OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon mine
eyes.
AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?
OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the ocean,)[2]
close to the seven Pleiads.
AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the sea,
but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.
OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon? But
still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the fortifications
are undisturbed. Let us go within.
AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a life
without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in honor.
OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.
AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the Gods
not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
dissatisfied opinions of men harass.
OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus did
not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.[3] But thou needs
must rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou still
art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same characters, and
seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground, pouring abundant
tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things that tend to madness.
Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What new thing, what new
thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come, communicate discourse
with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful man, for to thy wife
Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift, and disinterested
companion.[4]
AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phœbe, and
Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the youths of Greece
that were in the first state of prosperity came as suitors. But terrible
threats of bloodshed[5] arose against one another, from whoever should not
obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father Tyndarus,
whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he might best
deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that the suitors
should join oaths and plight right hands with one another, and over
burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by this oath,
"Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife, that they will
join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her]
with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make
an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or
barbarian alike." But after they had pledged themselves, the old man
Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan. He permits
his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales
of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!)
Menelaus. And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedæmon, flowered in the vesture of his
garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who
loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having
found Menelaus abroad. But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to
witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the
aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken
their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and
shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots. And they
chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother
forsooth. And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity. But
when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing,
at Aulis. But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we
should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this
place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and
the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not
sacrifice her. But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius
dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my
daughter. Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning,
persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of
a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married
to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that
he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which I
then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in
this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and
closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos. But as
to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all
that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.
OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees
with your letter.
AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former
dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Eubœa,[8]
waveless Aulis. For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another
season."
OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and thy
wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is terrible.
Show what thou meanest.
AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.[9]
OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having promised
thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as a
sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.
AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into calamity.
But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.
OLD M. I hasten, O king.
AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
sleep.
OLD M. Speak good words.
AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching lest
there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my daughter
hither to the ships of the Greeks.
OLD M. This shall be.
AG. And go out of the gates[10] quickly,† for if you meet with the
procession,† again go forth, shake the reins, going to the temples reared
by the Cyclops.
OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
daughter and wife.
AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go: morn,
already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the sun's
four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is prosperous or
blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from pain.
CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having sailed
through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow strait, my
city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters[11] of renowned Arethusa, in
order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the ship-conveying
oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a thousand ships of fir,
our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and Agamemnon of noble birth,
are leading in quest of Helen,[12] whom the herdsman Paris bore from
reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the fountain dews Venus
held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and Pallas. But I came
swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek
red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield, and
the arm-bearing tents[13] of the Greeks, and the crowd of steeds. But I saw
the two Ajaces companions, the son of Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the
glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of
Neptune bore, diverting themselves[14] with the complicated figures of
draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them
Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes
from the mountains of the isle, and with them Nireus, fairest of the
Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom
Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I beheld him on the shore, coursing in
arms along the shingles. And he toiled through a contest of feet, running
against a chariot of four steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out,
Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres,[15] whose most beauteous steeds I beheld,
decked out with gold-tricked bits, hurried on by the lash, the middle ones
in yoke dappled with white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose
harness, running contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with
dappled skins under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was
running in arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.[16] And I came to
the multitude of ships, a sight not to be described, that I might satiate
the sight of my woman's eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of
the fleet] was the Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant
ships. And in golden effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of
the poops, the standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there
stood the Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the
grandson of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and
Sthenelus son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships
from Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed[17] in her
equestrian winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the
armament of the Bœotians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycenæ the son of Atreus sent the
assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as friend
with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those who fled
their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos we beheld
on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view, his neighbor
Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of Ænian ships, which king Gyneus led,
and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all the people named
Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the white-oared Taphian host
* * * * led,[18] which Meges ruled, the offspring of Phyleus, leaving the
island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax, the foster-child of
Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which he was stationed
nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with twelve most swift
vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To which if any one add
the barbarian barks, * * * * it will not obtain a return. * * * * Where I
beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other things at home I preserve
remembrance of the assembled army.
OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not dare.
MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.
OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!
MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.
OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.
MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.
OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.
MEN. I will not let it go.
OLD M. Nor will I let it go.
MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.
OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.
MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.
OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out
of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.
MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?