The Greek Plays
Page 22
800
I ask you not to bring your heavy rancor,
your rage, down on this land and spoil its harvests,
dripping infections from another world
that froth up, running wild, devouring seeds.
I make a promise unreservedly
to settle you in hollows of this just land.
You’ll sit on glistening thrones beside those hearths,
receiving homage from these citizens.
antistrophe 1
CHORUS: Younger gods, tearing ancient laws
from my hands, riding them down and trampling them!
810
I am miserable, so miserable in this land’s contempt
and my deep rage.
Poison, the poison of revenge for grief
I will let loose from my heart,
I will drip the excruciating
liquid on this land.
No leaf, no child will survive my blight—oh, Justice, Justice,
skim over the ground,
hurl your miasmas, your massacres through the country.
What can I do but groan?
They laugh at me. The town’s tribunal
820
wounded me unendurably.
Pity us, Night’s stricken daughters,
stripped of our honor.
ATHENA: You have your honor—and you’re gods; don’t rage
beyond all bounds and cripple human land.
I place my trust in Zeus. Why must I mention
that I, alone among the gods, know where
the key is to the storeroom for the lightning
under his seal? But there’s no need for that!
830
Listen, relent, and don’t rain senseless words
on the land to rob its yield of all success.
Lull the dark breaking wave of bitter passion,
and be my neighbor, held in awe and honor.
This land, in all its wealth, will always grant you
the choicest gifts for marriages’ fulfillment
in children—making you commend my words.
strophe 2
CHORUS: For me to endure this!
(moans)
For me, with my ancient wisdom, to live beneath this land,
disgraced, defiled!
(moans)
840
Absolute is my rage, my fury.
(a prolonged moan, rising in pitch)
What is this agony, creeping into my body?—
Oh, Mother Night!
The gods, who win every match, have wrenched me away
from my venerable post. I am nothing now.
ATHENA: I bear with your bad temper, since you’re older,
and—owing to your age—much shrewder, too.
850
But it’s no worthless mind Zeus gave me, either.
Once in a strange tribe’s land, you’re going to pine
for this one: this I solemnly affirm.
Time will move forward on the path of honor
for this land’s citizens. Your settled home
beside Erechtheus’ house will be revered.*73
You’ll get more from processing men and women
than other mortals ever could provide.
But don’t afflict my country, raining on it
whetstones for bloodshed, to incite young men.
860
Their furor ought to come from wine alone!
These are no fighting cocks—don’t make their hearts seethe;
don’t plant a civil war among my townsmen
that turns their courage back against each other.
Let there be foreign wars, though, plenty of them,*74
for anyone who grimly lusts for glory—
but not a rooster feuding in his yard.
These things are in my gift, for you to choose:
kindness returned, great honor, and a share
of a country that the gods love best of all.
antistrophe 2
CHORUS: For me to endure this!
(moans) 870
For me, with my ancient wisdom, to live beneath this country,
disgraced, defiled!
(moans)
Absolute is my rage, my fury.
(a prolonged moan, rising in pitch)
What is this agony, creeping into my body?—
Oh, Mother Night!
The gods, who win every match, have wrenched me away
880
from my venerable post. I am nothing now.
ATHENA: But I won’t flag in telling you good news:
You’ll never say that I, a younger god,
and men who hold this town affronted you,
alienated, drove you from this land.
If you accept Persuasion’s holy power,
the soothing, the enchantments of my tongue,
you ought to stay. If you choose otherwise,
it is not right to bring down rage or rancor
on the city, or to persecute its people:
890
You might be a proprietor, with full rights
and every kind of honor in this land.
CHORUS: Sovereign Athena—what’s the home I’ll have?
ATHENA: A home that’s safe from all distress. Accept it!
CHORUS: Grant that I do—what honor waits for me?
ATHENA: No household here could thrive apart from you.
CHORUS: You’d do this, making me so powerful?
ATHENA: I’ll lead your worshippers to every good thing.
CHORUS: You give your pledge to me, for all of time?
ATHENA: I’m free to make no promise I won’t keep.
900
CHORUS: You may well charm me out of my resentment.
ATHENA: Good—then the land will grant you loving friends.
CHORUS: What blessings must I sing it, on your orders?
ATHENA: Nothing to do with victory for evil!
From earth and limpid waters of the sea,
from the sky blessings come, from puffs of wind—
those sun-warmed breathings that draw near this country.
Rich yields will come from animals and furrows
for the citizens, unfailing as time passes,
so human seed will find its safety, too.
910
But prove yourself more fertile for the pious;
I cherish, like a man who tends a garden,
the righteous breed and will not let it grieve.
All this belongs to you; and I won’t spare
the city honor in the splendid contests
of war, in victory all mankind can see.
(The meter changes as the Furies, now the Eumenides or “Kindly Ones,” begin to dance in joy rather than anger. Athena breaks out of her iambic trimeter and into half-sung marching anapests.)
strophe 1
CHORUS: I’ll accept a lodging with Pallas,
and not turn my back on a city
that all-powerful Zeus, that Ares
keeps as a garrison of the gods,
920
protector of Greece’s altars,
and the delight of heaven.
This is the city I pray for
with tender prophecies:
may blessings rush on, may they help its life on
as they teem from the earth
beneath the sun’s lighthearted brightness.
ATHENA: All this I do in kindness
for these citizens. Great, haughty, and exacting
are the deities I settle in this place.
930
They are allotted the right to dispose of
everything touching mortals.
Stumbled into their anger,
and something you can’t see will jar your life’s course,
since the sins in your blood, from your ancestors, drag you
before this female tribunal, and doom comes silently,
loud as he might boast:
antistrophe 1
CHORUS: May hurt, may destruction for the trees never blow—
this will be a gift from me.
940
May no scorching flames, robbers of buds,
pass over this land’s boundaries.
May no ghastly sickness creep in
and ruin the harvests.
May Pan raise flocks whose twinning
at the appointed season
shows how they thrive. May the people’s descendants
always find wealth in the soil, and repay
its troves with gifts to the gods.
ATHENA: (to the jurymen) You, the city’s bulwark, do you hear
what this will bring to pass?
950
A Fury is queenly, she has great power
among the immortals and the dead beneath the earth.
And for mankind they do their will
with plain finality: some, at the goddesses’ hands,
will sing with joy; others will spend
their lives in the blindness of tears.
strophe 2
CHORUS: Even so, I forbid anything to happen
that brings men down before their time.
And you goddesses, the Fates, our sisters from a single mother,
960
in your domain,*75 keep charming girls
from going husbandless their whole lives.
You are divinities righteous
in sharing out blessings.
You share in every household;
your will weighs on every hour.
Justly you come as a guest,
the most honored, everywhere, of the gods.
ATHENA: Now that they graciously bring all this
to pass for my country,
970
my heart is bright. I am content with Persuasion,
sharp-eyed guard of my tongue, my mouth,
in the face of their fierceness, when they would not yield.
But Zeus the Orator triumphed:
our strife is for the good,
it has victory for all time.
CHORUS: But I pray that civil strife
with its endless greed for evil
never takes a loud stand in this city.
980
May the dust never guzzle the citizens’ black blood.
May lust for revenge never seize
in its arms disaster for the city
of murdering back and forth.
May the people trade joy for joy
in concord, in communion,
and hate with one spirit—
which is good against all sorts of human ailments.
ATHENA: Are the goddesses shrewd enough to find
the path of merciful words for the people?
990
From their fearsome faces I see
a great advantage for my citizens here.
If you will honor their kindness kindly,
generously, continuously, you will keep
your land and city
on the straight, righteous road, in every kind of glory.
CHORUS: (to the jurymen) Joy to you, joy, in the wealth of destiny!
Joy to you, people of the city
sitting at Zeus’ side,
darlings of the darling virgin.
1000
Of you, who are more temperate with time,
who are under Pallas’ wing,
her father stands in awe.
ATHENA: (to the Chorus) Joy to you also! But I must walk
ahead, and show your rooms
by the sacred light your escort carries.
(The Escort, a group of Athenian women in purple robes carrying torches and sacrificial animals with which to honor the Furies, have been entering as she speaks.)
Now, as the holy sacrifices fall to you,
hurry beneath the earth, and keep all mischief
far from the land. Send up
profit, send victory for the city.
1010
(to the jurymen) Lead us, you with the city in your hands,
children of Cranaus,*76 lead those who’ll settle among you,
and be noble-minded, all you citizens,
toward their noble gifts.
CHORUS: Joy, joy again—my redoubled greeting
to all the gods across the city
and all the mortals!
If you care for Pallas’ town,
if you revere me, your neighbor,
you will find no fault
1020
in the fortunes of your lives.
ATHENA: I give you thanks for such well-spoken prayers
and send you, by these torches’ flaming brightness,
into the place below this territory
with the attendants who protect my image.
These are just dealings. To the very heart
of Theseus’ land you’ll come; a glorious post
[…]*77
Children, wives, and old women on this mission
[…]*78
to honor them, put on your best, that’s dyed
with purple. Let the splendor of the flame rise,
1030
and they’ll keep cheerful company with this land
forever, blessing it with manly glory.
(A grand procession, led by torchbearers, forms and begins marching offstage, still dancing. It includes Athena and the Furies, the jurymen, and the members of the Escort, who sing the play’s final song, in dactylic meter.)
strophe 1
ESCORT: Come our way,*79 powerful goddesses, lovers of honor!
Children of Night, childless but children no longer, cheerfully guided!
Words of good omen alone must you speak, people of this country.
antistrophe 1
Under the earth’s primordial secret places,
may you find honors and offerings reverent beyond all reckoning.
Words of good omen alone must you speak, with one voice, all you people.
strophe 2
1040
Bless the land, show it your righteous heart.
Come this way, Dread Goddesses, in the light of the flame
that feasts on the torch. Rejoice along our road,
shout with the joy of our rites, to crown our song.
antistrophe 2
A pact for peace: you will live for all time*80
with the citizens of Pallas. All-seeing Zeus
and Fate have come to our aid in the fight.
Shout with the joy of our rites, to crown our song.
* * *
*1 A deity who personifies the idea of divine law or moral sanction. Themis was one of the six children of Earth and Sky (Gaea and Uranus).
*2 Aeschylus stresses that the shrine of Delphi changed hands peacefully, in contrast to other sources that portray Apollo seizing it violently from a monstrous serpent, Pytho.
*3 Phoebe, a goddess sometimes identified with the moon, belonged to the first generation of gods, the Titans. Aeschylus alone associates her with the early history of Delphi.
*4 Apollo, an Olympian god, Phoebe’s grandson.
*5 The small Aegean island said to be Apollo’s birthplace.
*6 A sacred mountain in north central Greece.
*7 The Athenians (who traced their descent from a mythical king Erichthonius, one of Hephaestus’ offspring) are referred to here. Athens was connected to Delphi by an important road, said to have been the route Apollo first used to reach the shrine.
*8 That is, Zeus, the king of the gods gave his son Apollo the gift of prophecy. Loxias is Apollo’s name in his capacity as prophet.
*9 Athena. Her title at Delphi probably indicated the position of her temple at the approach to Apollo’s larger one.
*10 A sacred place near the summit of Mount Parnassus.
*11 The Noisy One, a title of Dionysus the wine god.
*12 As punishment for rejec
ting the new god Dionysus, Pentheus, a king of Thebes, was torn to pieces by Bacchants, the god’s ecstatic worshippers.
*13 Pleistus is a river near Delphi.
*14 That is, draw lots to determine the order in which visitors could consult the oracle.
*15 A stone situated in the center of the oracular shrine was said to represent the midpoint of all lands on earth, literally “the navel.”
*16 The suppliant’s ritual objects.
*17 Female monsters with snakes for hair.
*18 Phineus, the king of Thrace, was tormented by the Harpies (“Snatchers”), hideous winged women who stole his food.
*19 Referring to a prominent statue of Athena housed on the Acropolis.
*20 “Guide” or “escort.”
*21 The murder of one family member by another, in Greek religious thought, was a violation of natural order and therefore fell to the Furies for punishment.
*22 Very likely, these two lines are interpolated (added by a hand later than the author’s).
*23 The line is corrupt and controversial, and my translation is speculative and tentative.
*24 Throughout the play the Furies taunt the Olympians as “younger gods.” The origin of the Furies was explained in two different ways by the Greeks, but both versions make them much older than the Olympians. Either they were children of the primordial deity Nyx (Night), or they emerged from the drops of blood that were scattered when Cronus castrated his father, Uranus.
*25 See note to line 40.
*26 Referring to Apollo, god of prophecy.
*27 See note to line 102.
*28 The wife of Zeus in her capacity to bless marriages.
*29 Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love.
*30 Referring to Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon. Since such a murder does not involve the violation of blood ties, the Furies took no role in punishing it.
*31 This shift of scene, with a corresponding gap in the time frame, is very unusual for Greek drama, and there’s no evidence as to how it was accomplished. The new setting would have been signaled to the audience by the presence onstage of a cult statue of Athena, an imitation of the famous one on the Acropolis, and by the reference at lines 239–41 to Orestes’ long wanderings after leaving Delphi.
*32 See note for line 19.
*33 Greek priests performed ritual purification by slitting the throat of a young pig above the head of a suppliant.
*34 Orestes’ point is that he must now be ritually cleansed of his crime, or else his presence would have brought harm to those who have taken him in.