nor his accomplice city now can boast
Their deed exceeds its punishment. For he,
Found guilty on the charge of rape and theft,*
Hath lost his prize and brought his father's house,
With lands and all, to waste and utter wreck ;
And Priam's sons have double forfeit paid.* •*
(1) Specially the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeukes.
(2) Such a position (especially in the case of Zens or Apollo) was com-
mon in the temples both of Greece and Rome, and had a very obviniu
signification. As the pl^iy was performed, the actual hour of the day
probably coincided wilh that required by the dramatic sequence of events,
and the statues of the Gods were so placed on the stage as to catch tha
rays of the morning sun when the herald entered. Hence the allusion
to the bright " cheerful glances " would have a visible aa well ae ethical
fitness.
(3) It formed part of the guilt of Paris, that, besides his seduction of
Helena, he had carried otf part of the treasures of Menelaos.
(4) The idea of a payment twofold the amount of the wrong done, as a
complete satisfaction to the sufferer, was common in the early jurispru-
dence both of Greeks and Hebrews, (Kxod. xxii. 4-7.) In some cases it
was even more, as in the four or fivefold restitution of Kxod. xxii. 1. In
the grand opening of Isaiah's message of glad tidings the fact that Jeru-
salem has received " double for all her sins" is made the ground on tin
strength of which she may now hope for pardon. Comp. also lua, Lxi, 7]
Zeoh.ix.12.
AGAMEMNON. 2OJ
Chor. Joy, joy, them herald of the Achaean host I
Her. All joy is mine : I shrink i'rom death no more.
Chor. Did love for this thy fatherland so try thee ?
Her. So that mine eyes weep tears for very joy.
Chor. Disease full sweet then this ye suffered from . . .
Her. How so ? "When taught, I shall thy meaning
master.
Chor. Ye longed for us who yearned for you in turn.
Her. Say'st thou this land its yearning host yearned
o'er ?
Chor. Tea, so that oft I proaned in gloom of heart.
Her. Whence came these bodings that an army hates? 53°
Chor. Silence I've held long since a charm for ill.
Her. How, when your lords were absent, feared ye any ?
Chor. To use thy words, death now would welcome be.
Her. Good is the issue ; but in so long time
Some things, one well might say, have prospered well,
And some give cause for murmurs. Save the Gods,
Who free from sorrow lives out all his life ?
For should I tell of toils, and how we lodged
Pull hardly, seldom putting in to shore,1
And then with couch full hard. . . . What gave us not
Good cause for mourning ? What ill had we not **°
As daily portion ? And what passed on land,
That brought yet greater hardship : for our beds
Were under our foes' walls, and meadow mists
Prom heaven and earth still left us wringing wet,
A constant mischief to our garments, making
Our hair as shaggy as the beasts'.3 And if
One spoke of winter frosts that killed the birds,
By Ida's snow-storms made intolerable,3
Or heat, when Ocoau in its noontide couch
(1) Perhaps—
" Full hardly, and the close and crowded decks."
(2) So stress is laid upon this form of hardship, as rising from the
climate of Tro'ia, by Sophocles, Aias, 1206.
(3) One may conjecture that here also, as with the passage describing
the succession of beacon fires, (w. 281-314,) the description would have
for an Athenian audience the interest of recalling personal reminiscence*
ut bouie recent campaign in Thrake, or on the coasta of Asia.
204 AGAMEMNON.
Windless reclined and slept without a wave. . . •
I Jut why lament o'er this ? Our toil is past ; **
Past too is theirs who in the warfare foil,
So that no care have they to rise again.
Why should I count the number of the dead,
Or he that lives mourn o'er a past mischance P
To change and chance I bid a long Farewell :
With us, the remnant of the Argive host,
Good fortune wins, no ills as counterpoise.
So it is meet to this bright sun we boast,
Who travel homeward over land and sea ;
" The Argive host who now have captured Troi'a, **
These spoils of battle1 to the Gods of Hellas
Hang on their pegs, enduring prize and joy." 2
Hearing these things we ought to bless our country
And our commanders ; and the grace of Zeus
That wrought this shall be honoured. My tale's told.
Chor. Thy words o'ercome me, and I say not nay ;
To learn good keeps youth's freshness with the old.
'Tis meet these things should be a special care
To Clytsemnestra and the house, and yet
That they should make me sharer in their joy.
Enter CLYTSEMNESTRA.
Clytfem. I long ago for gladness raised my cry,
When the first fiery courier came by night,
Telling of Tro'ia taken and laid waste :
And then one girding at me spake, "Dost think,
Trusting in beacons, Tro'ia is laid waste ?
This heart elate is just a woman's way."
In words like these they made me out distraught ;
Yet still I sacrificed, and with a strain
(1) We may, perhaps, think of the herald, as he speaks, placing: some
representative trophy upon the pegs on the pedestals of the statue* at
the great Gods of Hellas, whom he had invoked on his entranco.
U) Or,
" So that to this bright morn onr sons may boast,
As they o'er land and ocean take 1 heir flight,
'The Argive host of old, who c;ip<ured Tro'ia,
Thc«e spoils of battle to the Gods <>f Hollos,
Hung (in their pegs, a trophy of old days.' "
AGAMEMNON. 205
Bhrill as a woman's, they, now here, now there,
Throughout the city hymns of blessing raised
In shrines of Gods, and lulled to gentle sleep
The fragrant flame that on the incense fed.
And now why need'st thou lengthen out thy words P
I from the king himself the tale shall learn;
And that I show all zeal to welcome back
My honoured lord on his return (for what
Is brighter joy for wife to see than this,
"When God has brought her husband back from war,
To open wide her gates ?) tell my lord this,
" To come with all his speed, the city's idol ; "
And " may he find a faithful wife at home,
Such as he left her, noble watch-dog still
For him, and hostile to his enemies ;
And like in all things else, who has not broken
One seal of his in all this length of time."1
No pleasure have I known, nor scandal ill
With any other more than . . . stains on bronze.*
Such is my vaunt, and being full of truth,
Not shameful for a noble wife to speak.3 [Exit.
(1) The husband, on his departure, sealed up hit special treasures. It
was the glory of the faitMul wife or the trusty steward to keep these seals
unbroken.
(2) There is an ambiguity, possibly an intentional one, in the compa-
rison which Clytaemnestra uses, if there was no such art as that of
"staining bronze" (or copper) known at the time, the words would be a
natural phrase enough to describe what was represented as an impossi-
bili y. Later on in the history of art, however, as in the timepf Plut-iroh,
a process so described (perhaps analogous to enamelling) is desciibed
(I IK I'yUt. Orac ( 2) as common. If we suppose the art to have been a
mys ery known to the few, but not to the many, in the time of jEschylos,
then the words would have for the hearers the point of a dnMe entendre.
She seems to the masa to disclaim what yet, to those in the secret 8h<»
acknowledges
Another rendering refers "bronze" to the "sword," and makes tha
Btains those of blood ; as though she said, " I am as guiltless of adultery
as of mui der," while yet she knew that she had committed the one, and
meant to commit the other. The possibility of such a meaning is cer-
1,iiuly in the words, and with a sharp-witted au<]if>nrp catching at uenigmns
and dark sayings may have added to their suggestiveness. The ambi-
guous comment of the Chorus shows that they read, as between the lines,
the shameful secret which they knew, but of which the Herald was
ignorant.
(31 The last, two lines are by some editors assigned to the Herald.
S06 AGAMEMNON.
Chor. [to Tltrald.'] She hath thus spoken in thy hear-
ing now
A goodly word for good interpreters.
But tell me, herald, toll of Monelaos, **
If, coming home again in safety he
Is with you, the dear strength of this our land.
Her. I cannot make report of false good news,
So that my friends should long rejoice in it.
Chor. Ah 1 could'st thou good news speak, and also
true !
These things asunder are not well concealed.
Her. The chief has vanished from the Achaean host,
He and his ship. I speak no falsehood here.
Chor. In sight of all when he from Ilion sailed ?
Or did a storja's wide evil part him from you ? ***
Her. Like skilful archer thou hast hit tho mark,
And in few words hast told of evil long.
Chor. And was it of him as alive or dead
The whisper of the other sailors ran ?
Her. None to that question answer clear can give,
Save the Sun-God who feeds the life of earth.
Chor. How say'st thou ? Did a storm come on our fleet,
And do its work through anger of the Gods?
Her. It is not meet a day of tidings good
To mar with evil news. Apart for each
Is special worship. But when courier brings
With louring face the ills men pray against,
And tells a city that its host has fallen,
That for the State there is a general wound,
That many a man from many a home is driven,
As banned by double scourge that Ares loves,
Woe doubly-barbed, Death's two-horsed chariot this • * .
When with such griefs as freight a herald comes,
'Tis meet to chant the Erinnyes' dolorous song;
But for glad messenger of good deeds wrought
That bring deliverance, coming to a town
Rejoicing in its triumph, . . . how shall I
Blend good with evil, telling of a storm
AGAMEMNON. 2O7
That smote the Achaoans, not without God's wrath ?
For they a compact swore who erst were foes,
Ocean and Fire, and their pledges gave,
Wrecking the ill-starred army of the Argives ;
And in the night rose ill of raging storm :
For Thrakian tempests shattered all the ships,
Each on the other. Some thus crashed and bruised,
By the storm stricken and the surging foam
Of wind-tost waves, soon vanished out of sight, ***
Whirled, by an evil pilot. And when rose
The sun's bright orb, behold, the .ZEgsean sea
Blossomed with wrecks of ships and dead Achaeans.
And as for us and our uninjured ship,
Surely 'twas some one stole or begged us off,
Some God, not man, presiding at the helm ;
And on our ship with good will Fortune sat,
Giver of safety, so that nor in haven
Felt we the breakers, nor on rough rock -beach
Ran we aground. But when we bad escaped *"
The hell of waters, then in clear, bright day,
Not trusting in our fortune, we in thought
O'er new ills brooded of our host destroyed,
And eke most roughly handled. And if still
Breathe any of them they report of us
As having perished. How else should they speak ?
And we in our turn deem that they are so.
God send good ending ! Look you, first and chief,
For Menelaos' coming ; and indeed,
If any sunbeam know of him alive
Aud well, by help of Zeus who has not willed ***
As yet to blot out all the regal race,
Some hope there is that he '11 come back again.
Know, hearing this, that thou the truth hast heard.
[Exit Herald.
STKOPII. I.
Clior. Who was it named her with such wondrous truth?
(Could it be One unseen,
JO8 AGAMEMNON.
In strange prevision of her destined work,
Guiding the tongue through chance ?)
Who gave that war-wed, strife-upstirring one
The name of Helen, ominous of ill ? *
For all too plainly she
Hath been to men, and ships,
And towers, as doom of Hell.
From bower of gorgeous curtains forth she sailed
With breeze of Zephyr Titan-born and strong ;*
And hosts of many men, '
Hunters that bore the shield,
Went on the track of those who steered their boat
Unseen to leafy banks of Siinois,
On her account who came,
Dire cause of strife with bloodshed in her train.
ANTISTBOPH. L
And so the wrath which works its vengeance out
Dear bride to Ilion brought,
(Ah, all too truly named ! ) exacting still *
After long lapse of time
The penalty of foul dishonour done
To friendship's board and Zeus, of host and guest
The God, from those who paid
Their loud-voiced honour then
Unto that bridal strain,
That hymeneal chorus which to chant
(1) It need hardly be said that it is as difficult to render a parnnoma»fa
of this kind as it is to reproduce those, more or less analogous, which we
find in the prophels of 1he Old Testament, (comp. especially Micah i. ;)
but it t-eems better to substitute something which approaches, however
imperfectly, to an equivalent than to obscure the reference to the rcmen
et omen by abandoning the attempt to translate it. "Hell of men, and
hell of ships, and heu of towers," has been the rendering adopted by
many previous translators. The Greek fondness for this play on names ia
seen in Sophocles, Aias, v. 401.
(2) Zephyros, Boreas, and the other great winds were represented in
the Ilieogmiy of Ilesiod (v. 134) as the offspring1 of Astrieos imd Eos, and
Astreeus was a Titan. The west wind was, of course, favourable to Paris
U he went with Helen from Greece to TroTa.
(8) Here again the translator has to meet the difficulty of a pun. Af
»& alternative we might take —
"To Ilion brought, well-named,
A. muxriage marring nil,"
AGAMEMNON. 209
Fell to the lot of all the bridegroom's kin.1
But learning other song,
Priam's ancient city now "^
Bewaileth sore, and calls on Paris' name,
Wedded in fatal wedlock ; all the time
* Enduring tear-fraught life
* For all the blood its citizens had lost,
STBOI-H. IL
So once a lion's cub,
A mischief in his house,
As foster child one reared,*
While btill it loved the teats ;
In life's preluding dawn
Tame, by the children loved, **
And fondled by the old,3
Oft in his arms 'twas held,
Like infant newly born,
With eyes that brightened to the hand that stroked,
And fawning at the hest of hunger keen.
ANTISTBOPH. n.
But when full-grown, it showed
The nature of its sires ;
For it unbidden made
A feast in recompense
Of all their fostering care,
* By banquet of slain sheep ; ***
With blood the house was stained,
(1) The sons of Priam are thought of as taking part in the celebration
of Helen's marriage with Paris, and as, therefore, involving themselves
in the guilt and the penalty of his crime.
(2) Here, too, it may be well to give an alternative rendering —
" A mischief in his house,
A man reared, not on milk."
Home-reared lions seem to have been common as pets, both among
Greeks and Latins, (Arist., Hist. Anim. is.. 31 ; Plutarch, de Coftib. ira, jj 14,
p. 822,) sometimes, as in Martial's Epigram, ii. 25, with fatal consequences.
The text shows the practice to have been common enough in the time of
Pericles to supply a similitude.
(3) There may, possibly, be a half allusion here to the passage in the
77iaJ, (TV. 154-160,) which describes the fascination which the beauty oj
Helen exercised on the Troi'an elders.
P
HO AGAMEMNON.
A curse no slaves could check,
Great mischief murderous :
By God's decree a priest of Ate thus
Was reared, aud grew within the man's own houee.
STBOPH. III.
So I would tfll that thus to Ilion came
Mood -as of calm when all the air is still,
The gentle pride and joy of kingly state,
A tender glance of eye,
The full-blown blossom of a passionate love,
Thrilling the very soul ;
And yet she turned aside,
And wrought a bitter end of marriage feast,
Coming to Priam's race,
111 sojourner, ill friend,
Sent by great Zeus, the God of host and guest—
Erinnye, for whom wives weep many tears.
AjmsTitorn. HI.
Theie lives an old saw, framed in ancient days,1
In memories of men, that high estate
Full-grown brings forth its young, nor childless dies,
But that from good success
Springs to the race a woe insatiable.
But I, apart from all,
Hold this my creed alone :
For impious act it is that offspring breeds,
Like to their parent stock :
For still in every house
That loves the right their late for evermore
Rejoiceth in an issue fair and good.
(1) The poet becomes a prophet, and asserts what it has be*B ffiven
him to know of the righteous government of God. The dominant creed
of Greece at the lime was, that the Gods were envious of man's pros-
perity, that this alone, apart from moral evil, was enough to draw nown
their wrath, and bring a curse upon the prosperous house. So, e.g.,
Amasis tells Polycrates (Herod, iii. 40) that the unseen Divinity tlint
rules the world is envious, that power and glory are inevitably th«
precursors of destruction. Comp. also the speech of Artabanos,
(Herod, vii. 10, 46.) Ae-ainst this, in the tone of one who speaks single*
handed Jbr the truth, 2£schylos, through the Chorus, eaters Jus protest.
AGAMEMNON. ill
BTBOPH. IV.
But Recklessness of old
Is wont to breed another Recklessness,
Sporting its youth in human miseries,
Or now, or then, whene'er the fixed hour comes : ***
That in its youth, in turn,
Doth full-flushed Lusfc beget,
And that dread demon-power unconquerable,
Daring that fears not God,—
Two curses black within the homes of men,
Like those that gendered them.
A:msTBOpH. IV.
But Justice shineth bright
In dwellings that are dark and dim with smoke,
And honours life law-ruled,
While gold-decked homes conjoined with hands defiled 7*
She with averted eyes
Hath left, and draweth near
To holier things, nor worships might of wealth,
If counterfeit its praise ;
But still directeth all the course of things
Towards its destined goal.
[AGAMEMNON is seen approaching in hit chariot,
followed by another chariot, in which GAS-
SANDRA is standing, carrying her prophet's
wand in her hand, and wearing fillets round
her temples, and by a great train of soldiers
bearing trophies. As they come on the *taye
the Chorus sings its welcome.
Come then, king, thou son of Atreua,
Waster of the towers of Troia,
What of greeting and of homage
Shall I give, nor overshooting,
Nor due need of honour missing P
' Men there are who, right transgressing,
Honour semblance more than being. ***
O'er the sufferer all are ready
212 AGAMEMNON.
Wail of bitter grief to utter,
Though the biting pang of sorrow
Never to their heart approaches ;
So with counterfeit rejoicing
Men strain faces that are smileless ;
But when one his own sheep knoweth,
Then men's eyes cannot deceive him,
When they deem with kindly purpose, "**
And with fondness weak to natter.
Thou, when thou did'st lead thine army
For Helen's sake — (I will not hide it)—
Wast to me as one whose features
Have been limned by unskilled artist,
Guiding ill the helm of reason,
Giving men to death's doom sentenced
* Courage which their will rejected.1
Now nor from the spirit's surface,
Nor with touch of thought unfriendly,
All the toil, I say, is welcome,
If men bring it to good issue.
And thou soon shalt know, enquiring, **
Him who rightly, him who wrongly
Of thy citizens fulfilMh
Task of office for the city.8
Agam. First Argos, and the Gods who guard the land,
'Tis right to greet ; to them in part I owe
This my return, and vengeance that I took
On Priam's city. Not on hearsay proof
Judging the cause, with one consent the Gods
Cast in their votes into the urn of blood
For Ilion's ruin and her people's death ;
* I' the other urn Hope touched the rim alone, *•
(1) Se., Agamemnon, by the sacrifice of Iphig'eneia, had induced hit
troops to persevere in an expedition from •which, in their inmost hearts,
they shrank back with strong dislike. A conjectural reading gives,
" By the sacrifice he offered
Giving death-doomed men false boldness."
(2) The tone oi ambiguous irony mingles, it will be seen, even her*,
with the praises of the Chorus.
AGAMEMNON.
Still far from being filled full.1 And even yet
The captured city by its .smoke is seen,
* The incense clouds of Ate live on still ;
And, in the act of dying with its prey,
From richest store the dust sends savours sweet.
For these things it is meet to give the Gods
Thank-offerings long-enduring ; for our nets
Of vengeance we set close, and for a woman
Our Argive monster laid the city low,1
Foaled by the mare, a people bearing shield,
Taking its leap when set the Pleirides ; 3
And, bounding o'er the tower, that ravenous lion
Lapped up its fill of bluod of kingly race.
This prelude to the Gods I lengthen out ;
And as concerns thy feeling (this I well
Remember hearing) I with thee agree,
And thou in me may'st find an advocate.
With but few men is it their natural bent
To honour without grudging prosperous friend . •
For ill-souled envy that the heart besets,
Doubles his woe who suffers that disease :
He by his own griefs first is overwhelmed,
And groans at sight of others' happier lot.
* And I with good cause say, (for well I know,)
They are but friendship's mirror, phantom shade.
Who seemed to be my most devoted friends.
Odysseus only, who against his will 4
Soiled with us, still was found true trace-fellow;
And this I say of him or dead or living.
(1) Possibly an allusion to Pandora's box. Here, too, Hope alone
left, but it only came up to where the curve of the rim began, not to its
top. The imagery is drawn from the older method of voting, in which
(as in Kitmrtiidet, v. 678) the votes for condemnation and acquittal wero
cast into separate urns.
!2) The lion, as the symbol of the house of Atreus, s*ill seen in tha
sculptures of Mykente ; the horso, in allusion to the stratagem by wine,*'
Tnria had been taken.
.3) At the end of autumn, and therefore at a season when a storm lik«
that described by the herald would be a probable incident enough,
(4) 80 in Sophocles, 1'hiloctetes (v. 1025) taunts Odysseus : —
•' And yet thou sailedst with them by constraint,
By tricks fast, bound."
214 AGAMEMNON.
But as for all that touches on the State,
Or on the Gods, in full assembly we,
Calling our council, will deliberate : **
For what goes well we should with care provide
How longest it may last ; and where there needs
A healing charm, there we with all good- will,
By surgery or cautery will try
To turn away the mischief of disease.
And now will I to home and household hearth
Move on, and first give thanks unto the Gods
Who led me forth, and brought me back again.
Since Victory follows, long may she remain !
Enter CLYT^EMNESTRA, followed by female attendant*
carrying purple tapestry.
Clytcem. Ye citizens, ye Argive senators,
I will not shrink from telling you the talo
Of wife's true love. As time wears on one drops
All over-shyness. Not learning it from others,
I will narrate my own unhappy life,
The whole long time my lord at Ilion stayed.
For first, that wife should sit at home alone
Without her husband is a monstrous grief,
Hearing full many an ill report cf him,
Now one and now another coming still,
Bringing news home, worse trouble upon bad.
Yea, if my lord had met as manjr wounds
As rumour told of, floating to our house,
He had been riddled more than any net ;
And had he died, as tidings still .poured in,
Then he, a second Geryon l with three lives,
Had boasted of a threefold coverlet
Of earth above, (I will not say below him,)3
(1) Geryon appears in the myth of Hercules as a monster with three
Beads and three bodies, ruling- over the island Erytheia, in the far West,
beyond Hesperia. To destroy him and seize his cattle was one of th«
" twelve labours," with which Hesiod (Theogon, w. 287-294) had already
made men familiar.
(2) When a man is buried, there is earth above and earth below him
Clytieinneatra having used the words "coverlet," pauses to make ha
AGAMEMNON.
Dying one death for each of those his forms ;
And eo, because of all these ill reports,
Full many a noose around my neck have others
Loosed by main force, when I had hung myself.
And for this cause no son is with me now,
Holding in trust the pledges of our love,
As he should be, Orestes. Wonder not ;
For now a kind ally doth nurture him,
iStrophios the Phokian, telling me of woes
Of twofold aspect, danger on thy side
At Ilion, and lest loud-voiced anarchy
Should overthrow thy council, since 'tis still
The wont of men to kick at those who fall.
No trace of guile bears this excuse of mine;
As for myself, the fountains of my tears
Have flowed till they are dry, no drop remains,
And mine eyes suffer from o'er-late repose,
Watching with tears the beacons set for thee,1
Left still unheeded. Arid in dreams full oft
I from my sleep was startled by the gnat
With thin wings buzzing, seeing in the night
Ills that stretched far beyond the time of sleep.*
Now, having borne all this, with mind at ease,
I hail my lord as watch-dog of the fold,
The stay that saves the ship, of lofty roof **
Main column-prop, a father's only child,
Land that beyond all hope the sailor sees,
Morn of great brightness following after storm,
language accurate to the very letter. She is speaking only of the earth
winch would hiive been laid over her husband s corpse, had he died aa
often as he w;is repor od lo have done. She will not utter anything so
ominous as an allusion to the dcpiUs below l"m stretching down to
Hades.
(1) Or—
"Weeping because the torches in thy house
No more were lighted as tLey were of yure."
(2) The words touch upon the psychological fact that in dreams, as in
Other abnormal states of the mind, the usiutl measures of time disappear,
and we seem to pass through the experiences of many years in toe 8lui-?.»
ber of a few minute*.
216 AGAMEMNON.
Clear-flowing fount to thirsty traveller.1
Yes, it is pleasant to escape a'.l straits :
With words of welcome such as these I greet thee;
May jealous Heaven forgive them ! for we bore
Full many an evil in the past ; and now,
Dear husband, leave thy car, nor on the ground,
0 King, set thou the foot that Ilion trampled.
Why linger ye, [turning to her aUend(ud8,~\ ye maids,
whose task it was
To strew the pathway with your tapestries ?
Let the whole road be straightway purple-strown,
That Justice lead to home he looked not for.
All else my care, by slumber not subdued,
Will with God's help work out what fate decrees.1
{The handmaids advance, and are about to lay the purple
carpets on the ground.}
Agam. 0 child of Leda, guardian of my home,
Thy speech hath with my absence well agreed —
For long indeed thou mad'st it — but fit praise
Is boon that I must seek at other hands.
1 pray thee, do not in thy woman's fashion
Pamper my pride, nor in barbaric guise
Prostrate on earth raise full-mouthed cries to me ;
Make not my path offensive to the Gods
By spreading it with carpets.3 They alone
(1) The rhetoric of the passage, with all its multiplied similitudes, fine
as it is in itself, receives its dramatic significance by being put into the
lips of Clyi eemnestra. She " doth protest too much." A true wife would
have been content with fewer words.
(2) The last three lines of the speech are of course intentionally am>
biguous, earrving one meaning to the ear of Agamemnon, and another to
that of the audience.
(31 There is obviously a side-thnist, such as an Athenian audience
would catch at, at the token of homage which the Persian Kings required
of their subjects, the prostration at their IVet, the earth spread over with
costly robes. Of the latter custom we have examples in the history of
Jehu, (2 Kings ix. 13,) in our Lord's entry into Jerusalem, (Mark xi. 8,)
in the usages of modern Persian kings, (Malcolm's Persia, i. 580;)
perhaps also in the true tendering of 1's. xlv. U. "She shall be brought
unto the king on raiment of nuedU'-wnrk " In the inarch of Xerxes
across the Hellespont myrtle-boughs strown on th»' bridge of boats took
the pliiee of robes, (Herod, vii. 54.) To the Green character, with its
•trong love of independence, such customs were hateful. The case oi
AGAMEMNON. 117
May claim that honour ; but for mortal men
To walk on fair embroidery, to me
Seems nowise without peril. So I bid you
To honour me as man, and not as God.
Apart from all foot-mats and tapestry
My fame speaks loudly ; and God's greatest gift **
Is not to err from wisdom. We must bless
Him only who ends life in fair estate.1
iSbould I thus act throughout, good hope were mine.
Chjtcem. Nay, say not this my purposes to thwart.
Ayam. Know I change not for the worse my pur-
pose.
Clytam. In fear, perchance, thou vowed'st thus to act.
Agum. If any, I, with good ground spoke my will.2
Ciyt&m. What think'st thou Priam, had he wrought
such deeds . . . ?
Agam. Full gladly he, I trow, had trod on carpets.
Clytdb-m. Then shrink not thou through fear of men's
dispraise. 9l°
Agam, And yet a people's whisper hath great might.3
Clytffim. Who is not envied is not enviable.
Agam. 'Tis not a woman's part to crave for strife.
Clytam. True, yet the prosperous e'en should some-
times yield.
Agam. Dost thou then prize that victory in the strife ?
Clytcem. Nay, list; with all good- will yield me this
boon.
Agam. Well, then, if thou wilt have it so. with speed
Let some one loose my buskins,4 (servants they
Pausanias, who offended the national feeling by assuming the outward
state of the Persian kings, must have been recalled to the minds of tho
Athenians, intentionally or otherwise, by such a passave as this.
(1) The "old saying, famed of many men," which we find in the
Trachinite of Sophocles, (v. 1,) and in the counsel of Solon to Croesos,
(Herod i. 32.)
(2) He who had suffered so much -from the wrath of Artemis at Aulis
knew what it was to rouse the wrath and jealousy of the Gods.
(3) An echo of a line in Hesiod, ( Wmkt and Days, 7(U) —
"No whispered rumours which the many spread
Can ever wholly perish."
(4", Here, too, we may trace a reference to the < Jvientnl custom ol
g the sanctity of a consecrated place by taking the shoes front
2l8 AGAMEMNON.
Doing the foot's true work,) and as I tread
Upon these robes sea-purpled, may no wrath
From glance of Gods smite on me from afar I •*
Great shame I feel to trample with my foot
This wealth of carpets, costliest work of looms ;
So far for this. This stranger \_pointing to CASSANDRA]
lead thou in
With kindliness. On him who gently wields
His power God's eye looks kindly from afar.
None of their own will choose a bondslave's life ;
And she, the chosen flower of many spoils,
Has followed with me as the army's gift.
But since I turn, obeying thee in this,
I'll to my palace go, on purple treading. •*•
Clyttxm. There is a sea, — and who shall drain it dry ?
Producing still new store of purple juice,
Precious as silver, staining in any a robe.
And in our house, with God's help, O my king,
'Tis ours to boast our palace knows no stint.
Trampling of many robes would 1 have vowed,
Had that been ordered me in oracles,
V/hen for my lord's return I then did plan
My votive gifts. For while the root lives on,
The folinge stretches even to the house,
And spreads its shade against the dog-star's rage j **
So when thou comest to thy hearth and home,
Thoti show'st that warmth hath come in winter time;
And when from unripe clusters Zeus matures
The wine,1 then is there coolness in the house,
If the true master dwelleth in his home.
Ah, Zeus ! the All-worker, Zeus, work out for me
off the feet, as in Exod. iii. 5, in the services of the Tabernacle «n4
Temple, through all their history, (Juven., Sat. vi. 15!',) in all mosques to
the present day. Agamemnon, yielding to the teinpticss, seeks to make
a compromise with his conscience, lie will walk upon the tapestry, but
will treat it as if it, of right, belonged to the Gods, and were a conse-
crated thing. It is probably in connexion with iliis incident thut
/Ksohylos was said to have been the first to bring actors on the stage in
these boots or buskins, (Suidas. s v. ap/3u\7j.)
(1) The words of Isaiah, (xviii. 5,) " when the sour grape is ripening ia
the dower," present aii almost verbal parallel.
AGAMEMNON. 219
All that I pray for ; let it be thy care
To look to what Thou purposest to work.1
[Exeunt AGAMEMNON, 'walking on the tapestry,
and her attendantt.
STBOPH. L
Ohor. Why thus continually
Do haunting phantoms hover at the gate P
Of my foreboding heart ?
Why floats prophetic song, unbought, unbidden P
Why doth no steadfast tmst
Sit on my mind's dear throne,
To fling it from me as a vision dim ?
Long time hath passed since stern-ropes of our ships
Were fastened on the sand, when our great host
Of those that sailed in ships
Had como to Ilion's towers : *
A.NTISTBOPH. L
And now from these mine eyes
I learn, myself reporting to myself,
Their safe return ; and yet
My mind within itself, taught by itself,
Chunteth Ermnys' dirge,
Tlie lyreless melody,
And hath no strength of wonted confidence.
Not vain these inner pulses, as my heart
Whirls eddying in breast oracular.
I, against hope, will pray
It prove false oracle.
STROPH. n.
Of high, o'erflowing health
There is no bound that stays the wish for more,
For evermore disease, as neighbour close
Whom but a wall divides,
(1) The ever-recurring ambiguity of Clytremnes^ra's language is again
traceable, as is also her fondness fur rhetorical similitudes.
(2) The Chorus speaks in perplexity. It cannot get rid of its forebod-
ings. and jet it would seem as if the time for the fulfilment of the dark
words of Calchas must have passed long since. It actually sees the saf«
return of the leadei of the host, yet still iu lean haunt it.
22O AGAMEMNON.
Upon it presses ; and man's prosperous state
*Moves on its course and strikes
Upon an unseen rock ;
But if his fear for safety of his freight,
A part, from well- poised sling, shall sacrifice, *•
Then the whole house sinks not,
O'erfilled with wretchedness,
Nor does he swamp his boat :
So, too, abundant gift
From Zeus in bounteous fulness, and the fruit
Of glebe at harvest tide
Have caused to cease sore hunger's pestilence;
ANTISTBOPU. IT.
But blood that once hath flowed
In purple stains of death upon the ground
At a man's feet, who then can bid it back
By any charm of song '<
Else him who knew to call the dead to life*
* Zeus had not sternly checked, **
* As warning unto all ;
But unless Fate, firm-fixed, had barred our fate
From any chance of succour from the Gods,
Then had my heart poured forth
Its thoughts, outstripping speech.*
But now in gloom it wails
Sore vexed, with little hope
At any time hereafter fitting end **»
To find, unravelling,
My soul within me burning with hot thoughts.
Re-enter CLYT^EMXESTUA.
Gil/teem, [to CASSANDRA, who has remained in the chariot
durinrj the choral ode."]
Thou too — I mean Cassandra — go within ;
(1) Asclepios, •whom Zeus smote with his thunderbolt for having restored
Hippolytos to life.
(2) The Chorus, in spi'e of their suspicions and foreboding, have
pivL-ii the king no warning. They excuse themselves by the plea of
necessity, tha sovereign decree of Zeus overruling oil man's attempt* to
withstand it.
AGAMEMNON.
Since Zeus hath made it thine, and not in wrath,
To share the lustral waters in our house,
Standing with many a slave the altar nigh
Of Zeus, who guards our goods.1 Now get thee down
From out this car, nor look so over proud.
They say that e'en Alcmena's son endured *
Being sold a slave, constrained to bear the yoke :
And if the doom of this ill chance should come,
Great boon it is to meet with lords who own
Ancestral wealth. But whoso reap full crops im
They never dared to hope for, these in all,
And beyond measure, to their slaves are harsh : *
From us thou hast what usage doth prescribe.
Clior. So ends she, speaking words full clear to thee ;
And seeing thou art in the toils of fate,
If thou obey, thou wilt obey ; and yet,
Perchance, obey thou wilt not.
Clytcvm. Nay, but unless she, like a swallow, speaks
A barbarous tongue unknown, I, speaking now
Within her apprehension, bid obey.
Chor. [to CASSANDRA, still standing motionless] Go with
her. What she bids is now the best;
Obey her : leave thy seat upon this car.
Clytcem. I have no leisure here to stay without :
For as regards our central altar, there
The sheep stand by as victims for the fire ;
For never had we hoped such thanks to give :
If thou wilt do this, make no more delay ;
(1) Cassandra is summoned to on act of worship. The household ifl
gathered, the altar to Zeus Ktesios, (the God of the family property,
slaves included,) standing in the servants' hall, is ready. The new slave
must come in and take her pl«ce with the others.
(•2) As in the stoi-y which forms the groundwork of the Traehinia of
Sophocles, w. 250-280, that Heracles had been sold to Omphale as a slave,
in penalty for the murder of Iphitos.
(3) Political as well as dramatic. The Eupatrid poet appeals to public
opinion against tue nfinve.aux riches, the tanners and lamp-makers, who
were already beginning to push themselves forward towards prominence
and power. The way was 1 hus prepared in the first play of the Trilogy
for what is known to have been the main object of the last. Comp. Arist.,
Ma*. ii.jK.
122 AGAMEMNON.
But if thou understandest not my words,
Then wave thy foreign hand in lieu of speech.
[CASSANDRA shudders as in horror, but
makes no siyn.
Chor. The stranger seems a clear interpreter
To need. Her look is like a captured deer's.
Clytff.m. Nay, she is mad, and follows evil thoughts,
Since, leaving now her city, newly-captured,
She comes, and knows not how to take the curb,
Ere she foam out her passion in her blood.
I will not bear the shame of uttering more. [Exit.
Chor. And I — I pity her, and will not rage :
Come, thou poor sufferer, empty leave thy car ;
Yield to thy doom, and handsel now the yoke.
[CASSANDEA li-aves the chariot, and bursts
into a cry of waiting,
STROPH. I.
Cass. Woe! woe, and well-a-day I
Apollo! O Apollo! »*
CJior. Why criest thou so loud on Loxias P
The wailing cry of mourner suits not him.
AxTisTROpn. I.
Cass. Woe ! woe, and well-a-day I
Apollo ! 0 Apollo !
Chor. Again with boding words she calls the God,
Though all unmeet as helper to men's groans.
STBOPH. n.
Cass. Apollo ! 0 Apollo !
God of all paths, Apollo true to me ;
For still thou dost appal me and destroy.1
Chor. She seems her own ills like to prophecy: vm
The God's great gift is in the slave's mind yet.
(1) Here again the translator has the task of finding an English paro-
nnmasia which approximates to that of 1he Greek, between Apol!o and
a7roXAwi> the ite.iti-oyer. To Apollo, as the God of paths, (siguieut,) an
altar stood, column-fashion, before the street-door of every house, and to
such tin alt »r, placed by the door of Agamemnon's palace, Cassandra turns,
vn'.h t U* twuluhl vluy upon the ilauis.
AGAMEMNON,
ASTISTBOPH. TL
Cass. Apollo ! O Apollo I
God of all paths, Apollo true to me ;
What path hast led me 9 To what roof hast Drought P
Chor. To that of the Atreidse. This I tell,
If thou know'st not. Thou wilt not find it false.
STBOPH. IIL
Cass. Ah ! Ah ! Ah me !
Say rather to a house God hates — that knows
Murdor, self-slaughter, ropes,1
* A human shamble, staining earth with blood.
Chor. Keen scented seems this stranger, like a hound,
And sniffs to see whose murder she may find.
AsmsTuorn. HI.
Cass. Ah ! Ah ! Ah me !
Lo ! [looking wildly, and pointing to the house,~\ there the
witnesses whose word I trust, —
Those babes who wail their death,
The roasted flesh that made a father's meal.
Chor. We of a truth had heard thy seeress fame,
But prophets now are not the race we seek.a
STBOPH. IV.
Cass. Ah me ! O horror ! What ill schemes she now ?
What is this new great woe ?
Great evil plots she in this veiy house,
Ilard for its friends to bear, immedicable ;
And help stands far aloof.
Chor. These oracles of thine surpass my ken ;
Those I know well. The whole town rings with them.8
(1) This refers, probably, to the death of ITippodameia, the wife of
Pelops, who killed herself, in remorse for the death of Chrysippos, or
fear of her husband's anger. The horrors of the royal house of Arpos
pass, one by one, before the vision of the" prophetess, and this leads
the procession, followed t>y the spectres of the murdered children of
Thyestes.
('2) The Chorns, as in 'heir last ode, had made up their minds, though
foreboding ill, to let des iny t;tke its course. They do not wish that
policy of non-interference to be changed by any too clear vision of the
future.
'3) The Chorus understands tie vision of the ciairvuyaHte as regard* the
324 AGAMEMNON.
AHTISTBOPH. IV.
Cast. Ah me ! 0 daring one ! what work'st thou here,
Who having in his bath
Tended thy spouse, thy lord, then . . . How tell the rest P
For quick it comes, and hand is following hand,
Stretched out to strike the blow. Ioeo
CJior. Still I discern not ; after words so dark
I am perplexed with thy dim oracles.
STBOPH. V.
Cass. Ah, horror, horror ! "What is this I see P
Is it a snare of Hell ?
Nay, the true net is she who shares his bed,
Who shares in working death.
Ha ! let the Band insatiable in hate *
Howl for the race its wild exulting cry
O'er sacrifice that calls
For death by storm of stones.
STHOPH. VI.
Chor. What dire Erinnys bidd'st thou o'er our house
To raise shrill cry P Thy speech but little cheers ;
And to my heart there rush
Blood-drops of saffron hue,3 ***
* Which, when from deadly wound
They fall, together with life's setting rays
End, as it fails, their own appointed course :
And mischief comes apace.
AJJTISTBOPII. V.
Cass. See, see, I say, from that fell heifer there.
Keep thou the bull : 3 in robes
part tragedy of the house of Atreus, but not that which seems to portend
another actually imminent.
(1) Fresh visions come before the eyes of the seeress. She beholds the
Company of Krinnyes hovering over the accursed house, and calls on
them to continue their work till the new crime has met with its duo
Sunishmeut. The murder which she sees as if already wrought, demands
eath by stoning.
(2) The "yellow" look of fear is thought of as being caused by an
actual change in the colour of the blood as it flows through the veins to
the heart.
13) Here there is prevision as well as clairvoyance. The deed is not jet
AGAMEMNON. 2*5
Entangling him, she with her weapon gores
Him with the swarthy horns ; 1
Lo ! in that bath with water filled he falls,
Smitten to death, and I to thee set forth
Crime of a bath of blood,
By murderous guile devised.
AxTJSTROPH. VI.
Chor. I may not boast that I keen insight have
In words oracular ; yet bode I ill. •*•
What tidings good are brought
By any oracles
To moital men ? These arts,
In days of evils sore, with many words,
Do still but bring a vague, portentous fear
For men to learn and know.
STBOPH. VTI.
Cass. "Woe, woe ! for all sore ills that fall on me!
It is my grief thou speak'st of, blending it
With his.2 [Pausing, and then crying out.] All I
wherefore then
Hast thou3 thus brought me here,
Only to die with thee ?
What other doom is mine ?
STBOPH. VITJ.
Chor. Frenzied art thou, and by some God's might
swayed, m*
And utterest for thysell
A melody which is no melody,
Like to that tawny one,
done. The sacrifice and the tenet are still going on, yet she sees the crime
in all its circumstances.
(1) As before 'v. 115) the black eagle had been the symbol of th«
Warrior-chief, so here the black-horned bull, that being one of the notes
of the beat breed of cattle. A various reading gives "with her swarthy
horn."
(2) What the Chorns had just said as to fhe fmitlessness of prophetic
Insight tallied all too well with her own bitter experience.
(3) The ecstasy of horrm in' errupte the tenor of her speech, and th«
•ccoud "thcu " is adlressednotto the Chorus, but to Agamemnon, whos*
ieatii Cassattlra has just witnessed in her vision.
0
226 AGAMEMNON.
Insatiate in her wail,
The nightingale, who still with sorrowing soul,
And "Itys, Itys," cry,1
Bemoans a life o'erflourishing in ills.
ANTTSTBOPH. VTL
Cass. Ah, for the doom of clear- voiced nightingale I
The Gods gave her a body bearing wings,
And life of pleasant days
With no fresh cause to weep :
But for me waiteth still
Stroke from the two-edged sword,
AXTISTROPH.
CTior. From what source hast thou these dread agonlei
Sent on thee by thy God,
Tet vague and little meaning ; and thy cries U2a
Dire with ill-omened shrieks
Dost utter as a chant,
And blendest with them strains of shrillest grief?
Whence treadest thou this track
Of evil-boding path of prophecy ?
BTROPH. IX.
Cass. Woe for the marriage-ties, the marriage-ties
Of Paris that brought ruin on his friends I
Woe for my native stream,
Scamandros, that I loved !
Once on thy banks my maiden youth was reared,
(Ah, miserable me !)
Now by Cokytos and by Acheron's shores "^
I seem too likely soon to utter song
Of wild, prophetic speech.
(1) The sang of the nightingale, represented by these sounds, was con-
nected with a long legend, specially At Me in its origin Philomela,
daughter of Pandion, king of Attica, suffered outrage at the hands of
Tercus, who was married to her sister Procne, and was then changed into
a nightingale, destined ever to lament the fate of Itys. her sister's son.
The earliest form of the story appears in the Odyssey, (xix. 513). Coiup,
Sophocles, Eicctr. T. 148.
AGAMESINOK.
STUOPH. X.
Chor. "What hast thou spoken now
With utterance all too clear ?
*Evcn a boy its gist might understand ;
I to the quick arn pierced
With throe of deadly pain,
Whilst thou thy moaning cries art uttering
Over thy sore mischance,
Wondrous for me to hear.
H. DC.
Cass. Woe foi the toil and trouble, toil and trouble
Of city that is utterly destroyed 1
Woe for the victims slain
Of herds that roamed the fields,
My father's sacrifice to save his towers I
No healing charm they brought
To save the city from its present doom :
And I with hot thoughts wild myself shall cast
Full soon upon the ground.
ANTISTBOPH. X.
Chor. This that thou utterest now
With all before agrees.
Some Power above dooms thee with purpose ill,
Down-swooping heavily,
To utter with thy voice
Sorrows of deepest woe, and bringing death.
And what the end shall be
Perplexes in the extreme.
Case. Nay, now no more from out of maiden veils
My oracle phall glance, like bride fresh wed ; l U8t
But seems as though 'twould rush with speedy gales
In full, clear brightness to the morning dawn ;
So that a greater woe than this shall surge
(1) In the marriage-rites of the Greeks of the time of 2Eschylos, the bridi
for three days after the wedding wore her veil ; then, as now no longe*
•brinking from her matron life, she laid it aside and looked on her hu««
btiud with unveiled f^Oft*
228 AGAMEMNON.
Like waye against the sunlight.1 Now I'll teach
No more in parables. Bear witness ye,
As running with me, that I scent the track
Of svil deeds that long ago were wrought:
For never are they absent from this house,
That choral band which chants in full accord,
Yet no good music ; good is not their theme.
And now, as having drunk men's blood,2 and 89
Grown wilder, bolder, see, the revelling band,
Erinnyes of the race, still haunt the halls,
Not easy to dismiss. And so they sing,
Close cleaving to the house, its primal woe,'
And vent their loathing in alternate strains
On marriage-bed of brother ruthless found
To that defiler. *Miss I now, or hit,
Like archer skilled ? or am I seeress false,
A babbler vain that knocks at every door P
Yea, swear beforehand, ere I die, I know
(And not by rumour only) all the sins
Of ancient days that haunt and vex this house.
Chor. How could an oath, how firm soe'er confirmed,
Bring aught of healing ? Lo, I marvel at thee,
That thou, though born far off beyond the sea,
Should'st tell an alien city's tale as clear
As though thyself had stood by all the while.
Case. The seer Apollo set me to this task.
Chor. Was he, a God, so smitten with desire P
Cass. There was a time when shame restrained my
speech.
Chor. True ; they who prosper still are shy and coy.
Case. He wrestled hard, breathing hot love on me.
Chor. And were ye one in act whence children spring P
(1) The picture mig-ht be drawn by any artist of power, but we may,
perhaps, trace a reproduction of one of the grandest pass ges in the Iliad,
(iv. 422-426.)
(2) So in the EumeniJes, (v. 293,) the Erinnyes appear as vampires,
drinking 1he blood of their victims.
(8) The death of MyHilos as the first crime in the long history of th«
house of Pelops. Comp. Soph. Electr. v. 470. The "dunler" if
Who seduced Aerope, the wile of Atreua.
AGAMEMNON. 229
«. I promised Loxias, then I broke my vow.
Char. Wast thou e'en then possessed with arts
divine ? 118a
Cass. E'en then my country's woes T prophesied.
Chor. How wast thou then unscathed by Loxias' wrath ?
Cass. I for that fault with no man gained belief.
Chor. To us, at least, thou seem'st to speak the truth.
Cass. [Again speaking wildly, as in an ecstasi/~\ Ah, woe
is me ! Woe's me ! Oh, ills on ills I
Again the dread pang of true prophet's gift
With preludes of great evil dizzies me.
See ye those children sitting on the house
In fashion like to phantom forms of dreams ? "•*
Infants who perished at their own kin's hands,
Their palms filled full with meat of their own flesh,
Loom on my sight, the heart and entrails bearing,
(A sorry burden that !) on which of old
Their father fed.1 And in revenge for this,
I say a lion, dwelling in his lair,
With not a spark of courage, stay-at-home,
Plots 'gainst my master, now he's home returned,
(Yes mine — for still I must the slave's yoke bear ;)
And the ship's ruler, Ilion's conqueror,
Knows not what things the tongue of that lewd bitch
Has spoken and spun out in welcome smooth, ***
And, like a secret Atd, will work out
With dire success : thus 'tis she plans : the man
Is murdered by the woman. By what name
Shall I that loathed monster rightly call ?
An Arnphisbaena ? or a Skylla dwelling*
Among the rocks, the sailors' enemy ?
(1) The horror of the Thyestes banquet again haunts her as the Bonre*
of all the evil* that followed, of the deaths both of Iphigeneia and Aga-
memnon. The "stay-at-home" is ^Egisthos.
(2) Both words point to the Sindbad-like stories of distant marvels
brought back by Greek sailors. The Amphisbama, (double-goer), wrig-
gling itself backward and forward, believed to have a head at each
extremity, was looked upon as at once the most sub'le and the most
venomous oi serpents. Skylla, already famous in its mythical form from
the story in the Odyssey, (xii. 85-100,) was probably a "development" of
the monstrous cuttle-fish of the straits of Alessina.
AGAMEMNON.
Hades' fierce raging mother, breathing out
Against her friends a curse implacable ?
Ah, how she raised her cry, (oh, daring one I)
As for the rout of battle, and she feigns
To hail with joy her husband's sale return I
And if thou dost not credit this, what then ?
What will be will. Soon, present, pitying me ttw
Thou'lt own I am too true a prophetess.
Chor. Thyestes' banquet on his children's flesh
I know and shudder at, and fear o'ercoines me,
Hearing not counterfeits of fact, but truths ;
Yet in the rest I hear and miss my path.
Caas. I say thou'lt witness Agamemnon's death.
Chur. Hush, wretched woman, close those lips of
thine!
Cass. For this my speech no healing God's at hand.
Chor. True, if it must be ; but may God avert it ! 1MO
Cass. Thou utterest prayers, but others murder plot.
Clior. And by what man is this dire evil wrought ?
Cuss. Sure, thou hast seen my bodings all amiss.
Chor. I see not his device who works the deed.
Cass. And yet I speak the Hellenic tongue right well.
Chor. So does the Pythian, yet her words are hard.
Cass. [In another access of frenzy.] Ah me, this fire!
It comes upon me now !
Ah me, Apollo, wolf- slayer ! woe is me I
This biped lioness who takes to bed
A wolf in absence of the noble lion,
Will slay me, wretched me. Ami, as one
Mixing a poisoned draught, she boasts that she
Will put my price into her cup of wrath,
Sharpening her sword to smite her spouse with death,
So paying him for bringing me. Oh, why
Do I still wear what all men flout and scorn,
My wand and seeress wreaths around my neck ? *
(1) As in Homer (H. i. 14) so here, the servant of Apollo bears th«
vand of augury, and fillets or wreaths round head and arms. Thi
livming garments, in like manner, were of wliite liuen.
AGAMEMNON. 231
Thee, ere myself I die I will destroy : [breaks her wand.]
Perish ye thus: [casting off her wreaths,'] I soon shall
follow you :
Make rich another Ate ! in my place ;
Behold Apollo's self is stripping me
Of my divining garments, and that too,
When he has seen me even in this garb
Scorned without cause among my friends and kin,
*By foes, with no diversity of mood.
Beviled as vagrant, wandering prophetess^
Poor, wretched, famished, I endui-ed to live :
And now the Seer who me a sceress made
Hath brought me to this lot of deadly doom,
Now for my father's altar there awaits me
A butcher's block, where I am smitten down
By slaughtering stroke, and with hot gush of blood.
But the Gods will not slight us when we're dead; IMO
Another yet shall come as champion for us,
A son who slays his mother, to avenge
His father ; and the exiled wanderer
Far from his home, shall one day come again,
Upon these woes to set the coping-stone :
For the high Gods have sworn a mighty oath,
His father's full, laid low, shall bring him back.
Why then do I thus groan in this new home,*
When, to begin with, Ilion's town I saw
Faring as it did fare, and they who held
That town are gone Ly judgment of the GodsP mo
I too will fare as they and venture death :
So I these gates of Hades now address,
And pray for blow that bringeth death at once,
That so with no tierce spasm, while the blood
Flows in calm death, I then may close mine eyes.
[Goes towards the duor ofthepaJaeet
(1) If we adopt this reading, we must think of Cassandra as identifying
herself wiih the woe (Ate) which makes up her life, just as afterwards
Clytsemnestra speaks of herself as one with the avenging Demon (Alastor)
cf the house of Atreus, (1473.) The alternative reading {jives, —
" Make rich in woe another in my place."
(2) Perhaps, "in home not mine."
AGAMEMNON.
Clior. 0 thou most wretched, yet again most wise :
Long hast thou spoken, lady, but if well
Thou know'st thy doom, why to the altar go'st thou,
Like heifer driven of God, so confidently? l I9W
Cass. For me, my friends, there is no time to 'scape.8
Chor. Yea ; but he gains in time who comes the last.
Cass. The day is come : small gain for me in flight.
CJior. Know then thou sufferest with a heart ful]
brave.
Cass. Such words as these the happy never hear.
Chor. Yet mortal man may welcome noble death.
Cass. [Shrinking back from opening the dvor.~] Woe'a
me'for thee and thy brave sons, my father ! *
Chor. What cometh now ? What fear oppres*eth thee ?
Cass. [Again going to the door and then shuddering in
another burst of frenzy."] Fie on't, fie !
Chor. Whence comes this "Fie?" unless from mind
that loathes ? [lzw
Cass. The house is tainted with the scent of death.
Chor. How so ? This smells of victims on the hearth.
Cass. Nay, it is like the blast from out a grave.
Chor. No Syrian ritual tell'st thou for our house.*
Cass. Well then I go, and e'en within will wail
My fate and Agamemnon's. And for me,
Enough of life. Ah, friends ! Ah ! not for nought
I shrink in fear, as bird shrinks from the brake.6
When I am dead do ye this witness bear,
When in revenge for me, a woman, Death
A woman smites, and man shall fall for man
(1) When the victim, instead of shrinking and struggling1, went, as with
good courage, to the altar, it was noted as a sign of divine impulse. Such
a strange, new courage the Chorus notices in Cassandra.
(2) Possibly,
" My one escape, my friends, is but delay."
(3) The implied thoughts of the words is that Priam and his sons,
though they had died nobly, were yet misei able, and not happy.
(4) The ftyriau ritiial had, it would seem, become proverbial for ita
lavish use of frankincense and other -pices.
(5) The close parallel of Shakspeare's Henry VI., Act. v. so. 6, is worth
quoting—
" The bird that hath beon limed in o bush.
With trembling eyes inisdoublelh every bush."
AGAMEMNON. 233
In evil wedlock wed. This friendly office,
As one about to die, I pray you do me.
Chor. Thy doom foretold, poor sufferer, moves my pity.
Casa. I fain would speak once more, yet not to wail
Mine own death-song ; but to the Sun I pray,
To his last rays, that my avengers wreak
Upon my hated murderers judgment due
For me, who die a slave's death, easy prey.
Ah, life of man ! when most it prospereth,
* It is but limned in outline ;l and when brought
To low estate, then doth the sponge, full soaked, nw
Wipe out the picture with its frequent touch :
And this I count more piteous e'en than that.*
[Passes through the door into the palace.
Chor. 'Tis true of all men that they never set
A limit to good fortune ; none doth say,
As bidding it depart,
* And warding it from palaces of pride,
" Enter thou here no more."
To this our lord the Blest Ones gave to take
Priam's city ; and he comes
Safe to his home and honoured by the Gods;
But if he he now shall pay
The forfeit of blood-guiltiness of old,
And, dying, so work out for those who died,
By his own death another penalty, UM
Who then of mortal men,
Hearing such things as this,
Can boast that he was born
With fate from evil free ?
Agam. \Jrom, within.'] Ah, me! I am struck down
with deadly stroke.
Chor. Hush ! Who cries out with deadly stroke sore
smitten ?
Agam. Ah me, again ! struck down a second time ! [Dies.
U) The older reading gives —
"A shadow might o'erturn it."
(2) Her own doom, hard as it wis, touches her less than the common
Lot of human suli'eiiug and mutability.
334 AGAMEMNON.
Chor. By the king's groans I judge the deed is done;
But let us now confer for counsels safe.1
Chor. a. I give you my advice to summon here,
Here to the palace, all the citizens. un
Chor. 6. I think it best to rush at once on them,
And take them in the act with sword yet wet.
Chor. c. And I too give like counsel, and I vote
For deed of some kind. 'Tis no time to pause.
Chor. d. Who will see, may. — They but the prelude
work
Of tyranny usurped o'er all the State.
Chor. e. Yes, we are slow, but they who trample down
The thought of hesitation slumber not.
Chor. f. I know not what advice to find or speak :
He who can act knows how to counsel too.
Chor. g. I too think with thee ; for I have no hope
With words to raise the dead again to lifu.
Chor. h. What ! Shall we drag our life on and submit
To these usurpers that defile the house ?
Chor. i. Nay, that we cannot bear : To die were better;
For death is gentler far than tyranny.
Chor. k. Shall we upon this evidence of groans
Guess, as divining that our lord is dead ?
Cher. I. When we know clearly, then should we
discuss :
To guess is one thing, and to know another.
Chor? So vote I too, and on the winning side,
Taking the votes all round that we should learn
How he, the son of Atreus, fareth now.
Enter CLYT^MNESTRA from the palace, in roles with
stains of blood, followed l>y soldiers and attendants.
The open doors show the corpses of AGAMEMNON
and CASSANDRA, the former lying in a silvered
bath.
Clytcem. Though many words before to suit the time
(1) So far the dialogue hns been sustained by the Coryphreos, or leader
of (he Chorus. Now each member of it speaks and gives his counsel.
(2) The Coryphueos again takes up his part, sums up, and pronounce!
bis decision,.
AGAMEMNON. 83$
Were spoken, now I snail not be ashamed
The contrary to utter : How could one
By open show of enmity to foes
"Who seemed as friends, fence in the snares of death
Too high to be o'erleapt ? But as for me,
Not without forethought for this long time past,
This conflict comes to me from triumph old l
Of his, though slowly wrought. I stand where I iWI
Did smite him down, with all my task well done,
So did I it, (the deed deny I not,)
That he could nor avert his doom nor flee :
I cast around him drag-net as for fish,
"With not one outlet, evil wealth of robe :
And twice I smote him, and with two deep groans
He dropped his limbs : And when ho thus foil down
I gave him yet a third, thank-offering true2
To Hades of the dark, who guards the dead.
So fallen, he gasps out his struggling soul,
And breathing forth a sharp, quick gush of blood,
He showers dark drops of gory rain on me, 1Wf
Who no less joy felt in them than the corn,
When the blade bears, in glad shower given of God,
Since this is so, ye Argive elders here,
Ye, as ye will, may hail the deed, but I
Boast of it. And were't fitting now to pour
Libation o'er the dead,3 'twere justly done,
Yea more than justly; such a goblet full
Of ills hath he filled up with curses dire
At home, and now has come to drain it off.
Chor. W e marvel at the boldness of thy tongue, 137°
Who o'er thy husband's corpse speak'st vaunt like this.
(1) i.e. He had had his triumph over her when, forgetful of her
mother's feelings, he had. sacrificed Iphigeneia. fcihe has now repaid him
to the full.
(2) The third libation at all feasts was to Zeus, as the Preserver ol
Guardian Deity. Clj-t8Rmnestra boas's that her third blow was as an
ottering to a God of other kind, to Him who hud in his keeping not the
living, but the dead.
(3) So in the Choephori, (w. 351, 476,) the custom of pouring libations
on the burial-place of the dead is recognised as an element of their blessed-
ness or shame in Hades, and Agamemnon is represented as lacking the
honour which. oomen iroui them till he mxaves it at the baud ui'uieB'.ei.
AGAMEMNON.
Chjtcem. Ye test me as a woman weak of mind;
But I with dauntless heart to you that know
Say this, and whether thou dost praise or blame,
Is all alike :— here Agamemnon lies,
My husband, now a corpse, of this right hand,
As artist just, the handiwork : so stands it.
STBOPHE.
Chor. What evil thing, 0 Queen, or reared on earth,
Or draught from salt sea-wave 18M
Hast thou fed on, to bring
Such incense on thyself,1
A people's loud-voiced curse ?
'Twas thou did'st sentence him,
'Twas thou did'st strike him down ;
But thou shalt exiled be,
Hated with strong hate of the citizens.
Clytcem. Ha ! now on me thou lay'st the exile's doom,
My subjects' hate, and people's loud-voiced curse,
Though ne'er did'st thou oppose my husband there,
Who, with no more regard than had been due
To a brute's death, although he called his own.
Full many a fleecy sheep in pastures bred,
Yet sacrificed his child, the dear-loved fruit *"*
Of all my travail-pangs, to be a charm
Against the winds of Thrakia. Should' st thou not
Have banished him from out this land of ours,
As meed for all his crimes ? Yet hearing now
My deeds, thou art a judge full stern. But I
Tell thee to speak thy threats, as knowing well
I am prepared that thou on equal terms
Should'st rule, if thou dost conquer. But if God
Should otherwise decree, then thou shalt learn,
Late though it be, the lesson to be wise.
(1) Tncense was placed on the head of the victim. The Chorns tells
Chj^fenmestra that she has brought upon her own head the incense, not oi
pi-aise niul admiration, but of hatred and wrath as though some poison
Ltul driven her mad.
AGAMEMNON.
AXTISTBOPHB.
Chor. Yea, thou art stout of heart, and speak'st big
words ; 1*uo
And maddened is thy soul
As by a murderous hate ;
And still upon thy brow
Is seen, not yet avenged,
The stain of blood- spot foul ;
And yet it needs must be,
One day thou, reft of friends,
Shalt pay the penalty of blow for blow.
Clytcem. Now hear thou too my oaths of solemn dread :
By my accomplished vengeance for my child,
By At£ and Erinnys, unto whom
I slew him as a victim, I look not
That fear should come beneath this roof of mine,
So long as on my hearth .^Egisthos kindles ****
The flaming fire, as well disposed to me
As he hath been aforetime. He to us
Is no slight shield of stoutest confidence.
There lies he, [pointing to the corpse of AGAMEMNON,] one
who foully wronged his wife,
The darling of the Chryse'ids at Tro'ia ;
And there [pointing to CASSANDRA] this captwe slave, thia
auguress,
His concubine, this seeress trustworthy,
* Who shared his bed, and yet was as well known
To the sailors as their benches ! . . . They have fared
Not otherwise than they deserved : for he
Lies as you see. And she who, like a swan,1
Has chanted out her last and dying song, iao
(1) The species of swan referred to is said to be in the Oygnus Mtisicus.
Aristotle (Hist. Anim. ix. 12) describes swans of some kind as having
been heard by sailors near the coast of Libya, "singing with a lamentable
cry." Mrs. Someryille (Phys. Geog., c. xxxiii. 3) describes their note as
"like that of a violin." The same fact is reported or the swans of
Iceland and other regions of the far North. The strange, tender beauty
of the passage in the P/ia>iio of Plato, (p. 85, a,) which speaks of them
ns singing when at the point of death, has done more than anything
else to moke the illustration one of the commonplaces of rhetoric and
poetry
AGAMEMNON.
Lies close to him she loved, and so has brought
The zest of a new pleasure to my bed.
STEOPH. L1
CTwr. Ah me, would death might come
Quickly, with no sharp throe of agony,
Nor long bed-ridden pain,
Bringing the endless sleep ;
Since he, the watchman most benign of all,
Hath now been smitten low,
And by a woman's means hath much endured,
And at a womaa's hand hath lost his life 1
STUOPH. H.
Alas ! alas ! 0 Helen, evil-souled, ***
Who, though but one, hast slain
Many, yea, very many lives at Tro'ia.*
*****
STBOPH. IH.
* But now for blood that may not be washed out
* Thou hast to full bloom brought
*A deed of guilt for ever memorable,
For strife was in the house,
"Wrought out in fullest strength,
Woe for a husband's life.
STBOPH. IV.
Clytcem. Nay, pray not thou for destiny of death,
Oppressed with what thou see'st ;
Nor turn thou against Helena thy wrath,
As though she murderess were,
And, though but one, had many Dana'i's souls
Brought low in death, and wrought o'erwhelming woe.
ANTISTBOPH. L
Chor. O PC wer that dost attrck
(1) The structure of the lyrical dialogue that follows is rather compli-
cated, and different editors have adopted different arrangements. I hav«
followed Paley's.
(2) Several lines seem to have dropped out by some accident of traa-
•cription.
AGAMEMNON. 239
Our palace and the two Tantalidae,1
*And dost through, women wield
*A might that grieves my heart 1*
And o'er the body, like a raven foul,
Against all laws of right,
*Standing, she boasteth in her pride of heart *
That she can chant her paean hymn of praise. MM
ANTISTBOPH. IV.
Clytcem. Now thou dost guide aright thy speech and
thought,
Invoking that dread Power,
*The thrice-gorged evil genius of this house ;
For he it is who feeds
In the heart's depth, tffis raging lust of blood :
Ere the old wound is hsaled, new bloodshed comes.
STEOPH. V.
CJior. Yes, of a Power thou tell'st
*Mighty and very wrathful to this house ;
Ah me ! ah me ! an evil tale enough ***•
Of baleful chance of doom,
Insatiable of ill :
Yet, ah ! it is through Zeua,
The all-appointing and all-working One ;
For what with mortal men
Is wrought apart from Zeus ?
What of all this is not by God decreed P*
STBOPH. VL
Ah me ! ah me I
My king, my king, how shall I weep for thee P
(1) Agamemnon and Henelaos, as descended fram Tantalos, the father
of Pclops.
(2) In each case women, Helen and Clytsemnestra, had been the •uncon-
scious instruments of the Divine Nemesis, to which the Chorus traces the
ruin of the house of Atreus.
(3) Or, with another reading,—
" He (»c. the avenging Demon) boasteth in his pride of heart."
(4^ It is characteristic of the teacliing of ^Eschylos that the Chorus
posses from the thought of the agency of any lower Power to the supiem»
Will ul Zeua.
24O AGAMEMNON.
What shall I speak from heart that truly loves f
And now thou lie'st there, breathing out thy life, lfll
In impious deed of death,
In this fell spider's web,—
STBOPH. VII.
(Yes, woe is me ! woe, woe I
Woe for this couch of thine dishonourable !)—
Slain by a subtle death,1
With sword two -edged which her right hand did •wield.
STBOPH. VTTL
Clytcem. Thou speak' st big words, as if the deed were
mine;
Yet think thou not of me,
As Agamemnon's spouse ;
But in the semblance of this dead man's wife,
The old and keen Avenger of the house
Of Atreus, that cruel banqueter of old,
Hath wrought out vengeance full
On him who lieth here, "*
And full-grown victim slain
Over the younger victims of the past.*
ANTISTEOPH. V.
Chor. That thou art guiltless found
Of this foul murder who will witness bear P
How can it be so, how ? And yet, perchance,
As helper to the deed,
Might come the avenging Fiend
Of that ancestral time ;
And in this rush of murders of near kin
Dark Ares presses on,
Where he will vengeance work
For clotted gore of children slain as food. M*
(1) Or, " Dyingr, Rs dies a slave."
(2) ClytJBmnestra still harps (though in ambiguous •words, which may
refer also to the murder of the children of Thyestes) upon the death 01
Iphigeneia aa the crime which it had been her work to avenge.
AGAMEMNON. 24!
AJTTISTBOPH. VL
All me ! ah me !
My ting, my king, how shall I weep for thee t
What shall I speak from heart that truly loves P
And now thou lie'st there, breathing out thy life,
In impious deed of death,
In this fell spider's web, —
AJTTISTBOPH. VTL
(Yes, woe is me ! woe, woe 1
Woe for this couch of thine dishonourable !)—
Slain by a subtle death,
With sword two-edged which, her right hand did wield*
AJTTISTBOPH. VHL
Clytcem. Nay, not dishonourable
His death doth seem to me :
Did he not work a doom,
In this our house with guile ?* *•"
Mine own dear child, begotten of this man,
Iphigeneia, wept with many a tear,
He slew ; now slain himself in recompense,
Let him not boast in Hell,
Since he the forfeit pays,
Pierced by the sword in death,
For all the evil that his hand began.
BTBOPH. IX.
Chor. I stand perplexed in soul, deprived of power
Of quick and ready thought,
Where now to turn, since thus IB*
Our home is falling low.
I shrink in fear from the fierce pelting storm
Of blood that shakes the basement of the house:
No more it rains in drops :
And for another deed of mischief dire,
Fate whets the righteous doom
On other whetstones still.
(I) Pertaj*. "And that, too, not a lUTrt.*
1
243 AGAMEMNON.
ANTJSTBOPH. n.
O Earth 1 0 Earth ! Oh, would thou had'st received me,
Ere I saw him on coush
Of bath with silvered walls thus stretchod in death I
"Who now will bury him, who wail ? Wilt thou,
When thou hast slain thy husband, have the heart uai
To mourn his death, and for thy monstrous deeds
Do graceless grace ? And who will chant the dirge
With tears in truth of heart,
Over our godlike chief ?
BTBOPH. X.
Clytoem. It is not thine to speak ;
'Twas at our hands he fell,
Yea, he fell low in death,
And we will bury him, **•
Not with the bitter tears of those who weep
As inmates of the house ;
But she, his child, Iphigeneia, there
Shall meet her father, and with greeting kind,
E'en as is fit, by that swift-flowing ford,
Dark stream of bitter woes,
Shall clasp him in her arms,
And give a daughter's kiss.
ANTISTBOPH. IX.
Chor. Lo ! still reproach upon reproach doth come;
Hard are these things to judge:
The spoiler still is spoiled,
The slayer pays his debt ;
Yea, while Zeus liveth through the ages, thia ****
Lives also, that the doer dree his weird ;
For this is law fast fixed.
Who now can drive from out the kingly houM
The brood of curses dark P
The race to Ate cleaves.
ANTMTBOPH. X.
Clytcem. Yes, thou hast touched with truth
That word oracular ;
AGAMEMNON.
But I for my part wish,
(Binding with strongest oath
The evil daemon of the Pleisthenida,)1
Though hard it be to bear,
To rest content with this our present lot ;
And, for the future, that he go to vex
Another race with homicidal deaths. *•*
Lo ! 'tis enough for me,
Though small my share of wealth,
At last to have freed my house
From madness that sets each man's hand 'gainst each.
Enter ^GISTHOS.
^Egis. Hail, kindly light of day that vengeance brings !
Now I can say the Gods on high look down,
Avenging men, upon the woes of earth,
Since lying in the robes the Erinnyes wove
I see this man, right welcome sight to me,
Paying for deeds his father's hand had wrought. M*
Atreus, our country's ruler, this man's father,
Drove out my sire Thyestes, his own brother,
(To tell the whole truth,) quarrelling for rule,
An exile from his country and his home.
And coming back a suppliant on the hearth,
The poor Thyestes found a lot secure,
Nor did he, dying, stain the soil with blood,
There in his home. But this man's godless sire,*
Atreus, more prompt than kindly in his deeds,
On plea of keeping festal day with cheer,
To my sire banquet gave of children's flesn, "^
His own. The feet and finger-tips of hands
* He, sitting at the top, apart concealed ;
And straight the other, in his blindness taking
The parts that could uot be discerned, did eat
(1) Here the genealogy is carried one step further to Pleisthenea, the
fether of Tantalos.
(2) JEgisthos, in his version of the story, suppresses the adultery
of Thyestes with the wife of Atreus, which led the latter to his horribli
revenga.
244 AGAMEMNON.
A meal which, as thou see'st, perdition worka
For all his kin. And learning afterwards
The deed of dread, he groaned and backward fell,
Vomits the feast of blood, and imprecates
On Pelops' sons a doom intolerable,
And makes the o'erturning of the festive board,
With fullest justice, as a general curse,
That so might fall the race of Pleisthenes. 1*8
And now thou see'st how here accordingly
This man lies fallen ; I, of fullest right,
The weaver of the plot of murderous doom.
For me, a babe in swaddling-clothes, he banished
With my poor father, me, his thirteenth child ;
And Vengeance brought me back, of full age grown .
And e'en far off I wrought against this man,
And planned the whole scheme of this dark device.
And so e'en death were now right good for me,
Seeing him into the nets of Vengeance fallen.
Chor. I honour not this arrogance in guilt,
.ZEgisthos. .Thou confessest thou hast slain
Of thy free will our chieftain here, — that thou
Alone did'st plot this murder lamentable ;
Be sure, I say, thy head shall not escape
The righteous curse a people hurls with stones.
JEgisth. Dost thou say this, though seated on the bench
Of lowest oarsmen, while the upper row
Commands the ship ? l But thou shalt find, though old,
How hard it is at such an age to learn,
When the word is, ' keep temper.' But a prison
And fasting pains are admirably apt,
As prophet-healers even for old age.
Dost see, and not see this ? Against the pricks
Kick not,2 lest thou perchance should'st smart for it.
(1) The Image is taken from the trireme with its three benches fall of
rowers. The Chorus is compared to the men on the lowest, .tflgisthos and
Cljrtsemnestra to those on the uppermost bench.
(2) The earliest occurrence of the proverb with which we are familiar
through the history of St. Paul's conversion, Acts ix. 5, xxvL 14.
AGAMEMNON. 145
Chor. Thou, thou, 0 Queen, when thy lord came frora
war,
While keeping house, thy husband's bed defiling,
Did'st scheme this death for this our hero-chief.
^Eyisth. These words of thine shall parents prove of
tears :
But this thy tongue is Orpheus' opposite ;
He with his voice led all things on for joy,
But thou, provoking with thy childish cries,
Shalt now be led ; and then, being kept in check,
Thou shalt appear in somewhat gentler mood. mo
Chor. As though thou should'st o'er Argives ruler be,
Who even when thou plotted'st this man's death
Did'st lack good heart to do the deed thyself ?
<32yisth. E'en so ; to work this fraud was clearly part
l<'it for a woman. I was foe, of old
Suspected. But now will I with his wealth
See whether I his subjects may command,
And him who will not hearken I will yoke
In heavy harness as a full-fed colt,
Nowise as trace-horse ; l but sharp hunger joined
With darksome dungeon shall behold him tamed. 1CS*
Chor. Why did'st not thou tLea, coward as thou art,
Thyself destroy him ? but a woman with thee,
Pollution to our land and our land's Gods,
She slew him. Does Orestes see the light,
Perchance, that he, brought back by Fortune's grace,
May for both these prove slayer strong to smite ?
^Egisth. Well, since thou think'st to act, not merely talk,
Thou shalt know clearly ....
[Calling his Guards from the palace.
On then, my troops, the time for deeds is come.
Chor. On then, let each man grasp his sword in hand.
^Egisth. With sword in hand, I too shrink not from
death. ISJB
Chor. Thou talkest of thy death ; we hail the word ;
A.nd make our own the fortune it implies.
(1) The trace-horse, as not under the pressure of the collar, was taken
W the type of free, those that wore the yoke, of enforced submission.
246 AGAMEMNON.
Clytcem. Nay, let us not do other evil deeds,
Thou dearest of all friends. An ill-starred harvest
It is to have reaped so many. Enough of woe :
Let no more blood be shed : Go thou — [to the Chorus}—
go ye,
Ye aged sires, to your al.otted homes,
Ere ye do aught amiss and dree your weird :
* This that we have done ought to have sufficed ;
But should it prove we've had enough of ills,
We will accept it gladly, stricken low
In evil doom by heavy hand of God.
This is a woman's counsel, if there be
That deigns to hear it.
jEgisth. But that these should fling
The blossoms of their idle speech at me, **
And utter words like these, so tempting Fate,
And fail of counsel wise, and flout their master .... I
Chor. It suits not Argives on the vile to fawn.
JEgi&tli. Be sure, hereafter I will hunt thee down.
Chor. Not so, if God should guide Orestes back.
jffgisth. Eight well I know how exiles feed on hopes.
Chor. Prosper, wax fat, do foul wrong — 'tis thy day.
jEgisth. Know thou shalt pay full price for this thy
folly.
Chor. Be bold, and boast, like cock beside his mate.
Clytcem. Nay, care not thou for these vain howl-
ings; I
And thou together, ruling o'er the house,
Will settle all things rightly. {Exeunt,
CHOEPHOEI,
THE LIBATION-POUBEBa
ARGUMENT.
It e*me to pass, after Agamemnon had been slain, that ClytdftHf
nestra and JEgisthos ruled in Argos, and all things seemed
to go well with them. Orestes, who was heir to Agamemnon,
they had sent aicay to the care of Strophios of Phokis, and
there he abode. Electra his sister, mourned in secret over
her father's death, and prayed for vengeance, but no avenger
came. And when Orestes grew up to man's estate, he went
to ask counsel of the God at Delphi, and the God straitly
charged him to take vengeance on his father's murderers f
and so he started on his journey with his trusty friend
Pylades, and arrived at Argos. And it chanced thct a
little while before he came, the Gods sent Clyttemnestrc *
fearful dream, that troubled her soul greatly ; and in her
terror she bade Electra go with her handmaids to pour liba~
tions on the tomb of Agamemnon, that so she might appease
his soul, and propitiate the Powers that rult «wr ths dark
awld of the dead.
granralis
OKESTES.
ELECTHA.
PYLADM.
Servant.
Chorui (ff Captive Women.
THE LIBATION-POUREK&
SCENE. — Argos, in front of the palace of the Atreidce.
The tomb of AGAMEMNOX (a raised mound of tartti)
is seen in the background.
Enter ORESTES and PTLADES from the left; ORESTES
advances to the mound, and, a$ he speaks, lays on it a
lock of his hair.
Orest. 0 Hermes of the darkness 'neath the earth.
Who hast the charge of all thy Father's l sway,
To me who pray deliverer, helper be ;
For I to this laud come, from exile come,
And on the raised mound of this monument
I bid my father hear and list. One tress,
Thank-offering for the gifts that fed my youth,
To Inachos I consecrate, and this
The second as the token of my grief ; *
(1) Hermes is invoked, (1.) as the watcher over the souls of the dead in
Hades, and therefore the natural patron of the murdered Agamemnon;
(2.) as exercising an authority delegated by Zeus, and therefore capable of
being, like Zeus himself, the deliverer "and helper of suppliants. So
Eleetra, further on, invokes Hermes in the same character. The line
may, however, be rendered,
"Who stand'st as guardian of my father's house."
The three opening lines are noticeable, as having been chosen by Aristo-
phanes as the special object for his satirical, criticism (Frogs, 1126-1176,)
abounding in a good score of ambiguities and tautologies.
(2) The words point to the two symbolic aspects of one and the same
practice. In both there are some points of analogy with the earlier and
later forms of the Nazarite vow among the Jews. (l.J As being part of
the body, and yet separable from it without mutilation, it became the
representative of the whole man, and as such was the sign of a votive
.dedication. As early as Homer, it was the custom for youths to keep one
long, flowing lock as consecrated, ^nd when they reached manhood, they
<ut it off, and offered it to the river-g d of their country, throwing it
into the stream, as that to which, directly and indirectly, they owed
252 THE LIBATION-TOURERS.
For mine it was not, father, being by,
Over thy death to groan, nor yet to stretch
My hand forth for the burial of thy corpse.
fAs he speaks, ELECTRA, followed by a train of
captive women in black garments bearing liba-
tions, wailing and tearing their clothes, comet
forth from the palace.
What see I now ? What company of women
Is this that comes in mourning garb attired ?
What chance shall I conjecture as its cause ?
Does a new sorrow fall upon this house ?
Or am I right in guessing that they bring
Libations to my father, soothing gifts
To those beueath ? It cannot but be so.
I think Electra, mine own sister, comes,
By wailing grief conspicuous. Thou, 0 Zeus,
Grant me full vengeance for my father's death,
And of thine own good will my helper be I
Come, Pyiades, and let us stand aside,
That I may clearly learn what means this train
Of women offering prayers. *
STBOPH. I.
CJior. Sent from the house I come,
With quick, sharp beatings of the hands in grief,
To pour libations here ;
* And see, my cheeks with bloody marks are tracked,1
their nurture. Here the offering1 is made to Inachos, as the hero-founder
of Argos, identified with the river that bore his name. (2.) They shaved
^heir head, wholly or in part, as a token of grief, and then, because true
grief for the dead was an acceptable and propitiatory offering, thia
became the natural offering for suppliants who offered their prayers at
the tombs of the departed. So in the Aios of Sophocles (v. 1174) Teucroi
calls on Eurysakes to approach the corpse of his father, holding in his
hands locks of his own hair, his mother's, and that of Teucros. In the
offe ing which Achilles makes over the grave of Patroolos of the hair
which he had cherished for the river-god of his fatherland, Sperchekw,
We have the union of the two customs. Homer, II. xxiii. 141-151.
(1) After the widespread fashion of the East, the handmaids of Clyteem-
nestra (originiilly TroTon cap'ivesl had to rend their clothes, beat their
breasts, and lacerate their faces till the blood came. The higher civilisa-
tion of Solon's laws had forbidden these wild, barbarous forms of grief at
«.theos. Plutarch, Solon, p. 164.
THE LIBATION-POUB.ERS. 253
The new-cut furrows which my nails have made,
And evermore my heart is fed with groans ;
And folds of mantles tied
Across the breast are rent
To shreds and rags in grief,
* Marring the grace of linen vestments fair,
* Since we by woes that shut out smiles are smitten. "
AXTISTBOPH. I.
* Full clear a spectre came
That made each single hair to stand on end,
Dream-prophet of this house,
That e'en in sleep breathes out avenging wrath. ;
And from the secret chamber cried in fear
A cry that broke the silence of the night,
There, where the women dwell,
Falling with heaviest weight ;
And those who judge such dreams
Told, calling God to witness, that the souls
Below were wroth and vexed with those that slew
them. **
BTBOPH. II.
On such a graceless deed of grace, as charm
To ward off ill, (0 Earth ! O mother kind I)
A godless woman now
Sends me with eager heart ;
And yet I dread to utter that same prayer ;
What ransom has been found
For blood on earth once poured P
Oh ! hearth all miserable 1
Oh ! utter overthrow of house and home I
Yea, mists of darkness, sunless, loathed of men, *
Cover both home and house
With its lords' blooiy deaths.
ANTISTBOPH. II.
Yea, all the majesty that awed of old,
Unchecked, unconquered, irresistible,
»54 THK LIBATION-POURERS.
Thrilling the people's heart
As well as ears, is gone ;
There are, may be, that fear ; 1 but now SucceM
Is man's sole God and more ;
Yet stroke of Vengeance swift
Smites some in life's clear day,
For some who tarry long their sorrows wait
In twilight dim, on darkness' borderland,
* And some an endless night
Of nothingness holds fast.
STBOPH. TTT.
Because of blood that mother earth has drunk,
The guilt of slaughter that will vengeance work
Is fixed indelibly ;
And Ate, working grief,
Permits awhile the guilty one to wait,
That so he may be full and overflow
* \Yith all-devouring ill.
ANTISTBOPH. III.
For him whose foul touch stains the marriage bed"
No remedy avails ; and water-streams,
Though all as from one source
Should pour to cleanse the guilt
* Of murder that the sin-stained hand defiles,
* Would yet flow all in vain
* That guilt to purify.
EPODB.
But now to me, since the high Gods have sent
A doom of bondage round my city's walls,
(For from my father's home
(1) Purposely, perhaps, obscure. They seem to say that the old
reverence for Agamemnon has passed away, and instead of it there in
only a slavish fear for ./Egisthos. For the more acute, however, they
imply that those who have cause to fear are JEgisthos and Clyteemnestra
themselves.
(2) The words, in their generalising sententiousness, refer specially to
Ihe twofold crime of AJfrwtios as an adulterer and murderer. Then, in
the Epode, the Chorus justify themselves for their seeming inconsistency
in thus abhorring the guilt, and yet acting as instruineats of the Sfuilty in
their attempt* to escape punishment.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. *S5
They have brought on me fate of slavery,)
Deeds right and wrong alike
Have been as things 'twas meet I should accept,
Since this slave-life began,
Where deeds are done by violence and force,—
And I must needs suppress
* The bitter loathing of iny inmost heart,
* And now beneath my cloak I weep and wafl
* For all the frustrate fortunes of my lords.1
Chilled through with secret grief.
Elect. Ye handmaids, ye who deftly tend this house,
Since ye are here companions in my task
As suppliants, give me your advice in this,
What shall I say as these funereal gifts .
I pour ? How shall I speak acceptably ? *
How to my father pray ? What ? Shall I say
" I bring from loving wife to husband loved
Gifts " — from my mother ? No, I am not bold
Enough for that, nor know I what to speak,
Pouring this chrism on my father's tomb,'
Or shall I say this prayer, as men are wont,
" Good recompense make thou to those who bring
These garlands," yea, a gift full well deserved
By deeds of ill ? Or dumb, with ignominy
Like that with which he perished, shall I pour
Libations on the earth, and like a man
That flings away the lustral filth, shall I
Throw down the urn and walk with eyes not turned P * *
(1) The mourners speak, of course, of Agamemnon and Orestes, not of
2Egisthos and Clyftemnestra,
(2) A mixture of meal, honey, and oil formed the half-liquid substance
commonly used for these funereal libations. The "garlands" maybe
•wreaths of flowers or fillets, or the word may be used figuratively for the
libation itself, as crowning1 the mound in which Agamemnon lay.
(3) The words point to a strange Athenian custom. When a house
•was cleansed of that which defiled it, morally or physically, the filth was
carried in an earthen vessel to a place where three ways met, and the
worshipper flung the vessel behind him, and walked away without turning
to look at it. To Klectra's mind, the libation which her mother sends is
equally unclean, and should be treated in the same way. So in Horn. II.
i. 314, the Argives purity themselves, and then cast the lustral water they
hare used into the sea. Lev. vi. 11, gives us an analogous usage. Corny*.
»l*o Tluxxuilos, Idyii xiiv., w. 22-OT.
THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Bo sharers in my counsels, O my friends;
A common hate we cherish in the house ;
Hide nothing in your heart through fear of man.
Fate's doom firm-fixed awaits alike the free,
And those in bondage to another's hand.
Speak, if thou can'st a better counsel give. **•
Chor. [laying their hands on Agamemnon's tomb."] Thy
father's tomb as altar honouring,
I, as thou bidd'st, will speak my heart-thoughts out !
Elect. Speak, then, as thou my father's tomb dost
honour.
Chor. Say, as thou pour'st, good words for those that
love.
Elect. "Which of my friends shall I address as such ?
Chor. First then thyself, and whoso hates 2Egisthos.
Elect. Shall I for thee, as for myself, pray thus ?
Chor. Now that thou'rt learning, judge of that thyself.
Elect. Whom shall I add then to this company ?
Chor. Far though Orestes be, forget him not.
Elect. Eight well is this: thou teachest admirably.
Chor. Then, for the blood-stained ones remembering
say .....
Elect. What then? Explain, and teach my igno-
rance.1
Chor. That there may come to them some God or
man ....
Elect. Shall I " as judge " or as " avenger " say ?
Chor. Say it out plain! "to give them death for
death." ....
Elect. May prayers like these consist with piety ?
Chor. Why not, — a foe with evils to requite ?
Elect, [moving to the tomb, and pouring libations as eht
speaks."] * O mightiest herald of the Gods on high
And those below, O Hermes of the dark,
Call thou the Powers beneath, and bid them hear
(1) Partly it is the youth of Electra that seeks counsel from those who
hud more experience ; partly she shrinks taim. the responsibility of being
Ui3 Jkai to utter Uie Innimla
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 257
The prayers that look towards my father's house ;
And Earth herself, who all things bringeth forth, "*
Arid rears them and again receives their fruit.
And I to human souls libations pouring,
Say, calling on my father, " Pity me ;
How shall we bring our dear Orestes home P "
For now as sold to ill by her who bore us,
We poor ones wander. She as husband gained
.ZEgisthos, who was partner in thy death ;
And I am as a slave, and from his wealth
Orestes now is banished, and they wax
Full haughty in the wealth thy toil had gained, *"
And that Orestes hither with good luck
May come, I pray. Hear tliou that prayer, my father I
And to myself grant thou that I may be
Than that my mother wiser far of heart,
Holier in act. For us this prayer I pour;
And for our foes, my father, this I pray,
That Justice may as thine avenger come,
And that thy murderers perish. Thus I place
Midway in prayer for good that now I speak,
My prayer 'gainst them for evil. Be thou then
The escort1 of these good things that I ask, **•
With help of Gods, and Earth, and conquering Justice.
With prayers like these my votive gifts I pour ;
And as for you [turning to the Chorus} 'tis meet with, cries
to crown
The paean ye utter, •wailing for the dead.
STKOPH.
Chor. * Pour ye the pattering tear,
* Falling for fallen lord,
* Here by the tomb that shuts out good and ill,—
Here, where the full libations have been poured
That turn aside the curse men deprecate,
(1) The word "escort" has a special reference to the function of
Hermes in the unseen world. As lie was wont to act as guide to th«
souls of the dead in their downward journey, so now Eleclra prays that
he may lead the blessings she asks lor upward from the dark depth* a!
a *
258 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Hear me, 0 Thou my Dread, "•
Hear thou, 0 Sire, the words my dark mind speaks I
ANTISTBOPHK.
Oh, woe is me, wee, woe !
Woe, woe, and woe is me I
* What warrior strong of spear
Shall come the house to free,
Or Ares with his Skythian bow1 in hand,
Shaking its pliant strength in deeds of war,
* Or guiding in encounter closer yet
The weapons made with hilts ?
[During the choral ode ELECTRA, after going in tfa
mound, and pouring the libations on it, .-eturns
holding in her hands the lock of hair which
ORESTES had left there.
Elect. The gifts the earth hath drunk, my father hath.
them:
Now this new wonder come and share with me.
Chor. Speak on, my heart goes pit-a-pat with fear,
Elect. There OK the tomb I see this lock cut off.
Chor. What man or maid low-girdled can it claim ?
Elect. Full easy this for any one to guess.
Chor. Old as I am, may I from younger learn ?
Elect. None but myself could cut olf lock like this.
Chor. Yea, foes are they that should with grief-locks
mourn.
Elect. Yes, surely, 'tis indeed the self same hair . . .
Chor. But as what tresses ? This I seek to know.
Elect. And of a truth 'tis very like to ours
Cltor. Did then Orestes send this secret gift ? *
f 1) The Skythian bow, long and elastic, bending either way, like thos*
of the Arabians, (Herod, vii. 69.) The connexion of Ares with Ihe wild,
fierce tribes of Thrakia and Skyihia meets us again and again in th«
literature of Greece. He was the only God to whom they built temples,
(Ibid., iv. 69.1 They sncrificed human victims to an iron sword as hia
moi'b appropriate symbol, (iv. 62.) The use of iron for weapons of war
e<une to the Greeks from them, (Seven ag. Th. 729 ; Prom. 714.)
(2) It may be worth while to compare the me hods adopted by the
three dramatists of Greece in bringing about the recognition of the
brother by the sis'er. (1.) Here the lock of hair in itspeculiar colour and
texture, resembling her own, followed by the likeness of ins CoeUteyi to
THE LIBATION-POUREKS. 259
Elect. It is most like those flowing locks of his. 1H
Chor. Yet how had he adventured to come hither ?
Elect. He to his father sent the lock as gift.
Chor. Not less regretful than before, thy words,
If on this soil his foot shall never tread.
Elect. Yea, on me too there rushed heart-surge of gall;
And I was smitten as with dart that pierced ;
And from mine eyes there fell the thirsty drops
That pour unchecked, of this full bitter flood,
As I this lock beheld. How can I think
That any other townsman owns this hair ? **
Nay, she who slew .... she did not cut it off,
My mother .... who towards her children shows
A godless mood that little suits the name ;
And yet that I should this assert outright,
The precious gift is his whom most of men
I love, Orestes Nay, hope flatters me.
Alas ! alas !
Would, herald-like, it had a kindly voice I
So should I not turn to and fro in doubt ;
But either it had told me with all clearness
To loathe this tress, if cut from hated head ; *•
Or, being of kin, had sought to share my grief,
To deck the tomb and do my father honour.
Chor. Well, on the Gods we call, on those who know
In what storms we, like sailors, now are tossed :
But if deliverance may indeed be ours,
hers, prepares the way first for vagne anticipations, and then the robe she
had made for him, leads to her acceptance of Orestes on his own discovery
of himself. To this it has been objected, by Euripides in the first
instance, (Electra, w. 462-500), that the evidence of the colour of the hair
is weak, that a young man's foot must have been larger than a maiden's,
an 1 that he could not have worn as a man the garment she had made for
him as a child. It might be replied, perhaps, that there are such things
as hereditary resemblances extending to the colour of the half and the
arch of the instep, and that the robe may either have been shown instead
oi'wom, or, being worn, have been adapted for the larger growth. (2.)
In the Electra of Sophocles the lock of hair alone convinces Chryso-
themis that her brother is near at hand, (v. 900. ) while Electra herself
rmuires the further evidence of Agamemnon's seal, (v. 1223.) In Kuri-
11 ides, (v. 527,) all proof faiU till Orestes shows a scar on bis brow, which
his tiister remembers.
t6O THE LIBATION-POURERS.
From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.1
Elect. Here too are foot-prints as a second proof,
Just like .... yea, close resembling those of mine.
For here are outlines of two separate feet,
His own and those of fellow-traveller, *•
And all the heels and impress of the feet,
"When measured, fit well with my footsteps here ...»
Pangs come on me, and sore bewilderment.
[As she ceases speaking ORESTES comes forward from
his concealment.
Orest. Pray, uttering to the Gods no fruitless prayer,
For good success in what is yet to come.
Elect. What profits now to me the Gods' good will ?
Orest. Thou see'st those here whom most thou did'st
desire.
Elect. Whom called I on, that thou hast knowledge of?
Orest. Eight well I know how thou dost prize Orestes.
Elect . In what then find I now my prayers fulfilled ? 21°
Orest. Behold me ! Seek no dearer friend than I !
Elect. Nay, stranger, dost thou weave a snare for me ?
Orest. Then do I plot my schemes against myself.
Elect. Thou seekest to make merry with my grief.
Orest. With mine then also, if at all with thine,
Elect. Art thou indeed Orestes that I speak to ?
Orest. Though thou see'st him, thou'rt slow to learn
'tis I;
Yet when thou saw'st this lock of mourner's hair,
And did'st the toot-prints track my feet had made,
Agreeing with thine own, as brother's true,
Then did'st thou deem in hope thou looked' st on me. aw
Pit then this lock where it was out, and see ;
See too this woven robe, thine own hands' work,
(1) The saying is probably one of the wide-spread proverbs which
Imply parables. The idea is obvit usly that with which we are lamiliar
n the Gospel "g:ain of mustard seed." Here, as in the "kicking
against the pricks" of Acts ix. 5, xxvi. 14, and Agam. v. 1604, we are
carried back to a period which lies beyond the range of history as that in
which men took note of the analogies and embodied them in forms like
this.
THE LIBATION-POUREB.S. 26l
The shuttle's stroke, and forms of beasts1 of chase.
[ELECTKA starts, as if about to cry aloud for joy.
Restrain thyself, nor lose thy head for joy :
Our nearest kin, I know, are foes to us.
Elect, [emlracing ORESTES] Thou whom thy father's
house most loves, most prays for,
Our one sole hope, bewept with many a tear,
Of issue that shall work deliverance !
Thine own might trusting, thou thy father's house
Shalt soon win back. O pleasant fourfold name 1
I needs must speak to thee as father dear ; a
The love I owe my mother turns to thee,
(She with full right to me is hateful now,)
My sister's too, who ruthlessly was slain ;
And thou wast ever faithful brother found,
And one whom I revered. May Might and Eight,
And sovran Zeus as third, my helpers be !
Orest. Zeus 1 Zeus ! be Thou a witness of our troubles,
See the lorn brood that calls an eagle sire,
Eagle that perished in the coils and folds **°
Of a fell viper. Now on them bereaved
Presses gaunt famine. Not as yet full-grown
Are they to bring their father's booty home.
Thus it is thine to eee in me and her,
(I mean Electra) children fatherless,
Both suffering the same exile from our home.
Elect. And should' st Thou havoc make of brood of sire
Who at thine altar greatly honoured Thee,
Whence wilt Thou get a festive offering
From hand as free ? Nor, should' st Thou bring to nought
The eagle's nestlings, would'st thou have at hand **
A messenger to bear thy will to man
In signs persuasive ; nor when withered up
This royal stock shall be, will it again
Wait on thine altars at high festivals :
(1) So in the Odyssey, (xix. 228,) Odyiseua appears an wearing a
woollen cloak, on which are embroidered the figures of a fawn and
a dog.
(2) An obvious reproduction of the words of Andromache, (II. vi. 4519.)
262 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Oh, bring it back, and then Thou too wilt raise
From low estate a lofty house, which now
Seems to have fallen, fallen utterly.
Chor. Ah, children ! saviours of your father's house,
Hush, hush, lest some one hear you, children dear,
And for mere talking's sake report all this
To those that rule. Ah, would I might behold them
Lie dead 'midst oozing fir-pyre blazing high ! l **
Orest. Nay, nay, I tell you, Loxias' oracle,
In strength excelling, will not fail us now,
That bade me on this enterprise to start,
And with clear voice spake often, warning me
Of chilling pain-throes at the fevered heart,
Unless my father's murderers I should chase,
Bidding me kill them in the self-same fashion,
Stirred by the wrongs that pauperise my life,
And said that I with many a mischief ill
Should pay for that fault with mine own dear life.
For making known to men the charms earth-born *"
* That soothe the wrathful powers,1 he spake for us
Of ills as follows, leprous sores that creep
All o'er the flesh, and as with cruel jaws
Eat out its ancient nature, and white hairs8
On that foul ill to supervene : and still
He spake of other onsets of the Erinnyes,
As brought to issue from a father's blood ;
(1) The words seem to imply that burning alive was known among the
Greeks as a punishment for the more atrocious crimes. The "oozingf
pitch," if we adopt that rendering, apparently describes something
like the "tunica molesta" of Juvenal. (Sat. viii. 235.) Hesyohios
(g. y. Kwj'iJTcu) mentions the practice as alluded to in a lost play of
2Eschylos.
(2) The words are both doubtful and obscure. Taking the rendhv?
which I have adopted, they seem to mean that while men in general Iwd
means of propitiating the Erinn es and other Powers for the ff«ilt of
Unavenged bloodshed, Orestes and Electra Ivid no such wny of escape
open to them. If they, the next of kin, failed to do their work, they
would be exposed to the full storm of wrath. But a conjectural emenda-
tion of one word gives us,
" For making known to men the earth-born ills
That come from wrathful rowers."
fS) Either that old age would come prematurely, or that the hair itself
in raid share the leprous whiteness of the flush.
THE LIBAT1ON-POURERS. 263
For the dark weapon of the Gods below
Winged by our kindred that lie low in death.,
And beg for vengeance, yea, and madness too,
And vague, dim fears at night disturb and haunt me,
*Seeing full clearly, though I move my brow 1
In the thick darkness .... and that then my frame,
Thus tortured, should be driven from the city
With brass-knobbed scourge : and that for such as I
It was not given to share the wine-cup's taste,
Nor votive stream in pure libation poured ;
And that my father's wrath invisible
Would drive me from all altars, and that none
Should take me in, or lodge with me ; at last,
That, loathed of all and friendless, I should die,
A wretched mummy, all my strength consumed.
Must I not trust such oracles as these ?
Yea, though I trust not, must the deed be done ; **
For many motives now in one converge, —
The God's command, great sorrow for my father ;
My lack of fortune, this, too, urges me
Never to leave our noble citizens,
With noblest courage Troia's conquerors,
To be the subjects to two women thus ;
Yea, his soul is as woman's : 2 an' it be not,
He soon shall know the issue.
Chor. Graut ye from Zeus, 0 mighty Destinies 1
That so our work may end
As Justice wills, who takes our side at last ; *°*
Now for the tongue of bitter hate let tongue
(1) The words, as taken in the text, refer to Orestes seeing even in
Bleep the spectral forms of the Kriimyes. By some editors the vetse is
placed alter v. 276, and th_ lines then, reart thus : —
" And that he c ills J'resh onsets of the Erinnyes
As brou.ffht to issue from a father's blood,
Seeing clearly, though he move his brow in darkness."
So taken, the last line refers to Agamemnon, who, though in the daik-
ness of Hades, sees the penalties which will fall upon his son shoulJ
he neglect to take vengeance on his father's murderers.
(•2) Stress is laid here, as in Agam. 1224, on the effeminacy of tha
adulterer.
204 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Of bitter hate be given. Loud and long
The voice of Vengeance claiming now her debt;
And for the murderous blow
Let him who slew with murderous blow repny.
" That the wrong-doer bear the wrong he did/'
Thrice- ancient saying of a far-off time,1
This speaketh as we speak.
STEOPH. L
Orest. 0 father, sire ill-starred,
What deed or word could 1
Waft from afar to thee,
Where thy couch holds theo now5, **
*To be a light with dark commensurate ?
Alike, in either case,
The •wail that tells their praise is welcome gift
To those Atreidse, guardians of our house.
STROPH. IL
Chor. My child, my child, the mighty jaws of fire*
Bind not the mood and spirit of the dead !
But e'en when that is past he shows his wrath.
When he that dies is wailed,
The murderer stands revealed :
The righteous cry for parents that begat,
To fullest utterance roused,
Searches the whole truth out.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Elect, Hear then, O falher, now
Our tearful griefs in turn ;
From us thy children twain
The funeral wail ascends ;
(1) The grreat law of retribution is repented from Agim. i!W4. An one
Of the earliest utterances of man's moral sense, it was referred populaily
among' the Greeks to Rlmdamanthos, who with Minns judged the souls of
the dend in Hades. Comp. Aristot. F.thic. Aicom., v. 8.
(2) The funeral pyre, which consumes the body, leaves the life and
power of the man untouched. The spirit survives, and calls on the Gods
that dwell in darkness to avenge him. The very cry of wailing tends, a*
a prayer to them, tc the exposure of the murderer.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 265
And we, as suppliants and as exiles too,
Find shelter at thy tomb.
What of all this is good, what void of ills ? m
Is not this now a woe invincible ?
Cher. Yet, even yet, from evils such as these,
God, if He will, may bring more pleasant strains:
And for the dirge we utter by tha tomb,
A paean in the royal house may raise
Welcome to new-found friend.
STBOPH. TTT.
Orest. Had'st thou beneath the walls
Of Ilion, 0 my sire,
Been slain by Lykian foe,1
Pierced through and through, with spear,
Leaving high fame at home,
And laying strong and sure
*Thy children's paths in life,
Then had'st thou had as thine
Par off across the sea
A mound of earth heaped high,
To all thy kith and kin endurable.
ANTISTBOPH. H.
Chor. Tea, and as friend with friend*
That nobly died, he then
Had dwelt in high estate
A sovereign ruler, held
Of all in reverence,
High in their train who rule
Supreme in that dark world ; **
For he, too, while he lived,
As monarch ruled o'er those
Whose hands the sceptre held
That mortal men obey.2
(1) TTie Lykians, of whom Glaucos and Sarpedon are tlie representative
heroes in the Iliad, are named as the chief allies of the Trcians.
(2) The words embody the widespread feeling that the absence of
funereal honours affected the spiri 01 the dead, and that the souls with
whom he dwelt held him in high or low esteem according as they b*"* been
given or withheld.
166 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
ANTISTBOPH. IIL
Elect. Not even 'neath the walls
Of Troia, O my Sire,
"With those the spear hath slain,
Would I have had thee lie
By fair Scamandros' stream :
No, this my prayer shall be
That those who slew thee fall,
*By their own kin struck down, •*
That one might hear far off,
Untried by woes like this,
The fate that brings inevitable death.
Chvr. Of blessings more than golden, 0 my child,
Greater than greatest fortune, or the bliss
Of those beyond the North l thou speakest now ;
For this is in thy grasp ;
But hold ; e'en now this thud of double scourge*
Finds its way on to him ;
Already these find helpers 'neath the earth,
But of those rulers whom we loathe and hate
Unholy are the hands : *"
And children gain the day.
STBOPH. IV.
Elect . Ah ! this, like arrow, pierces through the ear I
0 Zeus ! O Zeus ! who seridest from below
A woe of tardy doom
Upon the bold and subtle hands of men . . • . .
Nay, though they parents be,
Yet all shall be fulfilled.
(1) Pindar, (Pytfi. x. 47,) the contemporary of .TFsehylos, nafl mafle the
Dune of these Hyperborei well known to all Greeks. The vague dreams
of men, before the earth had been searched out, pictured a happy land
as lying beyond their reach. There were Islands of the Blest in the far
West; Ethiopians, peaceful and long-lived, in the South; and far
». way, beyond the cold North, a people exempt from the common evils
of humanity. The latter have been connected with the old Aryan
belief in the paradise of Mount Hern. Comp. also Herod, iv. 421;
Prom. 812.
(2) Se., the beating of both hands upon the breast, a* the Chore*
oUei-ed their LuneiiUtiooi.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 267
STBOPH. V.
Chor. May it be mine to chant o'er funeral pyra
*Cry well accordant with the pine-fed blaze,1
When first the man is slain,
And his wife perisheth ! **
"Why should I hide what flutters round my heart ?
On my heart's prow a blast blows mightily,
Keen wrath and loathing fierce.
ANTISTROPH. IV.
Orest. And when shall Zeus, the orphan's guardian true,
Lay to his hand and smite the guilty heads ?
So may our land learn faith !
Vengeance I claim from those who did the wrong. *•
Hear me 0 Earth, and ye,
* Powers held in awe below !
Chor. Tea, the law saith that gory drops once shed
Upon the ground for yet more blood should crave ;
*For lo ! fell slaughter on Erinnys calls,
To come from those that perished long ago,
And on one sorrow other sorrow bring.
STBOPH. VI.
Elect. *Ah, ah, 0 Earth, and Lords of those below 1
Behold, ye mighty Curses of the slain,
Behold the remnant of the Atreidse's house
Brought to extremest strait, **
Bereaved of house and home !
Whither, O Zeus, can any turn for help ?
ANTISTBOPH. V.
Chor. Ah, my fond heart is quivering in dismay,
*Hearing this loud lament most lameatable :
Now have I little cheer,
And blackened is my heart,
*Hearing that speech ; but then again when hope
(1) Perhaps, simply " the sharp and bitter cry." But the rendering la
the text seems justified as repeating the wish already expressed, (v. SGiiJ
Uiiit Uiu murderers may die by this form of death.
Zti THE LIBATION-POUfcERS.
*0n strength uplifts me, far it drives my grief,
^Propitious seen at last.
ANTISTROPH. VL
Orest. What could we speak more fitly than the woes M
We suffer, yea, and from a parent's hands ?
Well, she may fawn ; our mood remains unsoothed;
For like a wolf untamed,
We from our mother take
A wrathful soul that to no fawning yields.
STBOPH. VIL
Chor. *I strike an Arian stroke, and in the strain
Of Kissian mourner skilled,1
Ye might have seen the stretching forth of hands,
With rendings of the hair, and random blows,
In quick succession given,
Dealt from above with arm at fullest length,
And with the beating still my head is stunned, **
Battered and full of woe.
Elect. 0 mother, hostile found, and daring all 1
With burial as of foe
Thou had'st the heart a ruler to inter,
His citizens not there,
A spouse unwept, with no lamentings loud.
STBOPH. VIII.
Orest . Ah ! thou hast told the whole full tale of shame ;
Shall she not pay then for that outrage dire
Unto my father done,
So far as Gods prevail,
So far as my hands work ?
May it be mine to srxite her and then die ! *"
(t) The Chorus at this point renew their words and cries of lamenta-
tion, smiting on their breas's. By some critics Ibis speech and Anti-
stroph. VTI. are assigned to Electra, Antistroph. Vin. to the Chorus, with
a corresponding change in the pronouns " my " and " thy." The Chorus,
ns consisting cf Troiian captives, is represented as adopting the mora
•»«hement Asiatic forms of wailing. Among these the Arians, Kissians,
and Mariandynians (Pera., 9'2tt) seem to have been most, conspicuous for
their skill in lamentation, and, its such, were in request where hired
mourners were wanted. Compare the opening chorus, T. 22.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 269
A-VTISTBOPU. VTL
Chor. Yea. he was maimed ! l (that thou the tale may' at
know)
And as she slaughtered, so she buried him,
Seeking to work a doom
For thy young life all unendurable.
Now thou dost hear the woes
Thy father suffered, stained with foulest shamo.
AsmsTBOPE. VIIL
Elect. Thou tellest of my father's death, but I
Stood afar off, contemned,
Counted as nought, and like a cursed hound
Shut up within, I poured the tide of tears
(More ready they than smiles)
Uttering in secret wail of weeping full. **
Hear thou these things, and write them in my mind.
Chor. Let the tale pierce thine ears,
While thy soul onward moves with tranquil step :
So much, thou know'st, stands thus ;
Seek thou with all desire to know the rest;
'Tis meet to enter now
Within the lists with mind inflexible.
STBOPH. IX.
Orest. I bid thee, 0 my father, help thy friends.
Elect. Bitterly weeping, these my tears I add.
Chor. With full accord so cries our company.
Come then to light, and hear ; ***
Be with us 'gainst our foes.
AimsTttOPH. IX.
Orest. My Might their Might, my Eight their Eight
must meet.
Elect. *Ye Gods, give righteous issue in our cause.
(1) The practice of mutilating the corpse of a murdered man by cutting
oft his hands and feet and fastening them round his waist, seems to have
been looked on as rendering him powsrless to seek for vengeance. Comp.
Soph. Eltct., v. 437. This kind of mutilation, and Dot mere wanton
ouifogd, la rfhat the Chorus refer to.
27° THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Chor. Fear creeps upcn mo as I hear your prayers.
Long tarries destiny,
But comes to those who pray.
STEOPH. X.
Semi-CJior. A. Oh, woe that haunts the race,
And harsh, shrill stroke of Ate's bloody scourge I
Woes sad and bard to bear, *"
Calling for wailing loud,
Ah, woe is rue, a grief immedicable.
AXTISTROPH. X.
Semi-Chor. B. Tea, but as cure for this,
And henling salve, 'tis yours with your own hands,
With no help from without,
*To press your suit of blood ;
So runs our hymn to those great Gods below.
Chor. Yea, hearing now, ye blest Ones 'neath the earth,
This prayer, send ye your children timely help
That worketh victory.
Orest. 0 sire, who in no kingly fashion died'st, ***
Hear thou my prayer ; grant victory o'er this house.
Elect. I, father, ask this prayer, that I may work
*.ZEgisthos' death, and then acquittal gain.
Orest. Yea, thus the banquets that men give the dead
Would for thee too be held, but otherwise
*Dishonoured wilt thou lie 'mid those that feast,1
Robbed of thy country's rich burnt-offerings.
Elect. I too from out my father's house will bring
Libations from mine own inheritance,
As marriage offerings. Chief and first of all,
Will I do honour to this sepulchre. [*•
Orest. Set free my sire, 0 Earth, to watch the battle.
(1) Asin v. 351 the loss ofthonr«nr among the dead wag represented n
one consequence of the absence of funereal rites from those who loved ih*
dead, so here the restoration of 1he children to their rights appears as tha
condition without which that dishonour must continue. If they succeed,
then, and then only, can they offer funereal banquets, year by year, 5*
was the custom. There may be a special reference to an Arjrive custom
mentioned by Plutarch ( Qmi-st. Gra-c., c. 24) of sacrificing immediately aftet
the death of a relative to Ap Ho, and thirty iluya later to liermea.
THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Elect. 0 Persephassa, goodly victory grant !
Oreat. Semember, sire, the bata in which they slew
thee!
Elect. *Remember thou the net they handselled so I
Orest. In fetters not of brass wast thou snared, father.
Elect. Yea, basely with that mantle they devised.
Orest. Art thou not roused by these reproaches, father ?
Elect. Dost thou not lift thine head for those thou lov'st ?
Orest. Or send thou Vengeance to assist thy friends ;
Or let them get like grasp of those thy foes,
If thou, o'ercome, dost wish to conquor them. *"
Elect. And hear thou this last prayer of mine, my
father,
Seeing us thy nestlings sitting at thy tomb,
Have mercy on thy boy and on thy girl ;
Nor blot thou out tho seed of Pelopids :
So thou, though thou hast died, art yet not dead;
For children are the voices that preserve
Man's memory when he dies : so bear the net
The corks that float the flax-mesh from the deep.
Hear thou : This is our wailing cry for thee,
And thou, our prayer regarding, sav'st thyself. wo
(7Aor. Unblained have ye your utterance lengthened
out,
Amends for that his tomb's unwept-for lot.
ifut as to what remains, since thou'rt resolved
To act, act now ; make trial of thy Fate.
Orest. So shall it be. Yet 'tis not out of course
To ask why she libations sent, why thus
Too late she cares for ill she cannot cure ?
Yea, to a dead man heeding not 'twas sent,
A sorry offering. Why, I fail to guess :
The gifts are far too little for the fault ; **
For should a man pour all he has to pay
For one small drop of blood, the toil were vain :
So runs the saying. But if thou dost know,
Tell this to me as wishing much to learn.
Ciior. I know, iny child, lor I was by. Stirred OJX
272 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
By dreams and -wandering terrors of the night,
That godless woman these libations sent.
Orest. And have ye learnt the dream, to tell it right P
Chor. As she doth say, she thought she bare a snake.
Onst. How ends the tale, and what its outcome then P
Chor. She nursed it, like a child, in swaddling
clothes. 6M
Orett. "What food did that young monster crave for
then?
Chor. She in her drenm her bosom gave to it.
Greet. How 'scaped her breast by that dread beast
unhurt ?
Chor. Nay, with the milk it sucked out clots of blood.
Orest. Ah, not in vain comes this dream from her lord.
Chor. She, roused from sleep, cries out all terrified,
And many torches that were quenched in gloom
Blazed for our mistress' sake within the house.
Then these libations for the dead she sends,
Hoping they'll prove good medicine of ills. **
Orest. Now to Earth here and my sire's tomb I pray,
They leave not this strange vision unfulfilled.
So I expound it that it all coheres ;
For if, the self-same spot that I left leaving,
*The snake was then wra,pt in my swaddling clothes,
And sucked the very brc*st that nourished me,
And mixed tho sweet milk with a clot of blood,
And she in terror wailed the strange event,
So must she, as that monster dread she nourished,
Die cruel death : and I, thus serpentised,
Am here to slay her, as this dream portends;
I take thee as my dream-interpreter.
Chor. So be it; but in all else guide thy friends;
*Bid some do this, some that, some nought at all.
Orest. Simple my orders, that she [pointing t<i ELECTBA}
go within ;
And you, I charge you, hide these plans of mine,
That they who slew a noble soul by guile,
By guilo may die and in the self-same snare
THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Be caught, as Loxias gave his oracle,
The king Apollo, seer that never lied : **
For like a stranger in full harness clad
Will I draw near with this man, Pyladea,
To the great gates, a stranger I, and he,
Ally in arms. And then we both will speak
Parnassian speech, and imitate the tone
Of Phokian tongue. And should no porter there
Give us good welcome, on the ground that now
The house with ills is haunted, there we'll stay,
So that a man who passeth by the house
Will guess, and thus will speak, " Why drives JEgisthos
The suppliant from his gate, if he's at home ["*
And knows it ? " But if I should pass the threshold
Of the great gate, and find him seated there
Upon my father's throne, or if he comes
And meets me, face to face, and lifts his eyes,
And drops them, then be sure, before he says,
" Whence is this stranger ? " — I will lay him dead,
With my swift-footed brazen weapon pierced ;
And then Erinnys, stinted not in slaughter,
Shall drink her third draught of unmingled blood.1
Thou, then, [to ELECTRA] watch well what passes in the
house, §7B
So that these things may dovetail close and well :
And you [to the Chorus'] i bid to keep a tongue discreet,
Silent, if need be, or the right word speaking,
And Him2 [pointing to the, statue of Apollo'} I call to look
upon me here,
Since he has set me on this strife of swords.
[Exeunt OHESTES, PY.LABES, and EiECTRA,]
STBOPH. I.
Chor, Many dread forms of evils terrible
Earth bears, and Ocean's bays
With monsters wild and fierce
(1) Another reference to the third cup of undiluted wine which men
drank to the honour of Zeus the Preserver. Coiup. Agam. T. 246.
(8) Possibly the p. ououu refers to PyLuioa.
X
274 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
*0'erflow, and through mid-air the meteor lights **
Sweep by ; and winged birds
And creeping things can tell the vehement rage
Of whirling storms of winds.
AXTISTBOPH. L
But who man's temper overbold may tell,
Or daring passionate loves
Of women bold in heart,
Passions close bound with men's calamities P
Love that true love disowns,
That sways the weaker sex in brutes and men, **
Usurps o'er wedlock's ties,
SxBOpn. n.
Whoso is not bird-witted, let him think
What scheme she learnt to plan,
Of subtle craft that wrought its will by firo,
That wretched child of Thestios, who to slay
Her son did set a-blaze
The brand that glowed blood-red,
Which had its birth when first from, out the womb
He came with infant's wail,
And spanned the measure of its life with his,
On to the destined day.1
ANTISTBOPH. IL
Another, too, must we with loathing name,
Skylla, with blood defiled.2
Who for the sake of foes a dear one slew,
(1) The story of Althaea has recently been mado familiar to English
readers by Mr. Swinburne's Atalo.nta in Calydon. More briefly told, the
legend ran that she, being1 the wife of (Eneus, bare a son, who ww«
believed to be the child of Ares— that the Fates came to her when the boy,
who was named Meleagros, was seven days old, and told her 1hat his life
should last until the firebrand then burning on the earth should be con-
sumed. She took the firebrand, and quenched it, and laid it by in a
chest ; but when Meleagros grew up, he joined in th • chase of the great
boar of Calydon, and when he had slain it, gave the skin as a trophy to
Atalanta, and when his mo her's brothers, the sons • f Thes'ios, claimed
it is their right, he waxed wroth with them and slew them. And
then Althsea, ia her grieC, caring more for her brothers than her son,
took Ihe brand from the chest, and threw it into the fire, anil so
Melengros died. Phrynichos is said to have made the myth the subject 11
a drama. In Homer, (II. x. 566,) Althaea brings about her son's death by
her curses.
I2j SkyUa (not to be confounded with the sea-monster of Messina) was
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 275
Won by the gold-chased bracelets brought from Crete,
The gifts that Minos gave,
And knowing not the end,
Bobbed Nisos of his lock of deathless life,
She with her dog-like heart *•
Surprising him deep-breathing in his sleep;
But Hermes comes on her.1
STROPH. IIL
And since I tell the tale of ruthless woes. . . • *
Yet now 'tis not the time
* To tell of evil marriage which this house
Doth loathe and execrate,
And of a woman's schemes and stratagems
Against a warrior chief,
* Chiof whom his people honoured as was meet,
I give my praise to hearth from hot broils free,
And praise that woman's mood
That dares no deed of ill.
AXTISTROPH. EEL
But of all crimes the Lemnian foremost standa J* **
* And the Earth mourns that woe
As worthy of all loathing. Yes, this guilt
One might have well compared
With Lemnian ills ; and now that race is gone.
To lowest shame brought down
By the foul guilt the Gods abominate :
the daughter of Nisos, king of Megaris, who bad on his head a lock of
jmrple hair, which was a charm that preserv, d his life from all danger.
And the Cretans under Minos a' tacked Nisos, and besieged him in big
city ; and Minus won the love of Skylla, and temp- ed her with gifts, and
•iie cut off her father's lock of hair, and so l,e perished. But Minos,
ecorning her for her deed, bound her by the feet to the stem of bis aLip
and drowned her.
(1) Hermes, i.e. in bis office as the escort of tbe souls of tho dead to
Hades.
(2) The Chorus apparently is represented as on the point of completing
Its catalogue of crimes commiifcd by women with the story of Clvtsem-
Ees'ra's guilt. Some: hing leads 1 hem to check themselves, and they are
oon'ented with a dark and vague allusion.
(3) The story of the Lemnian women is told by ITerodotos, (vi. 138.)
They rose up against their husbands ind put them all to death ; and the
deed passed in o a proverb, so that all great crimes were spoken of as
This guilt U tbat alluded to in Stropb. 111.
276 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
For no man honours -what the Gods condemn,
Which instance of all these
Do I not rightly urge ? 1
STROPH. IV.
And now the sword already at the heart,
Sharp-pointed, strikes a blow that pierces through,
While Vengeance guides the hand ; **
For lo ! the lawlessness
Of one who doth transgress all lawlessly
The might and majesty of Zeus, lies not
As trampled under foot.2
ANTISTROPH. TV.
The anvil-block of Vengeance firm is set,
And Fate, the sword-smith, hammers on the bronze
Beforehand ; and the child
Is brought unto his home,
And in due time the debt of guilt is paid
By the dark-souled Erinnys, famed of old,
For blood of former days.
ORESTES and PYLABES enter, disguised as Pholtian travel-
lers, go to the door of the palace, and knock loudly.
Orest. What ho, boy ! hear us knocking at the gate. Ml
Who is within, boy ? who, boy ? — hear, again ;
A third time now I give my summons here,
If good .ZEgisthos' house be hospitable.
[A Slave opens the door. '
Slave. Hold, hold ; I hear. What stranger comes, and
whence ?
Orest. Tell thou thy lords who over this house rule,
To whom I come and tidings new report ;
And make good speed, for now the dusky car
Of night comes on apace, and it is time
For travellers in hospitable homes
(1) In every case of which the Chorus had spoken p-nilt had been fol-
lowed by retribution. 60, it is implied, it will be in that which is present
to their thoughts.
(2) fie., is not forgotten or overlooked, but will assuredly meet with it>
due punishment.
THE LIBATION-POUKERS. ±77
To cast their anchor ; and let some one come
From out the house who hath authority ; *°
The lady, if so be one ruleth here,
But, seemlier far, her lord ; for than no shame
In converse makes our words obscure and dim ;
But mau with man gains courage to speak out,
And makes his mission manifest as day.
Enter CLYT^EHXESTRA.
Clytcem. If ye need aught, 0 strangers, speak ; for here
Is all that's fitting for a hoiise like ours ;
Warm baths,1 and bed that giveth rest from toil,
And presence of right honest faces too ;
If there be aught that needeth counsel more,
That is men's business, and to them we'll tell it. teo
Orest. A DauKan traveller, from Phokis corno,
Am I, and as I went on business bound,
My baggage with me, unto Argos, I
(Just as I set forth,) met a man I knew not,
Who knew not me, and he then , having asked
My way and told me his, the Phokian Strophios
(For so I learnt in talking) said to me,
" Since thou dost go, my friend, for Argos bound,
In any case, tell those who gave him birth,
Kemembering it right well, Orestes' death;
See thou forget it not, and whether plans ***
Prevail to fetch him home, or bury him
There where he is, a stranger evermore,
Bear back the message as thy freight for us ;
For now the ribbed sides of an urn of bronze
The ashes hide of one whom men have wept."
So much I heard and now have told ; and if
I speak to kin that have a right in him
I know not, but his father sure should know it.
Clytcem. Ah, .thou hast' told how utterly our ruin
Is now complete ! O Curse of this our house,
Full hard to wrestle with ! How many things, *M
(1) So in Homer, (II. xxii. 444,) the •warm bath is prepared by Andro-
mache fur Hector on bis r :tura from the battle in wblcfi be fait
2/8 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
Though lying out of rea^h, thou aimest at,
And with well-darted arrows from afar
Dost bring them low ! And now thou strippest me,
Most wretched one, of all that most I loved.
A lucky throw Orestes now was making,
Getting his feet from out destruction's slough ;
But now the hope of high, exulting joy,
*Which this house had as healer, he scores down
As present in this fashion that we see.
Orest. I could have wished to come to prosperous hosts,
As known and welcomed for my tidings good ;
For who to hosts is friendlier than a guest ? *°
But 'twould have been as impious in my thoughts
Not to complete this matter for my friends,
By promise bound and pledged as guest to host.
Clytcbm. Thou eh alt not meet with less than thou
deserv'st ;
Nor wilt thou be to this house less a friend;
Another would have brought news all the same :
But since 'tis time that strangers who have made
A long day's journey find the things they need,
Lead him [to her Slave, pointing to OHESTES] to these our
hospitable halls,
And these his fellow-travellers and servants: TOO
There let them meet with what befits our house.
I bid thee act as one who gives account ;
And we unto the masters of our house
Will tell this news, and with no lack of friends
Deliberate of this calamity.1
[Exeunt CLYTVEMNESTEA, OEESTES, PYLADES,
and Attendants.
Chor, Come then, handmaids of the palace,
When shall we with full-pitched voices
Shew our feeling for Orestes ?
fl) An in her speeches 5n <he Agamemnon, (\v. 595, 884,) Clytsem-
nes'ra's words here also arc f.ill of significant ambig-ui*y. The " thing*
that befit the bouse," the proposed conference with JEgisthos, her
separation of Orestes from his companions, are all indications of suspi-
cion already half-aroused. The last three lines were probably spoken aa
an " aside."
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 279
O earth revered ! thou height revered, too,
Of the mound piled o'er the body
Of our navy's kingly captain, TI*
Oh, hear us now ; oh, coine and help us ;
For 'tis time for subtle Suasion1
To go with them to the conflict,
And that Hermes act as escort,
He who dwells in earth's deep darkness,
In the strife where swords work mischief.
Enter KILISSA.
. The stranger seems about to work some ill ;
And here I see Orestes' nurse in tears.
Where then, Kilissa, art thou bound, that thus
Thou tread' st the palace-gates, and with thee comes
Grief as a fellow-traveller unbidden ? T*
Kills. Our mistress bids me with all speed to call
.ZEgisthos to the strangers, that he come
And hear more clearly, as a man from man,
This newly-brought report. Before her slaves,
Under set eyes of melancholy cast,
She hid her inner chuckle at the events
That have been brought to pass — too well for her»
But for this house and hearth most miserably,—
As in the tale the strangers clearly told.
He, when he hears and learns the story's gist,
Will joy, I trow, in heart. Ah, wretched me I "•
How those old troubles, of all sorts made up,
Most hard to bear, in Atreus' palace-halls
Have made my heart full heavy in my breast I
But never have I known a woe like this.
For other ills I bore full patiently,
But as for dear Orestes, my sweet charge,
Whom from his mother I received and nursed . • . •
And then the shrill cries rousing me o' nights.
And manj and unprofitable toils
For me who bore them. For one needs must rear
II) Suasion is personified, and invoked to come and win Clytteumestra
to trust herself in the power of the two avengers.
iSo THE LIBATION-POURERS.
The heedless infant like an animal, "•
(How can it else be ?) as his humour serves.
For -while a child is yet in swaddling clothea,
* It speaketh not, if either hunger comes,
Or passing thirst, or lower calls of need ;
And children's stomach works its own content.
And I, though I foresaw this, call to mind
How I was cheated, washing swaddling clothes,
And nurse and laundress did the self- same work,
I then with these my double handicrafts,
Brought up Orestes for his father de;ir;
And now, woe's me ! I learn that ho is dead,
And go to fetch the man that murs this house :
And gladly will he hear these words of mine.
Chor. And how equipped then doth she bid him come?
Nurse, ' How ? ' Speak agaiii that I may better learn.
Chor. By spearmen followed, or himself alone ?
Nurse. She bids him bring his guards with lances armed.
Chor. Nay, say not that to him thy lord doth hate,1.
But bid him ' come alone,' (that so he hear
Without alarm,) ' full speed, with joyous mind,'
Since ' secret speech with messengers goes best.'
Nurse. And art thou of good cheer at this my tale ?
Chor. But what if Zeus will turn the tide of ill ?
Nurse. How so ? Orestes, our one hope is gone.
Chor. Not yet ; a sorry seer miuht know thus much.
Nurse. What say'st thou ? Know'st thou aught be-
sidos my tale ?
Chor. Go tell thy message ; do thine errand well *
The Gods for what they care for, care enough.
Nurse. I then will go, complying with thy words:
May all, by God's gift, end most happily !
STUOPH. L
Chor. Now to my prayer, O Father of the Gods
Of high Olympos, Zeus,
(1) An alternative rendering is,
" Nay, »uy not that to him with show of hat*."
THE LIBATION-POURERS. l8l
Grant that their fortune may be blest indeed
* Who long to look on goodness prospering well,
Tea, with full right and truth
I speak the word — 0 Zeus, preserve thou him I
STEOPH. IL
Vea, Zeus, set him whom now the palace holds,
Set him above his foes ;
For if thou raise him high,
Then shalt thou have, to thy heart's full content,
Payment of two-fold, three-fold recompense.
ANTISTROPH. I
Know that the son of one who loved thee well *"
*Like colt of sire bereaved,
*Is to the chariot of great evils yoked,
*And set thy limit to his weary path.
*Ah, would that one might see
*His panting footsteps, as he treads his course,
*I£eeping due measure through this plain of ours I
STBOPH. UL
A nd ye within the gate,
Ye Gods, in purpose one,
"Who dwell in shrines enriched
"With all good things, come ye,
And now with vengeance fresh
Atone for murder foul
Of those that fell long since : **
*And let that blood of old,
*When these are justly slain,
Breed no more in our house.
MF.SODE.
0 Thou J that dwellest in the cavern vast,
Adorned with goodly gifts,
Grant our lord's house to look up yet once more,
And that it now may glauce,
In free and glorious guise
(1) Apollo in the shrine at Delphi.
362 THE LIBATION-POURERS.
With loving kindly eyes,
From out its veil of gloom.
Let Maia's son l too give
His righteous help, and -waft
Good end with prosperous gale.
AKTISTROPH. m.
*And things thnt now are hid,
He, if he will, will bring
As to the daylight clear ;
But when it pleases him
. Dark, hidden words to speak,
As in thick night he bears
Black gloom before his face ; *
Nor is he in the day
One whit more manifest.
STROPH. TV.
*And then our treasured store,8
*The price as ransom paid
To free the house from ill,
A woman's gift on breath
Of favouring breeze onborne,
We then with clamorous cry,
To sound of cithern sweet,
Will in the city pour ;
And if this prospers well,
*My gains, yea, mine, 'twill swell, and At2 than
Prom those I love stands far.
ANTISTROPn. H.
But thou, take courage, when the time is come
For action, and cry out,
Shouting thy lather's name,
(1) Hermes invoked once more, as at once the patron of craft and the
escort of the dead.
(2) Or " before our eyes."
(3) The "treHsured store" is explained by the words tint follow t«
mean the cry of exultation which Die Chorus will raise when 'he deed ol
venueance is accomplished ; or, possibly (as Mr. 1'aley sujri.'-ests'l, tb«
funereal wai' over the bodies of JBtristho* and Cly'iprnnes'ra. which tilt
Chorus would raise to avert the guilt of the murder from Orestes.
THE LIBATION-POURERS.
When she shall cry aloud the name of " son,"
And work tliou out a woe that none will blama*
ANTISTBOPH. IV.
And have thou in thy breast
The heart that Perseus had,1
And for thy friends beneath,
And those on earth who dwell,
Go thou and work the deed
Acceptable to them, *
Of bitter, wrathful mood,
And consummate within
*The loathly work of blood ;
[And bidding Vengeance come as thine ally,]]
Destroy the murderer.
Enter .ZEGISTTIOS.
jEqis. Not without summons came I, but by \rord
Of courier fetched, and learn that travellers bring
Their tale of tidings new, in no wise welcome.
As for Orestes' death, with it to charge
The house would be a burden dropping fear
To one'by that old bloodshed sorely stung.3
How shall I count these things ? As clear and true P
Or are they vague reports of woman's fears,
That leap up high and die away to nought ?
What can'st thou say that will my mind inform P
Chor. We heard, 'tis true ; but go thou in and ask
Of these same strangers. Nought is found in words
Of messengers like asking, man from man.
sEyia. I wish to see and probe the messenger,
If he himself were present at the death,
Or tells it hearing of a vague report :
They shall not cheat a mind with eyes wide open. [Exit.
(1) As Perseus could only overcome the Gorgon, Medusa, by turning
away his eyes, lest looking on her he should turn to s'one, so Ores' es was
to avoid meeting his mother's glance, lest that should unman him and
blunt his purpose.
(2) JEgisthos had suffered enough, he says, for h s share in Agamem-
non's dua'h. He h.is no wish that fresh odium sho-ld fall on him, aa being
implicated also in the death of Orestes, of which he bus just beard.
384 THE LIBATION-POUREIUJ.
Chor. Zeus ! Zeus ! what words shall I •*
Now speak, whence start in prayer-,
*Invoking help of Gods ?
How with all wish for good
Shall I speak fitting words ?
For now the sharp sword-points,
Red with the blood of man,
Will either work for aye
The utter overthrow
Of Agamemnon's house,
Or, kindling fire and torch
For freedom thus achieved,
Will he the sceptre wield
Of duly-ordered sway,
His father's pride and state : •
Such is the contest he,
Orestes, godlike one,
. Now wages all alone,
The one sole combatant,1
In place of him who foil,
Against those twain. May victory be his I
jEgiath. [groaning within']. Ah ! ah ! Woe's me 1
Ciior. Hark ! hark ! How goes it now P
What issue has been wrought within the house P
Let us hold back while they the deed are doing,
That we may seem, as guiltless of these ills :
For surely now the fight has reached its end.
Enter Servant from the chief door.
Serv. Alas ! alas ! my master perishes I
Alas ! alas ! a third time yet I call.
JEgisthos is no more ; but open now
With all your speed, and loosen ye the bolts
That bar the women's gates. A man's full strength
Is needed ; not indeed that that would help
(1) The word (ephedros) wn* applied technically to one who Bat by
during a conflict between two athle;es, prepared to challenge the victor to
a fresh encounter. Orestes is sucli a combatant, taking the place of
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 285
A man already slain.
[Rushes to the gate of the women's half of the
palace.
Ho there ! I say :
I speak to the deaf ; to those that sleep I utter
In vain my useless cries. And where is she ?
"Where's Clytsemnestra ? What doth she do now ?
Her neck upon the razor's edge doth seem,
To fall, down-stricken by a vengeance just.
Enter CLYT.a2MNESTRA/rom the side door.
Clytcem. What means all this ? What cry is this thou
mak'st ?
Serv. I say the dead are killing one who lives.
Clytcem. Ah, me ! I see the drift of thy dark speech ;
By guile we perish, as of old we slew :
Let some one hand at once axe strong to slay ;
Let's see if we are conquered or can conquer,
For to that point of evil am I come.
Enter ORESTES and PYLADES/rom the other door.
Crest. 'Tis thee I seek : he there has had enough.
Clyta-m. Ah me ! my loved JEgisthos ! Art thou dead ?
Orest, Lov'st thou the man? Then in the self-same
tomb t*°
Shalt thou now lie, nor in his death desert him.
Clytcem. [baring her bosom] Hold, boy 1 Eespect thia
breast of mine, my son,1
Whence thou full oft, asleep, with toothless gums,
Hast sucked the milk that sweetly fed thy life.
Orest. What shall I do, my Pylades ? Shall I
Through this respect forbear to slay my mother ?
Pyl* Where, then, are Loxias' other oracles,
(t) So, in Homer, (Tl. xxii. 79,) Hecuba, when the entreaties of Priam
bad been in vain, makes this the last appeal —
" Then to the front his mother rushed, in tears,
Her bosom bare, with either hand her breast
Sustaining, and with tears addressed him thus,
' Hector, my son, thy mother's breast revere.' "
(Z) The reader will note this as the only speech put into the lip* of
286 THE LIBATION-TOURERS.
The Pythian counsels, and the fast-sworn vows?
Have all men hostile rather than the Gods.
Orest. My judgment goes with thine ; thou speatcet
well:
[To CLYT^EMNESTRA] Follow : I mean to slay thee
where he lies, *•"
For while he lived thou held'st him far above
My father. Sleep thou with him in thy death,
Since thou lov'st him, and whom thou should'st love
hatest.
Clytcem. I reared thee, and would fain grow old with
thee.
Orest. What ! Thou live with me, who did'st slay my
father ?
Clytcem. Fate, O cay son, must shnre the blatric of that.
Orest. This fatal doom, then, it is Fate that- 4ends.
Clytcem. Dost thou not fear a parent's curde, my son ?
Orest. Thou, though my mother, did'st to ill chance
cast me.
Clytczm. No outcast thou, so sent to house alliort. **
Orest. I was sold doubly, though of free sire born.
Clytn'.in. Where is the price, then, that I got for thee?
Ortst. I shrink for shame from pressing that charge
home.
Clytcem. Nay, tell thy father's wantonness as well.
Orest. Blame not the man that toils when thou'rt at
ease.1
Clytcem. 'Tis hard, my son, for wives to miss their
husband.
Orest. The husband's toil keeps her that sits at home.1
Clytaim. Thou seem'st, my son, about to slay thy
mother.
Orest. It is not I that slay thee, but thyself.
Pylades, thotigh he is present as accompanying Orestes throngho ' great
part of the drama.
(1) The different ethical standard applied to the guilt of the husband
and the wife was, we may well believe, 1hat which prevailed among 11»«
Athenians generally. It has only too close a parallel in the ballad* ax-d
of our own early literature.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 3&1
Ctytcem. Take heed, beware a mother's yengeful
hounds.1 9l*
Orest. How, slighting this, shall I escape my father's ?
Clytoem. I seem in lite to wail as to a tomb.2
Orest. My father's fate ordains this doom for thee.
ClytcKm, Ah me ! the snake is here I bare and nursed.3
Orest. An o'er-truo prophet was that dread dream-
born ;
Thou slewest one thou never should'st have slain,
Now suffer fate should never have been thine.
[Exit ORESTES, leading CLYT^EMNESTRA into the
palace, and followed by PYLADES.
Chor. E'en of these two I wail the twin mischance ;
But since long line of murder culminates
In poor Orestes, this we yet accept,
That he, our one li^ht, fall .not utterly. 920
STBOPH. I.
Late came due vengeance on the sons of Priam,
Just forfeit of sore woe ; —
Late came there too to Agamemnon's house,
Twin lions, two-fold Death.4
The exile who obeyed the Pythian best
Hath gained his full desire,
Sped on his way by counsel from the Gods.
STKOPH. IL
Shout ye, loud shout for the escape from ills
Our master's house has seen,
And from the wasting of his ancient wealth
By that defiled pair, •»
111 fate intolerable.
(1) The line is memorable as prophetic of the whole plot of the
Enmenides.
(2) Tue phrase " wail as to a tomb " seems to have been a bye-word f r
fruitless entreaty and lamentation.
(3) Clytwmnestra sees now the import of the dream referred to in w.
518-522.
(4) The wirds must be left in their obscurity. Commentators havt
2&S THE LIBATION-POUREKS.
ASTISTBOPH. I.
And so on one who loves the war of guile
Bevenge came subtle-souled ;
And in the strife of hands the child of Zens
In very deed gave help,
(We mortals call her Vengeance, hitting well
The meetest name for her,)
Bi ea'J^ng destroying wrath against her foes.
STBOPH. HL
She, rJie it is whom Loxias summons now,
Wlin dwelleth in Parnassia's cavern vast,
*Calling on her who still
*Is guileful without guile,
*Halting of foot and tarrying over-long :
The will of Gods is strangely overruled ;
It may not help the vile ; l
'Tia meet to adore the Power that rules in Heaven !
At last we see the light.
ANTISTROPH. H.
*Now is the bit that curbed the slaves ta'en off : *
Arise, arise, 0 house :
Too long, too long, all prostrate on the ground
Ye have been used to lie.
ANTISTBOPU. HL
Q,uictly all-working Time will bring a change
Across the threshold of the palace old,
When from the altar-hearth
It shall drive all the guilt,
With cleansing rites that chase away our woes;
(1) The Eternal Justice •which orders all things i« mightier than any
arbitrary will, snch as men al tribute to the Gods. That will, even if we
dare to think of it as changeable or evil, is held in restraint. It cannot,
even if it would, protect the pri! -dorrs.
(2) The Chorus feel that they have been too long1 silent ; now, at last
they can speak. As slave 4 dreading punishment they had been gagged
before ; now the gag u removed.
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 189
And Fortune's throws shall fall with gladsome cast,
*0nce more benign to see,1
For new-come strangers settled in the house:
At last we see the light.
Enter ORESTES, PYLADES, and followers from tlie palace.
His attendants tear the robe in which AGAMEMNON
had been murdered.
Orest. See ye this country's tyrant rulers twain, m
My father's murderers, wasters of his house ;
Stately were they, seen sitting on their thrones,
Friends too e'en now, to argue from their fate,
Whose oaths are kept to every pledge they gave.
Firmly they swore that they would slay my father,
And die together. Well those oaths are kept :
And ye who hear these ills, behold ye now
Their foul device, as bonds for my poor father,
Handcuffs, and fetters both his feet to bind.
Come, stretch it out, and standing all around, **
Show ye the snare that wrapt him o'er, that He
May see, our Father, — not of mine I speak,
But the great Sun that looks on all we do,—
My mother's deeds, defiled and impure,
That He may be a witness in my cause,
That I did justly bring this doom to pass
Upon my mother Of .ffigisthos' fate
No word I speak. He bears the penalty,
As runs the law, of an adulterer's guilt ;
But she who planned this crime against a man
By whom she knew the weight of children borne
Beneath her girdle, once a burden loved,
But now, as it is proved, a grievous ill, *•
What seems she to you ? Had she viper been,
Or fell myracna,* she with touch alone,
*Eather than bite, had made a festering sore
(1) Or, " Once more for those who wail."
(2} It is not clear with what form of animal life the myraena is to be
Identified. The idea implied is that of some sea-monster whoM ouch
was poisonous, but this does not hold good of the " lamprey."
U
Z9O THE LIBATION-POURERS.
With that bold daring of unrighteous mood.
What shall I call it, using mildest speech ?
A wild beast's trap ? — a pall that wraps a bier,
And hides a dead man's feet ? — A net, I trow,
A snare, a robe entangling, one might call it.
Such might be owned by one to plunder trained,
Practised in duping travellers, and the life
That robs men of their money ; with this trap
Destroying many, many deeds of ill
His fevered brain might hatch. May such as she
Ne'er share my dwelling ! May the hand of God
Far rather smite me that I childless die !
Char, [looking on AGAMEMNON'S robe.'] Ah me I ah. me!
these deeds most miserable !
By hateful murder thou wast done to death.
Woe, woe is me !
And evil buds and blooms for him that's left.
Orest. Was the deed hers or no ? Lo ! this same robe
Bears witness how she dyed -5Sgisthos' sword,
And the blood-stain helps Time's destroying vrork, 10°*
Marring full many a tint of pattern fair :
*Now name I it, now as eye-witness wail ;*
And calling on this robe that slew my father,
Moan for all done and suffered, wail my race,
Bearing the foul stains of this victory.
C7tor. No mortal man shall live a life unharmed,
*Stout-hearted and rejoicing evermore.
Woe, woe is me !
One trouble vexes now, another comes.
Orest. (wildly, as one. distraught.) Nay, know ye — for I
know not how 'twill end ;
Like chariot-driver with his steeds I'm dragged
Out of my course ; for passion's moods uncurbed
Bear me their victim headlong. At my heart
(1) AM the text stands, Oreslee says that at last he can speak of th«
murder over which he had long brooded in silence. Another reading
makes him speak of the oscillations in his own mind —
" iNOw do I praise myself, now wail and blame."
THE LIBATION-POURERS. 291
Stands terror ready or to sing or dance
In burst of frenzy. Whilt* my reason stays,
I tell my friends here that I slew my mother,
Not without right, my father's murderess,
Accursed, and hated of the Gods. And I
As chiefest spell that made me dare this deed
Count Loxias, Pythian prophet, warning me
That doing this I should be free from blame, **
But slighting .... I pass o'er the penalty 1 . . • •
For none, aim as he will, such woes will hit.
And now ye see me, in what guise equipped,
[Putting on the suppliant's wreaths of wool, mnd
taking an olive branch in his hand.
With this my bough and chaplet I will gain
Earth's central shrine, the home where Loxias dwells,
And the bright fire that is as deathless known,*
Seeking to 'scape this guilt of kindred blood;
And on no other hearth, so Loxias bade,
May I seek shelter. And I charge you all,
Ye Argives, bear ye witness in due time *°"
How these dark deeds of wretched ill were wrought :
But I, a wanderer, exiled from my land,
Shall live, and leaving these my prayers in death, . . .
Chor. Nay, thou hast prospered : burden not thy lips
With evil speech, nor speak ill-boding words,
When thou hast freed the Argive commonwealth,
By good chance lopping those two serpents' heads.
\JJ. 'he Erinnyes are seen in the background, visible
to Orestes only, in black robes, and with snakes
in their hair.
Orest. Ah ! ah ! ye handmaids : see, like Gorgons these,
Dark-robed, and all their tresses hang entwined
With many serpents. I can bear no more.
(1) Comp. w. 270-288.
(2) Delphi was to the Gree'c (as Jerusalem was to mediwval Christen-
dom) the centre at once ot his re'igious life and of the material earth.
It rock was the omphalos of the world. Consecrated widows watched
over the sacred and perpetual fire. Once only up to the time of JEschylos,
when the Temple itself was desecrated by the Persians, had it ceased fca
bur 11.
29* THB LIBATION-POURERS.
Cher. What phantoms vex thee, best beloved of
sons »*
By thy dear sire ? Hold, fear not, victory's thine.
Orest. These are no phantom terrors that I see :
Full clear they are my mother's vengeful hounds.
Chor. The blood fresh-shed is yet upon thy hands,
And thence it is these troubles haunt thy soul.
Orest. O King Apollo ! See, they swarm, they swarm,
And from their eyes is dropping loathsome blood.
Chor. One way of cleansing is there ; Loxias' form
Clasp thou, and he will free thee from these ills.
Orest. These forms ye see not, but I see them there :
They drive me on, and I can bear no more. [Exit.
Chor. Well, may'st thou prosper; may the gracious
God «*»
Watch o' and guard thee with a chance well timed I
Here, then, upon this palace of our kings
A third storm blows again ;
The blast that haunts the race has run its course.
First came the wretched meal of children's flesh ;
Next what befell our king :
Slain in the bath was he who ruled our host,
Of all the Achaeans lord ;
And now a third has come, we know not whence,*
To save ... or shall I say,
To work a doom of death ?
Where will it end ? Where will it cease at last,
The mighty Ate" dread,
Lulled into slumber deep P
(1) Once again we have the thought of the third cup offered aa •
libation to Zeus as saviour and deliverer. The Chorus asks -whether thil
tfiird deed of blood will be true to that idea and work out deliveranM.
EUMENJDES.
ARGUMENT.
The Erinnyes who appeared to Orestes after the murder ojr ffly*
tamnestra made his life miserable, and drove him without
rest from land to land. And he, seeking to escape them,
had recourse to the Oracle of Apollo tit Delphi, believing that
he who had sent him to do the work of vengeance would also
help to free him from this wretchedness. But the Erinnyes
followed him there also, and took their places even within the
holy shrine of the Oracie, and while Orestes knelt on the
central hearth as a suppliant, they sat upon the teati there,
<w< for very weariness fell asleep.
Jlrnmntis
PYTHIAU
APOIJA).
ATHENA.
Ghost of Clytcemnettr9»
ORESTES.
HEKMES.
Chorus of the Erinnyea.
Athenian Citizens, Women, and Girl*.
EUMENIDE8.
SCENE.— The Outer Court of the Oracle at Delphi.
Inner shrint in the background, with doors leading
into it.
Enter the PYTHIAN PBIESTESS.
Pyth. First, with this prayer, of all the Gods I hon<rar
The primal seeress Earth, and Themis next,1
Who in due order filled her mother's place,
(So runs the tale,) and in the third lot named,
With her goodwill and doing wrong to none,
Another of the Titans' offspring sat,
Earth's daughter Phoebe, and as birthday gift
She gives it up to Phoebos,2 and he takes
His name from Phoebe. And he, leaving then
The pool3 and rocks of Delos, having steered
To the ship-traversed shores that Pallas owns.
Came to this land and to Parnassos' seat :
And with great reverence they escort him on,
Hephsestos' sons, road-makers,4 turning thus
(1) The succession is, in part, accordant with that in the Theogonia of
Hesiod, (w. 116-136,) but the special characteristic of the JEschylean form
of the legend is that each change is a step in a due, rightful succession,
as by free gift, not accomplished (as in other narratives of the same tran-
sition) by violence and wrong.
(2) Phoebe, in the Theogonia, marries Coios, and becomes the mother
of Leto, or Latona, and so the grandmother of Apollo. The "birthday
gift " was commonly presented on the eighth day after birth, when the
child was named. The oracle is spoken of as such a gift to Apollo, as
bearin'-r the name of Phoebos.
(3) The sacred circular pool of Delos is the crater of an extinct volcano.
There Apollo was born, and thence he passed through Attica to Par-
nassos, to take possession of the oracle, according to one form of the
myth, depriving Themis of it and slaying the dragon Python lhat kept
guard over it.
(4) The people of Attica are thus named, either as being mythically
EUMENIDES.
The wilderness to laud no longer wild;
Aiid when he coines the people honour him,
And Delphos too,1 chief pilot of this land.
And him Zeus sets, his mind with skill inspired,
As the fourth seer upon these sacred seats ;
And Loxias is his father Zeus's prophet.
These Gods in prologue of my prayer I worship ; *
Pallas Pronaia 2 too claims highest praise ;
The Nymphs adore I too where stands the rock
Korykian,3 hollow, loved of birds and haunt
Of Gods. [And Bromios 4 also claims this place,
Nor can I now forget it, since the time
When he, a God, with help of Bacchants warred,
And planned a death for Pentheus, like a hare's.6}
Invoking Pleistos' 6 founts, Poseidon's might,
And Zeus most High, supreme Accomplisher,
I in due order sit upon this seat
As seeress, and I pray them that they grant
To find than all my former divinations
One better still. If Hellas pilgrims sends,
Let them approach by lot, as is our law ;
descended from Erichfhonios the son of Hephsestos, or as artificers, who
own him as their father. The words refer to the supposed origin of the
Sacred Road frnn Athens to Delphi, passing through Bceotia and Phokis.
"When the Athenians sent envoys to consult the oracle th.ywere pre-
ceded by men bearing axes, in remembrance of the original pioneering
work which had been done for Apollo. The first work of ac'iye civili-
sation was thus connected with the worship of the giver of Light and
Wisdom.
(1) Delphos, the hero Eprmymns (name-giving) of Delphi, was honoured
as the son of Poseidon. Hence the Piiestess invokes the latter as one of
the guardian deities of the shrine.
(2| Pronaia, as having her shrine or statue in front of the temple of
Apollo.
(3) The Korykian rock in Parnassos, as in Soph., Antig., v. 1128 ; known
also as the "Nymphs' cavern."
(4) Bromios, a name of Dionysos, embodying the spec'al attributes of
ioud, half-frenzied revelry.
(5) In the legend which Euripides follows, Kithseron, not Parnassos, is
the scene of the dea'h of Pentheus. He, it, was snid, opposed the wild or
frantic worship of the Peliisgic Bacchos, concealed himself tliat he might
be iold the mysteries of the ,M senads, and was torn in pieces by his mother
and two others, on whose eyes * he God had cast such glamour that they
took him for a wild beast. English readers may be referred to Dean Mil«
man's translation of the Bacchanals of Euripides.
(6) Ploistos, topographically, a ri\ er flowing through the vale of Delphi
mythically the father of LUe nymphs of Ivory kos.
EUMENIDES. 299
For as the God guides I give oracles.1
[She passes through the door to the adytum, and
after a pause returns trembling and crouch-
ing with fear, supporting herself with her
hands against the walla and columns. The
door remains open, and Orestes and the
Erinnyes are seen in the inner sanctuary.
Dread things to tell, and dread for eyes to see,
Have sent me back again from Loxias' shrine,
*So that strength fails, nor can I nimbly move,
But run with help of hands, not speed of foot;
A woman old and terrified is nought,
A very child. Lo ! into yon recesa
With garlands hung I go, arid there I see
Upon the central stone 2 a God-loathed man, *
Sitting as suppliant, and with hands that dripped
Blood-drops, and holding sword but newly drawn,
And branch of olive from the topmost growth,
With amplest tufts of white wool meetly wreathed ;
For this I will say clearly.3 And a troop
Of women strange to look at sleepeth there,
Before this wanderer, seated on their stools ;
Not women they, but Gorgons * I must call them ;
(1) At one time the Oracle had been open to questioners once in the
year onl , afterwards once a mon'h. The pilgrims, af,er they had made
their offeriiig-s, cast lots, and the doors were opened to him to whom the
lot had fallen. Plutai ch, Qu. Gra'e., p. 292.
(2) The altar of the a !y;um, on the very centre, as men deemed, of the
•whole earth. Zeus, it was said, had se it forth two eagles at the same
moment ; one from the East and the other from the West, and here it
Wat that they had met. The stone was of white marble, and the two
eagles were sculp' ured on it. Strabo, ix. 3.
(3) The priestess dwells upon the outward tokens, which showed that
the suppliant came as one whose need was specially urgent. On the ritual
of supplication generally cornp. Suppl.,w.22, 348, 641, Soph., (Ed. King, v.
3 ; (Ed. O»l., TV. 469-489.
(4) .Xschylos apparently follows the Theogonia of Hesiod, (1 278,) who
describes lie Gordons as three in number, daughters of Phorkys and
Keto, and burning the names of S:heno, Euryale, and Medusa. The last
en ers into 'he Perseus cycle of my hs, as one of the monsters whom he
conquered, with a face once beautiful, but with her hair turned to serpents
by the wrath of Athena, and so dreadful to look upon that those who
gazed on her were turned to stone. When Perseus had slain her,
Athena placed her head in her aegis, and thus became the terror of all
Who were foea to herself or her people. A wild legendary jtueouut of
3<X> . KUMENIDES.
Nor yet can I to Gorgon forms compare thorn r
I have seen painted shapes that bear away
The feast of Phineus.1 Wingless, though, are these,
And swarth, and every way abominable.
*They snort with breath that none may dare approach,
And from their eyes a loathsome humour pours,
And such their garb as neither to the shrine
Of Gods is meet to bring, nor mortal roof.
Ne'er have I seen a race that owns this tribe,
Nor is there land can boast it rears such brood,
Unhurt and free from sorrow for its pains.
Henceforth be it the lot of Loxias, *•
Our mighty lord, himself to deal with them :
True prophet-healer he, and portent-seer,
And for all others cleanser of their homes.
Enter APOLLO from the inner adytum, attended by
HEKMES.
Apol. [To ORESTES.] Nay, I'll not fail thee, but as
close at hand
Will guard thee to the end, or though far off,
Will not prove yielding to thine adversaries ;
And now thou see'st these fierce ones captive ta'en,
These loathly maidens fallen fast in sleep.
Hoary and ancient virgins they, with whom
Nor God, nor man, nor beast, holds intercourse.
They owe their birth to evils ; for they dwell
In evil darkness, yea in Tartaros
Beneath the earth, and are the hate and dread
Of all mankind, and of Olympian Gods.
Yet fly thou, fly, and be not faint of heart ;
them meets us in the Prom. Sound, v. 812. As works of art, the Gorgon
images are traceable to the earliest or Kyclopian period.
(1) Here also we have a reference to a familiar subject of early Greek
art, probably to some painting familiar to an Athenian audience. The
name of Phineus indicates that the monstrous forms spoken of are those
of the Harpies, birds with women's faces, or women with birds' wings,
who were sent to vex the blind seer for his cruelty to the children of hi*
first marriage. Comp. Soph. Antig., v. 973. In the ^Eneiil they appear
(in. 225) as dwelling in the Stropliadee, and harassing ^Eneaa and liia
companion*.
EUMENIDES. 3OI
For they -will chase th.ee over mainland wide,
As thou dost tread the soil by wanderers tracked,
And o'er the ocean, and by sea-girt towns ;
And fail thou not before the time, as brooding
O'er this great toil. But go to Pallas' city,
And sit, and clasp her ancient image l there ;
And there with judges of these things, and words
Strong to appease, will we a means devise
To free thee from these ills for evermore ;
For 1 urged thee to take thy mother's life.
Orest. Thou know'st, O king Apollo, not to wrong;
And since thou know'st, learn also not to slight :
Thy strength gives full security for act.
Apol. Eemember, let no fear o'ercome thy soul ;
And [To HEEMES,] thou, my brother, of one father born,
My Hermes, guard him ; true to that thy name,
Be thou his Guide, true shepherd of this man,
Who comes to me as suppliant : Zeus himself
*Reveres this reverence e'en to outcasts due,
When it to mortals comes with guidance good.*
[Exit ORESTES led by HERMES. APOLLO retiree
within the adytum. The Ghost o/CLYT^M-
NESTRA rises from the ground.
Clytcem. What ho ! Sleep on ! What need of sleepers
now?
And I am put by you to foul disgrace
Among the other dead, nor fails reproach
Among the shades that I a murderess am ;
And so in shame I wander, and I tell you
That at their hands I bear worst form of blame.
And much as I have borne from nearest kin, *"
Yet not one God is stirred to wrath for me,
(1) The old image of Pallas, carved in olive-wood, as distinguished from
later sculpture.
(2) The early code of hospitality bound the host, who as such had onoa
received a guest under the shelter of his roof, not to desert him. even
though he might discover afterwards tnat he had been guilty or great
crimes, but to escort him sately to the boundary of his territory. Thin
Apollo, as the host with whom Orestes had taken refuge, sends Herm«%
the escort God, to guide and defend him on his way to Athens.
EUMENIDES.
Though done to dentil by matricidal hands.
See ye these heart- wounds, whence and how they came P
Yea, when it sleeps, the mind is bright with eyes; l
But in the day it is man's lot to lack
All true discernment. Many a gift of mine
Have ye lapped up, libations pure from wine,'
And soothing rites that shut out drunken mirth ;
And I dread banquets of the night would offer
On altar-hearth, at hour no God might share.
And lo ! all this is trampled under foot. **
He is escaped, and flees, like fawn, away;
And even from the midst of all your toils
Has nimbly slipped, and draws wide mouth at you.
Hear ye ; for I have spoken for my life :
Give heed, ye dark, earth-dwelling Goddesses,
I, Clytaemnestra's phantom, call on you.
[The. Erinnyes moan in their sleep.
Moan on, the man is gone, and flees far off :
My kindred find protectors ; I find none.
[Moan as before.
Too sleep-oppressed art thou, nor pitiest me :
Orestes, murderer of his mother, 'scapes.
[Noises repeated.
Dost snor* ? Dost drowse ? Will thou not rise and speed P
What have ye ever done but work out ill ?
[Noises as lefort.
Tea, sleep and toil, supreme conspirators,
Hare withered up the dreaded dragon's strength.
Chor. [starting up suddenly with a yell."} Seize him,
seize, seize, yea, f eize : look well to it.
(1) The thought that the highest •wisdom came to men rather in
"•visions of the night, when deep sleep falleih on men," than ihrough the
waking senses, which we have a ready met with in Agam... v. 173, is i race-
able to the mys.icisra of Pythagoras, more distinctly perhaps to that of
Epimenides.
(2) Wine, as in Soph. (Ed. Ol., w. 100, 481, was rigidly excluded from
the cuttus of the Eumenides, and to them only as daughters of Night were
midnight sacrifices offered. We must not lose sight of the thought thtw
implied, tnat Clytsemnestra had hei self lived, alter her deed ot guilt, in
perpetual terror of the Erinnyea, beoiiing to soothe them by hef
sacrifice*.
EUSIENIDES. 303
Clytcem. Thou, pliantom-like,1 dost hunt thy prey, and
criest,
Like hound that never rests from care of toil.
What dost thou ? (to one Erinnys.) Rise and let not toil
o'ercome thee,
Nor, lulled to sleep, lose all thy sense of loss.
Let thy soul (to another} feel the pain of just reproach : **
The wise of heart find that their goad and spur.
And thou (to a third], breathe on him with thy blood-
flecked breath,
And with thy vapour, thy maw's fire, consume him;
Chase him, and wither with a fresh pursuit.
Leader of the Chor. Wake, wake, I say ; wake her, as
I wftke thee.
Dost slumber ? Rise, I say, and shake off sleep.
Let's see if this our prelude be in vain.
STBOPH. I.
Pah ! pah ! Oh me ! we suffered, 0 my friends. . . . .
Yea, many mine own sufferings undeserved. . . . .
Wfe suffered a great sorrow, full of woe, ***
An evil hard to bear.
Out of the nets he's slipped, our prey is gone:
O'ercome by sleep I have my quarry lost.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
Ah, son of Zeus, a very robber thou,
Though young, thou didst old Goddesses ride doira,*
Honouring thy suppliant, godless though he be,
One whom his parents loathe :
Thou, though a God, a matricide hast freed :
Of which of these acts can one speak as just ?
304 EUMENIDES.
STEOPH. II.
Yea, ihis reproach tliat came to me in dreams
Smote me, as charioteer
Smites with a goad he in the middle grasps,
Beneath my breast, my heart ;
Tis ours to feel the keen, the o'er keen smart,
As by the public scourger fiercely lashed.
ANTISTROPH. II.
Such are the doings of these younger Gods,
Beyond all bounds of right
Stretching their power A clot of blood besmeared
Upon the base, the head, ....
Earth"s central shrine itself we now may see *"*
Take to itself pollution terrible.
STROPH. III.
And thou, a seer, with guilt that stains thy hearth
Hast fouled thy shrine, self-prompted, self-impelled,
Against God's laws a mortal honouring,
And bringing low the Fates
Born in the hoary past.
ANTisTaorn. III.
Me he may vex, but shall not rescue him ;
Though 'neath the earth he flee, he is not freed ;
For he, blood-stained, shall find upon his head
Another after me,
Destroyer foul and dread.
[APOLLO advances from the Adytum and confronit
them.
Apol. Out, out, I bid you, quickly from this temple ;
Go forth, and leave this shrine oracular,
Lest, smitten with a serpent winged and bright,
Forth darted from my bow-string golden- wrought,
Thou in sore pain bring up dark foam, and vomit
The clots of blood thou suck'dst from human veins.
This is no house where ye may meetly come,
EUMENJDES. 305
But there where heads upon the scaffold lie,1
And eyes are gouged, and throats of men are cut,
*And mutilation mars the bloom of youth,
Where men are maimed and stoned to death, and groan
With bitter yailing, 'neath the spine impaled ; "*
Hear ye what feast ye love, and so become
Loathed of the Gods ? Yes, all your figure's fashion
Points clearly to it. Such as ye should dwell
In cave of lion battening upon blood,
Nor tarry in these sacred precincts here,
Working defilement. Go, and roam afield
Without a shepherd, for to flock like this
Not one of all the Gods is friendly found.
Chor. 0 king Apollo, hear us in our turn .
No mere accomplice art thou of these things, l"
But guilty art in full as principal.
Apol. How then ? Prolong thy speech to tell me this.
Chor. Thou bad'st this stranger be a matricide.
Apol. I bade him. to avenge his sire. Why not ? *
Chor. Then thou did'st welcome here the blood just
shed.
Apol. I bade him seek this shrine as suppliant.
Chor. Yet us who were his escort thou revilest.
Apol. It is not meet that ye come nigh this house.
Chor. Yet is this self -same task appointed us.
Apol. What function's this ? Boast thou of nobler
task ? ™>
Chor. We drive from home the murderers of their
mothers.
Apol. What? Those who kill a wife that slays her
spouse ?
Ohor. That deed brings not the guilt of blood of kin.*
(1) The accumulation of horrid forms of cruelty had, probably, a special
significance tor the A'beniaiis. These punishments belonged to their
enemies, the Persians, not to the Hellenic race, and the poet's purpose
was to rekindle patriotic feeling by dwelling on their barbarity, as in
Agan., v. 894, he points in like manner to their haughtiness and luxury.
(2) The aigument of the Erinnyes is, to some extent, like that of the
Antigone of Sophocles, (Antig., 909-913,) and the wife of Intaphemes,
(Hfirod. III., 119.) The tie which binds the husband to the wife is lesi
Uored than that between the mother and the son. This, th« refore, bring!
X
306 EUMENIDES.
ApoL *Truly thou mak'st dishonoured, and as nought,
The marriage-vows of Zeus and llera great ;
And by this reasoning Kypris too is shamed,
From whom men gain the ties of closest love.
For still to man and woman marriage bed,
Assigned by Fate and guided by the Right,
Is more than any oath. If thou then deal
So gently, when the one the other slays, *•
And dost not even look on them with wrath,
I say thou dost not justly chase Orestes ;
For thou, in the one case, I know, dost rage;
I' the other, clearly tak'st it easily :
The Goddess Pallas shall our quarrel judge.
Chor. That man I ne'er will leave for evermore.
ApoL Chase him then, chase, and gain yet more of toil.
• Chor. Curtail ihou not my functions by thy speech.
ApoL Ne'er by my choice would I thy functions own.
Chor. True ; great thy name among the thrones of
Zeus : »
But I, his mother's blood constraining me,
Will this man chase, and track him like a hound.
ApoL And I will help him and my suppliant free ;
For dreadful among Gods and mortals too
The suppliant's curse, should I abandon him.
[Exeunt.
Scene changes to Athens, in front of the Temple of Athena
Polias, on the Acropolis.1
Enter ORESTES.
Orest. [clasping the statue of the Goddess."] O Queen
Athena, I at Loxias' hest
on the slayer the guilt of blood of kin, while murder in the other case ia
reduced to simple homicide. Orestes therefore was not justified in per-
petrating the greater crime as a retribution for the less. Apollo, in
meeting this plea, asserts the sacreclness of the marriage bond as standing
on the same level as that of consanguinity.
(1) The idea; interval of time between the two parts of the drama is
left undefined, but it would seem from w. 2,30, 274-6, and 429, to have
been lo g enough to have allowed of many wanderings to sacred places,
Orestes does not go straight from Delphi to Athens He appears now,
not as before dripping and besmeared with blood, but witu hands ana
urified.
EUMENIDES. 3P1
Am come : do thou receive me graciously,
Sin-stained though I have been : no guilt of blood
Is on my soul, nor is my hum! unclean,
But now with stain toned down and worn away,
In other homes and journeyings among men,1
O'er land and water travelling alike,
Keeping great Loxias' charge oracular,
I come, O Goddess, to thy shrine and statue:
Here will I stay and wait the trial's issue.
Enter the Erinnyes in pursuit.
Chor. Lo ! here are clearest traces of the man :
Follow thou up that dumb informer's2 hints;
For as the hound pursues a wounded fawn,
So by red blood and oozing gore track we.
My lungs are panting with full many a toil,
Wearing man's strength down. Every spot of earth "**
Have I now searched, and o'er the sea in flight
Wingless I came pursuing, swift as ship ;
And now full sure he's crouching somewhere here:
The smell of human blood wafts joy to me.
See, see again, look round ye every way,
Lest he, the murderer, slip away unscathed.
Hb, it is true, in full security,
Clasping the statue of the deathless goddess,
Would fain now take his trial at our hands.
This may not be ; a mother's blood out-poured
(Pah ! pah !) can never be raised up again,
The life-blood shed is poured out and gone,
But thou must give to us to suck the blood
Eed from thy living members ; yea, from thee,
May I gain meal of drink undrinkable 1
(1) The story of Adrastos and Crosses in Herod. I. 35, illustrates the
grndunl purification of which Orestes speaks. The penitent who has the
stain of blood-guiltiness upon him comes to tiie king, and the king1, as
his host, performs the lustral rites for h.m. Here Orestes urges that he
has been received at many homes, and gone through many such lustra-
tions. He has been cleansed from the pollution of sin : what he now
«eeks, to use the terminology of a later system, is a forensic justili-
eation.
(2) Sc., the scent of blood, which though no longer visible to the eyes of
tuai, still lingers round him and is perceptible to his pursuers.
308 EUMENIDES.
And, having dried thee up, I'll drag thee down
Alive to bear the doom of matricide.
There thou shalt see if any other man
Has sinned in not revering God or guest,
Or parents dear, that each receiveth there **
The recompense of sin that Vengeance claims.
For Hades is a mighty arbiter
Of those that dwell below, and with a mind
That writes true record all man's deeds surveys.
Orest. I, taught by troubles, know full many a form
Of cleansing rites, — to speak, when that is meet,
And when 'tis not, keep silence, and in this
I by wise teacher was enjoined to speak;
For the blood fails and fades from off my hands;
The guilt of matricide is washed away. **•
For when 'twas fresh, it then was all dispelled,
At Phcebos' shrine, by spells of slaughtered swine.
Long would the story be, if told complete,
Of all I joined in harmless fellowship.
Time waxing old, too, cleanses all alike :
And now with pure lips, I in words devout,
Call Atheuoea, whom this land owns queen,
To come and help me : So without a war
Shall she gain rne, my land, my Argive people, "**
Full faithful friends, allies for evermore ; l
But whether in the climes of Libyan land,
Hard by her birth-stream's foam, Tritonian named,*
She stands upright, or sits with feet enwrapt,
Helping her friends, or o'er Phlegraean plains,
Like a bold chieftain, she keeps watchful guard,3
(1} Here, too, we trace the political bearing of the play. In the year
when it was produced (B.C. 458) an ulliance with Argos was the favourite
measure of the more conservative party at Athens.
(2) The names Triton and Tritonis, wherever found in classical ffeo-
graphy, (Libya, Crete, Thessaly, Breotia,) are always connected with
the legend that Athena was bo n there. Probably both name and
legend were carried from Greece to Libya, and then amalgamated with
the indigenous local worship of a warlike goddess. Hesiod (iv. 180, 188)
connects t 'e Libyan lake with the legend of Jason and Argonauts.
(8) In the war with the giants lought in the Phlegrsean plains (th«
TClcuaio district of Campania) Athena had helped her father Zeus by bet
KUMENIDES. 309
Oh, may she come ! (far off a God can hear,)
And work for me redemption from these ills I
Ckor. Nay, nor Apollo, nor Athena's might
Can save thee from the doom of perishing, **
Outcast, not knowing where to look for joy,
Tha bloodless food of demons, a mere shade.
Wilt thou not answer ? Scornest thou my words,
A victim reared and consecrate to me ?
AHve thou'lt feed me, not at altar slain ;
And thou shalt hear our hymn as spell to bind thee.
The Erinnyea, as they sing the ode that follows, move round
and round in solemn and weird measure.
Come, then, let us form our chorus;
Since 'tis now our will to utter
Melody of song most hateful,
Telling how our band assigneth
All the lots that fall to mortals ; wt
And we boast that we are righteous:
Not on one who pure hands lifteth
Palleth from us any anger,
But his life he passeth scatheless ;
But to him who sins like this man,
And his blood-stained hands concealeth,
Witnesses of those who perish,
Coming to exact blood-forfeit,
We appear to work completeness. 8U
STBOPH. I.
0 mother who did'st bear me, mother Night,
A terror of the living and the dead,
Hear me, oh hear !
The son of Leto puts me to disgrace
And robs me of my spoil,
wise counsel, and was honoured there as keeping in check the destrnetirt
Titanic forces which had been so subdued, burying Enkelados, e.g., in
Sifily. The "friends" are her Libyan worshippers. The passage is
interesting, as showing the extent of ^Escliylos s acquaintance with tiia
African and Italian coasts of the ".diterranean.
JIO KUMENIDES.
This crouching victim for a mother's blood :
And over him as slam,
We raise this chant of madness, frenzy-working,1
The hymn the Erinnycs love,
A. spell upon the soul, a lyreless strain
That withers up men's strength.
ANTISTBOPH. I.
This lot the all-pervading Destiny '
Hath spun to hold its ground for evermore,
That we should still attend
On him on whom there rests the guilt of blood
Of kin shed causelessly,
Till earth lie o'er him ; nor shall death set free.
And over him as slain,
We raise this chant of madness, frenzy- working,
The hymn the Erinnyes love,
A spell upon the soul, a lyreless strain
That withers up men's strength.
STKOPH. II.
Such lot was then assigned us at our birth :
From us th'i Undying Ones must hold aloof :
Nor is there one who shares
The banquet-meal with us ;
In garments white I have nor part nor lot ; 8
My choice was made for overthrow of homes,
Where home-bred slaughter works a loved one's death:
Ha ! hunting after him,
Strong though he be, 'tis ours
*To wear the newness of his young blood down.8
(1) The Choral ode here is brought in as an incantation. This weapon
Is to succeed where others have faile 1, and this too, the frenzy which
seizes the soul in the remembrance of its past transgression, is soothed
and banished by Athena.
(•2) White, as the special colour of festal joy, was not use'l in the worship
of the Erinnyes.
(3) Another rendering1 gives—
" To dim the bright hue of the fresh-shed blood."
EUMENIDES. 311
ANTISTP.OPH. II.
*Since 'tis our work another's task to take,1 **
*lh.e Gods indeed may bar the force of prayers
Men offer unto me,
But may not i lash in strife ;
For Zeus doth cast us from his fellowship,
" Blood-dropping, worthy of his utmost hate." . . .
For leaping down as from the topmost height,
I on my victim bring
The crushing force of feet,
Limbs that o'erthrow e'en those that swiftly run,
An Ate hard to bear. "*
STROPH. III.
And fame of men, though very lofty now
Beneath the clear, bright sky,
Below the earth grows dim and fades away
Before the attack of us, the black-robed ones,
And these our dancings wild,
Which all men loathe and hate.
ANTISTBOPH. III.
Falling in frenzied guilt, he knows it not ;
So thick the blinding cloud
*That o'er him floats ; and Rumour widely spread
"With many a sigh reports the dreary doom,
A mist that o'er the house
In gathering darkness broods.
STBOPH. IV.
Fixed is the law, no lack of means find we ; "•
We work out all our will,
(t) The thought which underlies the obscurity of a corrupt passage
•eems to be that, as tuey relieve the Gods from the task of being avengers
of blood, all that the Gods on their side can legitimately do against them
is to render powerless the prayers for vengeance offered by tl e kindred
of the slain. Their very isolation, as Chthonian deities, from the Gods of
Oiympps should protect them from open conflict. But an alternative
rendering of the second line gives, perhaps, a better meaning —
"And by the prayers men offer unto me
Work freedom for the Gods ; "
I.e., by being the appointed receivers of such prayers for vengeance, thej
leave the o ods free lor a higher and serener uio.
312 EOMENIDES.
We, the dread Powers, the registrars of crime,
Whom mortals fail to soothe,
Fulfilling tasks dishonoured, unrevered,
Apart from all the Gods,
*In foul and sunless gloom,1
Driving o'er rough steep road both those that Bee,
And those whose eyes are dark.
ANTISTROPH. IV.
What mortal man then doth not bow in awe
And fear before all this,
Hearing from me the destined ordinance
Assigned me by the Gods ? "^
This task of mine is one of ancient days ;
Nor meet I here with scorn,
Though 'neuth the earth I dwell,
And live there in the darkness thick and dense,
Where never sunbeam falls.
Enter ATHENA, appearing in her chariot, and then alightt.
Athena. I heard far off the cry of thine entreaty
E'en from Scamandros,2 claiming there mine own,
The land which all Achaia's foremost leaders,
As portion chief from out the spoils of war,
Gave to me, trees and all, for evermore,
A special gift for Theseus' progeny. **
Thence came I plying foot that never tires,
Flapping my aegis-folds, no need of wings,
My chariot drawn by young and vigorous steeds :
And seeing this new presence in the land,
I have no fear, though wonder fills mine eyes ;
Who, pray, are ye ? To ail of you I speak,
!1) Perhaps, ""With torch of minings ploom."
2) The words con'ain an allusion to the dispute between Athens nnd
Mitylene in the time ot'Peisistratos, as to t he possession ot Sigeion. At hena
asserts that it had been given to her by the whole body of Achaeans at
the time when they had taken Troi'a. Coir.p. Herod, w. 94, 95. it pro-
bably entered into the political purposes of the play to excite the Athe-
nians to a war in this direction, so as to draw them off from the couaUto*
tional changes pruposed by Periclea and Ephialtea.
EUMENIDES. 313
And to this stranger at my statue suppliant.
And as for you, like none of Nature's births.
Nor seen by Gods among the Goddess-forms,
Nor yet in likeness of a mortal shape .... "*
But to speak ill of neighbours blameless found
Is far from just, and Right holds back from it.
Chor. Daughter of Zeus, thou shalt learn all in brief;
Children are we of everlasting Night ;
[At home, beneath the earth, they call us Curses.}
Athena. Your race I know, and whence ye take your
name.
Chor. Thou shalt soon know then what mine office is.
Athena. Then could I know, if ye clear speech would
Chor. We from their home drive forth all murderers.
Athena. Where doth the slayer find the goal of
flight? *°°
Chor. Where to find joy in nought is still his wont.
Athena. And whirrest thou such flight on this man
here ?
Chor. Tea, for he thought it meet to slay his mother.
Athena. Was there no other power whose wrath, he
feared ?
Chor. What impulse, then, should prick to matricide ?
Athena. Two sides are here, and I but half have heard,
Clior. But he nor takes nor tenders us an oath.1
(1) Here, and throughout the trial, we have to bear in mind the tech-
nicalities of Ath nian mdicial procedure. The prosecutor, in the first
instanc.-, tendered to the accused an oai h that he was not guilty. This
he might accept or refuse. In the latter case, the course of the trial was
at least stopped, and judgment might be recorded against him. If he
oould bring himself to accept it, he was acquitted of the special charge
of which he was accused, but was liable to a prosecution afterwards for
that perjury. If, oil the other hand, he tendered an oath affirming hia
f- lilt to the prosecutor, he placed Himself in his hands. Orestes, not
ping able to deny the fact, will not declare on oath that he is " not
guilty, ' but neither will he place himseif in the power of his accusers.
The peculiarities of this use of oaths were : (1.) That they were taken by
the parties to the suit, not by witnesses. (2.) Th:'.t if both parties
agreed to that mode of decision, the oath was cither way decisive. An
allusion to the latter practice is foun 1 in Heb. vi. 1U, an i traces of it are
found, as the Yilverton cause cetebre has recently reminded us, in the law-
proceedings of Scotland. If either party refused, the cause had to ba
tried in tie usual way, and witnesses weie called.
EUMENIDES.
A thena. Thou lov'st the show of Justice more than act.
Chor. How so ? Inform me. Skill thou dost not
lack!
Athena. Tis not by oaths a cause unjust shall -win.1 *M
Chor. Search out the cause, then, and right judgment
judge.
Athena. And would ye trust to me to end the cause ?a
Chor. How else ? Thy worth, and worthy stock ve
honour.
Athena. Wtat dost thou wish, 0 stranger, to reply ?
Tell thou thy land, thy race, thy life's strange chance,
And then ward off this censure aimed at thee,
Since thou sitt'st trusting in thy right, and hold'st
This mine own image, near mine altar hearth,
A suppliant, like Ixion,3 honourable.
Answer all this in speech intelligible. **
Orest. O Queen Athena, from thy last words starting,
I first will free thee from a weighty care :
I am not now.defiled : no curse abides
Upon the hand that on thy statue rests ;
And I will give thee proof full strong of this.
The law is fixed the murderer shall be dumb,
Till at the hand of one who frees from blood,
The purple stream from yeanling swine run o'er Hin ; *
Long since at other houses these dread rites 5
(1) .iEschylos seems here to attach himself to the principles of those
who were seeking to reform the practice described in the previous note
as being at once cumbrous and unjust, throwing its weight into the scale
of the le>st scrupulous conscience, and to urge a simpler, more straight-
forward trial. The same objection is noticed by Aristotle in his discus-
sion of the subject. (Phet. i. 15.)
(2) Athena otiers herself, not as arbitrator or sovereign judge, but as
presiding over the court of jurors whom she proceeds to appoint.
(3) Ixion appeared in the mythical history of Greece^as tiie prototype of
all suppliants for purification. When he had murdered Deioneus,
Zeus had had compassion to him, received him as a guest, cleansed
him from his guilt. His ingratitude for this service was the special
fruilt i f his attempted outrage upon Hera. The case is mentioned again
in v. 687.
(4) In heathen, as in Jewish sacrifices, the Wood was the vory instru-
ment of purification. It was sprinkled or poured upon men, and they
became clean. But this co.ild not he done by t e criminal himself, nor
by any chance person. The service had to be rendered b» a friend, who
M very love ga e himself to this mediatorial work.
(6) In the legend :el<ued by Pausuniaa (Corinth, c. 3), Truezea was tin
EUMENIDES. 31S
We have gone through, slain victims, flowing streams :
This care, then, I can speak of now as gone.
And how my lineage stands thou soon shalt know :
An Argive I, my sire well known to thee,
Chief ruler of the seamen, Agamemnon,
"With whom thou madest Tro'ia, Ilion's city,
To he no city. He, when he came home,
Died without honour ; and my dark-souled mother
Enwrapt and slew him with her broidered toils,
Which bore their witness of the murder wrought
There in the bath ; and I, on my return, ***
(Till then an exile,) did my mother kill,
(That deed I'll not deny,) in forfeit due
Of blood for blood of father best beloved ;
And Loxias, too, is found accomplice here,
Foretelling woes that pricked my heart to act,
If I did nought to those accomplices
In that same crime. But thou, judge thou my cause,
If what I did were right or wrong, and I,
Whate'er the issue, will be well content.
Athena. Too great this matter, if a mortal man
Think to decide it. Nor is't meet for me
To judge a cause of murder stirred by wrath ;
*And all the more since thou with contrite soul
Hast come to this my house a suppliant,
Harmless and pure. I now, in spite of all,
Take thee as one my city need not blame ; l
But these hold office that forbids dismissal,
A»d should they fail of victory in this cause,
Hereafter from their passionate inood will poison*
first place where Orestes was thus received, and in his time the descen-
dants of those who had thus helped held periodical feasts in commemora-
tion of it.
U) The course which Athena takes is: (1.) to receive Orestes as a
•ettler wi h the rights which attached to such persons on Athenian
•oil, not a criminal fugitive to be simply surrendered ; (2.) to offer to
the Erinnyes, as being: loo important to be put out of court, a fair and open
trial ; (3.) to acknowledge that he and they are equally " blamelfcs," aa
far as she is concerned. She ha* no complaint to make of them.
(2) The red blight of vines and wheat was looked on as caused by drop*
of blood which the Erinnyes had let fall.
EUMENIDKS.
Fall on the land, disease intolerable,
And lasting for all time. E'en thus it stands ;
And both alike, their staying or dismissal,
Are unto me perplexing and disastrous.
But since the matter thus hath come on me, **
I will appoint as judges of this murder
Men bound by oath, a law for evermore ; l
And ye, call ye your proofs and witnesses,
Sworn pledges given to help the cause of right.
And I, selecting of my citizens
Those who are best, will come again that they
May judge this matter truly, taking oaths
To utter nought against the law of right. [Exit.
STEOPH. I.
Chor. Now will there be an outbreak of new laws :
If victory shall rest
Upon the wrong right of this matricide, *•
This deed will proinpt forthwith
All mortal men to callous recklessness.
And many deaths, I trow,
At children's hands their parents now await
Through all the time to come.
ANTISTROPH. I.
For since no wrath on evil deeds will creep
Henceforth from those who watch
With wild, tierce souls the evil deeds of men,
I will let loose all crime ;
*And each from each shall seek in eager quest,
*Speaking of neighbours' ills,
*For pause and lull of woes ; 2 yet wretched man,
He speaks of cures that fail.
(1) Stress is laid on the fact that the judges of the Areopagos, fa con-
trast with those of the inferior tribunes of Athens, discharged their duty
under the sanction of an oath.
(2) Perhaps
" And each from each shall learn, as he predicts
His neighbour's ills, that he
Shares in the same and harbours them, and speaia,
i'oor wretch, oi cores that tail."
EUMENIDKS. 317
STBOPH. IL
Henceforth let none call us,
When smitten by mischance,
Uttering this cry of prayer,
" O Justice, and 0 ye, Erinnyes' thrones ! '*
Such wail, perchance, a father then shall utter,
Or mother newly slain,
Since, fallen low, the shrine of Justice now
Lies prostrate in the dust. <9*
AXTISTROPH. El. „
There are with whom 'tis well
That awe should still abide,
As watchman o'er their souls.
Calm wisdom gained by sorrow profits much :
For who that in the gladness of his heart,
Or man or commonwealth,
Has nought of this, would bow before the Eight
Humbly as heretofore ? l
STEOPH. III.
Praise not the lawless life, **
Nor that which owns a despot's sovereignty ;
To the true mean in all God gives success,*
And with far other mood,
On other course looks on ;
And I will say, with this in harmony,
That Pride is truly child of Godlessness ;
While from the soul's true health
Comes the fair fortune, loved of all mankind,
And aim of many a prayer.
ASTISTBOPH. III.
And now, I say in sum, m
(1) At a more advanced period of human thonght, Cieero (Oral. pr»
Knscio, c 24) could poin1 to the " thoughts that accuse each other," the
h >rror and remorse of the criminal, as the true Erinnyes, the " assiduw
domesticaeque furies." ^Eschylos clings to the mythical symbolism an
indispensable for the preservation of the truth "which it shadowed
forth.
(2) Once again we have the poet of constitutional conversation keeping
the via undtM between feisiatratoc aud 1'encles.
318 ' EUMENIDES.
Revere the altar reared to Justice high,
Nor, thine eye set on gain, with godless foot
Treat it contemptuously :
For wrath shall surely come ;
The appointed end abide th still for all.
Thorei'oT3 let each he found full honour giving*
To parents, and to those,
The honoured guests that gather in his house,
Let him due reverence show.
STEOPH. IV.
And one who of his own free will is just, **
Not by enforced constraint,
He shall not be unblest,
Nor can he e'er be utterly o'erthrown ;
But he that dareth, and trans<,rresseth all,
In wild, confused deeds,
Where Justice is not soen,
I Bay that he perforce, as time wears on,
Will have to take in sail,
When trouble make him hers, and each yard-arm
Is shivered by the blast.
ANTISTBOPH: IV.
And then he calls on those who hear him not,
And struggles all in vain,
In the fierce waves' mid- whirl ;
And God still mocks the man of fevered mood, "•
When he sees him who bragged it ne'er would come,
With woes inextricable
Worn out, and failing still
To weather round the perilous promontory;
And for all time to come,
Wrecking on reefs of Vengeance bliss once high,
He dies unwept, unseen.
The scene changes to the Areopagot. Enter ATHENA,
followed by Herald and twelve Athenian citizens.
Athena. Cry out, 0 herald ; the groat host hold back ;
EUMENIDES. 319
Then let Tyrrhenian trumpet,1 piercing heaven,
Filled with man's breath, to all that host send forth
The full-toned notes, for while this council-hall "*
Is filling, it is meet men hold their peace.
[Herald blows his trumpet.
And let the city for all time to come
Learn these my laws, and this accuser! one too,
That so the trial may be rightly judged.2
[As ATHENA speaks, APOLLO enters.
Chor. 0 King Apollo, rule thou o'er thine own ;
But what hast thou to do with this our cause ?
Apol. I am come both as witness, — for this man
Is here as suppliant, that on my hearth sat,
And I his cleanser am from guilt of blood,—
And to plead for him as his advocate :
I bear the blame of that his mother's death.
But thou, whoe'er dost act as president,
Open the suit in way well known to thee.8 ew
Athena, [to the Eriunyes.~\ 'Tis yours to speak; I thus
the pleadings open,
For so the accuser, speaking first, shall have,
Of right, the task to state the case to us.
Chor. Many are we, but briefly will we speak ;
And answer thou [to OKESTES], in thy turn, word for
word;
First tell us this, did'st thou thy mother slay ?
Crest . I slew her : of that fact is no denial.
Chor. Here, then, is one of our three bouts4 decided.
(t) The Tyrrhenian trumpet, with its bent and twisted tube, retained
its proverbial pre-eminence from the days of ^Bschylos and Sophocles,
(Aias, 17) to those of Virgil, (sEn., viii. 526.)
(2) The fondness of the Athenians for litigation, and the large share
which every citizen took in the administration of justice, woul 1 probablj
make the scene which follows, wi h all its technicalities, the part of the
play into which they would most tn^er.
(3) It was necessary that some one, sitting as President of the Court,
•tumid formally open the pleadings, by calling on this side or that to begin,
liere Athena takes that office on herself, and calls on the Erinnyes.
(4) The technicalities of the Areopagos are still kept up. The three
points on which the Erinnyes, as prosecutors, lay stress are : (I.) the fact
of the murder ; (2.) the mode ; (3.) the motive. " Three bouts," as refer-
ring to the rule of the arena, that three struggles for the mastery shoulJ
be
320 EUMENIDKS.
Oreat. Thou boastest this o'er one noc yet thrown
down. *•*
Chor. This thou at least must tell, how thou did'st slay
her.
Orest. E'en so ; her throat I cut with hand sword-armed.
Chor. By whom persuaded, and with whose advice ?
Orest. [Pointing to APOLLO.] By His divine command :
He bears me witness.
Chor. The prophet- God prompt thee to matricide !
Orest. Yea, and till now I do not blame my lot.
Chor. Nay, when found guilty, soon thou'lt change thy
tone.
Orest. I trust my sire will send help from the tomb.
Chor. Trust in the dead, thou murderer of thy
mother !
Orest. Yes ; for in her two great pollutions met.
Chor. How so, I pray ? Inform the court of this.
Orest. She both her husband and my father slew.
Chor. Nay then, thou liv'st, and she gets quit by
death.
Orest. Why, while she lived, did'st thou to chase her
fail?
Chor. The man she slew was not of one blood with her.1
Orest. And does my mother's blood then flow in me f
Chor. E'en so ; how else, O murderer, reared she thee
Within her womb ? Disown'st thou mother's blood ?
Greet. [Turning to APOLLO.] Now bear thou witness, and
declare to me,
Apollo, if I slew her righteously ;
For I the deed, as fact, will not deny.
But whether right or wrong this deed of blood
Seem in thine eyes, judge thou that these may hear.
upon cms me rest 01 tne discussion turns, vresi ea, oiiu Apuuu oa i
counsel, on the other .hand, meet this with the rejoinder, that there is
blood-i-elatiouslup between the mother and bur ollt>priug.
EUMENIDES.
Apol. I will to you. Athena's solemn council,
Speak truly, and as prophet will not lie.
Ne'er have I spoken on prophetic throne,
Of man, or woman, or of commonwealth,
But as great Zeus, Olympian Father, bade;
And that ye learn how much this plea avails,
I bid you [Turning to the court of jurymen] follow out my
Father's will ; 6M
No oath can be of greater might than Zeus.1
Clior. Zeus, then, thou say'st, did prompt the oracle
That this Orestes here, his father's blood
Avenging, should his mother's rights o'erthrow?
Apol. 'Tis a quite other thing tor hero-chief.
Bearing the honour of Zeus-given sceptre,
To die, and at a woman's hands, not e'en
By swift, strong dart, from Amazonian bow,1
But as thou, Pallas, now shalt hear, and those
Who sit to give their judgment in this cause ; "*
For when he came successful from the trade
Of war with largest gains, receiving him
With kindly words of praise, she spread a robe
Over the bath, yes, even o'er its edge,
As he was bathing, and entangling him
In endless folds of cloak of cunning work,
She strikes her lord down. Thus the tale is told
Of her lord's murder, chief whom all did honour,
The ships' great captain. So I tell it out,
E'en as it was, to thrill the people's hearts,
Who now are set to give their verdict here.
Chor. Zeus then a father's death, as thou dost say, ***
Of highest moment holds, yet He himself
Bound fast in chains his aged father, Cronos ; !
(1) 8e., Their oath to give a verdict according to the evidence must
yield to the higher obligation of following the Divine will rather than the
letter of the law.
(2) To have died in health by the arrows of a woman-warrior might
have been borne. To be slain by a wife treacherously in his bath was to
endure a far \ orse outrage.
(3) In this new argument, and the answer to it, we may trace, as in th«
Prometticus and the Agamemnon, the struggles of the questioning intellect
¥
$22 EUMENIDES.
Are not thy words at variance -with the facts?
1 cull on you [Tu the Court] to witness what he says.
ApvL O hateful creatures, loathed of the Gods,
Those chains may be undone, that wrong be cured,
And many a means of rescue may be found :
But when the dust has drunk the blood of men,
No resurrection comes for one that's dead :
No charm for these things hath my sire devised;
But all things else he turneth up or down, *"
And orders without toil or weariness.1
Chor. Take heed how thou help this man to escape ;
Shall ho who stained earth with his mother's blood
Then dwell in Argos in his father's house ?
What public altars can he visit now ?
What lustral rite of clan or tribe admit him ?z
Apol. This too I'll say ; judge thou if I speak right :
The mother is not parent of the child
That is called hers, but nurse of embryo sown.
He that begets is parent : 3 she, as stranger,
For stranger rears the scion, if God mar not ;
And of this fact I'll give thee proof full sure.
A father there may be without a mother :
Here nigh at hand, as witness, is the child
Of high Olympian Zeus, for she not e'en
Was nurtured in the darkness of the womb,*
apainst the more startling elements of the populnr religious belief. Zeni
is worshipped as the supreme Lord, yet His dominion seenis founded on
might as opposed to goodness, on the unrighteous expulsion of another.
Here, in Apollo's answer, there is the glimmer of a possible reconcilia-
tion. The old and the new, the sovereignty of Cronos and that of Zeu«
may be reconciled, and one supreme God be "all in all."
(1) Comp. the thought and language of the Suppliants, v. 93.
(2) Trie last ai jument is, that the acquittal can be, at the best, partial
only, not compleio ; formal, not real. There would remain for ever the
pollution whicn would exclude Orestes from the Pkratria. the clan-bro-
theriiood, by which, as by a sacramental bond, all the members were held
together.
(3) The question seems to have been one of those which occupied men'g
minds in their tirst gropings towards the mysteries of man's physical life,
and both popular metaphors and primaiy impressions were in favour of
the hypothesis here maintained. Euripides (Orest., v. 534) puts the same
argument into the mouth of Orestes.
(4) The story of Athena's birth, full-grown, from the head of Zeus, if
next r if erred to as the leading case bearing on the point at issue.
EUMENIDES.
Yet such a scion may no God beget.
I, both in all else, Pallas, as I know,
Will make thy city and thy people great,
And now this man have sent as suppliant
Upon thy hearth, that he may faithful prove •**
Now and for ever, and that thou, 0 Goddess,
May'st gain him as ally, and all his race,
And that it last as law for evermore,
That these men's progeny our treaties own.
Athena. \_Tu jurors.] I bid you give, according to your
conscience,
A verdict just ; enough has now been said.
Chor. We have shot forth our every weapon now :
I wait to hear what way the strife is judged.
Athena. \_To Chorus.'] How shall I order this, unblamed
by you ?
Chor. [To jurors. ,] Ye heard what things ye heard,
and in your hearts
Eeverenoe your oaths, and give your votes, 0 friends. "*
Athena. Hear ye my order, O ye Attic people,
In act to judge your first great murder-cause.
And henceforth shall the host of JEgeus' race l
For ever own this council-hall of judges t
And for tliis Ares' hill, the Amazons' seat
And camp when they, enraged with Theseus, came*
In hostile march, and built as counterwork
This citadel high-reared, a city new,
(1) Here, of course, the political interest of the whole drama reached ito
highest point. What seems comparatively flat to us must, to the
thousands who sat as spectators, have been fraught with the most intense
excitement, showing itself in shouts of applause, or audible tokens of
clamorous dissent. The rivalry of Whigs and Tories over Addison'i
Onto, the sensation produced in times of Papal aggression by the king'*
answer to 1'andulph in King John, present analogies which are worth
remembering.
(2) The story ran that the tribe of women-warriors from the Cancasos,
et th.3 Thermodon, known by this name, had invaded Attica under
Oreithyia, when Theseus was kinsr, to revenge the wrongs he had dona
them, and to recover her sister Hippolyta. Ares, the God of Thrakians,
Skythians, and nearly all the wilder barbaric tribes, was their special
deity ; and when they occupied the hill which rose over against the Acro-
polis, they sacrificed to him, and BO it gained the name of the Ar
oc "hill of Ares."
324 EUMENIDES.
And sacrificed to Ares, whence 'tis named
As Ares' hill and fortress : in this, I say, *••
The reverent awe its citizens shull own,
And fear, awe's kindred, shall restrain from wrong
By day, nor less by night, so long as they,
The burghers, alter not themselves their laws :
But if with drain of filth and tainted soil
Clear river thou pollute, no drink thoult find.1
I give my counsel to you, citizens,
To reverence and guard well that form of state
Which is nor lawless, nor tyrannical,
And not to cast all fear from out the city ; *
For what man lives devoid of fear and just P
But rightly shrinking, owning awe like this, *"
Ye then would have a bulwark of your land,
A safeguard for your city, such as none
Boast or in Skythia's3 or in Pelops' clime.
This council I establish pure from bribe,
Beverend, and keen to act, for those that sleep *
An ever-watchful sentry of the land.
This charge of mine I thus have lengthened out
For you, my people, for all time to come.
And now 'tis meet ye rise, and take your ballots,*
(1) As in the Agamemnon, (v. 1010,) so here we find the aristocratie
conservative poet showing his colours protesting against the admission to
the Archonship, and therefore to the Areopagos, of men of low birth or
in undignified employments.
(2) The words, like all political clap-trap, are somewhat vague ; but, as
understood at the time, the "lawless" policy alluded to was that of
Pericles and Ephialtes, who sought to deface and to diminish the juris-
diction of the Areopagos, and the •' tyrannical," lhat which had crushed
the independence 01 Athens und^r Peisistratos. Between the two wag
the conservative party, of which Kimon had been the leader.
(3) The Skythians may be named simply as representing all barbaroui,
non-Hellenic races ; but they appear, about this time, wild and nomadio
as their life was, to have impressed the minds of the Greeks somewhat in
the same way as the Germans did the minds of the Romans in the time of
Tacitus. Tales floated from travellers' lips of their wisdom and their
happiness — of sages like Zamolxis and Aristarchos, who rivalled those of
Hellas— of the Hyperborei, in the far north, who enjoyed a perpetual and
unequalled blessedness.— Comp. Libation-Pourers, v. 366.
(4) Two topics ol praise are briefly touched on . (1.) the lower, popular
courts of justice at Athens might be open to the suspicion of corruption,
but no breath of slander had ever tainted the fame ot the Areopagos ; (2.)
it met by night, keeping its watch, that the citizen!) might sleep in peace.
(5] The nrat of tie twelve jurymen rises and drops his voting-ballot
EUMENIDES. 325
And so decide the cause, maintaining still
Your reverence for your oath. My speech is said.
Chor. And I advise you not to treat with scorn
A troop that can sit heavy on your land.
Apol. And I do bid you dread my oracles,
And those of Zeus, nor rob them of their fruit.
Chor. Uncalled thou com'st to take a murderer's part ;
No longer pure thu oracles thou'lt speak.
Apol. And did my father then in purpose err,
Then the first murderer he received, Ixion ? l
Chor. Thou talk'st, but should I fail in this my cause,
I will again dwell here and vex this land.
Apol. Alike among the new Gods and the old
Art thou dishonoured : I shall win the day.
Chor. This did'st thou also in the house of Pheres,*
Winning the Fates to make a man immortal.
Apol. Was it not just a worshipper to bless
In any case, — then most, when he's in want ?
Chor. Thou did'st o'erthrow, yea, thou, laws hoear
with age,
And drug with wine the ancient Goddesses.8
Apol. Nay, thou, non-suited in this cause of thine,
Shalt venom spit that nothing hurts thy foes.
Chor. Since thou, though young, dost ride me down,
though old,
I wait to hear the issue of the cause,
Still wavering in my wrath against this city.
into one of the nrns, and is followed by another at the end of each of the
•hort two-line speeches in the dialogue that follows. The two urns of
acquittal and condemnation stand in front of them. The plan of voting
with different coloured balls (black and white) in the same urn, was a
later usage.
(1) Campare note on v. 419.
(2) In the legend of Admetos son of Pheres, and king of Pherw in
Thessalia, Apollo is represented as havin r fl st given wine to the
1'estinies, and then persuaded them to allow Admetos, whenever the hour
of death should come, to be redeemed from Hades, if father, or mother,
or wife were willing to die for him. The self-surrender of his wife,
Alkestis, for this purpose, forms the subject of the noblest of the tragedies
of Euripides.
(3) Partly as setting at nought the power of Erinnyes and the Desti-
nies, partly as giving wine to those whose libations were wioelew.—
Comp. Sophocles, (Ed. Col. v. 100.
EUMENIDES.
Athena. 'Tis now my task to close proceedings here;
And this my vote I to Orestes arid ;
For I no mother own that brought me forth,
And saving that I wed not, I prefer
The male with all my heart, and make mine own
The father's cause, nor will above it place
A woman's death, who slew hor own true lord,
The guardian of her house. Orestes wins, ™
E'en though the votes be equal. Cast ye forth.
With all your speed the lots from out the urns,
Ye jurors unto whom that office falls.
Great. Phoebos Apollo! what will be the judgment?
CJtor. Dark Night, my mother ! dost thou look on this ?
Orest. My goal is now the noose, or full, clear day.
Chor. Ours too to come to nought, or work on still.
\_A pause. The jurors take out the voting tablet*
from the two urns (one of bronze, the other of
wood] for acquittal or condemnation.
Apol. Now count ye up the votes thrown out, 0 friends.
And be ye honest, as ye reckon them ;
One sentence lacking, sorrow great majr come,
And one vote given hath ofttimes saved a house.
\A pause, during which the urns are emptied and
the votes are counted.
Athena. The accused is found "not guilty" of the
murder :
For lo ! the numbers of the votes are equal.1
Orest. 0 Pallas, thou who hast redeemed my house,
Thou, thou hast brought me back when I had been
Bereaved of fatherland, and Hellenes now
Will say, " The man's an Argive once again,
And dwells upon his father's heritage,
Because of Pallas and of Loxias,
And Zeus, the true third Saviour, all o'erruling,
Who, touched with pity for my father's fate,
(1) The practice of the Areopagos is accurately reproduced. When the
votes of the judg: .s were equal a casting vote was given in favour of tb«
iccused. oiid was known as that of Athena.
EU1IENIDES. 317
Saves me, beholding these my mother's pleaders."
And I will now wend homewurd, giving pledge
To this thy country and its valiant host,
To stand as firm for hencefrn-th and for ever,
That no man henceforth, chief of Argive land,
Shall bring against it spearmen well equipped :
For we ourselves, though in our sepulchres,
On those who shall transgress these oaths of ours,
Will with inextricable evils work,
Making their paths disheartening, and their ways
Ill-omened, that they may their toil repent.
But if these oaths be kept, to those who honour
This city of great Pallas, our ally,
Then we to them are more propitious yet.
Farewell then, Thou, and these who guard thy city.
Mayst thou so wrestle that thy foes escape not,
And so win victory and deliverance 1
STBOPRK.
C7ior. Ah ! ah ! ye younger God !
Ye have ridden down the Liws of ancient days,
And robbed me of my prey.
But I, dishonoured, wretched, full of wrath,
Upon this land, ha ! ha !
Will venom, venom from my heart let fall,
In vengeance for my grief,
A dropping which shall smite
The earth with barrenness !
And thence shall come, (0 Vengeance !) on the plain
Down swooping, blight of leaves and murrain du«
That o'er the land flings taint of pestilence.
Shall I then wail and groan ?
Or what else shall I do ?
Stall I become a woe intolerable
Unto these men for wrongs I have endured P
Great, very great are they,
Ye virgin daughters of dim Night, ill-doomed,
Born both to shame and woe I
328 EUMENIDES.
Athena. Nay, list to me, and be not over-grieved;
Ye have not been defeated, but the cause
Came fairly to a tie, no shame to thee.
But the clear evidence of Zeus was given,
And he who" spake it bare his witness too
That, doing this, Orestes should not suffer.
Hurl ye not then fierce rage on this my land ;
Nor be ye wroth, nor work ye barrenness,
*By letting fall the drops of evil Powers,1
The baleful influence that consumes all seed.
For lo ! I promise, promise faithfully,
That, seated on your hearths with shining thrones,
Ye shall find cavern homes in righteous land,
Honoured and worshipped by these citizens.
ANTISTROPHB.
Chor. Ah ! ah ! ye younger Gods !
Ye have ridden down the laws of ancient days,
And robbed me of my prey.
And I, dishonoured, wretched, full of wrath,
Upon this land, ha ! ha !
Will venom, venom from my heart let fall,
In vengeance for my grief,
A dropping which shall smite
The earth with barrenness !
And thence shall come, (O Vengeance !) on the plain
Down -swooping, blight of leaves and murrain dire
That o'er the land flings taint of pestilence.
Shall I then wail and groan ?
Or what else shall I do ?
Shall I become a woe intolerable
Unto these men for wrongs I have endured ?
Great, very great are they,
Ye virgin daughters of dim Night, ill-doomed,
Born both to shame and woe !
Atlena. Ye are not left unhonoured ; be not hot
In wrath, ye Goddesses, to mar man's land,
(1) Another reading pivea —
" By spurting from year throats those venom drop*.*
KUMENIDES. 329
I too, yes I, trust Zeus. Need I say more ?
I only of the high Gods know the keys
Of chambers where the sealed-up thunder lies ;
But that I have no need of. List to me,
Nor cast upon the earth thy rash tongue's fruit,
That brings to all things failure and distress ;
Lull thou the bitter storm of that dark surge,
As dwelling with me, honoured and revered ;
And thou with first-fruits of this wide champaign,
Offerings for children's birth and wedlock-rites,
Shalt praise these words of mine for evermore.
Chor. That I should suffer this, fie on it ! fie !
That I, with thoughts of hoar antiquity,1
Should now in this land dwell,
Dishonoured, deemed a plague !
I breathe out rage, and every form of wrath.
Oh, Earth ! fie on it ! £? !
What pang is this that thrills through all my breast P
Hear thou, 0 mother Night,
Hear thou my vehement wrath !
For lo ! deceits that none can wrestle with
Have thrust me out from honours old of Gods,
And made a thing of nought.
Athena. Thy wrath I'll bear, for thou the elder art, M*
[And wiser too in that respect than I ;]
Yet to me too Zeus gave no wisdom poor ;
And ye, if ye an alien country seek,
Shall yearn in love for this land. This I tell you;
For to this people Time, as it runs on,
Shall come with fuller honours, and if thou
Hast honoured seat hard by Erechtheus' home,
Thou shalt from men and women reap such gifts
As thou would' st never gain from other mortals ;
But in these fields of mine be slow to cast *•
Whetstones of murder's knife, to young hearts bale,
(1) The conservative poet enters his protest through the Erinnyea
against the innovating spirit that looked with contempt upon the princi-
ple* of a pant agu.
33° EUMENIDKS.
Frenzied with maddened passion, not of wine;
Nor, as transplanting hearts of fighting-cocks,1
Make Ares inmate with my citizens,
In evil discord, and intestine broils ;
Let them have war without, not scantily,
For him. who feels the passionate thirst of fame :
Battle of home-bred birds . . I name it not ;
This it is thine to choose as gift from me ;
Well-doing, well-entreated, and well-honoured, **
To share the land best loved of all the Gods.
Chor. That I should suffer this, fie on it ! no I
That I, with thoughts of hoar antiquity,
Should now in this land dwell,
Dishonoured, deemed a plague,
I breathe out rage, and every form of wrath ;
Ah, Earth ! fie on it ! fie !
"What pang is this that thrills through all my breast P
Hear thou, O mother Night,
Hear thou my vehement wrath !
For lo ! deceits that none can wrestle with
Have thrust me out from honours old of Gods,
And made a thing of nought. ***
Athena. I will not weary, telling thee of good,
That thou may'st never say that thou, being old,
"Wert at the hands of me, a younger Goddess,
And those of men who in my city dwell,
Driven in dishonour, exiled from this plain.
But if the might of Suasion thou count holy,
And my tongue's blandishments have power to soothe,
Then thou wilt stay ; but if thou wilt not stay,
Not justly would' st thou bring upon this city,
Or wrath, or grudge, or mischief for its host.
It rests with thee, as dweller in this spot,*
To meet with all due honour evermore.
(1) Cock fighting took its place among the recognised sporta of lha
Athenians. Once a year there was a public perform uioe in the
theatr*-.
(2) The Temple of the Eumenides or Semme (" venerable onea ") gtood
Hear the Areopuyos.
EUMENIDES. 33!
CJior, Athena, Queen, what seat assign'st thou me9
Athena. One void of touch of evil ; take thou it.
Chor. Say I accept. What honour then is mine P
Athena. That no one house apart from thee shal]
prosper.
Chor. And wilt thou work that I such might may have ?
Athena. His lot who worships thee we'll guide aright.
Chor. And wilt thou give thy warrant for all time ?
Athena. What I work not I might rpfrain from speaking.
Chor. It seems thou sooth'st me : I relax my wrath. 86a
Athena. In this land dwelling thou new friends shalt
gain.
Chor. What hymn then for this land dost bid me raise ?
Athena. Such as is meet for no ill-victory.1
And pray that blessings upon men be sent.
And that, too, both from earth, and ocean's spray,
And out of heaven ; and that the breezy winds,
In sunshine blowing, sweep upon the land,
And that o'erflowing fruit of field and flock
May never fail my citizens to bless,
Xor safe deliverance for the seed of men.
But for the godless, rather root them out:
For I, like gardener shepherding his plants,
This race of just men freed from sorrow love.
So much for thee : and I will never fail
To give this city honour among men,
Victorious in the noble games of war.
STBOPH. L
Chor. I will accept this offered home with Pallas,
Nor will the city scorn.
Which e'en All-ruling Zeus
And Ares give as fortress of the Gods.
The altar-guarding pride of Gods of Hellas ; •*
And I upon her call,
With kindly auguries,
(I) Borne two or three lines have probably been lost here.
EUMENIDES.
That so the glorious splendour of the sun
May cause life's fairest portion in thick growth
*To burgeon from the earth.
Athena. Tea, I work with kindliest feeling
For these iny townsmen, having settled
Powers great, and hard to soothe among them :
Unto them the lot is given,
All things human still to order ;
He who hath not felt their pressure
Knows not whence life's scourges smite him:
For the sin of generations
Past and gone ; — a dumb destroyer, —
Leads him. on into their presence,
And with mood of foe low brinireth
Him whose lips are speaking proudly.
AJTTISTBOPH. I.
CJior. Let no tree-blighting cauker breathe on them,
(I tell of boon I give,)
Nor blaze of scorching heat,
That mars the budding eyes of nursling plants,
And checks their spreading o'er their narrow bounds ;
And may no dark, drear plague
Smite it with barrenness.
But may Earth feed fair flock in season due,
Blest with twin births, and earth's rich produce pay
To the high heavenly Powers,
Its gift for treasure found.1
Athena. Hear ye then, ye city's guardians,
What she offers ? Dread and mighty
With the Undying is Erinnys ;
And with Those beneath the earth too,
And full clearly and completely
Work they all things out for mortals,
Giving these the songs of gladness,
Those a life bedimmed with weeping.
(1) Probably an allusion to the silver-mine at Laureion, which about
the time formed a large element of the revenues of Athens, and of wluuh
a tithe was consecrated to Athena.
KUMENIDES. 333
STBOPH. IL
Chor. Avaunt, all evil chance
That brings men low in death before their time I
And for the maidens lovely and beloved,
Give, ye whose work it is,
Life with a husband true,
Amd ye, 0 Powers of self-same mother born,
Ye Fates who rule aright,
Partners in every house,
Awe-striking through all fame,
With presence full of righteousness and truth,
Through all the universe
Most honoured of the Gods 1
Athena. Much I joy that thus ye promise
These boons to my land in kindnesi ;
And I love the glance of Suasion,
That she guides my speech and accent
Unto these who gainsaid stoutly.
But the victory is won by
Zeus, the agora's protector;
And our rivalry in blessings
Is the conqueror evermore.
Chor. For this too I will pray,
That Discord, never satiate with ill,
May never ravine in this commonwealth,
Nor dust that drinks dark blood
From veins of citizens,
Through eager thirst for vengeance, from the State
Snatch woes as penalty
For deeds of murderous guilt.
But may they give instead
With friendly purpose acts of kind intent,
And if need be, may hate
With minds of one accord ;
For this is healing found to mortal men
Of many a grievous woe.
334 EUMENIDES.
Athena. Are they not then waxing wiser,
And at last the path discerning
Of a speech more good and gentle P
Now from these strange forms and fearful,
See I to my townsmen coming,
E'en to these, great meed of profit;
For if ye, with kindly welcome,
Honour these as kind protectors,
Then shall ye be famed as keeping,
Just and upright in all dealings,
Land and city evermore.
STBOPH. III.
Chor* Eejoice, rejoice ye in abounding wealth,
Eejoice, ye citizens,
Dwelling near Zeus himself,1
Loved of the virgin Goddess whom ye loved,
In due time wise of heart,
You, 'neath the wings of Pallas ever staying,*
The Father honoureth.
Athena. Eejoice ye also, but before you
I must march to show your chambers,
By your escorts' torches holy ;
Go, and with these dread oblations
Passing to the crypt cavernous,
Keep all harm from this our country,
Send all gain upon our city,
Cause it o'er its foes to triumph.
Lead ye on, ye sons of Cranaos,*
Lead, ye dwellers in the city,
Those who come to sojourn with you,
And may good gifts work good purpose
In my townsmen evermore I
(1) Reference is made to another local sanctuary, the temple on th«
ireopagos dedicated to the Olympian Zeus.
(2) The figure of Athena, as identical with Victory, and so the tutelary
Goddess of Athens, was sculptured with outspread wings.
(8) Cranaos, the son of Kecrops, the mythical founder of Athene.
KUMENIDES. 335
AMTISTBOFH. III.
Chor. Rejoice, rejoice once more, ye habitants i **
I say it yet again,
Ye Gods, and mortals too,
Who dwell in Pallas' city. Should ye treat
With reverence us who dwell
As sojourners among you, ye shall find
No cause to blame your lot.
Athena. I praise these words of yours, the prayers J9
offer,
And with the light of torches flashing fire,
Will I escort you to your dark abode,1
Low down beneath the earth, with my attendants,
Who with due honour guard my statue here,
For now shall issue forth the goodly eye
Of all the land of Theseus ; fair-famed troop 9*°
Of girls and women, band of matrons too,
In upper vestments purple-dyed arrayed :
*Now then advance ye ; and the blaze of fire,
Let it go forth, that so this company
Stand forth propitious, henceforth and for aye,
In rearing race of noblest citizens,
Enter an array of women, young and old, in procession^
leading the Erinnyes — now, as propitiated, the Eume-
nides or Gentle Ones — to their shrines.
Chorus of Athenian women.
STBOPH. I.
Go to your home, ye great and jealous Ones,
Children of Night, and yet no children ye ; *
With escort of good-will,
Shout, shout, ye townsmen, shout.
ANTISTBOPH. L
There in the dark and gloomy caves of earth,
With worthy gifts and many a sacrifice •*
(1) The sanctuaries of the Eumenides were crypt-like chapels, whert
they were worshipped by the light of lamps or torches.
(2) Perhaps, " Children of Nightv yourselves all childless left."
336 EUMENIDES.
Consumed in the fire —
Shout, shout ye, cne and all.
STBOPH. IL
Come, come, with thought benign,
Propitious to our land,
Ye dreaded Ones, yea, come,
"While on your progress onward ye rejoice,
In the bright light of fire-devoured torch;
Shout, shout ye to our songs.
ANTISTEOPH. IL
Let the drink-offerings come,
In order meet behind,
"While torches fling their light ;
*Zeus the All-seeing thus hath joined in league
*With Destiny for Pallas' citizens ;
Shout, shout ye to our songs.
[The procession winds its way, ATHEUA at its head, then
the Eumenides, then the women, round the Areopagot
towards the ravine in which the dread Goddesses were to
find their sanctuary,']
FRAGMENTS.
FRAGMENTS.
38.
APHRODITE loquitur.
The pure, bright heaven still yearns to blend with, earth,
And earth is filled wifh love for marriage-ntes,
And from the kindly sky the rain-shower falls
And fertilises earth, and earth for men
Yields grass for sheep, and corn, Demeter's gift;
And from its wedlock with the South the fruit
Is ripened in its season ; and of this,
All this, I am the cause accessory.
12*.
So, in the Libyan fables, it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
" With our own feathers, not by others' hand*,
Are we now smitten."
147.
Of all the Gods, Death only craves not gifts :
Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
Avails ; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
The powers of Heaven Persuasion holds aloof.
151.
When 'tis God's will to bring an utter dooa
Upon a house, He first in mortal men
Implants what works it out.
340 FRAGMENTS.
162.
The words of Truth are ever simplest found.
163.
What good is found in life that still brings pain f
174.
To many mortals silence great gain brings.
229.
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray,
To come to me : of cureless ills thou art
The one physician. Pain lays not its touch
Upon a corpse.
230.
When the wind
Nor suffers us to leave the port, nor stay.
243.
And if thou wish to benefit the dead,
'Tis all as one as if thou injured' st them,
And they nor sorrow nor delight can feel :
Yet higher than we are is Nemesis,
And Justice taketh vengeance for the dead.
266.
THETIS on the death ofAchillet.
Life free from sickness, and of many years,
And in a word a fortune like to theirs
Whom the Gods love, all this He spake to ine
As ptean-hymn, and made my heart full glad:
And I full fondly trusted Phoabos' lips
As holy and from falsehood free, of art
Oracular an ever-flowing spring,
And He who sang this, He who at the feast
Being present, spake these things, — yea, He it if
That slew my son.
FRAGMENTS. 34!
267.
The man who does ill, ill must suffer too.
268.
Evil on mortals comes full swift of foot,
And guilt on him who doth the right transgress.
269.
Thou see'st a vengeance voiceless and unseen
For one who sleeps or walks or sits at ease :
It takes its course obliquely, here to-day,
And there to morrow. Nor does night conceal
Men's deeds of ill, but whatsoe'er thou dost,
Think that some God beholds it.
270.
" All have their chance :" good proverb for the rich.
271.
Wise is the man who knows what profiteth,
Not he who knoweth much.
272.
Full grievous burden is a prosperous fool.
272A.
From a just fraud God turneth not away.
273.
There is a time when God doth falsehood prize.
274.
The polished brass is mirror of the form,
Wine of the souL
275.
Words are the parents of a causeless wrath.
342 FRAGMENTS.
276.
Men credit gain for oaths, not oaths for them.
277.
God ever works with those that work with wiQ.
278.
Wisdom to learn is e'en for old men good.
281.
The base who prosper are intolerable.
282.
The seed of mortals broods o'er passing things,
And hath nought surer than the smoke-cloud's shadow.
283.
Old age hath stronger sense of right than youth,
286.
Yet though a man gets many wounds in breast,
He dieth not, unless the appointed time,
The limit of his life's span, coincide ;
Nor does the man who by the hearth at home
Sits still, escape the doom that Fate decrees.
287.
How far from just the hate men bear to death,
Which comes as safeguard against many ills.
288.
To FOBTUNB.
Thou did'st beget me ; thoa too, as it aoem*,
Wilt now destroy mo.
289.
The fire-moth's silly death is that I fear.
FRAGMENTS. 343
290.
I by experience know the race full well
That dwells in JEthiop land, where seven-mouthed Nile
Bolls o'er the land with winds that bring the rain,
What time the fiery sun upon the earth
Pours its hot rays, and melts the snow till then
Hard as the rocks ; and all the fertile soil
Of Egypt, filled with that pure-flowing stream,
Brings forth Demeter's ears that feed our life.
291.
This hoopoo, witness of its own dire ills,
He hath in varied garb set forth, and shows
In full array that bold bird of the rocks
Which, when the spring first comes, unfurls a wing
Like that of white-plumed kite ; for on one breast
It shows two forms, its own and eke its child's,
And when the corn grows gold, in autumn's prim»,
A dappled plumage all its form will clothe ;
And ever in its hate of these 't will go
Far off to lonely thickets or bare rocks.
292.
Still to the sufferer comes, as due from God,
A glory that to suffering owes its birth.
293.
The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven,
Zeus all that is, and what transcends them alL
297.
Take courage ; pain's extremity soon ends.
298.
When Strength and Justice are true yoke-fellowi,
Where can be found a mightier pair than they P
APPENDIX OF KHYMED CHOEUSES.
AGAMEMNON.
VERSES 40—248.
NUTE weary years are gone and spent
Since Menelaos' armament
Sped forth, on work of vengeance bent*
For Priam's guilty land ;
And with him Agamemnon there
Throne, sceptre, army all did share ;
And so from Zeus the Atreidse bear,
Their two -fold high command*
They a fleet of thousand sail,
Strong in battle to prevail,
Led from out our Argive coast,
Shouting war-cries to the host ;
E'en as vultures do that utter
Shrillest screams as round they flutter,
Grieving for their nestlings lost,
Plying still their oary wings
In many lonely wanderings,
Bobbed of all the sweet unrest
That bound them to their young ones' nest
And One on high of solemn state,
Apollo, Pan, or Zeus the great,
When he hears that shrill wild cry
Of his clients in the sky,
On them, the godless who offend,
Ennnys slow and sure doth send.
So 'gainst Alexandros then
The sons of Atreus, chiefs of men,
Zeus sent to work his high behest,
True guardian of the host and guest.
34' APPENDIX.
He, for bride of many a groom,
On Danai, Troi'ans eendeth doom,
Many wrestlings, sinew-trying
Of the knee in dust down-lying,
Many a spear-shaft snapt asunder
In the prelude of war's thunder.
What shall be, shall, and still we see
Fulfilled is destiny's decree.
Nor by tears in secret shed,
Nor by offerings o'er the dead,
Will he soothe God's vengeful ire
For altar hearths despoiled of fire.
And we with age outworn and spent
Are left behind that armament,
With head upon our staff low bent.
Weak our strength like that of boy;
Youth's life-blood, in its bounding joy,
For deeds of might is like to age,
And knows not yet war's heritage :
And the man whom many a year
Hath bowed in withered age and sere,
As with three feet creepeth on,
Like phantom form of day-dream gone,
Not stronger than his infant son.
And now, O Queen, who tak'st thy nan*
From Tyndareus of ancient fame,
Our Clytsemnestra whom we own
As rightly sharing Argos' throne I
What tidings joyous hast thou heard,
Token true or flattering word,
That thou send'st to every shrine
Solemn pomp in stately line, —
Shrines of Gods who reign in light,
Or those who dwell in central night,
Who in Heaven for aye abide,
Or o'er tie Agora cresidf-.
AGAMEMNON. 349
Lo, tliy gifts on altars blaze,
And here and there through heaven's wide ways
The torches fling their fiery rays,
Fed by soft and suasive spell
Of the clear oil, flowing well
From the royal treasure-cell*
Telling what of this thou may,
All that's meet to us to say,
Do thou our haunting cares allay,
Cares which now bring sore distress,
While now bright hope, with power to blea^
From out the sacrifice appears,
And wardeth off our restless fears,
The boding sense of coming fate,
jThat makes the spirit desolate.
BTEOPH. L
Yes, it is mine to tell
What omens to our leaders then befell,
Giving new strength for war,
(For still though travelled far
In life, by God's great gift to us belong
The suasive powers of song,)
To tell how those who bear
O'er all Achseans sway in equal share,
Ruling in one accord
The youth of Hellas that own each as lord,
Were sent with mighty host
By mighty birds against the Tro'ian coast,
Kings of tb<3 air to kings of men appearing
Near to the palace, on the right hand veering;
On spot seen far and near,
They with their talons tear
A pregnant hare with all her unborn young,
All her life's course in death's deep darkness flung.
Oh raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail ;
Yet pray that good prevail 1
35O APPENDIX.
AimsTROPH. L
And then the host's wise seer
Stood gazing on the Atreidoe standing near,
Of diverse mood, and knew
Those who the poor hare slew,
And those who led the host with shield and spear,
And spake his omens clear :
" One day this host shall go,
And Priam's city in the dust lay low,
And all the kine and sheep
Countless, which they before their high towers keep,
Pate shall with might destroy :
Only take heed that no curse mar your joy,
Nor blunt the edge of curb that Troia waiteth,
Smitten too soon, for Artemis still hateth
The winged hounds that own
Her father on his throne,
Who slay the mother with the young unborn,
And looks upon the eagle's feast with scorn,
Ah ! raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail ;
Yet pray that good prevail.
EPODB.
For she, the Fair One, though her mercy shield*
The lion's whelps, like dew-drops newly shed,
And yeanling young of beasts that Eoam the field*,
Yet prays her sire fulfil these omens dread,
The good, the evil too.
And now I call on him, our Healer true,
Lest she upon the Danai send delays
That keep our ships through many weary days,
Urging a new strange rite,
Unblest alike by man and God's high law,
Evil close clinging, working sore despite,
Marring a wife's true awe.
For still there lies in wait,
Fearful and ever new,
Watching the hour its eager thirst to
AGAMEMNON. 35!
Vengeance on those who helpless infants slew."
Such things, ill mixed with good, great Calchas spak*,
As destined by the birds' strange auguries ;
And we too now our echoing answer make
In loud and woeful cries :
Oh raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail;
Yet pray that good prevail.
STBOPH. n.
O Zeus, whoe'er Thou be,
If that name please Thee well,
By that I call on Thee ;
For weighing all things else I fail to tell
Of any name but Zeus ;
If once for all I seek
Of all my haunting, troubled thoughts a truc^
That name I still must speak.
AJTTXSTBOPH. IL
For He who once was great,
Full of the might to war,
Hath lost his high estate ;
And He who followed now is driven afar,
Meeting his Master too :
But if one humbly pay
"With 'bated breath to Zeus his honour due,
He walks in wisdom's way, —
STBOTH. m.
To Zeus, who men in wisdom's path doth train,
Who to our mortal race
Hath given the fixed law that pain is gain ;
For still through his high grace
True counsel falleth on the heart like dew,
In deep sleep of the night,
The boding thoughts that out of ill deeds grew ;
This too They work who sit enthroned in their might,
ASTISTKOPII. TTT. •
And then the elder leader of great fame
Who ruled the Achseans' ships,
352 APPENDIX.
Not bold enough a holy seer to blame
With words from reckless lips,
But tempered to the fate that on him fell ;—
And when the host was vexed
With tarryings long, scant stores, and surging swell,
Chalkis still far off seen, and baffled hopes perplexed ;
BTBOPH. IV.
And stormy blasts that down from Strymon sweep,
And breed sore famine with the long delay,
Hurl forth our men upon the homeless deep
On many a wandering way,
Sparing nor ships, nor ropes, nor sailing gear,
Doubling the weary months, and vexing still
The Argive host with fear.
Then when as mightier charm for that dread ill,
Hard for our ships to bear,
From the seer's lips did "Artemis" resound,
The Atreidse smote their staves upon the ground,
And with no power to check, shed many a bitter tear*
AvnsTROPH. IV.
And then the elder of the chiefs thus cried :
" Great woe it is the Gods to disobey ;
Great woe if I my child, my home's fond pride,
With my own hands must slay,
Polluting with the streams of maiden's blood
A father's hands, the holy altar near.
Which course hath least of good ?
How can I loss of ships and comrades bear P
Eight well may men desire,
With craving strong, the blood of maiden pure
As charm to lull the winds and calm ensure ;
Ah, may there come the good to which our hopes aspire t '
STBOPH. V.
Then, when he his spirit proud
To the yoke of doom had bowed,
While the blasts of altered mood
O'er bis soul swept like a flood,
AGAMEMNON. J5J
Reckless, godless and unblest ;
Thence new thoughts upon him pressed,
Thoughts of evil, frenzied daring,
(Still doth passion, base guile sharing,
Mother of all evil, hold
The power to make men bad and bold,)
And he brought himself to slay
His daughter, as on solemn day,
Victim slain the ships to save,
When for false wile fought the brayt,
AXTISTBOPH. V.
All her cries and loud acclaim,
Calling on her father's name,—
All her beauty fresh and fair,
They heeded not in their despair,
Their eager lust for conflict there.
And her sire the attendants bade
To lift her, when the prayer was said,
Above the altar like a kid,
Her face and form in thick veil hid ;
Tea, with ruthless heart and bold,
O'er her gracious lips to hold
Their watch, and with the gag's dumb pain
From evil-boding words restrain.
STBOPH. VL
And then upon the ground
Pouring the golden streams of saffron yefl,
She cast a glance around
That told its piteous tale,
At each of those who stood prepared to slay,
Fair as the form by skilful artist drawn,
And wishing, all in vain, her thoughts to say;
For oft of old in maiden youth's first dawn,
Within her father's hall,
Her voice to song did call,
To chant the praises of her sire's high state,
Hia fame, thrice blest of Heaven, to celebrate
A A
354 APPENDIX.
What then ensued mine eyes
Saw not, nor may I tell, but not in vain
The arts of Calchas -wise ;
For justice sends again,
The lesson " pain is gain" for them to learnt
But for our piteous fate since help is none,
With voice that bids " Good-bye," we from it ton
Ere yet it come, and. this is all as one
With weeping ere the hour,
For soon will come in power
To-morrow's dawn, and good luck with it come I
So speaks the guardian of this Apian home.
VERSES 346 — 471.
0 great and sovran Zeus, 0 Night,
Great in glory, great in might,
Who round Troia's towers hast set,
Enclosing all, thy close-meshed net,
So that neither small nor great
Can o'erleap the bond-slave's fate,
Or woe that maketh desolate ;
Zeus, the God of host and guest,
Worker of all this confessed,
He by me shall still be blest.
Long since, 'gainst Alexandros He
Took aim with bow that none may flee,
That so his arrows onward driven,
Nor miss their mark, nor pierce the heaven.
STBOPH. I.
Yes, they lie smitten low,
If so one dare to speak, by stroke of Zeua ;
Well one may trace the blow ;
The doom that He decreed their soul subduei.
And though there be that say
The Gods for mortal men care not at all,
Though they with reckless feet tread holiest way,
These none will godly call.
AGAMEMNON. $5$
Now is it to the children's children clear
Of those who, overbold,
More than was meet, breathed Discord's spirit drear ;
While yet their houses all rich store did hold
Beyond the perfect mean.
Ah I may my lot be free from all that harms,
My soul may nothing wean •:
From calm contentment with her tranquil charmt j
For nought is there in wealth
That serves as bulwark 'gainst the subtle stealth
Of Destiny and Doom,
For one who, in the pride of wanton mood,
Spurns the great altar of the Eight and Good,
ANTISTEOPH. L
Yea, a strange impulse wild
Urges him on, resistless in its might,
Ate's far-scheming child.
It knows no healing, is not hid in night,
That mischief lurid, dark ;
Like bronze that will not stand the test of WMF»
A tarnished blackness in its hue we mark ;
And like a boy who doth a bird pursue
Swift-floating on the wing,
He to his country hopeless woe doth bring ;
And no God hears their prayer,
But sendeth down the unrighteous to despair,
Whose hands are stained with sin.
So was it Paris came
His entrance to the Atreidse's home to win,
And brought its queen to shame,
To shame that brand indelible hath set
Upon the board where host and guest were mat.
STBOFH. 33.
And leaving to her countrymen to bear
Wild whirl of ships of war and shield and spear.
And bringing as her dower,
Death's doom to Dion's tower,
356 APPENDIX.
Sbe hath passed quickly through the palace gate,
Daring what none should dare ;
And lo ! the minstrel seers bewail the fate
That home must henceforth share ;
" "Woe for the kingly house and for its lord;
Woe for the marriage-bed and paths which still
A vanished love doth fill !
There stands he, wronged, yet speaking not a word
Of scorn from wrathful will,
Seeing with utter woe that he is left,
Of her fair form bereft;
And in his yearning love
For her who now is far beyond the sea,
A phantom queen through all the house shall roye 5
And all the joy doth flee
The sculptured forms of beauty once did give;
And in the penury of eyes that live,
All Aphrodite's grace
Is lost in empty space.
And spectral forms in visions of the night
Gome, bringing sorrow with their vain delight :
For vain it is when one
Thinks that great joy is near,
And, passing through his hands, the dream is gone
On gliding wings, that bear
The vision far away on paths of sleep."
Such woes were felt at home
Upon the eacred altar of the hearth,
And worse than these remain for those who roam
From Hellas' parent earth :
In every house, in number measureless,
Is seen a sore distress :
Yea, sorrows pierce the heart :
For those who from his home he saw depart
Each knoweth all too well ;
And now, instead of warrior's living frame,
AGAMEMNON. 357
There cometh to the home where each did dwell
The scanty ashes, relics of the flame,
The urns of bronze that keep
The dust of those that sleep.
STBOPH. HL
For Ares, who from bodies of the slain
Keapeth a golden gain,
And holdeth, like a trafficker, his scales,
E'en where the torrent rush of war prevail*,
From Ilion homeward sends
But little dust, yet burden sore for friends,
O'er which, smooth-lying in the brazen urn,
They sadly weep and mourn,
Now for this man as foremost in the strife,
And now for that who in the battle fell,
Slain for another's wife.
And muttered curses some in secret tell,
And jealous discontent
Against the Atreidae who as champions led
The mighty armament ;
And some around the wall, the goodly dead.,
Have there in alien land their monument,
And in the soil of foes
Take in the sleep of death their last repose,
AXTISTUOPH. HI.
And lo ! the murmurs which our country fill
Are as a solemn curse,
And boding anxious fear expecteth still
To hear of evil worse.
Not blind the Gods, but giving fullest heed
To those who cause a nation's wounds to bleed ;
And the dark-robed Erinnyes in due ti«ie
By adverse chance and change
Plunge him who prospers though denied by crime
In deepest gloom, and through its formless range
No gleams of help appear.
O'er- vaunted glory is a perilous thing ;
358 APPENDIX.
Fol Dn it Zeus, whose glance fills all with fear.
His thunderbolts doth fling.
That fortune fair I praise
That rouseth not the Gods to jealousy.
May I ne'er tread the devastator's ways,
Nor as a prisoner see
My life wear out in drear captivity I
EPODB.
And now at bidding of the courier-flamo,
Herald of great good news,
A murmur swift through all tho city came ;
But whether it with truth its course pursues,
Who knows ? or whether God who dwells on high.
With it hath sent a lie ?
Who is so childish, or of sense bereft,
As first to feel the glow
That message of the herald fire has left,
And then to sink down low,
Because the rumour changes in its sound F
It is a woman's mood
To accept a boon before the truth is found:
Too quickly she believes in tidings good,
And so the line exact
That marks the truth of fact
Is over-passed, and with quick doom of death
A rumour spread by woman perisheth.
VERSES 665 — 782.
STBOPH. I.
"Who was it named her with such foresight clear?
Could it be One of might,
In strange prevision of her work of fear,
Guiding the tongue aright ?
Who gave that war-wed, strife-upstirring one
The name of Helen, ominous of ill P
For 'twas through her that Hellas was undone,
That woes from Hell men, ships, and citioe SSL
Out from the curtains, gorgeous in their fold,
AGAMEMNON. 359
Wafted by breeze of Zephyr, earth's strong child.
She her swift way doth hold ;
And hosts of mighty mien, as hunters bold
That bear the spear and shield,
Wait on the track of those who steered their way
Unseen where Simois flows by leafy field,
Urged by a strife that came with power to slay.
AKTISTBOPH. L
And so the wrath which doth its work fulfil
To Ilion brought, well-named,
A marriage marring all, avenging still
For friendship wronged and shamed,
And outrage foul on Zeus, of host and guest
The guardian God, from those who then did raise
The bridal hymn of marriage-feast unblest
Which called the bridegroom's kin to shouts of praise,
But now by woe oppressed
Priam's ancient city waileth very sore,
And calls on Paris unto dark doom wed,
Suffering yet more and more
For all the blood of heroes vainly shed,
And bearing through the long protracted yean
A life of wailing grief and bitter tears.
STBOPH. EL
One was there who did rear
A lion's whelp within his home to dwell,
A monster waking fear,
Weaned from the mother's milk it loved so well:
Then in life's dawning light,
Loved by the children, petted by the old,
Oft in his arms clasped tight,
As one an infant newly-born would hold,
With eye that gleamed beneath? the fondling hand,
And fawning as at hunger's strong command.
AyrisTiiorn. IL
But soon of age full grown,
It showed the inbred nature of its sire,
360 APPENDIX.
And wrought unasked, alone,
A feast to be that fostering nurture's hire ;
Gorged full with slaughtered sheep,
The house was stained with blood as with a euro*
No slaves away could keep,
A murderous mischief waxing worse and worse,
Sent as from God a priest from Ate fell,
A»d reared within the man's own house to dwell.
STBOPH. IIL
So I would say to Hion then there came
Mood as of calm when every wind is still,
The gentle pride and joy of noble fame,
The eye's soft glance that all the soul doth thrill j
Love's full-blown flower that brings
The thorn that wounds and stings ;
And yet she turned aside,
And of the marriage feast wrought bitter end,
Coming to dwell where Priam's sons abide,
HI sojourner, ill friend,
Sent by great Zeus the God of host and guest,
A true Erinnys, by all wives unblest.
AXTISTBOPH. in.
There lives a saying framed of ancient days,
And in men's minds imprinted firm and fast,
That great good fortune never childless stays,
But brings forth issue, — that on fame at last
There rushes on apace
Great woe for all the race ;
But I, apart, alone,
Hold a far other and a worthier creed:
The impious act is by ill issue known,
Most like the parent deed ;
While still for all who love the Truth and Eighty
Good fortune prospers, fairer and more bright.
STBOPH. IV.
But wanton Outrage done in days of old
Another wanton Outrage still doth bear.
AGAMEMNON. j6l
And mocks at human woes with, scorn o'erbold,
Or soon or late as they their fortune share.
That other in its turn.
Begets Satiety,
And lawless Might that doth all hindrance spun.
And sacred right defy,
Two Ates fell within their dwelling-place,
Like to their parent race.
AKTISTROPH. IV.
Tet Justice still shines bright in dwellings murk
And dim with smoke, and honours calm content ;
But gold-bespangled homes, where guilt doth lurk,
She leaves with glance in horror backward bent,
And draws with reverent fear
To places holier far,
And little recks the praise the prosperous hear,
Whose glories tarnished are ;
But still towards its destined goal she bring!
The whole wide course of things.
Say then, eon of Atreus, thou
Who com'st as Tro'ia's conqueror now,
What form of welcome right and meet,
What homage thy approach to greet,
Shall I now use in measure true,
Nor more nor less than that is due ?
Many men there are, I wis,
Who in seeming place their bliss,
Caring less for that which is.
If one suffers, then their wail
Loudly doth the ear assail;
Yet have they nor lot nor part
In the grief that stirs the heart ;
80 too the joyous men will greet
With smileless faces counterfeit :
But shepherd who his own sheep knows
Will scan the lips that fawn aud gluz*.
362 APPENDIX.
Eeady still to praise and bless
"With weak and watery kindliness.
Thou when thou the host did'st guide
For Helen — truth I will not hide-^
In mine eyes had'st features grim,
Such as unskilled art doth limn,
Not guiding well the helm of thought,
And giving souls with grief o'erwrought
False courage from fresh victims brought,
But with nought of surface zeal,
Now full glad of heart I feel,
And hail thy acts as deeds well done :
Thou too in time shalt know each one,
And learn who wrongly, who aright
In house or city dwells in might.
VERSES 947 — 1001.
STBOPH. L
"Why thus continually
Do ever-haunting phantoms hover nigh
My heart that bodeth ill ?
Why doth the prophet's strain unbidden still,
Unbought, flow on and on ?
Why on my mind's dear throne
Hath faith lost all her former power to fling
That terror from me as an idle thing ?
Tet since the ropes were fastened in the Band
That moored the ships to land,
When the great naval host to Ilion went,
Time hath passed on to feeble age and spent.
ANTISTBOPH. L
And now as face to face,
Mysell reporting to myself, I trace
Their safe return ; and yet
My mind, taught by itself, cannot forget
Eriiinys' dolorous cry,
That lyrelods melody,
AGAMEMNON.
And hath no strength of wonted confidence.
Not vain these pulses of the inward sense,
As my heart beateth in its wild unrest,
Within true-boding breast ;
And hoping against hope, I yet will pray
My fears may all prove false and pass away.
STEOPH. H.
Of hijrh, o'erflowing henlth
There is no limit found that satisfies ;
For soon by force or stealth,
As foe 'gainst whom but one poor wall doth riso,
Disease upon it presses, and the lot
Of fair good fortune onward moves until
It strikes on unseen reef where help is not.
But should fear move their will
For safety of their freight,
With measured sling a part they sacrifice,
And so avert their fate, •
Lest the whole house should sink no more to rise,
O'erwhelmed with misery;
Nor does the good ship perish utterly :
So too abundant gift,
From Zeus in double plenty, from the earth,
Doth the worn soul from anxious care uplift,
And turns the famished wail to bounding joy and mirth,
AXTIRTBOPH. IL
But blood that once is shed
In purple stream of death upon the ground,
Who then, when life is fled,
A charm to call it back again hath found ?
Else against him who raised the dead to life
Zeus had not sternly warred, as warning given
To all men ; but if Fate were not at strife
With fate that brings from Heaven
Heir from the Gods, my heart,
}&4 APPENDIX.
Out-stripping speech, had given thought free vent.
But now in gloom apart
It sits and moans in sullen discontent,
And hath no hope that e'er
It shall an issue seasonably fair
From out the tangled skein
Of life's strange course unravel straight and dear,
While in. the fever of continuing pain
My soul doth, burden sore of troublous anguish bear.
THE LTBATION-POUBEBa
VEKSES 20 — 76.
STBOPH. L
Lo, from the palace door
We wend our way to poor
Gifts on the dead;
And in our bitter woe,
Oar hands with many a blow
Smite breast and head.
On each fair cheek the nail
Has ploughed full many a trail,
And all to tatters torn
The garments we have wont;
The foldings of the vest
O'er maiden's swelling breast
Are roughly rent ;
For now on us the chance
That shuts out joy and danoe
Our fate hath sent.
A spectral vision clear
Thrills every hair with fear,
In haunted sleep,
Breathing of dire distress,
From innermost recess
Its watch doth keep,
Breaking with cry of fright
The still deep hush of night;
All through the queenly bower
Sharp cry was heard that hour,
And they to whom t'was given
To read decrees of Heaven,
366 APPENDIX.
In dream o'ertrue,
By solemn pledges bound,
Declared that underground
The dead were wrathful found
'Gainst those that slew.
BTBOPH. IL
And so the godless queen
In eager haste is seen, —
Sends me with gifts like this,
Full graceless grace, I wis,
As if, (O mother Earth,
To whom we owe our birth I)
To banish dread.
And I would fain delay
This prayer of mine to pray :
What ransom can men pay
For blood once shed P
Oh, hearth and home of woe I
Oh, utter overthrow I
Foul mists brood o'er our hallf*
No ray of sunlight falls ;
Thick darkness from the tomb
Of heroes makes the gloom
Yet more intense.
AOTIRTBOPH. IL
And awe that once we knew,
Strong, mighty to subdue,
Falling on every ear,
Thrilling each soul with fear,
Is gone far hence.
There be that well may bow
In craven terror now,
For lo ! Success enthroned
As more than God is owned.
But Vengeance will not fail
Ere long to turn the scale.
THE LIBATION-TOURERS. 36)
On some her strokes alight,
While yet their day is bright ;
Some, as in twilight's gloom,
O'erflow with gathering doom;
Some endless night doth hold
In realm of darkness old.
STBOPH. HI.
And for the blood which Earth,
To whom it owed its birth,
Hath drunk, there still doth wait
A stern avenging Fate ;
The stain of blood doth stay,
And will not pass away,
And nerves are thrilled with pain
In soul that sets in train
The plague that works amain
Its evil great.
AXTISTBOPR. TTTT
All help from him hath fled
"Who with adulterous tread
Defiles another's bed.
Though many streams should poor
Their waters o'er and o'er,
Those waters evermore
Are poured in vain ;
They cannot cleanse the guilt -
Of blood that once is spilt,
Man's hand to stain.
EPOCH.
But since to me by Heaven
The exile's life is given,
(Tea, far from home I know
The bond-slave's cup of woe,}
I needs must yield assent
To good or ill intent,
368 APPENDIX.
Accepting their commands
Who rule with sceptred hand*,—
Yea, I must hide my hate
In this my evil fate,
And under strong control
Keep my rebellious soul ;
And now beneath my veil
I weep my woes' full tale ;
For cares that vex arid fret
My cheeks with tears are wet.
VERSES 576 — 639.
.SxaopH. L
Many dread forms of woe and fear the Earth
Doth breed ; and Ocean's deep
Is full of foes men hate, of monstrous birth;
And Air's high pathways keep
Their flashing meteors ; birds that wing their flight,
And things on earth that creep ;
And one might tell the wrath of whirlwind's might,
When tempests wildly sweep.
A.vrisTBorn. L
But who can tell man's purpose overbold P
Or woman's, prompt to dare ?
Or the strong loves that men in bondage hold.
And bring woe everywhere ?
Or strange conjunctions of the hearth and home?
But still the palm they bear,
The loves unloved that women overcome,
And hold dominion there.
STBOPH. IL
And one whose thoughts are not o'erswift of wing,
May learn and ponder well
What purpose Thestios' child to act did bring,
Purpose most dire and fell,
Her burning thought who did her own
Kindling the torch of death
THE LIBATION-POUKEiS. 36$
That with her child's life kept its equal way,
Since coming from his mother's womb he cried,
To that predestined day on which at last he died*
ANTIBTBOPH. II.
And yet another must I in my song
Devote to hate and scorn,
The murderess Skylla, who to deeds of wrong
By Minos' gifts was borne,
And for her foes' sake slew a man she loved
For Cretan chains gold- wrought ;
She with dog's heart the deathless lock removed
From him, in deep sleep sunk ; yet Hermes' power
She too was taught at last at her appointed hour.
STROPH. ILL
But since I tell my tale of loathly crime,
And of ill-oinened marriage out of time,
Wedlock our house abhors,
The schemes and plots of women steeped in guile
Against a warrior chief, a chief erewhile
The dread of foes in wars,
The foremost place I give to altar-hearth
Where no wrath burns and woman knows the worth
Of mood from daring free.
ANTISTBOPH. HL
Yet of all ills the Lemnian first may stand,
The cry of loathing rings through all the land,
And still each crime of dread
A man will liken to the Lemnian ill ;
And now by woe that comes from God's stern will
The race is gone and fled,
Of all men scorned, for no man looks with love
On deeds that to the high Gods hateful prove;
Is not this clear to see ?
STBOPH. IV.
And lo 1 the sword sharp -pointed pierces deep,
E'en to the heart, the sword which Vengeance wieldi
BB
370 APPENDIX.
The lawless deed will not neglected sleep,
When men tread down what fear of high heaven shield* j
AKTKTBOPH. IV.
But still the block of Vengeance firm doth stand,
And Fate, as swordsmith, hammers blow on blow ;
And then with thoughts that none can understand,
Erinnys comes far known, though working slow,
And to the old house brings the youthful heir,
That deeds of blood wrought out of olden time
May the due judgment bear
For each polluting crime.
VERSES 769—820.
STBOPH. L
Oh, hear me, hear my prayer, thou mighty Lord !
Sire of all Gods that on Olympos dwell,
Hear Thou, and grant, my longing heart's desire,
That those who wise of heart would fain do well
May see each prayer for right
Fulfilled in holiest might ;
That prayer, O Zeus, I pray.
STBOPH. IL
Do Thou protect him, yea, 0 Zeus, and bring
Before his foes on yonder secret way ;
Por if thou raise him high, then Thou, 0 king,
Shalt to thy heart's content
Receive a twofold, threefold recompence,
For that thine anger bent
Against each old offence.
AimSTBOPH. 1.
Look on the son of one whom Thou did'st lore,
Like orphan colt fast bound to car of woes ;
Set Thou a mark that may as limit prove ;
Ah, might one watch his footsteps as he goes,
THE LIBATION-POURE1S. 371
In measured course and true,
This his own country through I
STROPH. III.
And ye who in our home
Stand in the shrine with plenteous wealth full stored*
Hear, O ye Gods, and come,
Yea, come with one accord,
Lead him on, wash away
With vengeance new the blood of crime of old ;
Let not the old guilt scay
To breed fresh offspring where our home we hold.
MESODK.
But grant him good success,
O Thou who dost within the great cave dwell I
With upward glance of joy our chief's house blew,
And that he too, full well,
Freely and brightly with the dear, loved eye»»
May look from out the veil of cloudy skies.
ANTISTBOFH. IIL
And then may Maia's son
Assist him, as is meet, in this his task !
Through Him success is won,
The boon that now we ask :
And many secret things will He make clear,
If that should be his will ;
But should He choose the truth should not appear,
Before men's eyes He still
Brings darkness and the blackness of the night*
Nor is He clearer in the day's full light.
STBOPH. IV.
And then will we pour forth
All that our house contains of costliest worth.
Past evil to redeem,
And through the city we will raise the strain
Shrill- voiced of women's chant yet once again*
All this as good I deem ;
372 APPENDIX.
This, this my gain increaseth more and more,
And far from those I love is sorrow's bitter stour.
AimSTBOPH. II.
But thoii, take courage when the time is come,
The time to act indeed,
And when she calls thee " child," do thou strike home,
And let thy father's name for vengeance plead;
Do thy dread taskwork to the uttermost.
AsmsTBOPH. IV.
Let Perseus' heart within thy bosom dwell,
For thou dost work for each dear kindred ghost,
And those on high, a hittefr boon and fell,
Completing there within
The deed of blood and sin,
And utterly destroying him whose hand
That crime of murder planned.
BTJMENIDE8.
VERSES 297 — 374.
OOME then, and let us dance in solemn strain;
It is our will to chant our harsh retrain,
And tell how this our band
Works among men the tasks we take in hand.
In righteous vengeance find we full delight ;
On him who putteth forth clean hands and putt
No wrath from us doth light ;
Unhurt shall he through all his life endure ;
But whoso, as this man, hath evil wrought,
And hides hands stained with blood,
On him we come, with power prevailing fraught,
True witnesses and good,
For those whom he has slain, and bent to win
Full forfeit-price for that his deed of sin.
BTBOPH. X.
O Mother, Mother Night I
Who did'st bear me a penalty and curse
To those who see and those who see not light,
Hear thou ; for Leto's son, in mood perverse,
Puts me to foulest shame,
In that he robs me of my trembling prey,
The victim whom we claim,
That we his mother's blood may wash away ;
And over him as slain
Sing we this dolorous, frenzied, maddening strain,
The song that we, the Erinnyes, love so well,
That binds the soul as with enchanter's spell,
Without one note from out the sweet-voiced lyre,
Withering the strength of men as with a blast of fir*.
374 APPENDIX.
AN-TISTBOPH. L
For this our task hath Fate
Spun without fail to last for ever sure,
That we on man weighed down with deeds of hate
Should follow till the earth his life immure.
Nor when he dies can he
Boast of being truly free ;
And over him as slain
Sing we this dolorous, frenzied, maddening strain,
The song that we, the Erinnyes, love so well,
That binds the soul as with enchanter's spell,
Without one note from out the sweet- voiced lyre,
Withering the strength of men as with a blast of fire,
BTUOPH. II.
Yea, at our birth this lot to us was given,
And from the immortal Ones who dwell in Heaven
We still must hold aloof;
None sits with us at banquets of delight,
Or shares a common roof,
Nor part nor lot have I in garments white ;
My choice was made a race to overthrow,
When murder, home-reared, lays a loved one low j
Strong though ho be, upon his track we tread,
And drain his blood till all his strength is fled,
ANTISTROPH. IL
Yea, 'tis our work to set another free
From tasks like this, and by my service due
To give the Gods their perfect liberty,
Eelieved from task of meting judgment true;
For this our tribe from out his fellowship
Zeus hath cast out as worthy of all hate,
And from our limbs the purple blood-drops drip;
80 with a mighty leap and grievous weight
My foot I bring upon my quivering prey,
With power to make the swift and strong give wayf
An evil and intolerable fate.
EUMENIDKS. 375
STBOPE. HL
And all the glory and the pride of men,
Though hip-h exalted in the light of day,
Wither and fade away,
Of little honour then,
When in the darkness of the grave they stay,
By our attack brought low,
The loathed dance through which in raiment black we go,
ASTISTKOPH. TTT.
And through the ill that leaves him dazed and blind,
He still is all unconscious that he falls,
So thick a cloud enthrals
The vision of his mind :
And Rumour with a voice of wailing calls,
And tells of gathering gloom
That doth the ancient halls in darkness thick entomb.
STBOPH. IV.
So it abideth still ;
Heady and prompt are we to work our will,
The dreaded Ones who bring
The dire remembrance of each deed of ill,
Whom mortals may not soothe with offering,
Working a task with little honour fraught,
Yea, all dishonoured, task the Gods detest,
In sunless midnight wrought,
By which alike are pressed
Those who yet live, and those who lie in gloom unbleat.
AHTISTBOPH. IV.
What mortal man then will not crouch in fear,
As he my work shall hear,
The task to me by destiny from Heaven
As from the high Gods given ?
Tea, a time-honoured lot is mine I trow,
No shame in it I see,
Though deep beneath the .earth my station be,
In gloom that never feels the sunlight's quickening glowi
3?6 APPENDIX.
VERSES 468 —
STBOPH. I. *
Now is there utter fall and overthrow,
Which new-made laws begin ;
If he who struck the matricidal blow,
His right — not so, his utter wrong shall win,
This baseness will the minds of all men lead
To wanton, reckless thought,
And now for parents waits there woe, and deed
Of parricidal guilt by children wrought.
AunsmopH. L
For then no more shall wrath from this our band,
The Maenad troop that watch the deeds of men,
Come for these crimes ; but lo ! on either hand
I will let slip all evil fate, and then,
Telling his neighbours' grief,
Shall this man seek from that, and seek in vain,
Keinission and relief,
Nor is there any certain cure for pain.
And lo I the wretched man all fruitlessly
For grace and help shall cry.
STBOPH. n.
Henceforth let no man in his anguish call,
When he sore-smitten by ill-chance shall fall.
Uttering with groan and moan,
" O mighty Justice, 0 Erinnyes' throne! "
So may a father or a mother wail,
Struck by new woe, and tell their sorrow's tale;
For low on earth doth lie
The home where Justice once her dwelling had on higk
AJ.TISTBOPH. EC.
Yea, there are times when reverent Awe should stay
As guardian of the soul ;
It profits much to learn through suffering
The bliss of self-control.
EUMENIDES. J77
Who that within the heart's full daylight bean
No touch of holy awe,
Be it or man or State that casts out fear,
Will still own reverence for the might of law P
STROPH. IIL
Nor life that will no sovran rule obey,
Nor one down-crushed beneath a despot's sway,
Shalt thou approve ;
God still gives power and strength for victory
To all that in the golden mean doth lie.
All else, as they in diverse order move,
He scans with watchful eye.
With this I speak a word in harmony,
That of irreverence still
Outrage is offspring ill,
While from the soul's true health
Comes the much-loved, much-prayed-for joy and wealth.
AjrnsraopH, UL
Yes, this I bid thee know ;
Bow thou before the altar of the Eight,
And let no wandering glance
That looks at gain askance
Lead thee with godless foot to scorn or slight.
Know well the appointed penalty shall come ;
The doom remaineth sure and will at last strike home.
Wherefore let each man pay the reverence due
To those who call him son ;
By each to thronging guests let honour true
In loyal faith be done.
STBOPH. IV.
But one who with no pressure of constraint
Of his free will draws back from evil taint,
He shall not be unblest,
Nor ever sink by utter woe oppressed.
But this I still aver,
That he whose daring leads him to transgrew,
37* APPENDIX.
The chaos wild of evil deeds to stir,
In sharp and sore distress,
Against his will will slacken sail ere long,
When, as his timbers crash before the blast,
He feels the tempest strong.
ANTISTBOPH IV.
Then in the midst of peril he at last
Shall call on those who then will hear him not,
Yea, God still laughs to scorn
The man by evil tide of passions borne,
Swayed by thoughts wild and hot,
When he beholdeth one whose boast was high
He ne'er should know it, sunk in misery,
And all unable round the point to steer ;
And so his former pride of prosperous days
He wrecks upon the reefs of Vorgeance drear,
And dies with none to weep him or to praise.
THE END.
MSB LIBREFV
04141
A"" ""• 'I'll Illll III
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