Agamemnon
Aeschylus
Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.
- Thou liest where webs of the spider o’ersweep thee
- In impious death, life breathing away.
- O me — me!
- This couch, not free.
- By a slavish death subdued thou art,
- From the hand, by the two-edged dart.
- Thou boastest this deed to be mine:
- But leave off styling me
- The Agamemnonian wife!
- For, showing himself in sign
- Of the spouse of the corpse thou dost see,
- Did the ancient bitter avenging-ghost
- Of Atreus, savage host,
- Pay the man here as price —
- A full-grown for the young one’s sacrifice.
- That no cause, indeed, of this killing art thou,
- Who shall be witness-bearer?
- How shall he bear it — how?
- But the sire’s avenging-ghost might be in the deed a sharer.
- He is forced on and on