es atbiarteras he Ley ‘ ri aed onda Wee . WW Hey eeeenthe tt errs So fs Leech Dest kt sie Cera ae ti ae yey tal i ap art fi Bunions Sach te ! hae oat Deed prunes eet 4 (ease! a i NP a Aah Mais ee a erate dit, eon Pilea am und LOY hand eye Soya a Ss ae at ee aera isal aoe ievervocenpascineute sect tate peg ee a CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE ANNA S. GURLEY MEMORIAL BOOK FUND FOR THE PURCHASE OF BOOKS IN THE FIELD OF THE DRAMA THE GIFT OF Witui1aM F. E. Gurtey CLASS OF 1877 a) THE TRAGEDIES OF ASCHYLOS AESCHYLOS A New Translatton, WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY, AND AN APPENDIX OF RHYMED CHORAL ODES By E. H. PLUMPTRE, pb.p. “PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON ; VICAR OF BICKLEY 3 PREBENDARY OF ST, PAUL'S f NEW YORK GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, Limited IIg AND 121 WEST 23RD ST. THE MOST REVEREND RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D., ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. Deak friend, of old true guide of pilgrims known, Leading their steps where Wisdom’s fair pearls lie 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 so ’mid storms and fears thy Master’s hest fulfil. PREFACE. I wave 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 Aischylos, 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 Hischylos 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 their 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, ix the reading or the rendering is more 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. Nore to tHe Seconp Enirion.—The whole work has been subjected to revision. Additional notes have been added where they seemed necessary. I hava thought it best to arrange the plays in their ebrono- logical order. : CONTENTS. vaAGe LIFR OF MSCHYLOS » © © © © ce ec « &ili THE PERSIANS . ° . . . . ° . . 1 FHE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THEBES « . «+ 495 PROMETHEUS BOUND gh iar ogee ey Gt “oro 7S 789 THE SUPPLIANTS ° . e . e ° ° . 133, AGAMEMNON . < ae St) te. OT OHOEPHORI, OR THE LIBATION-POURERS ° ° . 247 EUMENIDES . . . . . . ° . « 203 FRAGMENTS . . . . . °« e e e 337 APPENDIX OF RHYMED OHORUSES ° . e o 346 LIFE OF ASCHYLOS. Tux materials for a life of Aischylos 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,’ a 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.? 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 show what the man himself was, to illustrate them from the poet’s own works, to throw light on them from the history of the period in which he lived, The birth of Adschylos® 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 M8. 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 tha’ the later. Even Germany supplies but two monographs, De Vita Afschyli, one by Dahm, the other by Petersen, and these are meagre and unin- teresting as compared with those by Lessing and Schill ‘on the life of Sophocles. - : 24 (3) The name, a diminutive of aioyoec, and so meaning “little and ugly,” is of an unusual type, and might almost seem to imply some per- sonal deformity in the child to whom it was given. May we connect this wath the passionate, irascible temper by which the poet was charac- terised « xiv LIFE OF ASCHYLOS. mous biographer, at B.o. 525. Both his parentage and his place of birth may be thought of as having influenced 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 tl.cough 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 nouveauz 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,’ (Humen. 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 same 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, (Ayam. v. 748,) while he maintains that there is no inevitable connexion between greatr .< and the fall that so often follows on it, that there are families in which prosperity and honour pass on generation to generation, (Agam. v. 786.) Nor can the fact that he was born at Elew (1) One may note the parallelism of Dante’s vehe: . la sents ia ioe bestie Fiesolane,” that had been, ee rence from neighbouring cities, or made thei quadag ni.” —Infern. xy. 62, xvi. 73. a eS ET LIFE OF ZSCHYLOS. xv 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,)' 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 eharacter of the symbols and the stimulus they sup- plied to a prurient imagination. Others have found ia 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 sub fudice. 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 never been inie “« {(ja¥ed. On the other, we have the fact that Aristophanes, in the Frogs, (v. 886,) represents him as invoking Deméter, } “‘ Who hast trained my soul To meetness for thy holy mysteries.” The iatter testimony, as being nearly contemporary, seems to have greatest weigiit. Aristotle, however, in referring to the case as illustrating his dac#? "Ye of sins of ignorance, (Zth. Nicom. iii. 2,) may be thrown into the other zcale, as corroborating the tradition given by Clement. (2) Warburton, in his Divine Legation of Moses, has brought together most,of the ancient authorities on the subject. Lobeck, in a treatise beariagy the title of Aglaophanus, has treated the question with a more jexhaimtive scholarship. St. Croix’s Recherches sur lee Mystéres du Puganisme “imay also be consult xvi LIFE OF ZSCHYLOS. 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 Aischylos. 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, thoy may have had areligious meaning at first, which afterwards degenerated into a mere conventional mystery, and a fantastic triviality which @ later age strove in vain to re-clothe with a religious significance. The language in which Sophocles and Pindar speak of them! 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 Aischylos 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 ey who having seen these rites Then pass to Hades: there to these alone Is granted life; all others evil find.” Pindar, Thren. Fragm. 8— “ Blessed is he who having looked on them, Passes below the hollow earth, for he Knows life’s true end, and Zeus-given soy’ reignty.” LIFE OF ASCHYLOS. xvit The education of Aischylos 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 Aischylos himself. It would want also the poetry of Pindar,’ 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. Aischylos himself spoke of his tragedies as being but ‘made-up dishes” (renaxf) from the great Homeric banquet, (Athen. 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, ter years before the birth of Aischylos, to give a new character to the festival of the Dionysia. Concurrently with the influence of the heroic, there must also have been 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 w~ve, however, contemporaries of the great @ramatist, and might easil~ erchance his madness may a prophet prove; wr if night fall upon his dying eyes, 1en for the man who bears that boastful sign may right well be all too truly named, « ad his own pride shall prophet be of ill, ad against Tydeus, to defend the gates, 1 set this valiant son of Astacos; able is he, and honouring well the throne ’ Reverence, and hating vaunting speech, ow to all baseness, unattuned to ill: — id of the dragon-race that Ares spared? 2 as a scion grows, @ native true, en Melanippos; Ares soon will test is valour in the hazard of the die: : id kindred Justice sends him forth to war, wr her that bore him foeman’s spear to check, ae eS Srnors. L. Chor. May the Gods grant my champion good success ! ought the shield in relief, not, as here, upon painted insignia, They re obviously common in the time of schylos. 1) The older families of Thebes boasted that they sprung from the sur- ors of the Sparti, who, sprung from the Dragon’s teeth, waged deadly vr against each other, till all but five were slain. The later settlers, who re said to have come with Cadmos, stood to these as the ‘greater " ta \ “lesser gentes”’ at Rome. - 64 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! The Electran gates have fallen to Capaneus, A second giant, taller far than he Just named, with boast above a mortal’s bounds; And dread his threats against our towers (O Fortune, Turn them aside !)—for whether God doth will, Or willeth not, he says that he will sack! 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 bears a torch; and bright the blaze shines forth And in gold characters he speaks the words, ‘Tae ciry I witt Burn.” 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, ‘ Though very bold of speech, a man is set Of fiery temper, Polyphontes strong, A trusty bulwark, by the loving grace Of guardian Artemis? and other Gods. Describe another, placed at other gates. (1) 80 in the Antigone of Sophocles, (v. 134,) Capsneus apears as t] special representative of boastful, reckless impiety. (2) Artemis, as one of the special Deities to whom Thebes w consecrated. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, 65 Antistropx. L, Ohor. A curse on him who ’gainst our city boasts! May thunder smite him down Before he force his way Into my home, and drive Me from my maiden bower with haughty spear! Mess. And now I'll tell of him who by the gates Stands next; for to Eteoclos, as third, To march his cohort to Neistian 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 die; Their whistling nozzles of barbaric mode, Are filled with loud blast of the panting nostrils,? ; In no poor fashion is his shield devised ; = A full-armed warrior climbs a ladder’s raat LAR eS 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 DRIVE 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, #0 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 attacl. of war-chariots. Cae (2) The phrase and Thengat 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. 43,) their noblest “eontribution,” paying in full their subscription to the society of whick they were members. rf 66 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, Srnopx. IL, Chor. Him I wish good success, O 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 ! ne Mess, Another stands as fourth at gates hard by, Onca-Athena’ 8, With a shout of war, omedon’s great form and massive limbs ; ; ommon eee sure was he Who wrought this cunning ensign on his shield Typhon emitting\from his lips hot blast Of darkling smoké, the flickering twin of fire: And round the belly of the hollow shield A rim was made with wreaths of twisted snakes. e And he too shouts his war-cry, and in frenzy, As man possessed by Ares, hastes to battle, Like Thyiad, darting tdrror from his eyes.’ *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 nesthings like a snake Of venom dread; and next rbhios, The stalwart son of GEnops, has been chosen, oe A hero ’gainst this hero, willing found To try his destiny at Fortune’s hest. No fault has he in form, or heart, or arms; And Hermes with good reason pairs them off; Fo. 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 Meenads, the frenzied attendants o1 Dionysos, THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 6F And on Hyperbios’ shicld sits father Zeus, -{ pf Full firm, with burning thunderbolt in hand; paste And never yet has man seen Zeus, I trow, O’ercome. Such then the favour of the Gods, = We with the winners, they with losers are ;# 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, : Anristropa. I. 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. me 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 Cadmeians 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, ee Youth’s growth, and hair that floweth full and thick ; And he with soul, not maiden’s like his name,? /\~ But stern, with flashing eye, is stat y 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, x f t With rivets fixed, all burnished and embossed ; § ae sil (1) Se., in the legends of Typhon, not he, but Zeus, had proved the 7 conqueror. The warrior, therefore, who chose Typhon for his badge waa identifying himself with the losing, not the winning side. (2) The name, as we are toid in v. 542, is Parthenopsos, the maiden-faced. (8) The Sphinx, besides its general character as 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, on Nor shame the long, long journey he hath come, Parthenopzos, 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! Eteoc Should the Gods give them what they plan *gainst us, Then they, with those their godless boastings high, Would perish shamefully and utterly. And 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 ;—Actér, of him om I named but now the brother,—who no tongue Divorced from deeds will ever 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; ut she without shall blame him as he tries To take her in, when she beneath our walls Gets sorely bruised and battered.! And herein, If the Gods will, I prophet true shall prove. Srropa. TL Chor. Thy words thrill through my breast 3 My hair stands all on end, To hear the boastings great Of those who speak great things om Unholy. May the Gods Destroy them in our Jand! Mess. A sixth I tell of, one of noblest mood, Amphiaraos, seer and warrior famed ; He, stationed at the Homoldian gates, had, of course, aspecial meaning as directed to the Thebans. The warrior who bore it th eatened to renew the old days when the monster whom C&dipus had overcome had laid waste their city. (1) Sc., 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 ths warrior who bears it. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, 69 Reproves the mighty Tydeus with sharp words As ‘murderer,’ and ‘ troubler of the State,! ‘To Argos teacher of all direst ills, ‘ Erinnys’ sumpnour,’? ‘ 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,? 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 ?P4 ee And how, when conquered, shall thy fatherland, Laid waste, become a true ally to thee? As for myself, I shall that land make rich,® A prophet buried in a foeman’s soil: To arms! I look for no inglorious death.” So spake the prophet, bearing full-orbed shield sb. . Wrought all of bronze, no ensign on that orb. ° at He wishes to be just, and not fo seem,® {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 use 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. (8) 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 deatht Another rendering gives, * And how shall Justice quench a mother’s life?” the “mother” being the country against which Polyneikes wars. (8) The words had a twofold fulfilment, (1) in the burial of Amphiaraos, in the Theban soil; and (2) in the honour which accrued to Thebes after his death, through the fame of the oracle at his shrine. (6) The passage cannot be passed over without ncticing the old tradi- tion, (Plutarch, Aristeid.c. 3,) that when the actor uttered these words, he 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. “Best,” instead of ‘ just,’’ is, however, a very old various reading. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, ping full harvest from his soul’s deep furrows, sce ever new and noble counsels spring. om d thee send defenders wise and brave inst him. Dread is he who fears the Gods. teoc. Fie on the chance that brings the righteous man ie-mated with the ungodly! In all deeds ight is there worse than evil fellowship, ‘op men should not reap. Death still is found harvest of the field of frenzied pride ; either hath the godly man embarked h sailors hot in insolence and guile,! . perished with the race the Gods did loathe; ent ust himself, with citizens who wrong stranger and are heedless of the Gods, ing most justly in the self-same snure, tod’s scourge smitten, shares the common doom. . thus this seer I speak of, Gicleus’ son, ateous, and wise, and good, and reverent, ighty prophet, mingling with the godless d men full bold of speech in reason’s spite, » take long march to reach a far-off city,? eus so will, shall be hurled down with them. 0 .he, I trow, shall not draw nigh the gates, through faint-heart or any vice of mood, well he knows this war shall bring his death, ay fruit is found in Loxias’ words; He or holds his speech or speaks in season, against him the hero Lasthenes, e of strangers, at the gates we’ll set; is his mind, his body in its prime, eye swift-footed, and his hand not slow ‘rasp the spear from ’neath the shield laid bare:3 &% *tis by God’s gift men must win success. Ifthe former reference to Aristeides be admitted, we can scarcel secing in this passage an allusion to Themistocles, as one wit. > reckless and democratic policy it was dangerous for the more con- tive lender to associate himself. The far-off city, not of Thebes, but Hades. In the legend of Thebes, wth opened and swallowed up Amphiaraos, as in 583. The short spear was usually carried under the shelter of the shield; brought into action, it was, of course, laid bare. \ THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 7 Anristropn. IT. Chor. Hear, O ye Gods! our prayers, 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 oa That he the towers ascending, and proclaimed By herald’s voice to all the territory, And shouting out the captor’s pwan-cry, May so fight 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 he, and bids his father’s Gods, His country’s guardians, look upon his prayers, [And grant them all. So Polyneikes prays.] dhe a new and well-wrought shield dotn | vay, tices “ Vor three WORT WHE & SUaTely treed fr? Leads ore who seems a warrior wrought in gold: ustice § ; oaks. ff Lwin BRIne- pace 2038-440" AND HE SHALL HAVE Caen ae sen 5 A 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! om O woe-fraught race (my race !) of Cidipus! Ah mo! zay futher’s curse is now fulfilled; 0 But neither is it meet to weep or wail, Lest cry more grievous on the issue come. Of Polyneikes, name and omen true, 72 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. An 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 when 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 IP ou er with brother fighting, king with king, Ae ee et eae rntaete ata My greaves that guard against the spear and stones. _ Chor. Nay, dearest friend, thou son of CHdipus, Be ye not like to him with that ill name. Tt 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 ev 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. o~ —_—_ —— THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, 73 Eteoc. Nay, my dear father’s curse, in full-grown hate, Dwells on dry eyes that cannot shed a tear, And speaks of gain before the after-doom. Chor. But be not thou urged on. The coward’s name Shall not be thine, for thou Hast ordered well thy life. Dark-robed Erinnys enters not the house, When 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 ;* 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. Eteov. Yea, fierce and hot the Curse of Cidipus; 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 P Eteoc. If the Gods grant it, he shall not ’scape harm. [Z2eunt ErEoctEs, Scout, and Captains. vir ! | Srropa. L, aX Chor. I fear her might who doth this whole house wreck, {3 Perhaps “since death is nigh at hand.” 2) The Chorus means that if Kteocles would allow himself to be over- come in this contest of his wishes with their prayers, the Gods would hononr that defeat as if it were indeed a victory. He makes answer oo the very thought of being overcome implied in the word ‘“‘ defeat” g is one which the true warrior cannot bear. } THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. The Goddess unlike Gods, The prophetess of evil all too true, The Erinnys of thy father’s imprecations, Lest she fulfil the curse, O’er-wrathful, frenzy-fraught, The curse of Cdipus, Laying his children low. This Strife doth urge them on, Antisraoru. I, And now a stranger doth divide the lots, The Chalyb,! from the Skythians emigrant, The stern distributor of heaped-up wealth, The iron that hath assigned them just so much Of land as theirs, nv more, As may suffice for them As grave when they shall fall, Without or part or lot In the broad-spreading plains. Srropu. I, 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 ean purify ? Who cleanse them from the guiltP Ab me! O sorrows new, That mingle with the old woes of our house! Antistropa. IL I tell the ancient tale Of sin that brought swift doom; sa Till the third age 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 name om the Skythian tribe of the Chalybes, between Colchis and Armenia, \d passing through the Thrakians into Greece. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, 75 In Pythia’s central shrine,) That dying childless, he should save the State. Senora, Ti, But he by those he loved full rashly swayed, Doom for himself begat, His murderer Cidipus, . ts Who dared to sow in field Unholy, whence he sprang, A root of blood-flecked woe. Madness together brought Bridegroom and bride accursed. Ayrtistropa. IIL. And now the sea of evils pours its flood: This falling, others rise, As with a triple crest, Which round the State’s stern roars: And but a bulwark slight, A tower’s poor breadth, defends: ™ And lest the city fall With its two kings I fear. Srropa. IV. *And that atonement of the ancient curse Receives fulfilment now ; *And- when they come, the evils pass not by. B’en so the wealth of sea-adventurers, When heaped up in excess, Leads but to cargo from the stern thrown out.? Antistropu. 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. é (2) The 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 put with them leads, when the storm rages, to an enforced abandonment and - utter loss. . F 7 (3) Another reading gives — 7 * And race of those who crowd the Agora.” * 710 76 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. As much as then they honoured CMdipus, Who from our country’s bounds Had driven the monster, murderess of men P Srropu. V. And when too late he knew, Ah, miserable man! his wedlock dire, Vexed sore with that dread share, With heart to madness driven, He wrought a two-fold ill, And with the hand that smote his father’s life me *Blinded the eyes that might his sons have seen. AnTIsTROPH. 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. . fy LH Enter Messenger. Mess. Be of good cheer, ye maidens, mother-reared ; Our city has escaped the yoke of bondage, 1” 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 GSdipus had launched upon his sons. An alternative rendering is— And with a mind enraged At thought of what they were whom he had reared, He at his sons did hurl His curses dire and dark. (2) Sc., when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gate, and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebans. THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, 7i Seventh mighty chief, avenging Laios’ want O* counsel on the sons of Cidipus. Chor. What new disaster happens to our city P? on Mess. 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 (idipus,.... Chor. Oh wretched me! a prophet I of ill! 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? Mess. No doubt is there that they are laid in dust. Chor. Thus was there then a common fate for both P Mess. *Yea, it lays low the whole ill-fated race. Chor. These things give cause for gladness and for tears, m8) Seeing that our city prospers, and our lords, The generals twain, with well-wrought Skythian steel, Have shared between them all 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.] +7, 2 Chor. Great Zeus! and ye, O Gods! A Guardians of this our town, Who save in very deed The towers of Cadmos old, m= Shall I rejoice and shout Over the happy chance That frees our State from harm 3 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 ermann. Hi (2) There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are ‘‘ borne on,” bié it is as the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre, 8 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Srrorx. Ob dark, and all too true That curse of Cidipus and all his race,* An evil chill is falling on my heart, on 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! TJll-omened is the spear’s accord.? ANTISTROPH. It 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; [he oracles have not yet lost their edge ; Ae 9 men of many sorrows, ye have wrought This deed incredible ; Not now in word come woes most lamentable. [As the Chorus are speaking, the bodies of EVYEOCLES and POLYNEIKES are brought in solemn procession by Theban Citizens. Epopr. Yea, it is all too clear, [he herald’s tale of woe comes full in sight; [wofold 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 F But oh! my friends, ply, ply with swift, strong gale, Chat even stroke of hands upon your head,’ oe (1) Not here the curse uttered by Gidipus, but that which rested on xim and allhis kin, There is possibly an allusion to the curse which Pelops is said to have uttered against Laios when he stole his son Chry- ‘ippos. Comp. v. 837. (2) Asin v. 763, we read of the brothers as made one in death, 80 now a ane eoncord which is wrought out by contlict, the concord, i.e., of the ma) "The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pasa 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, On to the shore unseen, The restii.g-place of all. [IsmEne and ANTIGONE are seen approaching in mourns ing garments, followed by a procession of women watl- tng 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 Peean of distress. O ye, most evil-fated in your kin, Of all who gird their robes with maiden’s band, I weep and wail, and feigning know I none, That I should fail to speak My sorrow from my heart. Stnopa. L de Semi-Chor. A. Alas! alas! Men of stern mood, who would not list to friends, Unwearied in all ills, e70 from the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of mourners at a funeral, beating 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 theoris or pilgrim-ship, which went with snow-white sails, and accompanied by joyful pseans, on a solemn mission from Athens to Delos. In contrast with this type of joy, 4schylos draws the picture of the boat of Charon, which passes over the loomy pool accompanied by the sighs and gestures of bitter lamentation. Bo, in the old Attic legend, the ship that annually carried seven youths a maidens to the Min¢taur of Crete was conspicuous tor its black sails. ho THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Jaizing your father’s house, O wretched ones With the spear’s murderous point. Semi-Chor. B. Yea, wretched they who found a wretched doom, With havoc of the house. Antistrora. L Semi-Chor. A. Alas! alas! Le 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. Semi-Chor. B. Yea, of a truth, the curse of dipus * Erinnys dread fulfils. Sreora. I. Semi-Chor. A. Yea, smitten through the heart, Jmitten through sides where flowed the blood of. brothers. Ah me! ye doomed of God! Ah me! the turses dire )f deaths ye met with each at other’s 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, om And doom of discord fell, Chat sprang from out the curse their father spake, Antistropa. IL. Semi-Chor. A. Yea, through the city runs \ 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 Che 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. 81 Their umpire without blame ; = Nor is our voice in thanks to Ares raised. Stropa. IL 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 P 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 v0) From heart that faileth, even as they fall, For these two kingly chiefs. Anrtistropa. IT, Semi-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 twa, *Bove all of women born Who boast a mother’s name | a 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. Srroru. IV, Semi-Chor. A. Yes; of the same womb born, and dooméd both, * Not as friends part, they fell, In strife to madness pushed In this their quarrel’s end. @ 2 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Semi-Chor. B. The quarrel now is hushed, (nd in the ensanguined earth their livesareblent; Full near in blood are they. Stern umpire of their strifes Las been the stranger from beyond the sea,’ 7resh from the furnace, keen and sharpened steel. Stern, too, is Ares found, Distributing their goods, faking their father’s curses all too true. Antistropu. IV. Semi-Chor. A. At last they have their share, ah, “wretched ones ! Of burdens sent from God. eee 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! Over the end at last The brood of Curses raise Cheir shrill, sharp cry of lamentation loud, The race being put to flight of utmost rout, And Até’s trophy stands, Where in the gates they fell; And Fate, now both are conquered, rests at last. one Enter ANTIGONE and IsMENE, followed by 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 rom the Skythians. Comp. vv. 70, 86. 2) The lyrical, operatic character of Greek tragedies has to be borne in nind as we read passages like that which follows. They were not meant o be read. Uttered in a passionate recitative, accompanied by expres- ive action, they probably formed a very effective element in the actual ‘epresentation of the tragedy. We may look on it as the only extant pecimen of the kind of wailing which was characteristic of Eastern yorials, and which was slowly passing away in Greece under the influence fa higher culture. The early fondness of Aschylos for a finale of this ature is seen also in The Persians, 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 |! Ism. Oh, the woe of all ye suffered ! Ant. Pour the cry of lamentation. Ism. Pour the tears of bitter weeping. Ant. There in death thou liest prostrate, Ism. Having wrought a great destruction. Srropa. Ant. Ah! my mind is crazed with wailing. me Ism. Yea, my heart within me groaneth. Ant. Thou for whom the city weepeth ! Ism. Thou too, doomed to all ill-fortune ! Ant. By a loved hand thou hast perished. Ism, And a loved form thou hast slaughtered. Ant. Double woes are ours to tell of. Isin. Double woes too ours to look on. Ant. * Twofold sorrows from near kindred, Ism, * Sisters we by brothers standing. Ant. Terrible are they to tell of. ve Iam. Terrible are they to look on. Chor. Ah me, thou Destiny, Giver of evil gifts, and working woe, And thou dread spectral form of CHdipus, And swarth Erinnys too, A mighty one art thou. ANTISTROPH. 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. me Ant. Yea, I trow too well, he perished. Ism. And his brother, too, he murdered. Ant. ‘Woeful, piteous, are those brothers ! form, in the Eumenides. The feeling that there was something barbario in these outward displays of grief, showed itself alike in the legislation o1 Solon, and the eloquence of Pericles. Bq THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, Ism. Woeful, piteous, all they suffered ! Amt. Woes of kindred wrath enkindling! Jem. Saturate with threefold horrors! Ant. Terrible are they to tell of. Ism. Terrible are they to look on. Chor. Ab me, thou Destiny, Giver of evil gifts, and stern of soul, And thou dread spectral form of Cdipus, - And swarth Erinnys too, A mighty one art thou. Epopg. Ant. Thou, then, by full trial knowest . ee Lem. Thou, too, no whit later learning. . « e Ant. When thou cam’st back to this city.’ . « e Ism. Rival to our chief in warfare. Ant. Woe, alas! for all our troubles! Ism. Woe, alas! for all our evils! Ant, Fvils fallen on our houses! Ism. Evils fallen on our country! Ant. And on me before all others. . . Jem. And to me the future waiting. ... Looe Ant. Woe for those two brothers luckless ! Iam. King Eteocles, our leader ! Ant. Oh, before all others wretched! Ism. . 7 ‘ . ‘i Ant. Ah, by Até frenzy-stricken ! Jem. Ah, where now shall they be buried P Ant. There where grave is highest honour, Ism. Ah, the woe my father wedded! 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, an1s (1) Here, and perhaps throughout, we must think of Antigone as addressing and looking on the corpse of Polyneikes, Ismene on that of 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 3 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 ;} and he, though dead, shall gain The curse of all his father’s Gods, whom he [Pointing to POLYNEIKES. 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 powors decree. Ant. And I those rulers of Cadmeians tell,* eee 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 1s 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 rayening maw, (1) Perhaps— 2 “ Unless some God had stood against the spear This chief did wield.” (2) The speech of Antigone becomes the starting-point, in the hands of Sophocles, of the noblest of his tragedies. The denial of burial, it will be remembered, was looked on as not merely an indignity and outrage pgatnst the feelings of the living, but as depriving the souls of the dead = ab rest and peace. As such it was the punishment of parricides and 8. 86 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. Shall tear his flesh—No! no! let none think that! _ For tomb and burial I will scheme for him, yous 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% 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 Erinnyes, smiting The sons of Cidipus, ye slew them, With a root-and-branch destruction, 1960 What shall I then do, what suffer P 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 about to show. The herald catches up her. words and takes them in another sense, as though all the honour he had met witb from the Gods had been defeat, and death, and shame, as the reward _ ef 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, 10m Maidens we in sad procession ; For the woe to all is common, And our State with voice uncertain, Of the claims of Right 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 Right and Justice ;! For next those the Blessed Rulers, 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. athe The words are probably a protest against the ch: bleness of Athenian demos, a6 seen expecially in their treatment of teides. PROMETHEUS BOUND, ARGUMENT. In the old time, when Cronos was sovereign of the Gods, Zeus, N whom he had begotten, rose wp against him, and the Gods weve divided in their counsels, some, the Titans chiefly, siding with the father, and some with the 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 then 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 Hephestos and was used only for the Gods, and gave tt to mankind, and taught them many arts whereby their wretchedness was lessened. But Zeus being wroth with Pro- metheus for this deed, sent Hephestos, 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 Io, the 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, sending to the God at Delphi, was told to drive Io 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 hera 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 Prometheus Unbound. Brandis Persome, PROMETHEUS. OKEANOS. HEPHZSTOS, HERMES. STRENGTH. Force. Chorus of Ocean Nymphs. PROMETHEUS. BOUND. SCENE. ee, on the jiaiiits of Caucasos. The Eumine seen in the distance. Enter HEPHASTOS, STRENGTH; and Force, leading PROMETHEUS in chains.) Strength. Lo! to a plain, earth’s boundary remote, We now are come,—the tract as Skythian known, A desert inaccessible: and now, ; Hephestos, it is thine to do the hests The Father gave thee, to these lofty crags To bind this crafty trickster fast in chains Of adamantine. bonds that none can break ; For he thy choice flower stealing, the bright glory Of fire that all arts spring from, hath bestowed it On mortal men. And so for fault like this He now must pay the Gods due penalty, That he may learn to bear the sovereign rule __ - Of Zeus, and cease from his philanthropy. - Heph. O Strength, and thou, O Force, the hest of Zeus, As far as touches you, attains its end, 2 And nothing hinders. Yet my courage fails wi (1) The scene seems at first an exception to the early conventional rule, which forbade the introduction of a third actor on the Greck stage. Bub it has been noticed that (1) Force 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 figure or effigy of some kind, and that one of the two who had before taken part in the diwlogue then speaks behind it in the character of Prometheus. Se me same actor must have appeared in succession as Okeanos, Io, and ermes. 94 PROMETHEUS BOUND. To bind a God of mine own kin by force To this bare rock where tempests wildly sweep 3 And yet I needs must muster courage for it: *Tis no slight thing the Father’s words to scorn. O thou of Themis [to PROMETHEUS] wise in counsel son, Full deep of purpose, lo! against my will,? I fetter thee against thy will with bonds Of bronze that none can loose, to this lone height, 3 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 shull 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 gayv’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 ? is ever stern of mood. Strength. 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 P Heph. Strange is the power of kin and intercourse. | (1) Prometheus (Forethought) ia the son of Themis (Right) the seco! occupant of the Pythian Oracle (Eumen. v.2.) His : ir with eae 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 hom this fire had been stolen, has a touch of pity for him. Strength, who comes as the servant ae or este ie ae bimsel acts, as such, with merciless cruelty. e generalised statement refers to Z i r e led oo from his throne in Heaven. enagee Seas Eade Teeny 3) Hepheestos, as the great fire-worker, had taught P- the fire which he afterwards bestowed on men. = SOUiGSEAE 30am PROMETHEUS BOUND. 95 Strength. I own it; yot 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! uf 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. *All things bring toil except for Gods to reign ;! For none but Zeus can boast of freedom true. * 80 Heph. Too well I see the proof, and gainsay not. Strength. Wilt thou not speed to fix the chains on him, Lest He, the Father, see thee loitering here ? Heph. 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 he 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 Right through his chest with all the strength thou hast. Heph. Ah me! Prometheus, for thy woes I groan. Strength. Again, thou’rt lotb, and for the foes of Zeus Thou zroanest: take good heed to it lest thou irre long with cause thyself commiserate. Heph. Thou see’st a sight unsightly to our eyes. '1) Perhaps, “ 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 thou below and rivet both his legs.? 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.? Strength. Choose thou the melting mood; but chide not me For my self-will and wrath and ruthlessness. ad 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. [£xeunt HEPHzSTOS, STRENGTH, and ForcE, leaving PROMETHEUS on the rock. Prom. Thou firmament of God, and swift-winged winds, Ye springs of rivers, and of ocean waves That smile innumerous! Mother of usall, $ 90 O Earth, and Sun’s all-seeing eye, behold, I 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, Zéschylos relied on the horriblencss of the masks, as part of the machinery ot his plays. (3) The silence of Prometheus up to this point was partly, us has been said, consequent on the conventional laws of the Greek drama, but it is also a touch of supreme insight into the hervic temper. In the nresence ot his torturers, the Titan will not utter even a groan. When they are gone, he appeals to the sympathy of Nature. plo Seen PROMETHEUS BOUND. 9? Behcld in what foul case I for ten thousand years Shall struggle in my woe, In these unseemly chains. Such doom tle 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. Lad What say 1? 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 m‘ght 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 inade In these fast fetters; yea, in fennel stalk! I snatched the hidden spring of stolen fire, Which is to men a teacher of all arts, ae 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 9 Is it of God or man, or blending both ? And has one come to this remotest rock To look upon my woes’ Or what wills he? (1) The legend is from Hesiod, (Theogon. v. 567.) The fennel, or narthez, seems to have been a large umbelliferous piant, with a large stem filled with a soit of pith, which was used when dry as tinder. Stalks were car- ried as wands (the thy si) by the men and women who joined in Baccha- nalian processions. In modein botany, the name is given to the plant which produces Asafcetida, and the stem of which, from its resinous character, would burn fieely. and so conncct itself with the Promethean myth.’ On the other hand, the Narthex Asafcetida is found at present only in Persia, Affghanistan, and the Punjaub. (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 purt of the “stage sects” of the play. ; & 08 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Behold me bound, a God to evil doomed, The foe of Zeus, and held In hatred by all Gods was 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 P With the light whirr of wings The air re-echoeth: All that draws nigh to me is cause of fear.* Enter Chorus of Ocean Nymphs, with wings, floating in the air.” Chor. Nay, fear thou nought: in love All our array of wings In eager race hath come 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 shamefast modesty, And I in unshod haste, on winged car, To thee rushed hitherward. Prom. Ah me! ah me! Offspring of Tethys blest with many a child, bad Daughters of Old Okeanos that rolls Round 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 vague terror only. The sufferer knows that his tormentor is to come to him before long on wings, and therefore the sound as of the flight of birds is full of terrors. (2) By some stage mechanism the Chorus remains in the air till verse 280, when, at the request of Prometheus, they alight. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 99 Of fear and full of tears comes o’er mine eyes, Thy frame beholding thus, Writhing on these high rocks ad In adamantine ills. New pilots now o’er high Olympos rule, 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, ‘neath Hades too, Home of the dead, far down to Tartaros 1s 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 wretclied plaything of the winds, T 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. (1; Here, as throughout the play, the poet puts into the mouth of his dramatis persone words which must have seemed to the devouter Athee nians sacrilegious enough to call for an indictment before the Areiopagos, But the final play of the Trilogy came, we may believe, as the Eumenides did in its turn, as a reconciliation of the conflicting thoughts that rise in men’s minds out of the seeming anomalies of the world. too 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 bonds, 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 Right supremely to himself; But then, I trow, He’ll be Full pliant in his will, When He 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: 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: f PROMETHEUS BOUND. tor Then I, full strongly seeking to persuade The Titans, yea, the sons of Heaven and Harth, Failed of my purpose. Scorning subtle arts, With counsels violent, they thought that they By force would gain 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, eS 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 wiil 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 om 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 ident'fled wi'h Earth, or, as in the Zumenides, (v. 2,) ae ees from her. The ‘lita s as a class, then, children of Oleanos a ‘hthén, (another name for Land or Earth,) are the kindred rather than the brothers of Prometheus. (2) The generalising words here, as in v. 35, appeal to the Atheniin hatred of all that was represented by the words tyrant and tyranny. “#02 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 moved, Prometheus, by thy woes: Fain could I wish I ne’er had seen such things, And, seeing them, am wounded to the heart. Prom. Yea, I am piteous for my friends to see. Chor. Did’st thou not go to farther lengths than this P Prom. I made men cease from contemplating death.! 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, yesI. * Chor. Do short-lived men the flaming fire possess ? Prom. Yea, and full 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? ' 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. we 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 Was all well known. Yea, willing, willingly (1) The state described is that of men who “through fear of death are ala their lifetime subject to bondage.” ‘J hat state, the parent of all superstition, fostered th slavish awe in which Z us delighted. Prome- thous, representing the active intellect of man, bestows new powers, new terests, new hopes, which at last divert them from that fear. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 303 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 neighbourless. Wherefore wail not for these my present woes, But, drawing nigh, 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 ons, 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 ether, path of birds of heaven, sas I will draw near this rough and rocky land, For much do I desire To hear this tale, full measure, of thy woes. Enter OKEANOS, ona car drawn by a winged gryphon. Okean. Lo, I come to thee, Prometheus, Reaching goal of distant journey,! Guiding this my winged courser By my will, without a bridle; 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. Tet be. What bootsitr Thou then too art come (1) The home of Okeanos was in the far west, at the boundary f the great stream surrounding the whole world, from which he toox his’ Dame. 104 PROMETHEUS BOUND. To gaze upon my sufferings. How did’st dare Leaving the stream that bears thy 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 to 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. i, Know thou thyself? and fit thy soul to moods pe nee anew. ew king tks Gods have now; ut if thowutter words thus rough and sharp, Porchance, though sitting far away on high, bei 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-thon, if thow-wilttuke meas thy teachey, ssi LY Wiltnot kick out against.the pricks;* 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 P Prom. I envy thee, seeing thou art free from blame Though thou shared’st all, and in my cause wast bold; ® ac (1) One of the siyings of the Seven Sages, already recopni: and quoted as a familiar proverb. sane ” ii (2) See note on Agam. 1602. e _(8) Inthe mythos, Okcanos had given his daughter Hesione in mar- nage to Pro etheus after th» theft of fire, and thus had identified himself w.th his transgression. PROMETHEUS BOUND. Tog Nay, let me be, nor trouble thou thyself; a 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 own. T'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. Prom. I thank thee much, yea, ne’er will cease to thank ; For thou no whit of zeal dost lack ; yet take, I pray, no trowble for me; all in vain Thy trouble, nothing helping, e’en if thou a 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,' 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,” who arose (1) In the Theogony of Hesiod, (vy. 509,) Prometheus and Atlis appear aa the sons of two sisters. As other Titans were thought of as buried under volcanoes, so thi, one was identified with the mountain which had been scen by traveller: to Wes‘ern Africa, or in the seas beyond it, rising like a column to support the vault o. heaven. In Herodotos (iv 174) and all la er writers, the name is given to the chain vf mountains in Lybia, as being the “ pillar of the firmanent;’’? but Humboldt and others identify it. with the lonely peak of ‘leneri.e, as seen by Phvenikian or Hellenic voyagers. Teneriffe, too, like most of the other 'litan mountains, was at one time volcanic. Homer (Odyss. i. 53) 1.epresents him as holding the pillars which separate hea,cn trom eurth; Hesiod (Theogon. v. 517) as himself standing near the Hesperides, (this too points t. Teneriffe) sus- tairing th. heavens with his head and shoulders. aes (2) Th> volcanic characier of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability to earthquakes which has niarked nearly every period ot its history, led ten to connect it also with the traditions o. the Titans, some accordingly 106 PROMETHEUS BOUND. ’Gainst all the Gods, with sharp and dreadful jaws Hissing out slaughter, and from out his eyes There flashed the terrible brightness as of one Who would lay low the sovereignty of Zeus. But the unsleeping dart of Zeus came on him, Down-swooping thunderbolt that breathes out flame, Which from his lofty boastings 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, fast pressed beneath the root Of ancient Aitna, where on highest peak Hephestos sits and smites his iron red-hot, From whence hereafter streams of fire shall burst,! 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. ™ 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.? 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. Okeun. But in due forethought with bold daring blent, What mischief see’st thou lurking? Tell methis: ™ Prom. Toil bootless, and simplicity full fond. placing be home of Typhen in Phrygia, some near Sardis, some, as here, in Kihkia. Hesiod (7heogon. v. 820) describes Typhon (or Typhoeus) 1a a serpent-monster hissing out fire; Pinda (Pyth. i. 30, viii. 21) as lying with his head and breast crushe bexeath the weight of tna, and his feet uxtending to Cumee. (1) The words point pr. bably to an eruption, then fresh in’ men’s memorie-, which tad huppened B.c. 476. (2) By some editors this speech from ‘“ No, not so,” tu “th uknovw' ct how,” is assigned to Okeanos. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 10? Okean. Let me, I pray, that sickness suffer, since 'Tis best being wise to have not wisdom’s show. Prom. Nay, but this error shall be deemed as mine. Okean. Thy word then clearly sends me 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 Hho hast. Okean. Thou urgest me who am in act to haste; For this my bird four-footed flaps with wings The clear path of ihe ether; and full fain Would he bend knee in his own stall at home. [Eait. Srzoru. 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; ac ' 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. Antiataopa. 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 Ss Of holy Asia as their land of sojourn, They grieve in sympathy For thy woes lamentable. Srroru. I. And they, the maiden band who find their home On distant Colchian coasts, 108 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Fearless of fight, ¢ Or Skythian horde in earth’s remotest clime, By far Mzotic lake ; * Antisrropa. IL. *And warlike glory of Arabia’s tribes,* Who nigh to Caucasos In rock-fort dweil, An army fearful, with sharp-pointed spear Raging in war’s array. Sreora. I. 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. AytistropH. II. And lo! the ocean billows murmur loud “ss In one accord with him ; 4 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 b2lieved to have come through Thiaké fro n the Tauric Chersones 1s, and had left traces of their name and habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus. (2) Beyond the plains of Skythia, and the lake Meeotis (the sea of Azov) oe ee be the great river Okeanos, which was belie ed to flow round the earth. (3) Sarmatia has been conjecture] instead of Arabia. No Greek author sanct ons the extensinn of th: latter name to so remote a region as thit noi th of the Caspian. (4) The Greek leaves the ob‘cct of the sympathy undefined, but it secms better to refer it to .hat which Atlas receives from the waste of waters around, and the dark world beneath, than to the pity shown ta Prometheus. This had already been dwelt on in line 421, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 10g Gave these young Gods in fulness all their gifts P But these I speak not of; for I should tell To you that know them. But those woes of men,! baa List ye to them,—how they, before as babes, ‘ te 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 whdle len They muddled all at random; did not know Houses of brick that catch the sunlight’s warmth, Nor yet the work of carpentry. They dwelt In hollowed holes, like swarms of tiny ants, In sunless depths of caverns; and they had 4. yw Ni in signs of winter, nor of spring ie ee nor of summer with her fruits ;Y * But without counsel fared their whole life long, { Until I showed the risings of the stars, And settings hard to recognise.” AndI or Found Number for them, chief device of all, ; vw *Groupings of letters, Memory’s handmaid thet, wo And mother of fhe Muses.? And I first od Bound in the yoke wild steeds, submissive mee, | “ye 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 ; 4 Nor was it any one but I that found (1) The passage that follows has for modern paleeontologists the inte- rest of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society, and t.e condition of mankind during what has been called the ‘‘ Stone” period. Comp. Lucretius, v. 955-984, 7 (2) Comp. Mr. Blakes'ey’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, handmatd true And mother of the Muses.” (4) In Greece, as throughout the East, the ox was used for all agricule tural labours, the horse by the noble and the rich, either in war chariota, or stately processions, or in chariot races in the great games, 110 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Sea-crossing, canvas-wingéd cargof ships: &. Such rare designs inventing (wretched me!) For mortal men, I yet have no device By which to free myself from this my woe.? Chor. Foul shame thou sufferest: of thy sense be- reaved, soo 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 thou’lt wonder more, What arts and what resources I devised : 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 gale f drugs they wasted, till I showed to them aime at mild medicaments, 4 0 Wherewith they ward the attacks of sickness copia gh? I gave them many modes of prophecy;* (9 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, _, n 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 v Each with the other, and their layes and friendships A Li And of the inward parts the plumpness smooth, (1) Compare with this the account of the inventions of Palamedes in Sophocles, Fragm. 379. 2) Here we can recognise the knowledge of one who had studied in the schools of Pythagoras, or had at any rate picked up their terminol gy. A more immediate connexion may perhaps be traced with the intluence of Epimenides, who was said to have spent many years in searching out the healing virtu’s of plants, and to have written books about them. (3) The lines that follow form almost a manual of the art of divinatior us then practised. The “ominous sounds” include chance words, stra ge cries, any unexpected utterance that conn: cted itself with men’s feais for the future, The flights of birds were watched by t'e diviner as he faced the north, and sv the region on the right hand was that of {he purre, bebh blessedness ; on the left there were darkness and gloom and death. PROMETHEUS BOUND. al 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: 1% And Tpave eyes to omens drawn from fire, 4 Till then dim-visioned. So far then for this. And ’neath the earth the hidden boons for men, — yw Bronze,iron, silver, gold, who else couldsay |? e That he, ere I did, found them? None, I know, Unless he fain would babble idle words. In one short word, then, learn the truth conde i— arts of mortals from et : Chor. Nay, be 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 fized ; But I, long crushed with twice ten thousand woes me And bitter pains, shall then escape my bonds; Art is far weaker than Necessity. Chor. Who guides the helm, then, of Necessity P Prom. Hates triple-formed, Erinnyes anforgetting. Chor. Is Zeus, then, weaker in his might than esd \b Prom. Not even He can ’scape the thing decreed. Chor. What is decreed for Zeus but still to reign P Prom. Thou may’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 ** 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 paing, Steoru. 1. Chor. Ah! ne’er may Zeus the Lord, Whose sovran sway rules all, His strength in conflict set 112 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Against my feeble will! Nor may I fail to serve The Gods with holy feast Of whole burnt-offerings, 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 ! AwtisTRopH. 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 of heart, Having no fear of Zeus, Tn thine own obstinacy, Dost show for mortal men, Prometheus, love o’ermuch. Srropa. I. 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. Antistropx. I, This lesson haye I learnt }ROMETHEUS BOUND. 48g Beholding thy sad fate, Prometheus! Other strains Come back upon my mind, 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, i) Persuading her with gifts As wife to share thy couch. Enter Io in form like a fair woman with a heifer’s horns, Sollowed 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? For what offence dost thou Bear fatal punishment ? Tell me to what far land I’ve wandered here in woe. Ah me! ah me! Again the gadfly stings me miserable. Spectre of Argos, thou, the earth-born ono— Ah, keep him off, O Earth! I fear to look upon that herdsman dread, 580 Him with ten thousand eyes: Ah lo! he cometh with his crafty look, Whom Earth refuses even dead to hold ;? (1) So To was represented, we are told, by Greek sculptors, (Herod. ii. 41,) as Isis was by those of Egypt. The points of contact between the myth of Io and that bf Prometheus, as adopted, or perhaps developed, by Zéschylos, are—(1) that from | er the destined deliverer of the chained Tit nis to come; (2) that both were suffering from the cruelty of Zeus: (8) that the wanderings of Io gave scope for the wild tales o: 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 him. In the birth of Epaphos, and Io’s release from her frenzy, he saw, it may be, a reconciliation of what had seemed hard tw reconcile, a solution of the problems of the world, like in kind to that which waa shadowed forth in the lost Prometheus Unbound. (2) Argos had been slain by Hermes, and his eyes transferred by Hare 0 the tail of the peacock, and that bird was thenceforth sacred to her, T 1m4 PROMETHEUS BOUND. But coming from beneath Te hunts me miserable, And drives me famished o’er the sea-beach sand, StTropa. And still his waxened reed-pipe soundeth clear A soft and slumberous strain ; O heavens! O ye Gods! mt Whither do these long wanderings lead me on? For what offence, O son of Cronos, what, Hast thou thus bound me fast In these great miseries ° Ah 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’ Nay, grudge me not, O King, An answer to my prayers: Enough my many-wandered wanderings Have exercised my.soul, Nor have I power to learn How to avert the woe. (To Prometheus). Hear’st thou the voice of maiden crowned with horns ? Prom. Surely I heard the maid by gadfly driven, Daughter of Inachos, who warmed the heart Of Zeus with love, and now through Hera’s hate Is tried, perforce, with wanderings over-long ? ANTISTROPH. Jo. 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 1 with famished and unseemly bounds Bush madly, driven by Hera’s jealous craft. ele PROMETHEUS BOUND. m5 Ah, who of all that suffer, born to woe, o Have trouble like the pain that I endure P But thou, make clear to me What yet for me remains, What remedy, what healing for my pangs. Show me, if thou dost know: Speak out and tell to me, The maid by wanderings vexed. Prom, I will say plainly all thou seek’st to knows 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. Io. O thou to men as benefactor known, Why, poor Prometheus, sufferest thou this pain P Prom. I have but now mine own woes ceased to wail. Zo. Wilt thou not then bestow this boon on me ? Prom. Say what thou seek’st, for I will tell thee all. Io. Tell me, who fettered thee in this ravine ? Prom. The counsel was of Zeus, the hand Hephesstos’. Lo. Of what offence dost thou the forfeit pay ?P Prom. Thus much alone am I content to tell. ‘Io. Tell me, at least, besides, what end shall come ° To my drear wanderings; when the time shall be. Prom. Not to know this is better than to knew. Io. Nay, hide not from me what I have to bear. Prom. It is not that I grudge the boon to thee. Zo. Why then delayest thou to tell the whole P Prom. Not from ill will, but loth to vex thy soul. Io. 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 ask the tale of her great woe, aed While she unfolds her life’s consuming chances; Her future sufferings let her learn from thee. Prom. ’Tis thy work, Io, to grant these their wish, On other grounds and as thy father’s kin: ! (1! Inachos the father of Io (identified with the Argive river of the same name) was, like all rivers, a 80 1 of Okeanos, and therefore brother to the by phs whe had come to see Prometheus. & 116 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, Io. 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 still 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 chi.d, spurn not The bed of Zeus, but go to Lerna’s field, Where feed thy father’s flocks and herds, That so the eye of Zeus may find repose From this his craving.” With such visions I Was haunted every evening, till I dared To tell my father all these dreams 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 Heayen’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 me from my country and my home, To stray at large! 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 Loxias’ oracles induced, (1) The words used have an almost technical meaning as applied to animals that were consecrated to the service of a God, and set free to wander where they liked. The fate of Io, as at once devoted to Zeus and a aaa in form, was thus sh dowed forth in the very language of the racle PROMETHEUS BOUND. a7 Thrust me. against his will, against mine too, And drove me from my home; but spite of all, The curb of Zeus constrained him this to do. ave And then forthwith my face and mind were changed ; And hornéd, as ye see me, stung to the quick By biting gadfly, I with maddened leap Rushed to Kerchneia’s fair and limpid stream, And fount of Lerna.'’ And a giant herdsman, Argos, full rough of temper, followed 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.™ ‘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, nme Would chill my soul with sharp goad, double-edged. Ah fate! Ah fate! I shudder, seeing Io’s fortune strange. Prom. Thou art too quick in groaning, full of fear: Wait thou a while until thou hear the rest. Chor. Speak thou and tell. Unto the sick ’tis sweet Clearly to know what yet remains of pain. Prom. Your former wish ye gained full easily. Your first desire was to learn of her im The tale she tells of her own sufferings ; Now therefore hear the woes that yet remain Tor this poor maid to bear at Hera’s hands, And thou, O child of Inachos! take heed (1) Lerna was a lake near the mouth of the Inachos, close tn the sea, Kerchneia may perhaps be identified with the Kenchrece, the havin of Korinth in later geographies. 118 PROMETHEUS BOUND. To these my words, that thou may’st hear the goal Of all thy wanderings. First then, turning hence © Towards the sunrise, tregl the untilled plains, And thou shalt reach thé Skythian nomads, those! Who on smooth-rolling waggons dwell aloft In wicker houses, with far-darting bows 73 Duly equipped. Approach thou not to these, But trending round the coasts on which the surf Beats with loug-murmyrs,? traverse thou that clime, On the left hand there dwell th8 Chalxhes,’ Who work in iron. Of these do thou beware, For fierce are they and most inhospitable ; ou wilt reach the river fierce and strong, i 4 This seek not thou to cross, Font is hard to ford, until thou come Tc itself, of all high hills The highest, where a river pours its strength From the high peaks themselves. And thou must cross ™ Those summits near the stars, must onward go Towagis the south, where thou shalt find the host Of ra eres hating,men, whose home Shall one day be ented Thiccatherl: bank, By pemiskyra,® where the ravenous jaws Of “&lmydegsos ope upon the sea, Treacherous to sailors, stepdame stern to ships,® (1) The wicker huts usel 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 Caucasos ridge approach the sea. (3) The Chalybes are placed by geograp' ers to the south of Colchis. The description of the text indicates a locality fart':er 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 seems to imply a river flowing into the Evxine from the Caucasos, and the condition is fulfilled by the Hypanis or Kouban. (5) When the Amazons appear in contact with Greek his‘ory, they are found in Thrace. But they had come from the coast of Pontos, and neir the mouth of the Thermédon, (Thermek.) 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 .f Thynias to the en- trance of the Bosporos, which had given to the Black Sea its earlier name of Axenos, the “inhospitable.” PROMETHEUS BOUND, 119 And they with right good-will shall be thy guides; And thou, hard by a broad pool’s narrow gates, Wilt pass to thf Kimmerienisthmus. Leaving This boldly, thou must cros/Motig ahannel ae ms And there shall be great fame ’mong mortal men Of this thy journey, and the Bosporos ? Shall take its name from thee, gAnd_Europe’s plain Then quitting, thou shalt gail ne Asian coast. Doth not the all-ruling monarch of the Gods Seem 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 there troubles still to come for her ? Prom. Yea, stormy sea of woe most lamentable. fo. 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 P 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’st . 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. Zo. What! shall Zeus e’er be hurled from his high state ? ‘ (1) The track is here in some confusion. From the Amazons south of the Caucasos, Io is to find her way to the Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea) and the Kimmerian Bosporvs, which flows into the Sea of Azov, and so to return to Asia. (2) Her , asin a hundred other instances, a false etymology has become the parent ofa mith. The name Bosporos is probably Asiatic not Greek, and has an entirely different signification. 760 710 120 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. Zo, Who then shall rob him of his sceptred sway? ™ Prom. Himself shall do it by his own rash plans. fo. But how? Tell this, unless it bringeth harm. Prom. He shall wed one for whom one day he’ll grieve. fo. Heaven-born or mortal ? Tell, if tell thou may’st. Prom. Why ask’st thou who? I may not tell thee that. Io. a ees eee from his throne of might? Prom. Yea; she_shall~bear child mightier than his Zo. Has he no way to turn aside that doom ? / Prom. No, none; unless I from my bonds be loosed.} Jo. Who then shall loose thee ’gainst the will of Zeus P ee Prom. It must be one of thy posterity. ) Io. What, shall a child of mine free thee from ills? Prom. Yea, the third generation after ten.? 4 ¢ Io. No more thine oracles are clear to me. e * Prom. Nay, seek not thou thine own drear fate to know. . Io. Do not, a boon presenting, then withdraw it. Prom. Of two alternatives, I’ll give thee choice. fo. 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 me free. 00 Chor. 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 Nereus, «nd followed her to Caucasos, but: bstained from marriage with her because Prometheus warned him that the child born of that union should overthrow his father. Here the future is used of what was still contingent only. In the lost play of the Trilogy the myth was possibly brought to its conclusion and connected with the release of Prometheus. (2) Heracles, whose genealogy was traced through Alcmena, Perseus, Danaéd, Danaos, and seven ot..er names, to Epapuos and Io, ‘ PROMETHEUS BOUND. 121 To utter fully all that ye desire. Thee, Io, 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,' take thou the onward path On to the fiery-hued and sun-tracked East. oe [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,® Three, swan-shaped, with one_eye betweenthem all} > Sr ae eect nor the sun beholds gl ith radiant beams, nor yet the moun by night: And near them are their wingéd sisters three, _The G serpert-tressed, and hating men, q Whom mortal wight may not behold and live. L * 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 pos Arimaspians, who around the stream That flows o’er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell :° (1) Probably the Kimmerian Bosporos. The Tanais or Phasis has, however, been conjectured. : (2) The history of the passage in brackets is curious enough to call for a note. They are notin 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-river in Lybia or Ethiopia, at the en’ 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 Graiee. (4) Here, like the “ wingéd hound” of y. 1043, for the eagles that are the messengers of Zeus. (5) We are carried back again from the fabled West to the fabled East. The Arimaspians, with one eye, and the Grypes or Gryphons, (the griffina of mediseval heraldry,) quadrupeds with the wings and beaks of eagles, were placed by most writers (Herod. iv. 13, 27) in the north of Europe, in or beyond the terra incognita of Skythia. The mention of the “ford of Pluto” and Athiopia, however, may possibly imply (if we identify it, as 122 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Draw not thou nigh to them. But distant land Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell By the sun’s fountain,’ Aithiopia’s stream : By its banks wend thy way until thou come To that great fall where from the Bybline hills = The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood ; And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land, Three-angled, where, O Io,-’tis decreed For thee and for thy progeny to found 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. Chor. 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? Of lofty-ridged Dodona, and the shrine Oracular of Zeus Thesprotian, ase And the strange portent of the talking oaks, 640 Mr. Paley does, with the Tartessos of Spain, or Boetis—Guadalquivir) that Aschylos followed another legend which placed them in the West. There is possibly a paronomasia between Pluto, the God of Hades, and Plutos, the ideal God of riches. (1) The name was applied by later writers (Quintus Curtius, iv. 7, 22; Lucretius, vi. 848) to the fountain in the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the great Oasis. The ‘“‘river Aithiops” may be purely imaginary, but it may also suggest the possibility of some vague knowledge of the Niger. or more probably of the Nile itself in the upper regions of its course, The ‘“ Bybline hills” carry the name Byblos, which we only read of as belonging to a town in the Delta, to the Second Cataract. (2) Gomp, Sophocles, Trackin, v. 1168. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 123 By which full clearly, not in riddle dark, Thou wast addresséd as noble spouse of Zeus,— If aught of pleasure such things give to thee,— Thence strung to frenzy, thou did’st rush along The sea-coast’s path to Rhea’s mighty gulf, 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 journeyings. These then are tokens to thee that my mind Sees somewhat more than that is manifest. 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, Candbos, at its country’s furthest bound, Hard by the mouth and silt-bank of the Nile; There Zeus shall give thee back thy mind again,? 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.2 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 land {2 The Adriatic or Ionian Gulf. 2) In the Suppliants, Zeus is said to have soothed her, and restored het to her human consciousness by his ‘‘d vine heathings.” The thought underlying the legend may be taken either as a distortion of some pri.ui- 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 i3 to have a divine as well as a human parentage. (3) See the argument of the Suppliants, who, as the daughters of Danaos, descended from Epaphos, are here referred to. The passage is noticeable as showing that the theme of that tragedy was already present to the poet’s thoughts. 124 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Pelasgian! shall receive them, when by stroke Of woman’s murderous hand these men shall lie Smitten to death by daring deed of night: =e Yor every bride shall take her husband’s life, And dip in blood the sharp two-edgéd 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 Rather 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 * 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. fo. Eleleu! Oh, Eleleu ! 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. oot 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) Hypermneestra, who spared Lynceus, and by him became the mother of Avas and a line of Argive kings. A (3) Heracles, who came to Caucasos, and with his arrows slew the eagle that devoured Prometheus. (4) The word is peely an interjection of pain, but one so characteristic bhat I ae thought it better to reproduce it than to give any Eng lsh equivalent. . PROMETHEUS BOUND. 135 Strors. L Chor. Wise, very wise was he Who first in thought conceived this maxim sage, And spread it with his speech,!— 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, so Or with the race that boast their lineage high. Antistropa. I, 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 heayen-born spouse! For I shrink back, beholding Io’s lot Of loveless maidenhood, Consumed and smitten low exceedingly By the wild wanderings from great Hera sent! Srrors. I, To me, when wedlock is on equal terms, 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 |! Awristrops. I. That fate is war that none can war against, Sonrce of resourceless ill ; Nor know I what might then become of me: I see not how to ’scape The counsel deep of Zeus. Prom. Yea, 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 maxim, ‘Marry with a woman thine equal,” was ascribed to Pittacos. .920 N 126 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Shall have its dread completion, even that He uttered when he left his ancient throne 3 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 causeth 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. Things that shall be, and things I wish, I speak, 200. Chor. And must we look for one to master Zeus P 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.} Prom. Worship then, praise and flatter him that rules; My care for Zeus is nought, and less than nought: Let Him act, let Him rule this little while, ore (1) The Euhemerism of later scholiasts derived the name from aking Adrastos, who was said to have been the first to build a temple to Nemesia, and so the power thus worshipped was called after hisname. (1) The daughters of Danaos are 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. } 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 Aischylos (Agam. 33, Fr. 132) we trace allusion to games played with dice. Here we have a reference to one, the detailsof which 138 THE SUPPLIANTS. Chose what seemed the best of evils, Through the salt sea-waves to hasten, Steering to the land of Argos, Whence our race has risen to greatness 5 Sprung, so boasts 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, bd Holding in our hand the branches Suppliant, wreathed with white wool fillets P O State! O land! O water gleaming ! Ye the high Gods, ye the awful, ae In the dark the graves still guarding ; 3 Thou too with them, Zeus Preserver,® wr Guardian of the just man’s dwelling, Welcome with the breath of pity, 'Pity as from these shores wafted, Us poor women who are suppliants, d that swarm of men that follow, Haughty offspring of Agyptos, x Ere they set their foot among you On this silt-strown shore,?—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, Rest on marriage-beds reluctant, Which the voice of right denies them ! are not accurately known to us, but which seems to have been analogous te draughts or chess. 1) See the whole story, given asin prophecy, in the Prometheus, v. 865-880. 2) The invocation is addressed.—(1) to the Olympian Gods in the brightness of heaven ; (2) to the Chthonian deities in the darkness below the earth ; (3) to Zeus the Freserver, as the supreme Lord of both. _(8) An Athenian audience would probably recognise in this a descrip- tion of the swampy meadows near the coast of Lerna. The descendants of Io had come to the very spot where the tragic history of their ancesto: hadtadieoren, ne = THE SUPPLIANTS, 139 Srroru, I. And now I call on him, the Zeus-sprung steer," s 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,” Epaphos, AntistropH. I. And now invoking him in grassy fields, bc Where erst his mother strayed, to dwellers here 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. Srropu. 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. so Antisteops. II. *For she, driven back from wontcd 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 Fpaphos, as a guardian deity, able and willing to succour his afflicted children. HI hilomela. See the tale as given in the notes to Agam. 1113. “Streams,” as flowing through the shady solitude of the grovet which the nightingale frequented. 149 THE SUPPLIANTS. Stora. OL &’en so do I, to wailing all o’er-given, (n plaintive music of Ionian mood,} FVex 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, n *Lest none should care to help [his flight of mine from that mist-shrouded shore. Antisreors. IIT. 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. Srnorn. IV. May God good issue give !? “ And yet the will of Zeus is hard to scan: Through all it brightly gleams, E’en though in darkness and the gloom of chance For us poor mortals wrapt. Antistropu. IV, Safe, by no frll tripped up, The full-wrought deed decread by brow of Zeus; For dark with shadows stretch The pathways of the counsels of his heart, And difficult to see. Srropu. V. And from high-towering hopes He hurleth down * To utter doom the heir of mortal birth; (1) “Ionian,” as soft and elegiac, in contrast with the mere military eharacter of Dorian music. (2) In the Greek the paronomasia turns upon the supposed etymological connexion between Hed¢ and 7:9 it, I have here, as elsewhere, attempted an analogous rather than identical feu de mot. THE SUPPLIANTS, 143 Yet sets He in array No forces violent ; All that Gods work is effortless and calm: Seated on holiest throne, Thence, though we know not how, He works His perfect will. Antistaopu. 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 deceivéd hopes, Shall know, too late, its woe. Srrors. 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 ory. Though yet alive, I wail mine obsequies ; Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff,! I greet (our alien speech Thou knowest well, O land,) ue And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate, On robe of linen and Sidonian veil. Arristzora. 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! x (1) The Greek word which I have translated “bluff” was one not familiar to Attic ears, and was believed to be of Kyrenean origin. 4Eschylos accordingly que it into the lips of the daughters of Danaos, aa characteristic more or less of the ‘alien speech” of the land from which they came. 142 THE sufPLIANTS, Ah, whither will these waters carry me P Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff, I greet (our alien speech Thou knowest well, O land,) And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate, On robe of linen and Sidonian veil. Srrora. 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, im Great seed of Mother dread, In time may ’scape, still maiden undefiled, My suitor’s marriage-bed. AwtistRoPH. VIL. 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, us Great seed of Mother dread, That I may ’scape, still maiden undefiled, My suitor’s marriage-bed. Stops. VILL 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,! The Lord that welcomes all that come to him, Dying by twisted noose 1 (1) So in v. 235 Danaos speaks of the “second Zeus” who sit as Ju in Faioe The feeling to which the Chorus gives utterance is that oe “‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo,”” THE SUPPLIANTS, 143 Tf we the grace of Gods Olympian miss. By thine ire, Zeus, ’gainst Jo 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. Antistropy. VILL And then shall Zous to words Unseemly be exposed, Having the heifer’s offspring put to shame, 16 Whom He himself begat, And now his face averting from our prayers: Ah, may he hear on high, Yea, pitying look and hear propitiously ! By thine ire, Zeus, ’gainst Io virulent, The Gods’ wrath seeks us out, And I knoay well the woe Comes from thy queen, who reigns in heaven victorious ; For after stormy wind ue 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 curvéd 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 A THE SUPPLIANTS. Who rule o’er conflicts.!_ Better far than to re altars yea, a shield impenetrable, But with all speed approach the shrine of Zeus, The God of mercy, in you i ‘The-suppliants” boughs wool-wreathed, in solemn guise,* And greet our hosts as it is meet for us, be 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-semeful Much to concede; afugitive-therrart, A stranger and in want, and tis not mest That those in low estate high wordse-chontd-sptak, 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 eyo! 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. . . 5 . 5 Dan. Invoke ye now the mighty bird of Zous.é ¢ (1) Some mound dedicated to the Gods, with one or more altars and stas tues of the Gods on it, is on the stat 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, Eumen, 44. (3) The Argives are supposed to share the love of brevity which we eommonly connect with their neighbours the Laconians. (4) The ‘mighty bird of Zeus ” seems here, from the answer of the 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. Dan¥Apolig too, the holy, in that He, a10 A God, has tasted exile from high heayen.! Chor. Knowing that fate, He well may feel for men. Dan. So may He feel, and look on us benignly ! Chor. Whom of the Gods shall I besides invoke ? Dan. I see this trident here, a God’s great symbol.” Ges Chor. Well hath,He brought us, well may He receive! Dan. Here too 18 Hermes,’ as the Hellenes know him, Chor. To us, as free, let Him good herald prove. Dan. Yea, and the common shrine of all these Gods Adore ye, and in holy precincts sit, Like swarms of doves in fear of kites your kinsmen, 7 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; 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 Kune on his chariot, followed by Attendants. King. Whence comes this crowd, this non - Hellenic band, 330 In robes and raiment of barbaric fashion So gorgeously attired, whom now we speak toP (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 when Poseidon had daimed it as his own by setting vp his weapon there. Something of the same kind seems here to be supposed to exist at Argos, where a like legend prevailed. Nahe: i i (8) The Hellenic Hermes is distinguished from his Egyptian counter part, Thoth, as being different in form and accessories. 3 (4) A possible reference to the Egyptian Osiris, as lord or judge of . Comp. Vv. 145. L 146 THE SUPPLIANTS. This woman’s dress is not of Argive mode, Nor from the climes of Hellas. How ye dared, Without a herald even or protector, Yea, and devoid of guides too, to come hither Thus boldly, is to me most wonderful. And yet these boughs, as is the suppliant’s wont, Are set by you before the Gods of conflicts : By this alone will Hellas guess aright. Much more indeed we might have else conjectured, ™ Were there no voice to tell me on the spot. Chor. Not false this speech of thine about our garb ; But shall I greet thee as a citizen, Or bearing Hermes’ rod, or city ruling ?? King. Nay, for that matter, answer thou and speak~ Without alarm. Palechthon’s son am I, Earth-born, the king of this Pelasgic land ; And named from me, their king,” as well might be, The race Pelasgic reaps our country’s fruits ; *And all the land through which the Strymon pours *” Its pure, clear waters to the West I rule; And as the limits of my realm I mark The land of the Perrheebi, and the climes Near the Pzeonians, on the farther side Of Pindos, and the Dodonzan heights; § 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 ; 4 For Apis, coming from Naupactian land mel et oar asks, “speak to you as a private citizen, or (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, including Thessalia, or the Pelasgie Argos, between the mouths of Pencus and Pindos, Perrheebia, 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 of Apollo, in the sense of being a physician-prophet,) who had freed t land from monsters. a ee re THE SUPPLIANTS. 143 That lies beyond the 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 ¢ hale 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 me to hear, that ye from Argos spring ; For ye to Libyan women are most like,' 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 Aithiops’ neighbours dwell. And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed, Undoubting, 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 Argos come. Chor. They tell of one who bore the temple-keys Of Hera, Io, in this Argive land. King. So was’t indeed, and wide the fame prevails : And was it said that Zeus a mortal loved ? 30 (1) The description would seem to indicate—(1) that the eevee Danaos appeared on the stage as of swarthy complexion; and (2) that Indians, Athiopians, 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? 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 ? Chor. She o’er the heifer set a guard all-seeing. King. What herdsman strange, all-seeing, speak’st thou of ? Chor. Argos, the earth-born, him whom Hermes slew. a0 King. What else then wrought she on the ill-starred heifer ? Chor. She sent a stinging gadfly to torment her. (Those who near Neilos dweil an estros 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 Canébos go, and Memphis ? Chor. Zeus with his touch, an offspring then begets. King. What Zeus-born calf that heifer claims as mother ? s Chor. *He from that touch which freed named Epa- phos. ale King, (What offspring then did Epaphos beget 2] 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 brother boasts of fifty sons. King. Tell me his name, too, with ungrudging speech. Chor. Zigyptos: 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 om To leaye your father’s house? What chance constrained you P (1) The line is conjectural, but some question of this kind is implied in the answer of the Chorus. THE SUPPLIANTS, 146 Chor. O 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 P King. What seek’st thou then of these the Gods ot conflicts, Holding your wool-wreathed branches newly-plucked ? Chor. That I serve not Higyptos’ sons as slave. King. Speak’st thou of some old feud, or breach of right ? a Chor. Nay, who'd find fault with master that one loved ? King. Yet thus it is that mortals grow in strength.} Chor. True; when men fail, ’tis easy to desert them. King. How then to you may I act reverently ? Chor. Yield us not up unto Agyptos’ sons. King. Hard boon thou ask’st, to wage so strange a war. Chor. Nay, Justice champions those who fight withher. King. Yes; uf her hand was in it from the first. Chor. Yet reverence thou the state-ship’s stern thus wreathed,? King. I tremble as 1 see these seats thus shadowed. Sreora. I. Chor. Dread is the wrath of Zeus, the God of sup- pliants: 2 Son of Paleechthon, hear, Hear, O Pelasgic king, with kindly heart. 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 ambition, men and women contract marriages which increase their power. (2) 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 wands of sup pliants which adorn it are as the decorations of the vessels, 150 THE SUPPLIANTS, She lifteth 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 . a Be without peril, nor let strife arise To this our country for unlooked-for chance And unprovided! This our State wants not. Antisteoru. 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 sit; But if the State be as a whole defiled, a0 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. Srropu. I. 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- Gone) soe ieee of an Athenian audience in favour of the Argive king, who will not act witLout consulting his assembly. There seems more ceason to think that the aim of the dramatist was in preeisely the oppo- site direction, and that the words which follow set forth his admiration for the king who can act, as compared with one who is tied and hampered by restrictions. THE SUPPLIANTS. u§ With the sole vo iki 3 And thou on i : = Y Bringest, tter to its desti ; ilt. King. Upon my foes rest that dread curse of guilt! * 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. Antistropa. I. 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, by wail of sufferer unappeased. & King. Yet if Hgyptos’ sons have claim on th By their State’s law, asserting that they come As next of kin; who dare oppose their right ? o Thou must needs plead that by thy laws at hom } They over thee have no authority.} Stropa. 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 Right thy friend, And honour what the Gods count pure and true, (1) By an Attic law, analogous in principle to that of the Jews, (Num i. 8; 1 Chron. xxiii. 22), heiresses were absolutely bound to marr. their next of kin, if he claimed his right. The king at once asserts thi as the law which was prima facie applicable to the case, and declares him self ready to auaeender it if the petitioners can show that their owl 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 rule but in the absence of evidence must act on the law which he is boun< officially to recognise. 152 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 aught fall out amiss, In honouring strangers, thou the State did’st ruin,” AwristropH. ITI. Chor. Zeus, the great God of kindred, in these things Watches o’er both of us, Holding an equal scale, and fitly giving Lo the base evil, to the righteous blessing. Why, when these things are set [n even balance, fear’st thou to do right P «on King. Deep thought we need that brings deliverance, That, like a diver, mine eye too may plunge “ear-seeing to ir depths, not wine- -bedrenched, hese thi h e, tn eaclee moy nau Chat neither may the strife make you its prey, Yor that ho thus are se zod that segtpeatl rai it e’en in Hades = dives freedom to the dead. Say, think ye not Chat there is need of counsel strang to sayo? Stnopa. 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. AnmtistRopu. I, See me not dragged away, ) thou that rul’st the land! from seat of Gods: Know thou men’s wanton pride, om \nd guard thyself agaiust the wrath of Zeus. Srroru. IT. indure not thou to see thy suppliant, Despite of law, torn off, THE SUPPLIANTS, 453 As horses by their frontlets, from the forms Of sculptured deities, Nor yet the outrage of their wanton hands, Seizing these broidered robes. Antistnors. IT. 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. aa 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; al 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. *] take my part, and turn aside from strife ; And I far rather would be ignorant Than wise, forecasting evil. May the end, Against my judgment, show itself as good! Chor. Hear, then, the last of all our pleas for pity. King. I hear; speak on. It shall not ’scape my heed. 2 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 good and rare de- VICO . wwe 154 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. 00) 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 Hgyptos’ sons, Thy kindred, I before my city’s walls Tn conflict stand, how can there fail to be A bitter loss, to stain the earth with blood a0 Of man for woman’s sake? And yet I needs Must fear the wrath of Zeus, the suppliant’s God 3 That dread is mightiest with the sons of men. Thou, then, O 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 they carried into execution their threat of suicide, a 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 tel] 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.! Take heed lest vashness 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. [Eaeunt Danaos and Attendants, Chor. Thou speak’st to him; and may he go as bidden! But what shall I do? What hope giv’st thou me? King. Leave here those boughs, the token of your grief. om Chor. Tio! 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 ? ? 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 have 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 thee lorn ; 610 (1) Inachos, the river-God of Argos, and as such contrasted with A a “ Unconsecrate,” marked out by no barriers, accessible to all, and therefore seeming to offer but little prospect of a sufe asylum. The place described seems to have been an open piece of turf rather than a grove of trees. 156 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 furtherance of thy wish : Sweet Suasion follow us, and Fortune good! [Eait. Sraopx. L Chor. O King of kings! and blest Above all blessed ones, And Power most mighty of the mightiest ! O Zeus, of high estate ! oo Hear thou and grant our prayer! 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. Anrisrropu. I. Look on the women’s cause ; Recall the ancient tale, Of one whom Thou did’st love in time of old, The mother of our race: Remember it, O Thou Who did’st on Io lay thy mystic touch. We boast that we are come Of consecrated land the habitants, on And from this land by lineage high descended, Srropu. I. Now to the ancient track, Our mother’s, I have passed, The flowery meadow-land where she was watehed,— The pastures of the herd, Whence Io, 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,? on Aytistrope. II. Now through the Asian land She hastens o’er and o’er, Right through the Phrygian fields where feed the flocks; And passes Teuthras’ fort, Owned by the Mysians,? 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.® Sreops. IIT. 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 traverséd,® And unto Neilos’ streams, By sickly taint untouched,® Still maddened with her toil of ignominy, By torturing stings driven on, great Hera’s frenzied slave. Anrtistropa. ITT. And those who then the lands inhabited, Quivered with pallid fear, 560 ( Comp. the narrative as given in Prometheus Bound, vv. 660, et seq. 2) Teuthras’ fort, or leuthrania, is described by Strabo (xii. p. 571) as lying between the Hellespont and Mount Sipylos, in Magnesia. (8) 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 inundations of the Nile,-occupied, as we see from Herodotos (ii. e. 19-27), the minds of the Greeks. Of the four theories which the historian discusses, 4Eschylos adopts that which referred it to the melting of the snows on the mountains of central Africa. (6) Typhon, 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 :* And sore amazed were they. Who was it then that soothed Poor Io, wandering in her sore affright, Driven on, and ever on, by gadfly’s maddening sting P Srropa. 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, She bare a son that grew in faultless growth, Antistropa. 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! oe Who else had checked the plagues that Hera sent P” 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, | Stropn. V. Which of the Gods could I with right invoke As doing juster deeds ? He is our Father, author of our life, (1) Io was represented as a woman with a heifer’s head, and Vallye empole representation of the moon, with her cretaul Noraa: Sometimes the transformation is described (as in y. 294) in words which unply a more thorough change. THE SUPPLIANTS. So 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, Zeus. . AntistRopH. V. For not as subject hastening at the beck Of strength above his own,! Reigns He subordinate to mightier powers; eo Nor does He pay his homage from below, While One sits throned in inajesty 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 tell’st me right good news! 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 ut Rustled the air as they decreé iT vote That we should sojourn in their land as free, 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 shouid be driven to exile forth. Such counsel giving, the Pelasgian King ote Gained their consent, proclaiming that great wrath (1) Perhaps- 7 hss “ For not as subject eine ete the sway Of strength above his own.”’ (2) The passage takes its place among the noblest utterances of a faith assing above the popular polytheism to the thought of one sovereign ill ruling and guiding all things, as Will,—without effort, in the calm- ness of a power irresistible. 160 THE SUPPLIANTS, Of Zeus the God of suppliants ne’er would let The city wax in fatness,—warning them That double guilt! 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, : : Not waiting for the rald’s proclamation, So it should be. ey heard, indeed, the crowd Of those Pelasgi, all the winning speech, ned phrases cunning to persuad6; $s Zeus that brought the end r or. 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. Sreopu. I. Half-Chor. A. Now, now, at last, ye Gods of Zeus begotten,” Hear, as I pour my prayers upon their race, That ne’er-may this Pelasgic city raise From-outitsflames the joyless cry of War, War, that in other fields Reapeth his human crop: For they have mercy shown, And passed their kind decree, os Pitying this piteous flock, the suppliants of great Zeus. Anrtisrropx. I, They did not take their stand with men ’gainst women Casting dishonour on their plea for help, (1) Double, as involving a sin against the laws of hospitality, so fi the suppliants were strangers—a sin against the laws of ene so far oe they might claim by descent the rights of citizenship. (2) If, as has been conjectured, the tragedy was written with a view te the alliance between Argos and Athens, made in B.c. 461, this choral ode must have been the centre, if not of the dramatic, at all events of the political interest of the play. THE SUPPLIANTS. 161 *But looked to Him who sees and works from heaven, *Full hard to war with. Yea, what house could bear To ses 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. Srrora. IT. Therefore from faces by our boughs o’ershadowed ® Let prayers ascend in emulous eagerness: Never may dark pestilence a This State of men bereaye ; 3, Mayno fierce party-strife ; And may the bloom of youth Be with them still uncropt ; ul 2 rodite’s paramour, ' Ares the scourge of men, Mow down their blossoms fair! Antisrrops. IT. And let the altars tended by the old *Blaze with the gifts i ira 3 So may the State live on In full prosperity ! Le 2, The tes God, the one Supreme on high, By venerable law Ordering the course of fate. Cy And next we pray that ever more a: Earth may her tri bear, , : And Artemis as Hecate ide ® - O’er woman's travail-pangs. ~ ee (1) The imageis that ofa 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 pur.frations that followed on it. : M 162 THE SUPPLIANTS, Srzoprs. II. 5 Let no destroying strife come on, invading This ris to lay waste, Setting in fierce array Wax, 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 !1 Antisrropa. II. : And Zeus, may He, by his supreme decree, = Make-the earth vicld her fies Through all the seasons rowfd, And grant a plenteous brood QR. Of hgrds that roam the fields! , May Heayen all good gifts pour, And may the yoice of song Ascend o’er altar shrines, Unmarred 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! Stropsg. IV. | *And may the rule in which the people share : Jans as in perfect peace, E’en that which sways the crowd, *Which sways the commonwealth, = By counsels wise and good ; es And to the strangers and the sojourners May-they grant nghts 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 the might of destruction (the Walt destroyer} and the darts of pestilence and sudden death. The prayer is therefore that he, the Destroyer, may hearken to the suppliants, and spare the people for whom they pray. THE SUPPLIANTS, 163 Ere War is roused to arms, So that no trouble come! _ Antistropa. 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 those who gave us life, This stands as one of three great laws on high,® Written as fixed and firm, The laws of Right revered. Dan. T praise these seemly prayers, dear children mine. ons. 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 me 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 “three great laws’ were those ascribed to Triptolemos, “te honour parents, to worship the Gods with the fruits of the earth, to hurt neither man nor beast.” (2) The Egyptian ships, like those of many other Eastern countries, had eyes (the eyes of Osiris, as they were called) painted on their bows. 164 THE SUPPLIANTS. Fear ye not them. It were well done, however, If we should linger in our help, this succour ™ 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. Srnoru. 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. 7m AnrTIstTRopH. I. Chor, Hateful and wanton are Hgyptos’ 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.! Sreopa. II. Chor. Leave me not here alone, I pray thee, father ! 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. AytisTropH. IT, Chor. No reverence for these tridents or the shrines Of Gods, my father, will restrain their hands: (1) A side-thrust, directed by the poet, who had fought at Marathon, agaiust the growing effeminacy of the Athenian youth, many of whom were learning to shrink irom all activity and exposure that might spoi! their complexions. Comp. Plato, Phwdros, p. 239. i en THE SUPPLIANTS. 165 Full stout of heart, of godless mood unblest, Fed to the full, and petulant as dogs, And for the voice of high Gods caring not,— Such, such in soul are they. Dan, Nay, the tale runs that wolves prevail o’er dogs; ™ And byblos fruit excels not ear of corn.! Chor. But since their minds are as the minds of brutes, -Restless and vain, we must beware of force. 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, 10 [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 yoiced-thought. Euit, Srnors. L Chor. Ah, me! thou land of jutting promontory Which justly all revere, ‘What lies before us? Where in Apian land Shall we a refuge find, -If still there be dark hiding anywhero P Ah! that I were as smoke (1) 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 gave greater strength to limbs and sinew than the ‘‘ byblos fruit’? on which the Egyptian soldiers and sailors habitually lived. Some writers, however, have seen in the last line, ‘rendered— “The byblos fruit not always bears full ear,” a proverb like the English, “‘There’s many a slip *Twixt the cup 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, Paas out of being with no help from wings! Antistropa. I. *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 “Bleeping the sloop of teatirt g the sleep Sreora. IL. Ah,might I find a place in yon high vault, Where the rain-clouds are pessing into-anow, Or lonely precipice Whose summit none can see, Rock where the vulture haunts, Witness for me of my abysmal fall, Before the marriage that will pieree my heart ; Becomes my dreaded doom ! AntistTRoPH. IL TI shrink not from the thought of being the prey Of dogs and birds that haunt the country round; For death shall make me free From ills all lamentable: Yowrtet death saber come ate -bed ? What other refuge now remains ies me That marriage to avert P THE SUPPLIANTS, 2697 Srrora. IIL Yea, to the Gods raise thou Cloud-piercing, wailing cry Of songs and litanies, Prevailing, working freedom out for mes ™ 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, O Zeus omnipotent! AntisTropa. TTL, For lo! Agyptos’ 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: om But thine is evermore The force that turns the balance of the scale: What comes to mortal men apart from Thee P Ab! 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 crimes, Their crimes of violence. Ah!ah! Ah me! ome Haste in your flight for help ! The mighty ones are waxing fut and proud, By sea and land alike intolerable. Be thou, O King, our bulwark and defence! 168 THE SUPPLIANTS, Enter Herald of the sons of Eyptos’ advancing to the daughters of DANaos. 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 blood. Her. Haste, haste ye, to that barque that yonder lies, Ye wretches, curse on you. Srzorg. 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, a *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; 690 Give up those seats, and hasten to the ship: I reverence not what this State honoureth, Antistropa. I, Chor. Ah, I may ne’er again Behold the stream where graze the goodly kine, Nourished and fed by which} The blood of cattle waxes strong and full! *As with a native’s right, *And one of old descent, T 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 of the Nile. THE SUPPLIANTS. 169 Come, come, provoke not evils terrible, Falling by these my hands. Strops. I. Chor. Ab me! ah me! Would thou may’st perish with no hand to help, Crossing the sea’s wide plain, In wanderings far and wide, Where Sarpedonian sand-bank! spreads its length, Driven by the sweeping blasts! Her. Sob thou, and howl, and call upon the Gods: _™ Thou shalt not ’scape that barque from Aégypt come, Though thou should’st pour a bitterer strain of grief. Aytistropa. IL. Chor. Woe! woe! Ah woe! ah woe, For this foul wrong! Thou utterest fearful 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 yon ship double-prowed,* With all your speed. Let no one lag behind; But little shall my grasp your ringlets spare. ene [Seizes on the leader of the Suppliants. Srnopa. IIL, Chor. Ah me! my father, ah! The help of holiest statues turns to woo 3 i He leads me to the sea, ( With motion spider-like, Or like a dream, a dark and dismal dream, Ab woe! ah woe! ah woe! O mother Earth! O Earth! O mother mine! Avert that cry of fear, O Zeus, thou king! O son of mother Earth! (1) Two dangerous low headlands 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 kina, se built that they could be steered from either end. 170 THE SWPPLIANTS. Her, Nay, I fear not the Gods they worship here; They did not rear nor lead me up to age. Antistrora. ITI, Chor. Near me he rages now, > . ° ° e e That biped snake, And like a viper bites me by the foot. Oh, woe is me! woe! woe! O mother Earth! O Earth! O mother mine! Avert that cry of fear. O Zeus, 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. Srropa. IV. Chor. Ho! rulers of the State ! 880 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 Heyptos, Ye soon shall see. Take courage; ye shall have No cause to speak of anarchy as there. Enter Kine followed by his Bodyguard. King. Ho there! What dost thou? and with what intent Dost thou so outrage this Pelasgic land P Dost think thou comest to a town of women ? see Too haughty thou, « stranger ’gainst Hellenes, And, sinning much, hast nothing done aright. Her. What sin against the right have I then done? King. First, thou know’st not how stranger-guest should act. THE SUPPLIANTS. 17! Her. How so? When I, but finding what Ilost ... King. Whom among us dost thou then patrons call ? Her. Hermes the Searcher, chiefest patron mine.! 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 #gyptos’ 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 s 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, 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 may’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 ;? oie (1) Hermes, the guardian deity of heralds, is here described by the 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 proxenos or patron of some kind. The herald, having no proxenos among the citizens, appeals to his patron. deity. pm : (2) The words refer to the custom of nailing deerees, proclamations, treaties, and the like, engraved on metal or marble, upon the walls of temples or public buildings. Traces of the same idea may possibly be ‘ 172 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 fromm out my presence haste. Her. It is thy will then a rash war to wage: May strength and victory on our males attend! [Exit King. Nay, thou shalt find the dwellers of this land Are also males, and drink not draughts of ale 8 From barley brewed.1 [To the Suppliants.] But ye, and your attendants, Take courage, go within the fencéd city, Shut in behind its bulwark deep of towers ; Yea, 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, wo And all our townsmen, will defend the pledge Which our decree has given you. Why wait’st thou For any better authorised than these P Chor. For these thy good deeds done may’st thou in good, All good, abound, great chief of the Pelasgi! 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 nailin a sure lace,” (Isa, xxii. 23,) in the thanksgiving of Ezra that God had given is 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 the Egyptian beer, which was the ordinary drink of the lower classes. » THE SUPPLIANTS, 173 To speak his word of blame ’gainst foreigners. iss But may all good be ours ! : 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. Enter Danaos followed by 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 *All that I did towards those cousins there, oot *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, Your 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, *Ag prey to wandering lust, nor lets it stay; * And on the goodly comeliness of maidens 980 ‘1) The words present a striking parallelism to the erotic imagery of the Song of Solomon: ‘‘Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spol ouf vines, for our vines have tender grapes” (11. 16). 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: [Pelasgos offers his, the city theirs, ] To dwell rent-free. Full 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. Srrora. 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.} Semi-Chor. B. And ye, companions true, Take up your strain of song. 10m Let praise attend this city of Pelasgos ; Tet Usno-more no more adore the mouths of Neilos ——=———With these our hymns of praise ; AntisTROPH. I. Semt-Chor. A. Nay, but the rivers here that pour calm streams through our country,? (1) The Erasinos was supposed to rise in Arcadia, in Mount Stym- phalos, to disappear below the earth, and to come to sight again in rgolis. (2) In this final choral ode of the Svppliants, as in that of the Srven against Thebes, we have the phenomenon of the division of the Chorus, hitherto united, into two sections of divergent thought and purpose. Semi-Chorus A. remains steadfist_in its purpose of perpetual virginity ; Semi-Chorus B. 1elents, and is ready to accept wedlock. THE SUPPLIANTS. 175 Parents of many a son, making glad the soil of our meadows, With wide flood rolling on, in full and abounding rich- ness. Semi-Chor. B. And Artemis the chaste, May she behold our band ae With pity; ne’er be marriage rites enforcéd On us by Kythereia: those who hate us, Let that ill prize be theirs. Srnoru. IL Semi-Chor. 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 belovéd, 1020 Are fair Desire and Suasion,! whose pleading no man can gainsay, Yea, to sweet Concord too Aphrodite’s power is entrusted, *And the whispering paths of the Loves. AntistRopa. II. Simi-Chor. A. Yet amI 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 pursting ? A030 Semi-Chor. B. 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 of brutal lust, 176 THE SUPPLIANTS. *May this fate como to us, as to many women before us, *Fate of marriage and spouse! Srroru. III. Semi-Chor. A. Ah, may great Zeus avert From me all marriage with Aigyptos’ sons! Semi-Chor. B. Nay, all will work for good. Semi-Chor. A. Thou glozest that which will no glozing bear. 1088 Semt-Chor. B. And thou know’st not what future comes to us. Antistropa. ITT. Semt-Chor. A. How can I read the mind Of m‘ghtiest Zeus, to sight all fathomless ? Semi-Chor. B. Well-tempered be thy speech ! Semi-Chor. A. What mood of calmness wilt thou school me in ? Semi-Chor. B. Be not o’er-rash in what concerns the Gods. Srropu. 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 Io from her pain, Putting an end from all her wanderings, Working with kindly force ! 1000 ANTISTROPH. 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) The play, as acted, formed part of a trilogy, and the next play, the Danaids, probably contained the sequel of tle story, the acceptance by the Suppliants of the sons of Agyptos in Barner the plot of Danaos for the destruction of the bridegrooms on the wedding-night, and the execu tion of the deed of blood by all but Hypermnestra. AGAMEMNON. ARGUMENT. Ten years had passed since Agamemnon, son of Atreus, king of Mykene, had led the Hellenes to Troia to take vengeance on Alexandros (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 Troia. And now the tenth year had come, and Paris was slain, and the city of the Troians was taken and destroyed, and Aga- memnon and the Hellenes were on their way homeward with the spoil and prisoners they had taken. But meanwhile Clytemnestra tco, Agammnon’s queen, had been unfaithful, and had taken as her paramour Aigisthos, son of that Thyestes whom Atreus, his brother, had made to eat, unknowing, of the flesh of his own children. And now, partly led by her adul- terer, and partly seeking to avenge the death of her daughter Iphigenia, 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 Aigisthos 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 Troia was taken.* * The untaithfulness of Clyteemnestra and the murder of Agamem- noo had entered into the Homeric cycle of the legends of the house of Atreus. In the Odyssey, however, Asgisthos is the chief agent in this crime, (Odyss. iii. 264, iv. 91, 532, xi. 409); and the manner of it differs from that which Aischylos has adopted. Clytemnestra first appears as slaying both her husband and Cassandra im Pindar (Pytk xi. 26.) Dramatis Persone. Watehman. Chorus of Argive Elders. OCLYTEMNESTRA. Herald, (TALTHYBIOS.) AGAMEMNON. CassaNDRA. 4EGISTHOS. AGAMEMNON. SCENE.—Argos. The Palace of AGAMEMNON; statucs of the Gods 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, v Wherein, upon the Atreida’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 sea And now I watch for sign of beacon-torch, The flash of fire that bringeth news from Troia, And tidings of its capture. So prevails *A woman’s manly-purposed, hoping heart; u And when I keep my bed of little ease, Drenched with the dew, unvisited 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, am When fire from out the dark brings tidings good. | Pauses, then springs up suddenly, seeing a light in the distance. Hail! 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, Berause of this success. Hurrah! hurrah! 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 Tlion’s citadel Js taken, as full well that bright blaze 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.' Well, would that I with this mine hand may touch The dear hand of our king when he comes home | As to all else, the word is ‘‘ Hush!” An ox? 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. [Lait. Enter Chorus of twelve Argive elders, chanting as they march to take up their position in the centre of the stuge. A procession of women bearing torches ts seen in the distance. Lo! the tenth year now is passing cd Since, of Priain great avengers, Menelaos, Agamemuon, (1) The form of gambling from which the phrase is taken, had clearly become common in Attica among the class to which the watchman was supposecé to belong, and had given rise to proverbiul phrases like that in the text The Greeks themselves supposed it to have been invented by the Lydians, (Herod. i. 94), or Palamedes, one of the heroes of the tale of Troia, but it enters also into Egyptian legends (Herod. ii. 122,) and its prevalence from remote antiquity in the farther East, as in the Indian story of Nala and Damayanti, makes it probable that it originated there. The gam. ayed, as the phrase shows, with three dice, the hi c j i ree sixes. OPschyTosste Thay be noted, appears in a lost drama, which bore the title of Palamedes, to have brought the game itself into his plot. It is referred to, as invented by ae ero, in a fragment ot Sophocles, (F’r. 380,) and again in the proverb, — “The dice of Zeus have ever lucky throws.”—(F'r. 763.) (2) Here, also, the watchman takes up another common proverbial phrase, belonging to the same group as that of “kicking against the pricks” in v. 1624. He has his reasons for silence, weighty as would be the tread of an ex to close his lips. AGAMEMNON. 183 Double-throned and double-sceptred, Power from sovran Zeus deriving— Mighty pair of the Atreidee— Raised a flect of thousand vessels ¥ Of the Argives from our country, Potent helpers in their warfare, Shouting cry of Ares fiercely ; Hen 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 bound the : 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,! Sendeth forth on men transgressing, Erinnys, slow but sure avenger ; So against young Alexandros? 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-shaft 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.$ a (1) The vultures stand, ¢.¢., to the rulers of Heaven, in the same rela- tion as the foreign sojourners in Athens, the Metcecs, did to the citizens under whose protection they placed themselves, (2) Alexandros, the other name of Paris, the seducer of Helen. (8) 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 wife, had not offered acceptable sacrifices, had neglected al AGAMEMNON, We, with old frame little honoured, Left behind that host are staying, Resting strength that equals childhood’s On our staff: for in the bosom *Of 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 three feet on his journey; ! # Not more Ares-like than boyhood, Like a day-seen dream he wanders, [Enter CLYT@MNESTRA, followed by the procession of torch-bearers. Thou, of Tyndareus the daughter, Queen of Argos, Clyteemnestra, What has happened ? what news cometh ? What perceiving, on what tidings Leaning, dost thou put in motion All this solemn, great procession ? Of the Gods who guard the city, Those above and those beneath us, Of the heaven, and of the market, bad 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, fices to Zeus Xenios, the God of host and guest. The allusion to the fice of Iphigeneia, which some (Donaldson and Paley) have found , and the wrath of Clyteemnestra, which Agamemnon will fail te a en more ee < n allusion, such as the audience would catch and delight in, to the ‘Anown enigma of the Sphinx. See Sophocles, (Grane 1 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, taking their places round the central thymele, begin their song. Srropue. Able am I to utter, setting forth The might from omens sprung *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 Achzans’ 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: ne (1) 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 the 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 y. 123, they are of “‘ diverse mood.”? The hare whom they devour is, in the first instance, Troia, 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 Atreide. Either their victory will be sullied by cruelty which will bring down ven- eance, or else there is some secret sin in the past which must be atoned ‘or by a terrible sacrifice. In the legend followed by Sophocles, (Electr. 666,) Agamemnon had offended Artemis by slaying a doe sacred to her, as he was hunting. In the manifold meanings of such omens there is, probably, a latent suggestion of the sacrifice of Se “Mana by the two chieftains, though this was at the time hidden from the seer. The fact that _ are seen on the right, not on the left hand, was itzelf ominous of goo 2 186 AGAMEMNON. Wail as for Linos, wail, wail bitterly, And yet may good prevail !! ANTISTROPHE. And the wise prophet of the army seeing The brave Atreide 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 130 Blunt the great curb of Troia yet encamped, Struck down before its time ; For Artemis the chaste that house doth hate, Her father’s wingéd 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 ! Eropg. ‘*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 men mourned for the death of Linos, the minstrel-son of Apollo and Urania, 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 Hom. 11. vii. 569) speaks of the name, as applied to all funeral dirges over poets and minstrels. So Herodotos (ii. 79) compares it, as the type of this kind of music among the Greeks, with what he found in Egypt connected with the name of Maneros, the only son of the fist king o Egypt, who died in the bloom of youth. The aame 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 fieure is, has something in it analogous to that with which we are more familiar, describing the children, or the army of . king, as the “dew” from ‘the womb of the morning” (Ps. ex. 8). AGAMEMNON. 187 Of all that roam the fields, Las *Yet prays Him bring to pass The portents of those birds, The omens good yet also full of dread. And Pan IT 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, unfistivalled,! 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.” ? i” 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. ty Sreopu. I. kt O Zeus—whate’er He be,$ quot If that Name please Him well, } D Gut che By that on Him IJ call: (hbo \1) The sacrifice, i.¢., was to be such as could not, according to the ons- tomary 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. Clyteemnestra is the embodiment of the Ven- geance of which the Chorus speaks. (3) As apart 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 oti.er God, invoke no other name, but that of the Supreme Zeus. But it can hardly be doubted that they have a meaning beyond this, and are the utterance by the poet of his own theology. Im the second part of the Promethean trilogy (all that we now know of it) he had represented Zeus-as ruling in the might of despotie sovereignty, the representative of a Power which men could not resist, but also could not love, inticting needless sufferings on the sons of men. Now he has grown wiser. Tha 188 AGAMEMNON. pt of + wa 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. Ow” Anrisrropu. I. 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; but if one to Zeus, High triumph-praise should sing, F His shall be all the wisdom of the wise ; be 170 Srxoru. II. < Yea, Zeus, who leadeth men in wisdom’s w: And fixeth fast the law, f And slowly dropping on the heart in bleep gh Comes woe-recording care, fe wt And makes the unwilling yield to wiser though’ pits Am And doubtless this too comes from grace of Gone vy” *Seated in might upon their awful thrones. a & Aytisteopa. II. And then of those Achzan ships the chief,? The elder, blaming not Or seer or priest ; sovereignty of Zeus is accepted as part of the present order of the world ; ‘trust in Him brings 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, bidding him dedicate it not to them but to Zeus, (Diog. Laert. i. 10,) it represents a faint approxi- mason 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 ave, preceding the present order of divine government with its mingled good and evil. Comp. Hesiod. Theogon, 459. (2) The Chorus returns, after its deeper speculative thoughts, to ite interrupted narrative. \ AGAMEMNON. 189 But tempered to the fate that on him smote. . « « ad When that Achasan host Were vexed with adverse winds and failing stores, Still kept where Chalkis in the distance lies, And the vexed waves in Aulis ebb and flow; Srrora. D1. 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; we And when, for that wild storm, Of one more charm far harder for our chiefs The prophet told, and spake of Artemis,' In tone so piercing shrill, The Atreide smote their staves upon the ground, And could not stay their tears, Antistropa. Til, And then the old king lifted up his voice, And spake, ‘‘ Great woe it is to disobey ; Great too to slay my child, om 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!” = Sreorx. IT, So when he himself had harnessed To the yoke of Fate unbending, (1) The seer saw his augury fulfilled. When he uttered the name of Artemis it was pregnant with all the woe which he had ‘reboded at the outset. 190 AGAMEMNON. With a blast of strange, new feeling, Sweeping o’er his heart and spirit, Aweless, godless, and unholy, He his thoughts ahd 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 he 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. Antistropu. III. ‘ wef ( All her prayers and eager callings Wek ¥ On the tender name of Father, All her young and maiden freshness, They but set at nought, those rulers, pry 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,—" oe 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.* Strropu. IV. And she upon the ground Pouring rich folds of veil in saffron dyed, an 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 soription in Lucretius i. 84-101. AGAMEMNON. 193 Fair as a pictured form ;! 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. Ayristaopa. 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, *But 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 It will come clear; may good luck crown our fate! So prays the one true guard, Nearest and dearest found, Of this our Apian land.® [The Chief of the Chorus turns to CLYTHMNESTRA, and her train -of handmaids, who are seen approaching. Chor. I come, O Olytzmnestra, honouring acd (1) Beautiful as a picture, and as motionless and silent also. The art, young as it was, had already reached the when it supplied to the poet an ce standard of perfection. Other allusions to it are found in vv. 774, 13 (2) The words point to the ritual of Greek feasts, which assigned tlie first libation to Zeus and the ee sai the second to the Heroes, the third to Zeus in his special acter as Saviour and ag tia the last was commonly accom ee by a pean, hymn of praise. The life of Agamemnon is described as one ae ee Den cause to offer many such Lbstiong, Iphigeneia hed sung (8) The mythical explanation “of fi fia tte for: the Argive territory is found in the Reppia® y. $66, and ite real meaning will be discussed in a note on that passage. 192 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, I fain would hear, yet will not silence blame. Clytem. 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. Chor. What? Thy words sound so strange they flit by me. @ Clytem. The Achwans hold Troia. Speak I clear enough ? a Chor. Joy creeps upon me, drawing forth my tears. Clyteem. Of loyal heart thine eyes give token true. Chor. What witness sure hast thou of these events ? Clytem. Full clear (how else ?) unless the God deceive.? Chor. Reliest thou on dreams or visions seen ? Clytem. I place no trust in mind weighed down with sleep.? Chor. Hath then some wingless omen charmed thy soul ? 4 Clytem. 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, among the earliest parables of nature. In its mythical form it appears in Hesiod., (Theogon. 123,) but its traces are found wherever. as amo: Hebrews, Athenians, Germans, men reckoned by nights rather than by days, and spoke of ‘‘the evening and the morning” rather than of ‘day and night.” (2) The God thought of is, as in v. 272, Hepheestos, as being Lord of the Fire, that had brought the tidings. (8) It is not without significance that Clyteemnestra 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, (@d. King, vv. 709, 858.) (4) Omens came from the flight of birds. An omen which was not Grustrorthy, 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, ‘‘swifl-winged,” and then refer generically to that form of divination. AGAMEMNON. 193 Clytem. This very night, the mother of this morn. 7° Chor. What herald could arrive with speed like this ? Clytem. Hephestos flashing forth bright flames from Ida: Beacon te beacon from that courier-fire Sent on its tidings ;Tda.to the tock! 1 s: from the isle Thé&height of Athos, dear to Zeus, received A third great torch of flame, 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 radlanodlig Makisiuy watch; wr oat And he, with no delay, nor unawares Conquered by sleep, performed his courier’s part: Far off the torch-light, to Euripos’ straits Oper Advancing, tells it t} Messapion’s guards: (WX “_— They, in their turn, lit up and passed it on, Kindling a pile of dry and aged heath. Z Still strong and fresh the torch, not yet grown dim, (Aso Leaping across Asépos’ plain in guise ee ; Like a bright moon, toward®Kithseran’s rock, yore eager Roused the next station of the courier flame. ad And that far-travelled light the sentries there Refused not, burning more than all yet named: k wr And then the light swooped o’ér Gorgdpis’ lake, b And passing on tofAigiplanctos’ mount, a Bade the bright fire’s due order tarry not; ms a (1) The description that follows, over and above its general interest, had, probably, for an Athenian audience, that of representing the actual succession eacon-stations, by which they, in the course of the wars under Pericles, had actually received intelligence from the coasts ot Asia. A glance at the map will show the fitness of the places named—Ida, Lemnos, Athos, Makistos, (a mountain in Eut cea,) Messapion, (on the coast of Beotia,) over the plains of the Asépos to Kitheron, in the sout of the same province, then over Gorgopis, a bay of the Corinthian Gulf, to Agiplanctos in Meyaris, then across toa headland overlooking the Saronic Gulf, to the Arachnzean hill in Argolis. The word “ courier-fire” connects itself also with the system oi 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 on A mighty beard of flame, and then it passed The headland e’en that looks on Saron’s gulf, Stil] blazing. On it swept, until it came TobArachnzan heights, the watch-tower near $ Then here of the Atreida’s roof it swoops, This light, of Ida’s fire no doubtful heir. Such is the order of my torch-race games 3 One from another taking up the course,! But here the winner is both first and last ; And this sure proof and token now I tell thee, v Seeing that my lord hath sent it me from-Troia. ( 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, a Clytem. This very day the Achzeans Troja hold. I trow full diverse cry pervades the town: Pour in the same vase vinegar and oil, *And you would call them enemies, not friends ; And so from conquerors and from captives now a z (1) Our ignorance of the details of the Lampadephoria, or “torch-r20e games,” in honour of the fire-God, Prometheus, makes the allusion to them somewhat obscure. As described by Pausanias, (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 with his torch still burning became the winner. If all the torches were extin- guished, then all were losers. As so described, however, there is nu succession, no taking the torch from one and passing it on to another, lke that described here and in the well-known line of Lucretius, (ii. 36,) ‘* Kt quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.” (And they, as runners, pass the torch of life.) On the other hand, there are descriptions which show that sucha transfer was the chief element of the game. This is, indeed, implied both in tls passage and in the comparison between the game and the Persi1n courier- system in Herod. viii. 98. The two views may be reconciled by suppesing (1) that there were sets of runners, vying with each other as such, rather than individually, or (2) that a runner whose speed failed him though his torch kept burning, was allowel to hand it on to another who was more likely to win the race, but whose torch was out. The next line seems meant to indicate where the comparison failed. In the toreh-race which Clytcemnestra describes there had been no contest. One and the self-same tire (the idea of succession passing into that of continuity) had started and had reached the goal, and so had won the prize. An alterna tive rendering would be, — “He 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 aud of brothers, children too By aged fathers, mourn their dear ones’ death, And that with throats that are no longer free. al 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 Troians u) 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, Ab! let no evil lust attack the host Oonquered by greed, to plunder what they ought not: For yet they need return in safety home, Doubling the goal to run their backward race.} *But should the host come sinning ’gainst the God! Then would the curse of those that perishéd . Be watchful, e’en though no quick ill might fall. Such thoughts aro mine, mere woman though I be. May good prevail beyond all doubtful chance ! se For I have got the blessing of grest joy. Chor. 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 toil. [Euit OLYTAM. with her train, O Zeus our King! O Night beloved, Mighty winner of great glories, Who upon the towers of Troia Casted’st snare of closest meshes, (1) The complete foot-race was always to the column which marked the end of the course, round it, and back again. In getting to Troia, there- fore, but half the race was done. 196 AGAMEMNON. So that none full-grown or youthful a 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. Stropa. L 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, * *« The Gods deign not to care for mortal ten’ 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 Right, Their houses overfilled with precious store *Above the golden mean. *Ah! let our life be free from all that hurts, am 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 Clyteemnestra, But it can hardly be doubted that for the Athenian audience it would have a more special significance, as a protest oromst the growing scep- ticism; what in a later age would have been culled the Epicureanism, o/ the age of Pericles. Itis the assertion of the belief of Aischylos 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 Troia, an instance of this righteous retribution. The audience were, perhaps, intended to thini also of the punishment which had fallen on the Persians for the sacri legious acts of their fathers. ‘The ae inviolable” are the sanctities of Sie ae of marriage and hospitality, both of whieh Paris had set at noug! oy Z Cn: pineal ie AGAMEMNON. 197 ince sti j st; i alth Against destruction’s dooin, Y Hor ope pao in tha puide-At wentonnar ho in the pride of wantonnass fre Spurns the great alt i tt. Antistropa. L Him woeful, subtle Impulse urges on, I Resistless in her might, ¢ Até’s far-scheming child: All remedy is vain. It is not hidden, but is manifest, That mischief with its horrid gleaming light 3 And, like to worthless bronze,! By friction tried and tests, It turns to tarnished blackness in its hues 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 Atridz’s home, eo And stole its queen away, And so left brand of shame indelible Upon the board where host and guest had sat, Srropu. IL, She, leaving to her countrymen at home Wild din of spear and shield and ships of war, And bringing, as her dower, To lion doom of death, Passed very swiftly through the palace gates, Daring what none should dare; (1) Here, and again in y. 612, we have a similitude drawn 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 zine be substituted for tin, as in our brass, or mixed largely with it, the surface loses its polish, oxidizes and becomes black. 1t is, however, ‘doubtful whether this combination of metals was at the time in use, and the words may simply refer to different degrees of excel- Jence in bronze properly so called. 198 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 ! Woe for the marriage-bed and traces left Of wife who loved her lord!” *There stands he silent; foully wronged and yet - ' *Uttering no word of scorn,? *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? Is loathéd by her lord, And in the penury of life’s bright eyes All Aphrodité’s charm To utter wreck has gone, AyristRopH. II. And phantom shades that hover round in dreams = Come full of sorrow, bringing vain delight ; For vain 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 this, the text of which has been so ya- riously restored and rendered, it may be well to give at least one alterna= uve version ; “There stands she silent, with no honour met, Nor yet with words of scorn, Sweetest to see of all that he has lost.” Che words,.as so taken, refer to the vision of Helen, described in tha 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 speak of a as decorating their palaces with the life-size busts or statues af those they loved. AGAMEMNON. 199 ‘But on a wider scale for those who went From Hellas’ ancient shore, A sore distress that causeth pain of heart Is seen in every house. Yea, many things there are that touch the quick: For those whom each did send He knoweth; but, instead Of living men, there come to each man’s home Funereal urns alone, And ashes of the dead. Srropa. TI. 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, Filling the brazen urn With well-smoothed ashes in the place of men; os 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 3 And jealous discontent ‘Against the Atreide, champions in the suit, 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. Anvistropa. IIT. And so the murmurs of their subjects rise With sullen discontent, . And do the dread work of a people’s curse $ And now my boding fear 200 AGAMEMNON. Awaits some news of ill, As yet enwrapt in blackness of the night. Not heedless are the Gods Of shedders of much blood, And the dark-robed Erinnyes in due time, By adverse chance of life, Place him who prospers in unrighteousness In gloom obscure ; and once among the unseen, cess. i ilous 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,} Nor, as a prisoner, see My life wear on beneath another’s power! Eropr. And now at bidding of the courier flame, The herald of good news, A rumour swift spreads through the city streets, oa 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 2 woman sets to trust Advances evermore ; ? And with swift doom of death sto A rumour spread by woman perishes, Pericles, an Sooertiom of the prizaigie tht tone eraeaire Beli of with independence, without aiming at supremacy. (2) Perhaps passively, ‘Soon sutfers trespassers,” AGAMEMNON. 201 [As the Chorus ends, a Herald is seen approach- ing, his head wreathed with olive. Soon we 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’ershadowed, and the dust,? Dry sister-twin of mire,’ 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 coms, With clear speech bidding us rejoice, or else... . [pauses. The word opposed to this I much mislike. Nay, may good issue good beginnings crown ! 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. J For never did I think in Argive land To die, and share the tomb that most I craved. 60 Now hail! thou land; and hail! ight of days Zeus our great ruler, and thou Pythian king, No longer darting arrows from thy bow.‘ 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 Troia was taken, and now we have the arrivals, first, of the herald, and then of 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, Gd. K, v.83. The custom prevailed for many cen- aoe and is recognised by Dante, Purg. ii. 70, as usual in his time in ly. ath So in the Seven against Thebes, (v. 494,) smoke is called “ the sister of ( 4) A probable reference, not only to the story, but to the actual words of omen ‘Ta i. 45-52. ‘i ¥ = 202 AGAMEMNON. These I invoke; my patron Hermes too, Dear herald, whom all heralds reverence,— Those heroes, too, that sent us,—graciously Yo welcome back the host that war has spared. ’ Hail, O ye royal dwellings, home beloved! Ye solemn thrones, and Gods who face the sun !? 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 Troia with the spade Of Zeus the Avenger, and the plain laid waste ; Fallen their altars and the shrines of Gods ; The seed of all the land is rooted out, This yoke of bondage casting over Troia, Our chief, the elder of the Atreidze, comes, A man full blest, and worthiest of high honour Of all that are. For neither Paris’ self,’ Nor hi iceci 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.‘ aa 610 (1) Specially the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeukes. (2) Such a position (especially in the case of Zeus or Apollo) was come mon in the temples both of Greece and Rome, and had a very obvious signification. As the play was performed, the actual hour of the day probably coincided with that required by the dramatic sequence of events, and the statues of the Gods were so placed on the stage as to catch the rays of the morning sun when the herald entered. Hence the allusion a pvhe bright “cheerful glances”? would have @ visible as well as ethical ess. (8) It formed part of the guilt of Paris, that, besides his seduction of Helena, he had carried off part of the treasures of Menelaos, (4) The idea of a payment twofold the amount of the wrong done, asa complete satisfaction to the sufferer, was common in the early jurisprue dence both ot Greeks and Hebrews, (Exod. xxii. 4-7.) In some cases it ‘was even more, as in the four or fivefold restitution of Exod. xxii. 1. In the grand opening of Isaiah’s message of glad tidings the fact that Jerue salem has received ‘‘double for all her sins’ is made the ground on the oe bs which she may now hope for pardon. Comp. Isa, Lei. 7g AGAMEMNON. 203 Chor. Joy, joy, thou herald of the Achzan host! Her. All joy is mine: I shrink from death no more. Chor. Did love for this thy fatherland so try thee P Her. So that mine eyes weep tears for very joy. Chor. Disease full sweet then this ye suffered trom... 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 P Chor. Yea, so that oft I groaned in gloom of heart. Her, Whence came these bodings that an army hates? °” Chor. Silence T’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 he. 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 Godg, 4.» ““ free from sorrow li is-tife P a For should I tell of toils, and how we lodged Full hardly, seldom putting in to shore,! And then with couch full hard. . . . What gave us not Good cause for mourning? What ill had we not “a As daiiy portion? And what passed on land, That brought yet greater hardship: for our beds Were under our fves’ walls, and meadow mists From heaven and earth still left us wringing wet, « A constant mischief to our garments, making Our hair as shaggy as the beasts’.? And if One spoke of winter frosts that killed the birds, By Ida’s snow-storms made intolerable,’ Or heat. when Ocean 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 elimate of Troia, by Sophocles, Aias, 1206. (8) One may conjec we that here also, as with the passage describing the succession of beacon fires, (vv. 281-314,) the descrip ion would have for an Athenian audience the interest of recalling personal reminiscences of some recent campaign in Thraké, or on the coasts of Asia. 204 AGAMEMNON. Windless reclined and slept without a wave. « «e But why lament o’er this? Our toil is past; Past too is theirs who in the warfare fell, 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 ‘o 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 Troia, These spoils of battle! to the Gods of Hellas Hang on their pegs, enduring prize and joy. 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 Clytzemnestra and the house, and yet That they should make me sharer in their joy. Enier CLYTEMNESTRA. Clytem. I long ago for gladness raised my cry, ere When the first fiery courier came by night, Telling of Troia taken and laid waste: And then one girding at me spake, ‘‘ Dost think, Trusting in beacons, Troia is laid waste P 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 sta a ~ on Gods of Hellas, whom he had invoked on his entrance. ir, “So that to this bright morn our sons may boast, As they o’er land and ocean take their flight, ‘The Argive host of old, who captured Troia, These spoils of battle to the Gods of Hellas, Hung on their pegs, a trophy of old days,’” 56 3 AGAMEMNON. 205 Shrill 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. sed And now why need’st thou lengthen out thy words? 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 oe 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.””! 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.® [Zeit (1) The husband, on his departure, sealed up his special treasures. It wae he glory of the faithful wife or the trusty steward to keep these seals unbroken. (2) There ig an ambiguity, possibly an intentional one, in the compa- rison which Clyteemnestra uses. 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- bility. Later on in the history of art, however, as in the time of Plutarch, @ process so described (perhaps analogous to enamelling) is described (De Pyth. Orac. 42) as common. If we suppose the art to have been a mystery known to the few, but not to the many, in the time of Aischylos, then the words would have for the bearers the point of a double entendre. She seems to the mass to disclaim what yet, to those in the secret, she acknowledges 4 Another rendering refers ‘‘bronze” tothe “sword,” and makes the stains those of blood; as though she said, ‘‘I am as guiltless of adulte: as of murder,” while yet she knew that she had committed the one, ani meant to commit the other. The possibility of such a meaning is cer- tainly in the words, and with a sharp-witted audience catching at seenigmas 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. (8) The last two lines are by some editors assigned to the Herald. 206 AGAMEMNON, Chor. [to Herald.] She hath thus spoken in thy heur- ing now A goodly word for good interpreters. But tell me, herald, tell of Menelaos, 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! could’st thou good news speak, and also true! These things asunder are not well concealed. Her. The chief has vanished from the Achzan host, He and his ship. I speak no falsehood here. Chor. In sight of all when he from Ilion sailed ? Or did a storm’s wide evil part him from you? Her. Vike skilful archer thou hast hit the 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 P 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 shallI Blend good with evil, telling of a storm AGAMEMNON. 207 That smote the Achzeans, 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, sia Whirled by an evil pilot. And when rose The sun’s bright orb, behold, the Aigaean sea Blossomed with wrecks of ships and dead Achzans, 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 had 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 And well, by help of Zeus who has not willed oe As yet to blot out all the regal race, Some hope there is that he ’ll come back again. Know, hearing this, that thou the truth hast heard. [Lait Herald. Steoru. I. Chor. Who was it named her with such wondrous truth? (Could it be One unseen, 208 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 ?? bad 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 Simois, On her account who came, Dire cause of strife with bloodshed in her train. o- Antistropa. 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 paronomasia of this kind as it is to reproduce those, more or less analogous, which we fd in the prophets of the Old Testament, (comp. especially Micah i. ;) but it seems better to substitute something which approaches, however imperfectly, to an equivalent than to obscure the reference to the nomen et omen by abandoning the attempt to translate it. ‘‘ Hell of men, and hell of ships, and hell of towers,” has been the rendering adopted by many previous translators. The Greek fondness for this play on names is seen in Sophoéles, Aias, vy. 401. (2) Zephyros, Boreas, and the other great winds were represented in the Theogony of Hesiod (v. 134) as the ctispring of Astreeos and Eés, an Astresos was a Titan. The west wind was, of course, favourable to Paris ma aes with a sont viens tg Troia. ere again the translator has to meet the difficulty of apunm. Al an alternative we might take— ie care “To Ilion brought, well-named, A marriage marring all,” AGAMEMNON. 209 Fell to the lot of all the bridegroom’s kin,! 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. Sreroru. I. So once a lion’s cub, A mischief in his house, 2 As foster child one reared,? While still it loved the teats; In life’s preluding dawn Tame, by the children loved, And fondled by the old,’ 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. Antistropa. I. 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. ix. 81; Plutarch, de Cohib. ird, 414, p. $22,) 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. (8) There may, possibly, be a half allusion here to the passage in the Jtiad, (vv. 154-160,) which describes the fascination which the beauty of _ Helen exczcised on the Troian elders. P 210 AGAMEMNON, A curse no slaves could check, Great mischief murderous : By God’s decree a priest of Até thus Was reared, and grew within the man’s own house. Sreroru. III. So I would tell 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 ; nm And yet she turned aside, And wrought a bitter end of marriage feast, Coming to Priam’s race, Til sojourner, ill friend, Sent by great Zeus, the God of host and guest— Erinnys, for whom wives weep many tears. AntistropaH. IIL, 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 : For-still in every house That loves the right their fate for evermore Rejoiceth in an issue fair and good. (1) The poet becomes a prophet, and asserts what it has been given him to know of the righteous government of God. The dominant creed of Greece at the time was, that the Gods were envious of man’s pros- perity, that this alone, apart from moral evil, was euough to draw down their wrath, and bring a curse upon the prosperous house. Sv, ¢.9., Amasis tells Polycrates (Herod. iii. 40) that the unseen Divinity that rules the world is envious, that power and glory are inevitably the recursors of destruction. Comp. also the speech of Artabanos, Herod. vii. 10, 46.) Against this, in the tone of one who speaks single handed for the eat 4éschylos, through the Chorus, enters his protea AGAMEMNON. aan Srroru. 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 Lust 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. Antistropa. 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 ™ She with averted eyes Hath left, and draweth near Yo 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 his chariot, followed by another chariot, in which Cas- SANDRA 1s 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 staye the Chorus sings its welcome. 7 Come then, king, thou son of Atreus, 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 thére 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 ; 7 ~ But when one his own sheep knoweth, Then men’s eyes cannot deceive him, When they deem with kindly purpose, 7 And with fondness weak to flatter. 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. 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, Te Him who rightly, him who wrongly Of thy citizens fulfilleth Task of office for the city.? 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 ; *T’ the other urn Hope touched the rim alone, me (1) Sc., Agamemnon, by the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, had induced his troops to persevere in an expedition from which, in their inmost hearts they shrank back with strong dislike, A conjectural reading gives, q “By the sacrifice he offered Giving death-doomed men false boldness,” (2) The tone of xmbiguous irony mingles, it wi wilh the praises of the Chorus, * Will be seen, even here, AGAMEMNON. 213 _— Still far from being filled full. And even yet = The captured city by its smoke is seen, * The incense clouds of Até live on still; Ny 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,? Foaled by the mare, a people bearing shield, Taking its leap when set the Pleiades ;* And, bounding o’er the tower, that ravenous lion wa 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. A With but few men is it their natural bent ~~‘. To honour without grudging prosperous friend ; 4 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’ harpier lot. m0 * 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 Sailed 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 wee 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 Humenides, v. 678) the votes for condemnation and acquittal wero east into separate urns. (2) The lion, as the symbol of the house of Atreus, still seen in tho sculptures of Mykenz ; the horse, in allusion to the stratagem by which Troia had been taken. (8) At the end of autumn, and therefore at a season when a storm like that described by the herald would be a probable incident enough, (4) So in Sophocles, Philoctetes (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 dow 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 ove on, and first give thanks unto the Gods o led me forth, and brought me back again. Since Victory follows, long may she remain! Enter CLYTEMNESTRA, followed by female attendants “carrying purple tapestry. Clytem. Ye citizens, ye Argive senators, I will not shrink from telling you the tale 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 of him, Now one and now another coming still, Bringing news home, worse trouble upon bad. Yea, if my lord had met as many wounds As rumour told of, floating to our house, eto He had been riddled more than any net; And had he died, as tidings still poured in, Then: he, a second Geryon! with three lives, Had boasted of a threefold coverlet Of earth above, (I will not say below him,)* Be Toe odies, ulipareh ae fdand Engitan oe ee beyond Hesperia. To destroy him and seize his cattle was one of tha “twelve labours,” with which Hesiod (Theo. Vv. 287-' j made men familiar (Theogon, 294) had already (2) When a man. is buried, there is earth above and earth below him Clyteomnestra having used the words “coyerlet,” pauses to make ius ean eS amy ‘ yo AGAMEMNON, 215 Dying one death for each of those his forms; | And so, because of all thao it reports, - Full many ¢ —ss around my néGic~hiave others Jats oy taain-tores, when | had hung myself. ' And for this cause no son is with me now, om) Holding in trust the pledges of our love, As he should be, Orestes. Wonder not; For now a kind ally doth nurture him, Strophios 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 Haye-flowed till they are dry, no drap remains, = And mine eyes suffer from o’er-late repose, Watching with tears the beacons set for thee,! Left still unheeded. And 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, ; : ld, The stay that saves the ship, of lofty roof en 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 which would have been laid over her husband’s corpse, had he died as often as he was reported to have done. She will not utter anything sa ominous as an allusion to the depths below him stretching down to les. (1) Or— : “Weeping because the torches in thy house No more were lighted as they were of yore.” (2) The words touch upon the psychological fact that in dreams, as in other abnormal states of the mind, the usual measures of time disappear, and we seem to pass through the experiences of many years in the elu. ber of a few minutes. 216 AGAMEMNON. Clea¥=fiovsing fount to thirsty traveller. You, it is alearet fa Doe Mraits : 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, O King, set thou the foot that Ilion trampled. oe Why linger ye, [turning to her attendants,] ye maids, whose task it was To strew the pathway with your tapestries ? i Let the whole road be straightway_purple-strown, iY 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.* (The handmaids advance, and are about to lay the purple carpets on the ground.) Agam. O child of Leda, guardian of my home, Thy speech hath with my absence well agreed— i Jst-it—but fit praise Is boon that I must seek at other hands. ove I pray thee, do not in thy woman’s fashion tt Pamper my pride, nor ia barbaric guise Prostrate on earth raise full-mouthed cries to ee Make not my path offensive to the Gods By spreading it with carpets. 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 Cly.eemnestra, She ‘‘doth protest too much.”