King Agamemnon sat in his tent at Aulis, where the army of the Greeks
was gathered together, being about to sail against the great city of
Troy. And it was now past midnight; but the king slept not, for he was
careful and troubled about many things. And he had a lamp before him and
in his hand a tablet of pine wood, whereon he wrote. But he seemed not
to remain in the same mind about that which he wrote; for now he would
blot out the letters, and then would write them again; and now he
fastened the seal upon the tablet and then brake it. And as he did this
he wept and was like to a man distracted. But after a while he called to
an old man, his attendant (the man had been given in time past by
Tyndareus to his daughter, Queen Clytaemnestra) and said:
"Old man, thou knowest how Calchas the soothsayer bade me offer for a
sacrifice to Artemis, who is goddess of this place, my daughter
Iphigenia, saying that so only should the army have a prosperous voyage
from this place to Troy, and should take the city and destroy it; and
how when I heard these words I bade Talthybius the herald go throughout
the army and bid them depart, every man to his own country, for that I
would not do this thing; and how my brother, King Menelaues, persuaded me
so that I consented to it. Now, therefore, hearken to this, for what I
am about to tell thee three men only know, namely, Calchas the
soothsayer, and Menelaues, and Ulysses, king of Ithaca. I wrote a letter
to my wife the queen, that she should send her daughter to this place,
that she might be married to King Achilles; and I magnified the man to
her, saying that he would in no wise sail with us unless I would give
him my daughter in marriage. But now I have changed my purpose and have
written another letter after this fashion, as I will now set forth to
thee: '_Daughter of Leda, send not thy child to the land of Euboea,
for I will give her in marriage at another time._'"
"Aye," said the old man, "but how wilt thou deal with King Achilles?
Will he not be wroth, hearing that he hath been cheated of his wife?"
"Not so," answered the king, "for we have indeed used his name, but he
knoweth nothing of this marriage. And now make haste. Sit not thou down
by any fountain in the woods, and suffer not thine eyes to sleep. And
beware lest the chariot bearing the queen and her daughter pass thee
where the roads divide. And see that thou keep the seal upon this letter
unbroken."
So the old man departed with the letter. But scarcely had he left the
tent when King Menelaues spied him and laid hands on him, taking the
letter and breaking the seal. And the old man cried out:
"Help, my lord; here is one hath taken thy letter!"
Then King Agamemnon came forth from his tent, saying, "What meaneth this
uproar and disputing that I hear?"