Agamemnon
Aeschylus
Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.
- I may say truly, now, that men’s avengers,
- The gods from high, of earth behold the sorrows —
- Seeing, as I have, i’ the spun robes of the Erinues,
- This man here lying, — sight to me how pleasant! —
- His father’s hands’ contrivances repaying.
- For Atreus, this land’s lord, of this man father,
- Thuestes, my own father — to speak clearly —
- His brother too, — being i’ the rule contested, —
- Drove forth to exile from both town and household:
- And, coming back, to the hearth turned, a suppliant,
- Wretched Thuestes found the fate assured him
- — Not to die, bloodying his paternal threshold
- Just there: but host-wise this man’s impious father
- Atreus, soul-keenly more than kindly, — seeming
- To joyous hold a flesh-day, — to my father
- Served up a meal, the flesh of his own children.