And now at bidding of the courier flame,
The herald of good news,
A rumour swift spreads through the city streets, 460
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?
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 a woman sets to trust
Advances evermore;[304]
And with swift doom of death 470
A rumour spread by woman perishes.
[_As the Chorus ends, a Herald is seen approaching,
his head wreathed with olive_[305]
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,[306]
Dry sister-twin of mire,[307] announces this,
That neither without voice, nor kindling blaze
Of wood upon the mountains, he will signal 480
With smoke from fire, but either he will come,
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.
For never did I think in Argive land
To die, and share the tomb that most I craved. 490
Now hail! thou land; and hail! thou light of day:
Zeus our great ruler, and thou Pythian king,
No longer darting arrows from thy bow.[308]
Full hostile wast thou by Scamandros' banks,
Now be thou Saviour, yea, and Healer found,
O king Apollo! and the Gods of war,
These I invoke; my patron Hermes too,
Dear herald, whom all heralds reverence,—
Those heroes, too, that sent us,[309]—graciously
To welcome back the host that war has spared. 500
Hail, O ye royal dwellings, home beloved!
Ye solemn thrones, and Gods who face the sun![310]
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 Troïa with the spade
Of Zeus the Avenger, and the plain laid waste;
Fallen their altars and the shrines of Gods; 510
The seed of all the land is rooted out,
This yoke of bondage casting over Troïa,
Our chief, the elder of the Atreidæ, comes,
A man full blest, and worthiest of high honour
Of all that are. For neither Paris' self,
Nor his accomplice city now can boast
Their deed exceeds its punishment. For he,
Found guilty on the charge of rape and theft,[311]
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.[312] 520
_Chor._ Joy, joy, thou herald of the Achæan host!
_Her._ All joy is mine: I shrink from death no more.
_Chor._ Did love for this thy fatherland so try thee?
_Her._ So that mine eyes weep tears for very joy,*
_Chor._ Disease full sweet then this ye suffered from ...
_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?
_Chor._ Yea, so that oft I groaned in gloom of heart.
_Her._ Whence came these bodings that an army hates? 530
_Chor._ Silence I'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 be.
_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 Gods,
Who free from sorrow lives out all his life?
For should I tell of toils, and how we lodged
Full hardly, seldom putting in to shore,[313]
And then with couch full hard.... What gave us not
Good cause for mourning? What ill had we not 540
As daily portion? And what passed on land,
That brought yet greater hardship: for our beds
Were under our foes' 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'.[314] And if
One spoke of winter frosts that killed the birds,
By Ida's snow-storms made intolerable,[315]
Or heat, when Ocean in its noontide couch
Windless reclined and slept without a wave....
But why lament o'er this? Our toil is past; 550
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?
To 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 Troïa, 560
These spoils of battle[316] to the Gods of Hellas
Hang on their pegs, enduring prize and joy.”[317]
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 Clytæmnestra and the house, and yet
That they should make me sharer in their joy.
_Enter_ CLYTÆMNESTRA
_Clytæm._ I long ago for gladness raised my cry, 570
When the first fiery courier came by night,
Telling of Troïa taken and laid waste:
And then one girding at me spake, “Dost think,
Trusting in beacons, Troïa is laid waste?
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
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. 580
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 590
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.”[318]
No pleasure have I known, nor scandal ill
With any other more than ... stains on bronze.[319]
Such is my vaunt, and being full of truth,
Not shameful for a noble wife to speak.[320] [_Exit_
_Chor._ [_to Herald_.] She hath thus spoken in thy hearing now
A goodly word for good interpreters.
But tell me, herald, tell of Menelaos, 600
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 Achæan 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? 610
_Her._ Like skilful archer thou hast hit the mark,
And in few words has told of evil long.
_Chor._ And was it of him as alive or dead
The whisper of the other sailors ran?
_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 620
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 630
Rejoicing in its triumph, ... how shall I
Blend good with evil, telling of a storm
That smote the Achæans, 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, 640
Whirled by an evil pilot. And when rose
The sun's bright orb, behold, the Ægæan sea
Blossomed with wrecks of ships and dead Achæans.
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 650
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 660
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.
[_Exit Herald_