Agamemnon
Aeschylus
Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.
- That unjust man, the god in grapple throws.
- Such an one, Paris goes
- Within the Atreidai’s house —
- Shamed the guest’s board by robbery of the spouse.
- And, leaving to her townsmen throngs a-spread
- With shields, and spear-thrusts of sea-armament,
- And bringing Ilion, in a dowry’s stead,
- Destruction — swiftly through the gates she went,
- Daring the undareable. But many a groan outbroke
- From prophets of the House as thus they spoke.
- Woe, woe the House, the House and Rulers, — woe
- The marriage-bed and dints
- A husband’s love imprints!
- There she stands silent! meets no honour — no
- Shame — sweetest still to see of things gone long ago!
- And, through desire of one across the main,
- A ghost will seem within the house to reign.
- And hateful to the husband is the grace
- Of well-shaped statues: from — in place of eyes
- Those blanks — all Aphrodite dies.