And how will Achilles, cheated of his bride,curb the fury of his indignation against you and your wife? Here also is a danger.Paley follows Musgrave in assigning these words to Agamemnon, assuming that the king passes over the servant’s last remark and adds a new cause of alarm, viz., the fraud that is being practiced on Achilles. Make clear what you are saying.AgamemnonIt is his name, not himself that Achilles is lending, knowing nothing of the marriage or of my schemingor my professed readiness to betroth my daughter to him for a husband’s embrace.Lines 124-32 are rejected by some editors. Hennig supposes them to be the work of the younger Euripides.Old manA dreadful venture yours, king Agamemnon, you that, by promise of your daughter’s hand to the son of the goddess,were bringing the maid here to be sacrificed for the Danaids.AgamemnonAh me! I am utterly distraught; alas! bewilderment comes over me. Away! hurry your steps,yielding nothing to old age.Old manI will make haste, king.AgamemnonDo not sit down by woodland fountains; scorn the witcheries of sleep.Old manHush!The old man cuts short Agamemnon’s warnings, as being an un-called-for reflection on his own loyalty.AgamemnonAnd when you pass any place where roads diverge,cast your eyes all round, taking heed that no mule-wagon eacape you, passing by on rolling wheels, bearing my child to the ships of the Danaids.Old manIt shall be so.AgamemnonStart then from the bolted gates,Paley retains the MSS. κλήθρων δ᾽ ἐξόρμα, omitting νιν with Monk in 1. 150; Wecklein, reading ἐξορμώσαις to agree with πομπαῖς retains νιν. Hermann transposes the verse after 1. 152, and so Nauck edits.and if you meet the escort, start them back again, and drive at full speed to the abodes of the Cyclopes.Old manBut tell me, how shall my message find credit with your wife or child?AgamemnonPreserve the seal which you bear on this tablet. Away! Already the dawn is growing grey, lighting the lamp of day and the fire of the sun’s four steeds;help me in my trouble. Exit Old man.
No mortal is prosperous or happy to the last, for no one was ever born to a painless life. Exit Agamemnon.