CH. I will, in truth, utter even an all-lamentable outcry, honouring [with a wail] the heavy calamities of the race of the mourning city endured by the people, inflicted by the lashing of the sea; and again will I utter the extremely tearful moan.

XER. For our ship-fenced Mars, yielding the victory to others, hath reaped mischief from the Ionians, after laying waste the darkling surface of the main and the ill-fated shore.

CH. Oh! oh! oh! cry, and enquire exactly into all the particulars. And where is the rest of the multitude of thy friends? and where are those who stood by thy side in the battle? such as was Pharandaces, Susas, Pelagon, Dotamas, Agdabatas, and Psammis, and Susiscanes, that left Ecbatana? XER. I left them fallen in death out of a Tyrian ship on the shores of Salamis, striking on the rugged headland.

CH. Oh! oh! and what has become of thy Pharnuchus, and the brave, Ariomardus? and where is prince Seualces, or Lilæus sprung from a high-born sire, Memphis, Tharybis, and Masistras, Artembares too, and Hystæchmas? These things would I again enquire from thee.

XER. Alas for me! after having beheld ancient Athens the hateful, all in one shock of fight, ah! ah! ah! wretched, lie gasping on the ground.

CH. What didst thou also leave, didst thou leave him of thy Persians, thine own eye2 in all things faithful, that numbered thy tens of thousands, tens of thousands, Alpistus, son of Batanochus, *** son of Sesamas, son of Megabatas, Parthus too, and mighty Ebares. Alas! for them wretched. Thou tellest evils that bode further ills to the renowned Persians.

XER. Thou dost in sooth call to my mind a lament for my excellent friends, while thou speakest of baleful, hateful, exceeding hateful horrors. My heart within me moans aloud, moans aloud for them unhappy.

CH. And, in truth, we regret another too, Xanthus, leader of ten thousand Mardians, and warlike Anchares, Diæxis too, and Arsames, chiefs of the cavalry, Cigdates and Lythimnes, and Tolmus that was never satisfied with the spear. They

1 See Dindorf. The metre is at fault.

2 See the elaborate remarks of Blomfield.

3 I shall not take notice of the different changes of the dramatis sonæ throughout this scene.

per

were buried, they were buried, not following in our train, in tents mounted on wheels.

XER. For they that were commanders of the host are gone.

CH. They are gone, alas! inglorious. Woe! woe! woe. woe! woe ye divinities have brought upon us an unlookedfor surpassing evil, as ever Atè hath witnessed.

XER. We have been smitten, alas! what are the fortunes of man's life'!

CH. We have been smitten, for 'tis full plain, (there are new calamities, new calamities), having with no good success encountered the Ionian mariners. Ill-fortuned in war is the race of the Persians.

XER. And how not? I wretched have been smitten in the article of so great an army?

CH. And what wonder? have not the mighty of the Persians fallen?

XER. Seest thou this remnant of my vesture?

CH. I see it, I see it.

XER. This quiver too

CH. What is this that thou sayest hath been saved?
XER. -a receptacle for shafts?

CH. Little enough assuredly, as from much.

XER. We have been reft of our supporters.

Cн. The host of the Ionians shrinks not from the spear. XER. Valiant are they; and I witnessed an unlooked-for calamity.

CH. 'Tis of the rout of the naval host that thou art speaking. XER. It is and I rent my robe at the ill visitation.

CH. Alas! alas!

XER. Aye and more than alas.

CH. Yes, for double and threefold are our woes.

XER. Grievous; but joys to our foes.

CH. And our prowess too hath been maimed.

XER. I am stripped of my escort.

CH. Through the disasters of thy friends on the deep. XER. Deplore, deplore the calamity, and move toward the house.

CH. Ah! ah! woe! woe!

XER. Shriek now in response to me.

The metre is inaccurate. See Dindorf and Paley,

CH. A wretched offering from the wretched to the wretched.

XER. Wail forth a strain, making it harmonize.

CH. Woe! woe! woe! heavy indeed is this calamity of ours. Alas! and very much do I sorrow over it.

XER. Ply' again and again, and sigh for my sake.
CH. I am drenched with tears, being full of sorrow.
XER. Shriek now in response to me.

CH. "Tis my present concern, my liege!

XER. Wail aloud now with groans.

CH. Woe! woe! woe! woe! again there shall be mingled a black and bloody blow.

XER. Beat thy breast too, and loudly pour forth too the Mysian lament.

CH. Woe! woe!

XER. And make havoc of the white hair of thy chin.
CH. With vehemence, with vehemence, very sadly.

XER. And utter a shrill cry.

CH. This too will I do.

XER. Rend too with strength of hand thy robe that hangs in folds.

CH. Woe! woe!

XER. Strike thy locks too, and pity the army.

CH. With vehemence, with vehemence, very sadly.

XER. And di ench thine eyes.

CH. I am steeped in tears.

XER. Shriek now in response to me.

CH. Oh! oh! oh! oh!

XER. Move on to the house with exclamations of sorrow. CH. Alas! thou Persian land now sad to tread!

XER. Alas! indeed through the city.

CH. Alas! in sooth, yea, yea.

XER. Pour your sighs as ye gently advance.

CH. Alas! thou Persian land now sad to tread.

XER. Alas! for those who perished, alas! in the threetiered barks.

CH. I will escort thee with sad-sounding sighs.

1 See note on Septem. c. Th. 855.

2 "Terra Persica dúoßaros nunc est mihi, eamque tristis nunc calco pede tristi." Pauw. See Linwood, s. v.

1-11

AGAMEMNON.

THE return of Agamemnon from Troy, in company with Cassandra, and the murder of both by Clytemnestra.

WATCHMAN. I pray the gods a deliverance from these toils, a remedy1 for my year-long watch, in which, couching on my elbows on the roofs of the Atreidæ, like a dog, I have contemplated the host of the nightly stars, and the bright potentates that bear winter and summer to mortals, conspicuous in the firmament. And now I am watching for the signal of the beacon, the blaze of fire that brings a voice from Troy, and tidings of its capture; for thus strong in hope is the woman's heart, of manly counsel. And whilst

1 Although Paley says of this emendation of Valckenaer's, μñxos for μños, "pauci hodie probabunt," I prefer following Blomfield and Dindorf. Klausen, with his boasted neglect of verbal, in favour of poetical, interpretation, has not remarked the continuation of the metaphor in v. 17. Sewell elegantly renders, "Salve of a year-long sentry."

2 See Sewell's note.

3 óμnyvρiv. A beautiful metaphor, by which the multitude of stars is compared to an assembly or chorus. Cf. Eurip. El. 467, àσrρWV T' αἰθέριοι χοροί; Maximus Tyrius xiv., ἡλίου φῶς, ἄστρων χορόν ; Manetho, V. 7, vπ' ovρáviοv xоpóv ȧoтpwv. It is probable, from the allusion to the changes of the weather, that the Pleiades are particularly meant; of which Hyginus, Poet. Astr. II. 21, observes, "existimantur choream ducere stellis." See Muncker on fab. cxcii., and Burmann on Valer. Flacc. V. 46. Fischer on Eschin. Socrat. III. 19,

See Sewell and Klausen.

p. 157.

I have a night bewildered and dew-drenched couch1, not visited by dreams, for fear, in place of sleep, stands at my side, so that I cannot firmly close my eyelids in slumber. And when I think to sing or whistle, preparing this the countercharm of song against sleep, then do I mourn, sighing over the sad condition of this house, that is not, as of yore, most excellently administered. But now, may there be a happy release from my toils, as the fire of joyous tidings appears through the gloom! Oh hail! thou lamp of night, thou that displayest a light like as the day, and the marshalling of many dances in Argos, on account of this event. Ho! ho! I will give a signal distinctly to the wife of Agamemnon, that she, having arisen with all speed from her couch, may raise aloud a joyous shout in welcome to this beacon, if indeed the city of Ilion is taken, as the beacon-light stands forth announcing; and I myself will dance a prelude. For I will count the throws of my lord that have fallen well, mine own3, since this kindling of the beacon-light has cast me thrice six. May it then befal me to grasp with this hand of mine the friendly hand of the sovereign of this palace on his arrival. But for the rest I am silent; a mighty ox hath come upon my tongue':

1 Although an apodosis for εur' av has been sought for by Klausen in v. 18; yet I am by no means satisfied on the subject. Sewell, who candidly confesses his doubts, renders it, "And well may I retain," etc.; but that would require εv d'or ev y'. I cannot help thinking Eschylus wrote εὐνὴν δὲ νυκτίπλαγκτον . . εὐνὴν ὀνείροις, a repetition that might repetitions are familiar to every reader See Schrader on Mus. 145, p. 232 sqq. 2 "drug-like shredding in," Sewell; which is the proper meaning of ἐντέμνειν.

easily escape the copyists. Such of the poets, especially Homer.

3 Sewell, "for the joy of this fair hap," apparently taking xápiv in apposition with the preceding sentence, and not adverbially.

4 πρÉTEL, stands conspicuous. See Sewell on v. 6.

5 I follow Blomfield, Sewell, and Paley. Klausen seems utterly wrong. 6 The lucky throw. See Stanley.

7 There seems no doubt that this is a proverbial expression. Sewell remarks, "the general meaning of this harsh figure is obvious, whether mere weight of obligation is typified, or weight of money, pecuniæ. bribing to silence. There is something of a similar idea in Timon of Athens ;'He ne'er drinks,

But Timon's silver treads upon his lip.'

Perhaps, however, as the Greeks constantly used compounds of Bous to signify great magnitude, the phrase μéyaç ßous might merely be used to express a great weight.