The Agamemnon of Aeschylus | Page 5

a child at play.?For the sap that springs in the young man's hand?And the valour of age, they have left the land.?And the passing old, while the dead leaf blows?And the old staff gropeth his three-foot way,?Weak as a babe and alone he goes,?A dream left wandering in the day.
[_Coming near the Central Altar they see_ CLYTEMNESTRA, _who is still rapt in prayer_.
But thou, O daughter of Tyndareus,?Queen Clytemnestra, what need? What news??What tale or tiding hath stirred thy mood?To send forth word upon all our ways?For incensed worship? Of every god?That guards the city, the deep, the high,?Gods of the mart, gods of the sky,
The altars blaze.?One here, one there,?To the skyey night the firebrands flare,?Drunk with the soft and guileless spell?Of balm of kings from the inmost cell.?Tell, O Queen, and reject us not,?All that can or that may be told,?And healer be to this aching thought,?Which one time hovereth, evil-cold,?And then from the fires thou kindlest?Will Hope be kindled, and hungry Care?Fall back for a little while, nor tear?The heart that beateth below my breast.
[CLYTEMNESTRA _rises silently, as though unconscious of their presence, and goes into the House. The_ CHORUS _take position and begin their first Stasimon, or Standing-song,_
CHORUS.
(_The sign seen on the way; Eagles tearing a hare with young_.)
It is ours to tell of the Sign of the War-way given,
To men more strong,?(For a life that is kin unto ours yet breathes from heaven
A spell, a Strength of Song:)?How the twin-throned Might of Achaia, one Crown divided
Above all Greeks that are,?With avenging hand and spear upon Troy was guided
By the Bird of War.?'Twas a King among birds to each of the Kings of the Sea,
One Eagle black, one black but of fire-white tail,?By the House, on the Spear-hand, in station that all might see; And they tore a hare, and the life in her womb that grew,?Yea, the life unlived and the races unrun they slew.
_Sorrow, sing sorrow: but good prevail, prevail_!
(_How Calchas read the sign; his Vision of the Future_.)
And the War-seer wise, as he looked on the Atreid Yoke
Twain-tempered, knew?Those fierce hare-renders the lords of his host; and spoke,
Reading the omen true.?"At the last, the last, this Hunt hunteth Ilion down,
Yea, and before the wall?Violent division the fulness of land and town
Shall waste withal;?If only God's eye gloom not against our gates,?And the great War-curb of Troy, fore-smitten, fail.?For Pity lives, and those wingèd Hounds she hates,?Which tore in the Trembler's body the unborn beast.?And Artemis abhorreth the eagles' feast."
_Sorrow, sing sorrow: but good prevail, prevail_!
(_He prays to Artemis to grant the fulfilment of the Sign, but, as his vision increases, he is afraid and calls on Paian, the Healer, to hold her back_.)
"Thou beautiful One, thou tender lover
Of the dewy breath of the Lion's child;?Thou the delight, through den and cover,?Of the young life at the breast of the wild,?Yet, oh, fulfill, fulfill The sign of the Eagles' Kill!?Be the vision accepted, albeit horrible....?But I-ê, I-ê! Stay her, O Paian, stay!?For lo, upon other evil her heart she setteth,?Long wastes of wind, held ship and unventured sea,?On, on, till another Shedding of Blood be wrought:?They kill but feast not; they pray not; the law is broken;?Strife in the flesh, and the bride she obeyeth not,?And beyond, beyond, there abideth in wrath reawoken--?It plotteth, it haunteth the house, yea, it never forgetteth--
Wrath for a child to be."?So Calchas, reading the wayside eagles' sign,?Spake to the Kings, blessings and words of bale;
And like his song be thine,?_Sorrow, sing sorrow: but good prevail, prevail_!
(_Such religion belongs to old and barbarous gods, and brings no peace. I turn to Zeus, who has shown man how to Learn by Suffering_.)
Zeus! Zeus, whate'er He be,?If this name He love to hear?This He shall be called of me.?Searching earth and sea and air
Refuge nowhere can I find?Save Him only, if my mind?Will cast off before it die?The burden of this vanity.
One there was who reigned of old,?Big with wrath to brave and blast,?Lo, his name is no more told!?And who followed met at last?His Third-thrower, and is gone.?Only they whose hearts have known?Zeus, the Conqueror and the Friend,?They shall win their vision's end;
Zeus the Guide, who made man turn?Thought-ward, Zeus, who did ordain?Man by Suffering shall Learn.?So the heart of him, again?Aching with remembered pain,?Bleeds and sleepeth not, until?Wisdom comes against his will.?'Tis the gift of One by strife?Lifted to the throne of life.
(AGAMEMNON _accepted the sign. Then came long delay, and storm while the fleet lay at Aulis._)
So that day the Elder Lord,?Marshal of the Achaian ships,?Strove not with the prophet's word,?Bowed him to his fate's eclipse,?When with empty jars and lips?Parched and seas impassable?Fate on that Greek army fell,?Fronting Chalcis as it lay,?By Aulis in the swirling bay.
(_Till at last Calchas answered that Artemis was wroth and demanded