The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes

CLYTEMNESTRA, _daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen; wife to Agamemnon._

AIGISTHOS, _son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy to Agamemnon lover to Clytemnestra._

CASSANDRA, _daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess; now slave to Agamemnon._

A WATCHMAN.

A HERALD.

CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON.

CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY

MENELÂÜS, _brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen, and King of Sparta. The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae._

HELEN, _most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus, wife to _MENELÂÜS_; beloved and carried off by Paris._

PARIS, _son of Priam, King of Troy, lover of Helen. Also called_ ALEXANDER.

PRIAM, _the aged King of Troy._

_The Greeks are also referred to as Achaians, Argives, Danaans; Troy is also called Ilion._

_The play was produced in the archonship if Philocles_ (458 B.C.). _The first prize was won by Aeschylus with the "Agamemnon", "Libation-Bearers", "Eumenides", and the Satyr Play "Proteus"_.

THE AGAMEMNON

_The Scene represents a space in front of the Palace of Agamemnon in Argos, with an Altar of Zeus in the centre and many other altars at the sides. On a high terrace of the roof stands a_ WATCHMAN. _It is night_.

WATCHMAN.

This waste of year-long vigil I have prayed God for some respite, watching elbow-stayed, As sleuthhounds watch, above the Atreidae's hall, Till well I know yon midnight festival Of swarming stars, and them that lonely go, Bearers to man of summer and of snow, Great lords and shining, throned in heavenly fire. And still I await the sign, the beacon pyre That bears Troy's capture on a voice of flame Shouting o'erseas. So surely to her aim Cleaveth a woman's heart, man-passioned! And when I turn me to my bed--my bed Dew-drenched and dark and stumbling, to which near Cometh no dream nor sleep, but alway Fear Breathes round it, warning, lest an eye once fain To close may close too well to wake again; Think I perchance to sing or troll a tune For medicine against sleep, the music soon Changes to sighing for the tale untold Of this house, not well mastered as of old. Howbeit, may God yet send us rest, and light The flame of good news flashed across the night.

[_He is silent, watching. Suddenly at a distance in the night there is a glimmer of fire, increasing presently to a blaze._

Ha! 0 kindler of the dark, O daylight birth Of dawn and dancing upon Argive earth For this great end! All hail!--What ho, within! What ho! Bear word to Agamemnon's queen To rise, like dawn, and lift in answer strong To this glad lamp her women's triumph-song, If verily, verily, Ilion's citadel Is fallen, as yon beacons flaming tell. And I myself will tread the dance before All others; for my master's dice I score Good, and mine own to-night three sixes plain.

[_Lights begin to show in the Palace_.

Oh, good or ill, my hand shall clasp again My dear lord's hand, returning! Beyond that I speak not. A great ox hath laid his weight Across my tongue. But these stone walls know well, If stones had speech, what tale were theirs to tell. For me, to him that knoweth I can yet Speak; if another questions I forget.

[_Exit into the Palace. The women's "Ololûgê" or triumph-cry, is heard within and then repeated again and again further off in the City. Handmaids and Attendants come from the Palace, bearing torches, with which they kindle incense on the altars. Among them comes_ CLYTEMNESTRA, _who throws herself on her knees at the central Altar in an agony of prayer._