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that his house be all destroyed, there are still grounds
for hope he will come home again. Know that
in hearing this much you have heard the truth.
HERALD exits to the right.
CHORUS Who can have named her so
Strophe 1
exactly? Someone now
invisible whose power
to see, so long ago,
what far ahead was fated
to happen, rightly led
his tongue, his lips, to name
that spear bride, source of killing,
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Helen: destroyer. The name
became her, suited her,
it seemed, as much as the soft
luxuries of the bower
she sailed from, destroyer of ships,
destroyer of men, destroyer
of cities, swept ahead
on the breeze that the giant Zephyrus
sent her. And on her heels,
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fast on the scent of blood-strife,
many shield-bearing huntsmen
followed the disappearing
track of the oars that had
already beached the ships
on Simois’ leaf-thick shores.
Inexorable in its aim,
Antistrophe 1
Wrath made for Troy
a marriage whose name is mourning,
and then demanded a reckoning
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for the guest-table, dishonored,
and the dishonor to Zeus,
from those who sang out
in the bride’s honor the song
that fell then to the bride-
groom’s kin to sing.
But learning a different tune
in a new key fraught with sorrow,
Priam’s city laments,
I think, in her old age,
810
laments and calls it evil,
the marriage Paris made.
She has endured destruction,
death, sheer desolation,
and a season of ceaseless keening
caused by the spilled blood
of all her piteous sons.
A man raised as his own
Strophe 2
a lion cub, not weaned
yet, robbed of the breast,
820
gentle in the beginning,
the children’s pet, and to
the old a quiet pleasure.
And often in his arms
he rocked it like a baby,
its bright eyes ever turned
to the hand it nuzzled
to ease the belly’s hunger.
But as time passed it showed
Antistrophe 2
the color of its bloodlines,
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and in return for all
the kindness it received
from those who fostered it,
it made a bleak, forbidden
feast, cruel slaughter of all
the cattle, the house foul
with blood, since no one could
beat back the agony,
and all about them, near
and far, a chaos of strewn
840
corpses. A priest of death
and ruin, ordained by god,
was nurtured in the house.
And one could say there came at first
to Troy
Strophe 3
a sweet air
of windless calm, and wealth with all its subtle,
shimmery
ornaments, a soft arrow of the eyes,
a love-flower
stinging the heart. But who was it who turned
850
the marriage bed
to ruin, devised such a bitter consummation?
Who drove on
to the sons of Priam, in the train of Zeus,
protector of host
and guest, and spread the deadly poison of
herself among them?
The poisonous deliverer of tears
to brides, the Erinys.
An ancient saying, still repeated, still
Antistrophe 3
860
believed, proclaims
that great prosperity, once it has reached full growth,
turns to begetting,
does not die childless—and from the high
state of a house’s
fortune a quenchless misery is born.
But I’m alone
in thinking otherwise—an evil act
is all that fathers
more evil after it: the son follows
870
in the father’s footsteps.
For when a house is just, its children are
the beauty of its fate.
But, soon or late, at the determined time,
Strophe 4
among the impious
old arrogance gives birth to new, brings forth
that irresistible,
undefeatable spirit of wild daring
that is itself
the black face of ruin, so like its parent.
880
Even in hovels, under smoke-smeared
rafters,
Antistrophe 4
Justice shines
her blessings on the ones who live with honor;
but from grand halls
made radiant with gold by unclean hands
she turns away,
her eyes drawn back to what is simply good,
shunning the power
of gold that flattery makes a fool’s gold of,
and, always, all
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things she is guiding to their determined end.
AGAMEMNON enters from the left in a horse-drawn car,
accompanied by CASSANDRA.
And now, my king, scourge of Troy,
son of Atreus,
how should I greet you, how do you justice
and neither shoot beyond nor fall
short of the mark of what suits you,
what you deserve, for there are now
so many here
among us who prefer the outward
sheen of truth without the substance,
900
who flout justice
and groan out with the ones who groan
though no pain grips their heart, and then,
among the joyous, with a show
of joy disguise a joyless face.
But the good
discerning shepherd of his flock
sees through those eyes that brighten with
a seeming heart-
felt loyalty that’s really just
910
a fawning, watered-down affection.
And when you long ago led forth
your thousand warships for the sake
of Helen, the picture
I painted in my mind of you
(I will not hide it) was disfigured,
ugly; I thought
the tiller of your mind steered wildly,
trying by sacrifice to bring
back courage to your dying men.
920
But now with love drawn from the deep
well of the heart,
I say, “Even the toil is sweet
to those who have at last succeeded.”
And you will learn,
in time, by careful scrutiny,
which of your citizens have served
the city justly, which have not.
AGAMEMNON I first greet Argos, as is only just,
and all the gods who dwell here in the land,
930
they who have helped me in my safe return,
and in the justice I at last exacted
from Priam’s city. For the gods heard pleas
not from any mouth but from force of arms
and unanimously cast into the urn of blood
their vote
of ruin, death, for Ilium;
And though a hand drew near the other urn,
and held out hope, the vessel wasn’t filled.
Smoke, even now, lifts up a declaration
of the city’s fall, the fiery thunderstorm
940
of its destruction goes on living and
the embers, eating down, dying with the city,
exhale the rich fumes of the city’s wealth.
For this we owe the gods our gratitude
and remembrance, since what was arrogantly
plundered has been remorselessly avenged,
and for a woman’s sake all of the city
was ground down into dust by the Trojan Horse,
the wooden monster that held the Argive host
till they made their fierce leap when the Pleiads set.
950
Over the wall, the flesh-crazed lion leaped
and gorged himself upon the blood of kings.
I’ve gone on this long in honor of the gods.
But as for your concerns, know I have listened,
and still remember, and think the same as you—
You have my full support. For few men give
by nature honor to a friend’s good fortune
without resenting him. For envy burrows
deep in the heart and doubles the sickening weight
of the disease for the man afflicted with it.
960
Weighed down with sorrows all his own, he groans
to see someone who’s happy in his life.
I speak from hard experience and, knowing
too well the mirror of friendship, comradeship,
call those who only mimic loyalty
the shadow of a shade. Only Odysseus,
who dragged his feet at first, once harnessed, always
pulled his own weight, and more. Whether alive
or dead, he still deserves our praise and thanks.
As to the rest, what concerns the city
970
and the gods, we shall hold assembly and
talk openly about this. And what is well,
we will make sure that it continues well,
But what needs healing, we will heal,
Yes, one way or another, we’ll try to thwart
the pain of the disease by some kind means,
burning, or cutting.
I’m going inside now
to my halls, my household, greeting the gods who sent
me far away and brought me back. Since Victory
has been with me, may she stay with me forever.
980
CLYTEMNESTRA enters from the palace followed by
serving women holding crimson tapestries.
CLYTEMNESTRA Elders of the city, I’m not ashamed
to tell you all how much I love my husband.
As one grows older, all shyness dies away.
I am self-taught in suffering. Let me tell you
how hard my life’s been these long years my husband
fought beneath the walls of Troy. How hard
and fearful for a woman, her husband gone,
to sit in her house alone, the helpless prey
of deadly rumors, as messenger follows messenger,
each bearing news worse than the one before,
990
all crying devastation for the house.
And if this man had suffered as many wounds
as rumor after rumor of his wounds
poured through the house, his body now would be
more net than body, pierced with so many holes.
Or if he’d died as often as he did
in the tales I heard, you’d have to say he had
three bodies, like a second Geryon,
and could claim he had received a triple cloak
of earth (a mighty weight of earth above
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him, not to mention all the earth below)—
perishing three times, once for every shape.
Distraught from deadly rumours such as these,
I often pulled a noose around my neck
and yanked it tight, and would have hanged myself
had others not discovered me, and seized me
and, though I fought them hard, loosened the knot.
And this is why our son is not here with us,
as he ought to be, Orestes, in whom resides
the joint pledge of our love for one another.
1010
Don’t be surprised to hear this. For your friend
and ally, Strophius the Phocian, is
looking after him. He urged this on me
for two reasons: the danger you ran at Troy,
and the way the people’s clamorous lawlessness
might topple the council, since it’s human nature
to want to trample on the man who’s fallen.
That’s my justification, quite without deceit.
My tears, those fountains that gushed once, have all
run dry, no drop remains, and my eyes are sore
1020
with weeping from the years of nightlong vigils
for the beacon fires set for you that were never lit.
Year in, year out, my sleep was so thin even
the faintest whirr of a gnat’s wing was enough
to wake me from the nightmares in which I saw
you suffer more torments than the time that shared
my sleep could hold. Now, these troubles all
behind me,
with my heart free of sorrow, I can call
my husband here the watchdog of the fold,
the ship’s stout rigging, the high roof’s central pillar,
1030
sole son to a father, land appearing
to sailors who despaired of seeing land,
bright rill of water to the bone-dry traveler.
Fairest is the weather dawning after storm.
What joy I have at last to elude all need.
These are the greetings he deserves. Let Envy
not begrudge me what I’m blessed with now, for I
endured much in what went before.
And now,
beloved, step down from your chariot,
don’t let your foot touch the ground, my king, the foot
1040
that toppled Troy.
Handmaidens, I gave you all
the task of strewing with tapestries the ground
he walks on—why the delay? Let his path be
covered quickly over all with purple,
so Justice now may guide him to the home
he never hoped to see. And for the rest,
a vigilant attention will accomplish
everything down to the smallest detail, justly,
with god’s help, exactly as it’s been ordained.
AGAMEMNON Child of Leda, guardian of my house,
1050
in one respect, at least, your speech mirrors
my absence, for you have stretched it out too long.
What praise is due me ought to come from others,
not you. What’s more, you shouldn’t coddle me
like a woman, or grovel, mouth wide with loud hurrahs,
as if I were some barbarian; don’t draw down envy
upon my path by strewing it with robes.
Only the gods one honors in this way.
A man who walks on fineries such as these
walks fearfully. Revere me like a man,
1060
not like a god. True fame speaks for itself,
it doesn’t need to throw its voice like some
ventriloquist into mats and tapestries.
Not thinking basely is the greatest blessing.
Call only one whose life ends happily
a fortunate man. And I am hopeful
if in all things I can behave like this.
CLYTEMNESTRA Now tell me this: and say wha
t you truly think.
AGAMEMNON Be sure, I never defile what I truly think.
CLYTEMNESTRA Would you have vowed to do this, in fear of the gods?
1070
AGAMEMNON If someone, who knew I should, ordained it, yes.
CLYTEMNESTRA And if Priam had crushed you, what would he have done?
AGAMEMNON He would have trampled on fineries, I think.
CLYTEMNESTRA Don’t worry then what other men might say.
AGAMEMNON Yet people talk, and what they say has power.
CLYTEMNESTRA A life unenvied is an unenviable life.
AGAMEMNON And it’s unwomanly to love contention.
CLYTEMNESTRA It is fitting for the fortunate to give way.
AGAMEMNON Does winning this fight mean so much to you?
CLYEMNESTRA The gain is all yours, if you let me win.
1080
AGAMEMNON Well, if you want it so badly—someone quick
loosen these boots that slave on my behalf,
And as I trample down the god’s purples,
let no envy strike me from a far-off eye.
Shameful to squander with my feet like this
the house’s substance, ruining such wealth,
such woven opulence that silver bought.
But enough of this.
(pointing to CASSANDRA)
Now bring this stranger in,
and treat her well. From far away the gods
look favorably upon a gentle master.
1090
For none bows by his own will to the yoke
of slavery. And she came with me as
the choicest flower of abundant treasure,
the army’s gift.
But since I let my will
be bent to yours in this, my feet will trample
a purple path into my palace halls.
CLYTEMNESTRA There is a sea—and who will drain it dry?—
breeding wave after wave of purple, precious
as silver, inexhaustibly renewed,
in which to dye our garments. Yes, a wealth
1100