Agamemnon
Aeschylus
Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.
- the gods of the heavens and of the marketplace, have their altars ablaze with offerings. Now here, now there, the flames rise high as heaven, yielding
- to the soft and guileless persuasion of holy ointment, the sacrificial oil itself brought from the inner chambers of the palace. Of all this declare whatever you can and dare reveal, and be a healer of my uneasy heart.
- This now at one moment bodes ill, while then again hope, shining with kindly light from the sacrifices, wards off the biting care of the sorrow that gnaws my heart.
- I have the power to proclaim the augury of triumph given on their way
- to princely men—since my age[*](σύμφυτος αἰών, literally life that has grown with me,time of life, here old age, as the Scholiast takes it; cf. Mrs. Barbauld, Life. We’ve been long together.)still breathes Persuasion upon me from the gods, the strength of song—how the twin-throned command of the Achaeans,
- the single-minded captains of Hellas’ youth, with avenging spear and arm against the Teucrian land, was sent off by the inspiring omen appearing to the kings of the ships—kingly birds,
- one black, one white of tail, near the palace, on the spear-hand[*](The right hand.), in a conspicuous place, devouring a hare with offspring unborn
- caught in the last effort to escape.[*](The Scholiast, followed by Hermann and some others, takes λαγίναν γένναν as a periphrasis for λαγωόν, with which βλαβέντα agrees (cp. πᾶσα γέννα ... δώσων Eur. Tro. 531). With Hartung’s φέρματα, the meaning is the brood of a hare, the burden of her womb, thwarted of their final course. λοισθίων δρόμων, on this interpretation, has been thought to mean their final course (towards birth) or even their future racings.) Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
- Then the wise seer of the host, noticing how the two warlike sons of Atreus were two in temper, recognized the devourers of the hare as the leaders of the army, and
- thus interpreted the portent and spoke: In time those who here issue forth shall seize Priam’s town, and fate shall violently ravage before its towered walls all the public store of cattle.
- Only may no jealous god-sent wrath cast its shadow upon the embattled host, the mighty bit forged for Troy’s mouth, and strike it before it reaches its goal!
- For, in her pity, holy Artemis is angry at the winged hounds of her father, for they sacrifice a wretched timorous thing, together with her young, before she has brought them forth. An abomination to her is the eagles’ feast.Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
- Although, O Lovely One, you are so gracious to the tender whelps of fierce lions, and take delight in the suckling young of every wild creature that roams the field, promise that the issue be brought to pass in accordance with these signs, portents
- auspicious yet filled with ill. And I implore Paean[*](Apollo; who is implored to divert his sister Artemis from accomplishing the evil part of the omen), the healer, that she may not raise adverse gales with long delay to stay the Danaan fleet from putting forth,
- by urging another sacrifice, one that knows no law, unsuited for feast, worker of family strife, dissolving wife’s reverence for husband. For there abides wrath—
- terrible, not to be suppressed, a treacherous guardian of the home, a wrath that never forgets and that exacts vengeance for a child.Such utterances of doom, derived from auguries on the march, together with many blessings, did Calchas proclaim to the royal house; and in harmony with this, Sing the song of woe, the song of woe, but may the good prevail!
- Zeus, whoever he may be,—if by this name it pleases him to be invoked, by this name I call to him—as I weigh all things in the balance, I have nothing to compare
- save Zeus, if in truth I must cast aside this vain burden from my heart.