Agamemnon
Aeschylus
Aeschylus. The poetical works of Robert Browning, Volume 13. Browning, Robert, translator; Berdoe, Edward, editor. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1889.
- For, willing, no one wears a yoke that’s servile:
- And she, of many valuables, outpicked
- The flower, the army’s gift, myself has followed.
- So, — since to hear thee, I am brought about thus, —
- I go into the palace — purples treading.
- There is the sea — and what man shall exhaust it? —
- Feeding much purple’s worth-its-weight-in-silver
- Dye, ever fresh and fresh, our garments’ tincture;
- At home, such wealth, king, we begin — by gods’ help —
- With having, and to lack, the household knows not.
- Of many garments had I vowed a treading
- (In oracles if fore-enjoined the household)
- Of this dear soul the safe-return-price scheming!
- For, root existing, foliage goes up houses,
- O’erspreading shadow against Seirios dog-star;
- And, thou returning to the hearth domestic,
- Warmth, yea, in winter dost thou show returning.
- And when, too, Zeus works, from the green-grape acrid,
- Vine — then, already, cool in houses cometh —
- The perfect man his home perambulating!