by Aeschylus
782 / 687 Helen: destroyer In the Greek, there is a bitter pun, in which the root hel- (seize, destroy) is treated as if it were the source of Helen’s name, so that she can be called helenas, helandros, heleptolis (ship-destroying, man-destroying, city-destroying). An aspect of the power of words in ancient thought is the belief that names contain clues to one’s nature or destiny (the nomen-omen principle). Thus, for example, in Sophocles’ Ajax, the hero’s name (Greek Aias) is said to foretell his woe by its similarity to the cry aiai, and in Euripides’ Bacchae, Pentheus’ name is used to predict his grief (penthos).
799 / 699 a marriage whose name is mourning This translates the Greek word kedos, which can mean both “connection by marriage” and “mourning.”
805–6 / 707–8 fell then to the bride- / groom’s kin to sing Since the bride’s kin are perforce absent, the wedding song they would normally sing must be sung by her husband’s family.
818–43 / 717–36 An extended and complicated parable, applying in the first instance to Helen, but with far wider applicability. The lion cub raised in the house grows up, and “in return for all / the kindness it received” (831–32 / 728–29) turns to horrible destruction. This apparent injustice, however, both accords with its true nature as a lion (“the color of its blood-lines,” 830 / 726–27), and reveals its role as agent of destruction, “priest of death / and ruin, ordained by god” (841–42 / 735–36). The wider applicability of the parable resides in its model of nurturing within the house a wrong that becomes its own vengeance. The “house foul / with blood” (836–37 / 732) is Troy ravaged by ineluctable vengeance, but also the house of Atreus, with its crimes still to be avenged.
821 / 720 in the beginning The Greek here refers literally to “the preliminary offerings of life,” using a word, proteleia, usually used to refer to offerings made before a marriage. As in the earlier uses of this word (see notes on 79–80 and 260), there is an ironic contrast between the usual happy associations of such sacrifices and the violence that is to follow when the lion cub grows up to be a “priest of death / and ruin” (841–42 / 735–36).
854–56 / 748 Zeus, / protector of host / and guest Zeus xenios (see note on 73).
881–91 / 773–82 The final antistrophe, with its image of Justice turning her back on wealth and power, sounds an ominous note to accompany Agamemnon’s entrance.
892–1118 / 783–974 Third episode The unwitting Agamemnon is met by Clytmemnestra with all her wiles.
892–928 / 783–809 The stasimon ends as Agamemnon comes on stage, probably riding with Cassandra in a single carriage, but without other attendants. The Chorus greets him with a chant in marching anapests (see note on 48–123), whose main function seems to be to deliver a veiled warning against the hypocritical expressions of loyalty they expect he will hear from Clytemnestra. The Chorus makes it clear enough that Agamemnon will meet dissatisfaction and opposition at home, but gives no clue that the real threat will come from his wife. Agamemnon’s response to the Chorus members’ concerns (954–77 / 829–50) shows that he has heard what they said, but not guessed their meaning.
935 / 815 urn of blood Agamemnon’s language offers an ironic foreshadowing of the trial scene with which the fate of his avenger, Orestes, will be decided in Eumenides. This “trial” is held to decide the fate of Troy; the pleas come “not from any mouth but from force of arms” and the jurors are the gods, who cast their ballots “into the urn of blood” in a unanimous death sentence for the city.
967 / 841 who dragged his feet at first This alludes to a well-known story that Odysseus feigned insanity to avoid going to Troy until another Greek hero, Palamedes, unmasked his deception by putting Telemachus, Odysseus’ infant son, in harm’s way (sources and further details in Gantz, Early Greek Myth [see Introduction, footnote 4], 580). There may be irony in Agamemnon’s mention of Odysseus as the sole example of true loyalty, since Odysseus was famous for his wily pursuit of self-interest.
980 / 854 As if in ominous answer to Agamemnon’s prayer for continued victory, Clytemnestra enters, blocking the exit into the palace that he has just announced and giving further evidence of her control of the situation (cf. note on 667–68). The king’s exit comes more than a hundred lines later, by which time its manner and meaning have been fully orchestrated by his wife.
981–1007 / 855–76 It is remarkable that Clytemnestra does not speak directly to the husband she has not seen for ten years until she turns to him to explain the absence of their son Orestes in line 1008 / 877. Instead, she addresses the Chorus with a second brazen assertion of her fidelity to her husband (cf. 688–700 / 604–14), almost as if she is daring them to disagree. This culminates with the most far-fetched conceit of all, that Clytemnestra repeatedly attempted suicide in her despair at the rumors of Agamemnon’s death.
1027–35 / 895–902 Speaking again of Agamemnon in the third person, Clytemnestra produces a string of hyperbolic comparisons that show her blatant use of flattery.
1036–37 / 904 Let Envy / not begrudge me The prayer to Envy (Phthonos) is ironic, for it is followed immediately by Clytemnestra’s invitation to tread on the sacred purple tapestries, thus ensuring that phthonos (the gods’ jealousy) will pursue Agamemnon—as he himself recognizes (1056 / 921).
1043–49 / 910–13 A passage steeped in irony, since its every word can be understood to refer to Clytemnestra’s plan for killing Agamemnon.
1050–67 / 914–30 Agamemnon’s reply is frosty, for he understands perfectly well that Clytemnestra has just proposed an unseemly and dangerous honor, suited to gods not men (1058–61 / 922–24). He recoils instinctively at Clytemnestra’s pampering him with luxury, as if he were a woman, and at the oriental excess of her language and gestures, as if he were a barbarian (1054–56 / 918–20). Agamemnon hopes to behave with appropriate moderation (1066–67 / 930), but he will succumb to Clytemnestra’s shrewd temptation almost immediately.
1076 / 939 A life unenvied is an unenviable life Clytemnestra inverts the motif of envy as a danger (cf. note on 1036–37) by pointing out that only a great man arouses it in others.
1089 / 950–51 Now bring this stranger in This is the first reference to Cassandra, whose identity, however, the audience will already have known. Some disposition for her on Agamemnon’s part seems to be required, but by placing the command for good treatment of his concubine between his decision to yield and his actual treading on the embroideries, Aeschylus creates the impression of a futile attempt on Agamemnon’s part to reassert control, while at the same time drawing attention to another cause of his downfall. Agamemnon’s mention of the involuntary “yoke” of Cassandra’s slavery (1091–92 / 953), which recalls Agamemnon’s own “yoke-strap of necessity” (248–49 / 218), further links the two, who are destined to die together.
1097–1118 / 958–74 This heady speech continues Clytemnestra’s persuasion and flattery, but its opulent language gives it a note of barely suppressed triumph. At some point during the speech, Agamemnon reaches the door of the palace, and by line 1116 / 973 he has made his exit.
1115–18 / 972–94 sovereign … sovereign accomplisher, / accomplish This translates the Greek words andros teleiou … teleie … telei. Clytemnestra ironically calls Agamemnon teleios as the man who has final authority in the house, then prays to Zeus teleios, who truly has final authority, to fulfill her prayer—to preside at the rite of Agamemnon’s sacrifice. In the Greek, “to do” (1118 / 974) is again expressed with the verb telein.
1119–73 / 975–1034 Third stasimon The return of Agamemnon brings only more intense fear to the Argive elders. They express their apprehension only in vague terms, but their tone confirms the audience’s expectation that the moment of Agamemnon’s death is approaching.
1135 / 990–92 the dirge the lyre shuns See note on 735.
1146 / 1001 well-being at its utmost The Chorus expresses the ideal of moderation in a way that may seem paradoxical, but the point is that too much of a good thing is dangerous: even health pursued to e
xcess can turn to disease.
1157–58 / 1014–5 the great gift of Zeus springs / abundant The gift of new life to the fields as a remedy for famine is introduced here to contrast with the lack of remedy once a man’s blood has been spilled (1160–62 / 1019–21).
1163–65 / 1022–24 Aeschylus follows the tradition that regarded Asclepius as a mortal son of Apollo and a healer so great that he was able to restore the dead to life. (For sources and variants, see Gantz, Early Greek Myth [see Introduction, footnote 4], 91–2). Zeus, who at the end of the previous stanza presided over the renewal of life in the fields, here kills Asclepius with a lightning bolt for renewing life that was never meant to be renewed.
1166 / 1025–27 And if one fate didn’t block another An enigmatic phrase, which can be more literally translated, “And had not one appointed portion prevented another portion from getting more than its share.” Following directly as it does the example of Asclepius’ breaching of bounds, this can perhaps best be understood as a way of suggesting the impossibility of putting into words (the “portion” of the tongue) that which wells up inside the Elders’ breasts (the “portion” of the heart).
1174–1517 / 1035–1330 Fourth episode The audience has now been fully prepared for an announcement of Agamemnon’s murder, presumably from the lips of a messenger, but that is not what happens. Cassandra is still sitting silent and motionless in the carriage, and Clytemnestra now emerges from the palace to bring her inside. The scene thus mirrors Clytemnestra’s encounter with Agamemnon, but with a diametrically opposed result. Clytemnestra fails to persuade Cassandra, or even to elicit a response from her, and withdraws in defeat. When she has left, however, Cassandra unburdens herself in a long, unexpected, and harrowing dialogue with the Chorus. In the end, she takes the same brief walk that Agamemnon took from the carriage into the palace, but she does it under her own control, in her own time, and her own way. Unlike Agamemnon, Cassandra goes to her death knowingly and prophesying vengeance to come. And along her path, she reveals much about the past, present, and future that clarifies what still remained unspoken or obscure.
1178 / 1038 Zeus who guards the house’s wealth The Greek gives only the cult name ktêsios, god of possessions. The cult was a modest one, with a simple household shrine usually located in a storeroom. Clytemnestra emphasizes Cassandra’s new status as a possession of the house who will stand among the other slaves.
1180 / 1040 even Heracles, they say Heracles was sold into slavery, in most accounts as a punishment from Zeus for the treacherous slaying of Iphitus, the son of Heracles’ guest-friend, Eurytus of Oechalia. Heracles was enslaved to a woman, Omphale, the queen of Lydia. There is evidence for numerous divergent versions of the story (see Gantz, Early Greek Myth [see Introduction, footnote 4], 434–42), the best known being that in Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, 248–80.
1193 / 1050 twittering like a swallow, barbarian-style “To twitter like a swallow” seems to have been proverbial for the sound of foreign tongues. Indeed, the term “barbarian” derives from the Greeks’ contemptuous view of foreigner’s speech as sounding like a series of incoherent grunts: bar, bar, bar.
1208 / 1063 She’s like a captured beast This is the first indication that Cassandra is no longer sitting impassive, but is now agitated. The violence of her spasms is suggested at 1212–14 / 1066–67, where Clytemnestra compares her to a horse who has not yet been broken in.
1219 / 1071 this new yoke See note on 1089.
1220–1348 / 1072–1177 Kommos This is the first of several formal exchanges in the Oresteia between an actor or actors and the Chorus in which sung verse is used by at least one of the parties. The kommos is a powerful vehicle for the expression of strong emotions.
1220 / 1072 OTOTOI POPOI DA Greek is rich in interjections of grief, alarm, horror, and the like; English on the other hand is poor. We have kept some of the Greek interjections as a way of conveying the heightened emotional register of this scene. Emotional intensification is also achieved in this scene by virtue of the contrast between sung lyric verse and spoken dialogue verse. Cassandra is the only actor (other than the members of the Chorus) to be given lyrics in this play. During the first part of the scene, the Chorus Leader answers her in spoken verse, but from 1274 / 1119 onward, the Chorus as a whole takes up Cassandra’s mood of foreboding and leaps, after two spoken verses, into agitated song. Cassandra turns to spoken dialogue meter at 1349 / 1178 (see note), and the remainder of the scene is spoken.
1223 / 1075 no god to come to with a dirge The Olympian gods shun everything connected with mourning and lament, and just as the paean is inappropriate for the Erinyes (see note on 735), so mournful song is entirely unsuited to Apollo, god of the paean.
1229 / 1081 God of the roadside Cassandra addresses a symbol of Apollo agyieus, “guardian of the street,” whose function seems to have been to protect the entrance to houses. The symbol, a conical pillar that stood outside the Greek house, was apparently a regular feature of the stage set, since several surviving tragedies and comedies make reference to it. my destroyer There is a pun in the Greek that cannot be reproduced in English. By the same “nomen-omen” principle with which the Chorus equated Helen with destruction (see note on 782), Cassandra expresses the god’s true meaning (at least for her) by connecting his name to the verb apollumi. Thus she can equate the Greek name for Apollo, Apollôn with the participle apollôn, “destroying.” The pun continues in 1231 / 1082 with apôlesas (“destroyed”).
1246 / 1095 Yes, there they are Cassandra, on the scent of blood, as the Chorus has just said, sees a vision of slaughtered children that confirms her premonitions. These are the children of Thyestes, killed when his estranged brother Atreus invited him to a feast of reconciliation, secretly killed and cooked the children, and served them to Thyestes to eat. The vision returns at 1391–98 / 1217–22, and Aegisthus, Thyestes’ sole surviving son, who takes part in the killing of Atreus’ son Agamemnon, tells the story in in greater detail at 1830–40 / 159–97.
1257 / 1105 These prophecies I can’t quite follow Every time Cassandra’s visions reach the present and immediate future, the Chorus finds itself lost. This is not a sign of its lack of insight, but (as Aeschylus’ audience would have known) a reflection of Cassandra’s curse, to see the future clearly but never to be believed (see 1382–87 / 1208–13). It is true that Cassandra’s agitated song is disjointed and allusive, but later, when she speaks less emotionally and more directly, the Chorus will equally be at a loss (e.g.,1422–23 / 1245, 1431–32 / 1252–53).
1305 / 1142 the tawny nightingale would grieve The Chorus compares Cassandra in her unceasing lament to the emblematic mourner of Greek mythology, Procne. Procne’s husband Tereus, a Thracian king, raped Procne’s sister Philomela and then cut out her tongue so she could not tell anyone. But Philomela managed to communicate the crime to her sister by embroidering the story on a cloth. Procne in her anger killed Itys, the son she had born to Tereus, and served him up to his father to eat. When Tereus discovered what had happened, he tried to kill both sisters with his sword, but the gods changed Procne into a nightingale, ever crying the name of Itys, Philomela to a nonsensically chattering swallow (see note on 1193), and Tereus into the sharpbeaked hoopoe. The story has a glancing similarity to that of Atreus and the children of Thyestes, but Cassandra reminds the Chorus that she is not another Procne, whom the gods rescued and freed from further suffering, while she faces only a violent death. (1310–14 / 1147–49).
1349–50 / 1178–79 my prophecies won’t peek again / like some shy newlywed In response to the Chorus members’ protestation that they still do not understand the meaning of Cassandra’s prophecies, she now turns to spoken verse and a more coherent, although still largely allusive, account of her visions. The metaphor she chooses for this change to more direct speech is particularly poignant in light of what she will soon say about how she gained her prophetic power from Apollo, then broke her word and rejected his suit (1376–86 / 1202–12).
1360–61 / 1189–90 a home-brewed, / rioting band of Erinyes The Erinyes that beset the house of Atreus are pictured as a kômos, a Dionysiac rout or revel, but instead of going out to sing and dance in the streets after a drinking party, these revelers are drunk on blood and sing their song of destruction within the house that gave them birth.
1364 / 1192 that ancestral sin Cassandra is alluding to an earlier stage in the strife of Atreus and Thyestes. The Erinyes spit on Thyestes’ bed because he defiled it by seducing Aerope, Atreus’ wife, the act that led to his terrible punishment at Atreus’ banquet.
1399 / 1224 a skulking lion Aegisthus. The choice of metaphor is unexpected, especially in light of 1438–39 / 1258–59, where Clytemnestra is depicted as a two-footed lioness bedding with a wolf (Aegisthus) in the absence of the noble lion (Agamemnon). Here, however, the emphasis is on the un-lionlike skulking of this cowardly lion.
1409–10 / 1233 two-headed serpent, or / a Scylla The two-headed serpent is an amphisbaena, a mythical monster with a head at both ends. Scylla is the many-headed, man-eating monster that dwells opposite the whirlpool Charybdis; in Book 12 of the Odyssey, she devours six of Odysseus’ crew.
1440–43 / 1260–63 The point of these lines is the complete intertwining of Cassandra’s death with that of Agamemnon. The image of poisoning is figurative and means that Clytemnestra will regard her death as suitable payment (“my quittance”) for her association with Agamemnon; the picture of Clytemnestra wielding a sword is literal (at least as regards the means of death) and makes clear that Clytemnestra will equally be exacting payment from Agamemnon for bringing Cassandra home at his side.
