Agamemnon

Aeschylus

Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.

  1. Truly blooming health does not rest content within its due bounds; for disease ever presses close against it, its neighbor with a common wall.[*](Abounding health, ignoring its limitations, is separated from disease only by a slight dividing line. The suppressed thought is that remedies, if applied at the right time, may save the body.)
  2. So human fortune, when holding onward in straight course strikes upon a hidden reef. And yet, if with a well-measured throw, caution heaves overboard
  3. a portion of the gathered wealth, the whole house, with woe overladen, does not founder nor engulf the hull.[*](The house of Agamemnon, full of calamity, is likened to an overloaded ship, which will founder if some part of its freight is not jettisoned. By confusion of the symbol and the thing signified, δόμος is boldly said to sink its hull. )Truly the generous gift from Zeus,