The Agamemnon of Aeschylus | Page 4

of the Greek armies in the War against Troy._
CLYTEMNESTRA, _daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen; wife to Agamemnon._
AIGISTHOS, _son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy to Agamemnon lover to Clytemnestra._
CASSANDRA, _daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess;?now slave to Agamemnon._
A WATCHMAN.
A HERALD.
CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON.
CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY
MENEL?üS, _brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen, and King of Sparta. The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae._
HELEN, _most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus, wife to _MENEL?üS_; beloved and carried off by Paris._
PARIS, _son of Priam, King of Troy, lover of Helen.?Also called_ ALEXANDER.
PRIAM, _the aged King of Troy._
_The Greeks are also referred to as Achaians, Argives, Danaans; Troy is also called Ilion._
_The play was produced in the archonship if Philocles_ (458 B.C.). _The first prize was won by Aeschylus with the "Agamemnon", "Libation-Bearers", "Eumenides", and the Satyr Play "Proteus"_.
THE AGAMEMNON
_The Scene represents a space in front of the Palace of Agamemnon in Argos, with an Altar of Zeus in the centre and many other altars at the sides. On a high terrace of the roof stands a_ WATCHMAN. _It is night_.
WATCHMAN.
This waste of year-long vigil I have prayed?God for some respite, watching elbow-stayed,?As sleuthhounds watch, above the Atreidae's hall,?Till well I know yon midnight festival?Of swarming stars, and them that lonely go,?Bearers to man of summer and of snow,?Great lords and shining, throned in heavenly fire.?And still I await the sign, the beacon pyre?That bears Troy's capture on a voice of flame?Shouting o'erseas. So surely to her aim?Cleaveth a woman's heart, man-passioned!?And when I turn me to my bed--my bed?Dew-drenched and dark and stumbling, to which near?Cometh no dream nor sleep, but alway Fear?Breathes round it, warning, lest an eye once fain?To close may close too well to wake again;?Think I perchance to sing or troll a tune?For medicine against sleep, the music soon?Changes to sighing for the tale untold?Of this house, not well mastered as of old.?Howbeit, may God yet send us rest, and light?The flame of good news flashed across the night.
[_He is silent, watching. Suddenly at a distance in the night there is a glimmer of fire, increasing presently to a blaze._
Ha!?0 kindler of the dark, O daylight birth?Of dawn and dancing upon Argive earth?For this great end! All hail!--What ho, within!?What ho! Bear word to Agamemnon's queen?To rise, like dawn, and lift in answer strong?To this glad lamp her women's triumph-song,?If verily, verily, Ilion's citadel?Is fallen, as yon beacons flaming tell.?And I myself will tread the dance before?All others; for my master's dice I score?Good, and mine own to-night three sixes plain.
[_Lights begin to show in the Palace_.
Oh, good or ill, my hand shall clasp again?My dear lord's hand, returning! Beyond that?I speak not. A great ox hath laid his weight?Across my tongue. But these stone walls know well,?If stones had speech, what tale were theirs to tell.?For me, to him that knoweth I can yet?Speak; if another questions I forget.
[_Exit into the Palace. The women's "Olol?gê" or triumph-cry, is heard within and then repeated again and again further off in the City. Handmaids and Attendants come from the Palace, bearing torches, with which they kindle incense on the altars. Among them comes_ CLYTEMNESTRA, _who throws herself on her knees at the central Altar in an agony of prayer._
_Presently from the further side of the open space appear the_ CHORUS _of_ ELDERS _and move gradually into position in front of the Palace. The day begins to dawn._
CHORUS.
Ten years since Ilion's righteous foes,?The Atreidae strong,?Menelaüs and eke Agamemnon arose,?Two thrones, two sceptres, yoked of God;?And a thousand galleys of Argos trod?The seas for the righting of wrong;?And wrath of battle about them cried,
As vultures cry,?Whose nest is plundered, and up they fly?In anguish lonely, eddying wide,?Great wings like oars in the waste of sky,?Their task gone from them, no more to keep?Watch o'er the vulture babes asleep.?But One there is who heareth on high?Some Pan or Zeus, some lost Apollo--?That keen bird-throated suffering cry?Of the stranger wronged in God's own sky;?And sendeth down, for the law transgressed,?The Wrath of the Feet that follow.
So Zeus the Watcher of Friend and Friend,?Zeus who Prevaileth, in after quest?For One Belovèd by Many Men?On Paris sent the Atreidae twain;?Yea, sent him dances before the end
For his bridal cheer,?Wrestlings heavy and limbs forespent?For Greek and Trojan, the knee earth-bent,?The bloody dust and the broken spear.?He knoweth, that which is here is here,?And that which Shall Be followeth near;?He seeketh God with a great desire,?He heaps his gifts, he essays his pyre?With torch below and with oil above,?With tears, but never the wrath shall move?Of the Altar cold that rejects his fire.
We saw the Avengers go that day,?And they left us here; for our flesh is old?And serveth not; and these staves uphold?A strength like the strength of