Agamemnon

Aeschylus

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

  1. You speak like that, you who sit at the lower oar when those upon the higher bench control the ship?[*](In a bireme, the rowers on the lower tier were called θαλαμῖται ; those on the upper tier, ζευγῖται.)Old as you are, you shall learn how bitter it is
  2. at your age to be schooled when prudence is the lesson set before you. Bonds and the pangs of hunger are far the best doctors of the spirit when it comes to instructing the old. Do you have eyes and lack understanding? Do not kick against the goads lest you strike to your own hurt.
Chorus
  1. Woman that you are! Skulking at home and awaiting the return of the men from war, all the while defiling a hero’s bed, did you contrive this death against a warrior chief?