AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.
CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and the
very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that you
confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.
AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely speaking, I
add shamelessness to misfortune?
CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make use
of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may first
reproach thee with this--thou didst wed me unwilling, and obtain me by
force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having dashed[85] my
infant living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And
the twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
[against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a
suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a wife,
but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this son,
besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to deprive me.
And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her, say, what will
you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus may obtain
Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the price of a
bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of those dearest.
Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then wilt be a long
time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall experience, when I
behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and every virgin chamber
empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning her [in such strains as
these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee, hath destroyed thee,
himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand, leaving such a reward for
[my care of] the house."[86] Since there wants but a little reason for me
and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you deserve to
receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly toward thee,
nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy daughter--what
prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt thou crave for thyself,
slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing, forsooth, thou hast
disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that I should pray for
thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods are senseless, if we
feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou, returning to Argos, embrace
thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee. Will any of your children look
upon you, if thou offerest one of them for slaughter? Thus far have I
proceeded in my argument. What! does it only behoove thee to carry about
thy sceptre and marshal the army?--whose duty it were to speak a just
speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O Greeks, to sail against the land
of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose daughter needs must die"--for this would
be on equal terms, but not that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks
as a chosen victim. Or Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay
Hermione for her mother's sake. But now I, having cherished thy married
life, shall be bereaved of my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her
daughter under her care to Sparta, will be blest. As to these things,
answer me if I say aught not rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not
then slay thy child and mine, and thou wilt be wise.
CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.
IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm
by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom
I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I will offer
tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant bough, I press
against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching]
that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light,
nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth. And I
first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and
first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens
of affection. And such, were thy words: "My daughter, shall I some time
behold thee prospering in a husband's home, living and flourishing worthily
of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now
with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee
when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying
thee the careful nurture of my youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but
thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you]
by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before
brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to
do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my
destruction? Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial
of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my
words. Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with
me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont
to be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.
In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of heaven is
sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is
he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.
CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
contest for the Atrides and their children.
AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me[88] to dare
these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so--for so I must needs act.
Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of
brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at
the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor
can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has maddened
the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the
barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives. And they will
slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the
commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O
daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or
nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For it
behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be
free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by
barbarians.
CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy father
flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.
IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on account
of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright beam of
the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida,
where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant, having separated him
from his mother, that he might meet with deadly fate, Paris, who was styled
Idæan, Idæan [Paris] in the city of the Phrygians. Would that the herdsman
Paris, who was nurtured in care of steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white
stream, where are the fountains of the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing
with blooming flowers, and roseate flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to
cull. Where once on a time came Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and
Hermes, the messenger of Jove; Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms,
and Pallas in the spear, and Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove,
[these came] to a hateful judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my
death, my death, O virgins, bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath
received as first-fruits [of the expedition] against Troy.[89] But he that
begot me wretched, O mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O
hapless me! having †beheld† bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would[90] for me that
Aulis had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these
ports, the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse
wind over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice
in their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry. In
truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles, and it
necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou daughter
of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs upon the
Greeks.
CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
never shouldst have met with.
IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men near.
CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest hither.
IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.
CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?
IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.
CLY. On what account?
IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.
CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we can
[but save your life.]
ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.
CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.
ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.
CLY. What cry? tell me.
ACH. Concerning thy child.
CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.
ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.
CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?
ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.
CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?
ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.
CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!
ACH. This very thing.
CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?
ACH. All the Greeks.
CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?
ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.
CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.