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Aeschylus, 525-456 BC
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Agamemnon
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12
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When that
Helen had fled
with Paris to
Troyland, her husband
Menelaus and
his brother
Agamemnon,
the sons of
Atreus and
two-throned Kings of
Argos, sought to
take vengeance on him who had done outrage
to Zeus, the
guardian of the rights of hospitality.
Before their palace appeared a portent,
which the seer
Calchas
interpreted to them: the two eagles were
the Kings themselves and the pregnant hare
seized in their talons was the city which
held Priam's son
and Helen and her
wealth. But
Artemis, she
that loves the wild things of the field,
was wroth with the Kings: and when all
their host was gathered at aulis and would
sail with its thousand ships, she made
adverse winds to blow; so that the ships
rotted and the crews lost heart. Then the
seer, albeit in darkling words, spake unto
Agamemnon:
"If thou wilt appease the goddess and so
free the fleet, thou must sacrifice with
thine own hand thy daughter
Iphigenia."
And he did even so, and the Greeks sailed
away in their ships. Nine years did they
lay siege to Troy
town, but they could not take it; for it
was fated that it should not be taken
until the tenth year.
Now when King
Agamemnon
fared forth from
Argos, he left at
home his Queen,
Clytaemnestra,
Leda's child and
Helen's sister
(though she had for father
Tyndareus,
but Helen's was
Zeus himself); and
in her loneliness and because
Agamemnon had
slain her daughter, she gave ear to the
whisperings of another's love, even of
Aegisthus,
son of that Thyestes who had lain with the
wife of his brother
Atreus; and for
revenge Atreus
slew other of Thyestes's sons and gave
their father thereof to eat; and when
Thyestes learned whereof he had eaten, he
cursed his brother's race.
With the coming of the tenth year of
the war, Queen
Clytaemnestra,
plotting with
Aegisthus
against her husband's life, ordered that
watch be kept upon the roof of her palace
at Argos; for a
succession of beacon-fires was to flash
the news from Troy
when the city should be captured by
Agamemnon.
For weary months the watchman has been on
the look-out —but at last the signal
blazes forth in the night. In celebration
of the glad event, the Queen has
altar-fires kindled throughout the city.
The Chorus of Elders will not credit the
tidings; nor are their doubts resolved
until a herald announces the approach of
Agamemnon,
whose ship had alone escaped the storm
that had raged in the night just passed.
Welcomed by his Queen,
Agamemnon
bespeaks a kindly reception for his
captive,
Cassandra,
Priam's
daughter, and on his wife's urgence
consents to walk to his palace on costly
tapestries.
Cassandra
seeks in vain to convince the Elders of
their master's peril; and, conscious also
of her own doom, passes within.
Agamemnon's
death-shriek is heard; the two corpses are
displayed.
Clytaemnestra
exults in her deed and defies the Elders.
Aegisthus
enters to declare that
Agamemnon has
been slain in requital for his father's
crime. The Elders, on the point of coming
to blows with
Aegisthus and
his body-guard, are restrained by
Clytaemnestra,
but not before they utter the warning that
Orestes will
return to exact vengeance for the murder
of his father.
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Eumenides
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5
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The priestess of
Apollo discovers
Orestes as a
suppliant in the inner shrine of the god
at Delphi, and
fronting him the
Erinyes of his
mother, a band of fearsome creatures who,
wearied with the pursuit of the fugitive
have fallen on sleep. Under promise of his
support, Apollo
bids Orestes
flee to Athens,
where he shall submit his case to
judgement and be released from his
sufferings. The ghost of
Clytaemnestra
rises to upbraid the sleeping
Erinyes because
of their neglect, whereby she is
dishonoured among the other dead. Awakened
by her taunts, they revile
Apollo for that
he has given sanctuary to a polluted man
whom they rightly pursue by reason of
their office—to take vengeance on all
who shed kindred blood.
The scene shifts to
Athens, whither
his pursuers have tracked their prey.
Orestes,
clasping the ancient image of Pallas,
implores her protection on the plea that
the blood upon his hands has long since
been washed away by sacred rites and that
his presence has worked harm to none who
have given him shelter. The
Erinyes chant a
hymn to bind the soul of their victim with
its maddening spell. In answer to
Orestes' call,
the goddess appears and with the consent
of the Erinyes
undertakes to judge the case, not by
herself alone but with the assistance of a
chosen number of her best citizens who are
to constitute the jury.
The trial opens with
Apollo present
as advocate of his suppliant and as
representative of
Zeus, whose
commands he has merely to set forth in all
his oracles.
Orestes, he
declares, slew his mother by his express
behest. The accused confesses to the deed
but urges in his defence that in killing
her husband
Clytaemnestra
killed his father and that his accusers
should justly have taken vengeance upon
her. On theri rejecting this argument on
the ground that the murderess was not
blood-kin to him she murdered,
Orestes denies
blood-kinship with his mother; in which
contention he is supported by
Apollo, who
asserts that the father alone is the
proper parent of the child, the mother
being only the nurse of the implanted
seed.
Athena
announces that the court, the first to try
a case of homicide, is now established by
her for all time to come. The jury cast
their ballots; and the goddess, declaring
that it is her duty to pronunce final
judgement on the case, makes known that
her vote is to count for
Orestes, who
is to win if the ballots are equally
divided. Proclaimed victor by the tie,
Orestes quit
the scene; his antagonists threaten to
bring ruin on the land taht has denied the
justice of their cause. It is the part of
Athena by
promises of enduring honours to assuage
their anger; and now no longer Spirits of
Wrath but Spirits of Blessing, they are
escorted in solemn procession to their
sanctuary beneath the Hill of
Ares.
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The
Libation-Bearers
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6
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Now when she had slain
Agamemnon,
Queen
Clytaemnestra
with her lover
Aegisthus
ruled in the land of
Argos. But the
spirit of her murdered lord was wroth and
sent a baleful vision to distress her soul
in sleep. She dreamed that she gave birth
to a serpent and that she suckled it, as
if it had been a babe; but together with
the mother's milk the noxious thing drew
clotted blood from out her breast. With a
scream of horror she awoke, and when the
seers of the house had interpreted the
portent as a sign of the anger of the
nether powers, she bade
Electra, her
daughter, and her serving-women bear
libations to the tomb of
Agamemnon, if
haply she might placate his angry spirit.
Now Princess
Electra dwelt
in the palace, but was treated no better
than a slave; but, before that
Agamemnon was
slain, her brother, Prince
Orestes, had
been sent to abide with his uncle
Strophius in a far country, even in
Phocis. There he had grown to youthful
manhood, and on the selfsame day that his
mother sought to avert the evil omen of
her dream, accompanied by his cousin
Pylades, he came to
Argos seeking
vengeance for his father's murder.
On the tomb of
Agamemnon he
places a lock of his hair, and when
Electra
discovers it, she is confident that it
must be an offering to the dead made by
none other than her brother. She has been
recognized by him by reason of her
mourning garb; but not until she has had
further proof, by signs and tokens, will
she be convinced that it is he in very
truth.
Orestes
makes known that he has been divinely
commissioned to his purpose of vengeance.
Lord Apollo
himself has commanded him thereto with
threats that, if he disobey, he shall be
visited with assaults of the
Erinyes of his
father—banned from the habitations of
men and the altars of the gods, he shall
perish blasted in mind and body.
Grouped about the grave of their
father, brother and sister, iaded by the
friendly Chorus, implore his ghostly
assistance to their just cause.
Orestes and
Pylades, disguised as Phocian travellers,
are given hospitable welcome by
Clytaemnestra,
to whom it is reported that her son is
dead. The Queen sends as messenger
Orestes' old
nurse to summon
Aegisthus
from outside accompanied by his bodyguard.
The Chorus persuades her to alter the
message and bid him come unattended. His
death is quickly followed by that of
Clytaemnestra,
whose appeals for mercy are rejected by
her son.
Orestes,
displaying the bloody robe in which his
father had been entangled when struck
down, proclaims the justice of his deed.
But his wits begin to wander; the
Erinyes of his
mother, unseen by the others, appear
before his disordered vision; he rushes
from the scene.
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Prometheus
Bound
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15
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When Cronus,
the son of
Uranus, was king
in heaven, revolt against his rule arose
among the gods. The Olympians strove to
dethrone him in favour of
Zeus, his son; the
Titans, children
of Uranus and
Earth, championing
the ancient order of violence, warred
against Zeus and
his partisans.
Prometheus,
himself a Titan, forewarned by his
oracular mother
Earth or
Themis (for she
bore either name) that the victory should
be won by craft, whereas his brethren
placed their sole reliance on brute force,
rallied with her to the side of
Zeus and secured
his success. His triumph once assured, the
new monarch of heaven proceeded forthwith
to apportion to the gods their various
functions and prerogatives; but the
wretched race of man he purposed to
annihilate and create another in its
stead. This plan was frustrated by
Prometheus,
who, in compassion on their feebleness,
showed them the use of fire, which he had
stolen in their behoof, and taught them
all arts and handicrafts. For this
rebellion against the newly-founded
sovereignty of
Zeus, the friend
of mankind was doomed to suffer
chastisement—he must pass countless
ages, riveted to a crag on the shores of
the Ocean in the trackless waste of
Scythia.
But suffering of body or of mind might
not quell his spirit, though he is
possessed of the sad privilege of
immortality. Conscious that he had erred,
he is nevertheless fortified by
indignation that he had been made the
victim of tyranny and ingratitude. Nor is
he unprovided with a means to strengthen
his resistance and to force the hand of
his opressor, whose despotic power has one
point of attack. The Titan is possessed of
a fateful secret which must be revealed to
Zeus if he is not
to be hurled from his dominion as his
father had been before him. The despot
contemplates marriage with Thetis, and
should it be brought to pass, the son to
be born to him is to prove mightier than
his sire. This secret, told
Prometheus
by his mother, he will not disclose till,
in the lapse of ages,
Zeus consents to
release him from his ignominious bonds;
rather than part with it on other terms he
defies the thunder and the lightning of
the lord of Olympus and, amid the crashing
world, is hurled to Tartarus, to the last
protesting against the injustice of his
doom.
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Seven
Against Thebes
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22
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It had been thrice foretold by
Apollo, the lord
of Delphi, unto
Laius, the King of the Cadmeans, that if
he would save his kingdom he must die
without offspring. But Laius followed the
perverse counsels of his nature and
disobeyed the voice of god: he begat a
son, whom he would have exposed to his
death on Mount Cithaeron; but the babe was
rescued by a shepherd who bore him to
Corinth, where
he grew to manhood, believing himself to
be the son of the king of that land,
although in fact he had only been adopted
by him being childless. But coming to
misdoubt his parentage,
Oedipus
journeyed to
Delphi to seek
the truth; and when the god declared that
he should slay his own father and marry
his own mother, he sought to flee such a
fate and betake himself far from the land
wherein he thought his father and his
mother dwelt. But it befell as the god had
said: on the way he met and slew,
unbeknown to himself, his father Laius: he
came to Thebes,
destroyed the monster
Sphinx that made
havoc of the land, married the Queen, even
his mother, and begat two sons, Eteocles
and Polynices, and two daughters,
Antigone and
Ismene. But when the truth stood revealed,
his mother-wife hung herself, and
Oedipus stabbed
his eyes that they might not look on the
misery he had wrought. And it came to pass
thatb his sons, who ruled in his stead
alternately, each the space of a year,
treated him sore ill, so he cursed them
and declared that they should divide their
inheritance by the sword. Eteocles would
not suffer his brother to hace his time to
rule; and to enforce his right Polynices,
who had fled to
Adrastus,
King of Argos,
and married the daughter of that prince,
mustered a host and sought to take his
native town.
At this point the action of the play
begins. Warned by the seer
Teiresias that
the Argives are bent on a supreme assault,
Eteocles heartens the burghers, quells the
outcries of the daughters of
Thebes, frantic
at their impending danger, and receives
the tidings from a scout that the enemy is
advancing against the seven gates. To each
of the opposing chieftains as they are
described by the scout Eteocles opposes a
worthy antagonist, nor will he himself
hold back from encountering his brother
when he learns that he is to attack the
seventh gate. The curse of his father must
not stand vefore a soldier's honour. And
so the brothers fell, each by the other's
hand, and the curse of
Oedipus and the
warning of
Apollo to Laius
were fulfilled.
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The
Suppliant Maidens
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13
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Io, daughter of Inachus, King of
Argos, was
priestess of Hera,
whose jealousy of her lord's love for the
maiden brought upon her victim marring of
mind and body; and she was driven
distraught and in the semblance of a
heifer made to wander over land and sea
until she came to the land of the Nile.
There she regained her human form by the
mysterious touch of her lover
Zeus, and bore a
child Epaphus, from whom sprang Libya, and
from her Belus and Agenor. Between Belus'
two sons, Aegyptus and Danaus, strife
arose, and the fifty sons of Aegyptus
wished to possess by forced marriage the
fifty daughters of Danaus. But the
maidens, loathing the violence of their
kinsmen, fled amain with their father to
Argos, the home
of heir primal mother, and besought
sanctuary from the king of that land,
Pelasgus.
The hesitations of the king to
vindicate to the suppliants the right of
asylum, the triumph of that right by vote
of the people of
Argos, the
arrival of the suitors in pursuit,
preceded by their herald demandind the
surrender of the maidens, and his repulse
though threatening war, constitute the
action of the play.
The sequel was contained in the
Egyptians and the Danaids. Danaus, forced
to acquiesce in the demands of his
nephews, enjoins upon his daughters the
duty of killing their bridegrooms on the
marriage night. All, save Hypermnestra,
obey; she with splendid perfidy spares
Lynceus out of love; and when brought to
trial is defended by the goddess
Aphrodite
pleading that love of man and woman is
sanctified by the love of
Heaven for
Earth.
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[Arguments from the
LCL]
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Euripides, 485-406 BC
1,5 %
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Alcestis
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2
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Apollo, being
banished for a season from Olympus, and
condemned to do service to a mortal,
became herdman of Admetus, King of Pherae
in Thessaly. Yet he loathed not his
earthly taskmaster, but loved him, for
that he was a just man, and hospitable
exceedingly. Wherefore he obtained from
the Fates this boon for Admetus, that,
when his hour of death should come, they
should accept in ramsom for his life the
life of whosoever should have before
consented to die in his stead. Now when
this was made known, none of them which
were nearest by blood to the king would
promise to be his ramsom in that day. Then
Alcestis his
wife, the daughter of
Pelias King of
Iolcos, pledged her to die for him. Of her
love she did it and for the honour of
wifehood. And the years passed by, and the
tale was told in many lands; and all men
praised
Alcestis, but
Admetus bore a burden of sorrow, for day
by day she became dearer to him, a wife
wholly true, a mother most loving, and a
lady to her thralls gentle exceedingly.
But when it was known by tokens that the
day was come, Admetus repented him sorely,
but it availed not, for no mortal may
recall a pledge once given to the Gods.
And on that day there came to the palace
Apollo to plead
with Death for
Alcestis'
sake; and a company of Elders of Pherae,
to ask for her state and to make mourning
for her. And when she was dead, ere she
was borne forth to burial, came
Hercules, son
of Zeus, in his
journeying, seeking the guest's right of
meal and lodging, but not knowing aught of
that which had come to pass. Of him was a
great deliverance wrought, which is told
herein.
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Andromache
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12
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When Troy was
taken by the Greeks,
Andromache,
wife of that
Hector whom
Achilles slew
ere himself was slain by the arrow which
Apollo guided,
was given in the dividing of the spoils to
Neoptolemus,
Achilles' son.
So he took her oversea to the land of
Thessaly, and loved her, and entreated her
kindly, and she bare him a son in her
captivity. But after ten years
Neoptolemus
took to wife a princess of Sparta,
Hermion, daughter of
Menelaus and
Helen. But to
these was no child born, and the soul of
Hermione grew
bitter with jealousy against
Andromache.
Now
Neoptolemus,
in his indignation for his father's death,
had upbraided
Apollo
therewith: wherefore he now journeyed to
Delphi, vainly
hoping by prayer and sacrifice to assuage
the wrath of the God. But so soon as he
was gone,
Hermione
sought to avenge herself on
Andromache;
and Menelaus
came thither also, and these twain went
about to slay the captive and her child.
Wherefore
Andromache
hid her son, and took sanctuary at the
altar of the goddess Thetis, expecting
till Peleus, her
lord's grandsire, should come to save her.
And herein are set forth her sore peril
and deliverance: also it is told how
Neoptolemus
found death at
Delphi, and how
he that contrived his death took his wife.
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Bacchanals
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11
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Semele the
daughter of
Cadmus, a mortal
bride of Zeus, was
persuaded by Hera
to pray the God to promise her with an
oath to grant her whatsoever she would.
And, when he had consented, she asked that
he would appear to her in all the
splendour of his godhead, even as he
visited Hera. Then
Zeus, not of his
will, but constrained by his oath,
appeared to her amidst intolerable light,
and flashings of heaven's lightning,
whereby her mortal body was consumed. But
the God snatched her unborn babe from the
flames, and hid him in a cleft of his
thigh, till the days were accomplished
wherein he should be born. And so the
child
Dionysus
sprang from the thigh of
Zeus, and was
hidden from the jealous malice of
Hera till he was
grown. Then did he set forth in victorious
march through all the earth, bestowing
upon men the gift of the vine, and
planting his worship everywhere. But the
sisters of
Semele scoffed
at the story of the heavenly bridegroom,
and mocked at the worship of
Dionysus. And
when Cadmus was
now old,
Pentheus his
grandson reigned in his stead, and he too
defied the wine-giver, saying that he was
no god, and that none in
Thebes should
ever worship him.
And herein is told how
Dionysus came
in human guise to
Thebes, and
filled her women with the Bacchanal
possession, and how
Pentheus,
essaying to withstand him, was punished by
strange and awful doom.
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Cyclops
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3
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THE Satyric Drama, of which the Cyclops
is the solitary example extant, is
especially interesting as being a survival
in literature. The Greek drama originally,
as being designed for representation at
the great annual festival of
Dionysus or
Bacchus, had for its subject some incident
in the adventures of that god or his
followers. When, early in the fifth
century B.C., it became the rule that each
dramatic poet should present a trilogy of
tragedies at the Greater Dionysia, it was
required that to these should be added a
fourth play, founded on the ancient theme,
as a concession to the popular feeling
connected with the Wine-god's festival,
and as a recognition of his presence. As
the chorus in such plays was invariably
composed of
Satyrs, the
peculiar attendants of Bacchus, such plays
were called Satyric Dramas. In these,
incidents in the legends of gods and
heroes were treated with an approach to
burlesque, the high style of tragedy was
abandoned at pleasure, the vocabulary
contained many words which were beneath
the dignity of the serious drama, the
dances were wild, and not always decent,
the versification was more irregular,
broad and wanton jests were not only
admitted, but perhaps even prescribed: in
short, the unrestrained licence of the
original Dionysia found here its literary
expression.
The subject of the Cyclops is taken
from that adventure of
Odysseus which
is related with Epic dignity by Homer in
the
Odyssey,
Bk. IX. The divergences, rendered
inevitable by the special character of the
Satyric Drama, are so great that it cannot
be affirmed with certainty that this play
was really based on Homer.
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Electra
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12
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WHEN
Agamemnon
returned home from the taking of
Troy, his
adulterous wife
Clytaemnestra,
with the help of her paramour
Aegisthus,
murdered him as he entered the silver bath
in his palace. They sought aIso to slay
his young son
Orestes, that
no avenger might be left alive; but an old
servant stole him away and took him out of
the land, unto Phocis. There was he
nurtured by king Strophius, and Pylades
the king's son loved him as a brother. So
Aegisthus
dwelt with
Clytaemnestra,
reigning in
Argos, where
remained now of
Agamemnon's
seed Electra
his daughter only. And these twain marked
how Electra
grew up in hate and scorn of them,
indignant for her father's murder, and
fain to avenge him. Wherefore, lest she
should wed a prince, and persuade husband
or son to accomplish her heart's desire,
they bethought them how they should
forestall this peril.
Aegisthus
indeed should have slain her, yet by the
queen's counsel forbore, and gave her in
marriage to a poor yeoman, who dwelt far
from the city, as thinking that from
peasant husband and peasant children
theree shouId be nought to fear. Howbeit
this man, being full of loyalty to the
mighty dead and reverence for blood royal,
behaved himself to her as to a queen, so
that she continued virgin in his house all
the days of her adversity. Now when
Orestes was
grown to man, he journeyed with Pylades
his friend to
Argos, to seek
out his sister, and to devise how he might
avenge his father, since by the oracle of
Apollo he was
commanded so to do. And herein is told the
story of his coming, and how brother and
sister were made known to each other, and
how they fulfilled the oracle in taking
vengeance on tyrant and adulteress.
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Heraclides
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27
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Eurystheus,
king of Argos,
hated
Hercules all
his life through, and sought to destroy
him by thrusting on him many and desperate
labours. And when
Hercules had
been caught up to Olympus from the pyre
whereon he was consumed on Mount Oeta,
Eurystheus
persecuted the hero's children, and sought
to slay them. Wherefore lolaus, their
father's friend and helper, fled with
them. But in whatsoever city they sought
refuge, thence were they driven; for
Eurystheus
ever made search for them, and demanded
them with threats of war. So fleeing from
land to land, they came at last to
Marathon which belongeth to
Athens, and
there took sanctuary at the temple of
Zeus. Thither came
the folk of the land compassionating them,
and
Eurystheus'
herald requiring their surrender, and the
king of Athens,
Theseus' son,
to hear their cause. And herein is told
the tale of the war that came of his
refusal to yield them up, of the sacrifice
of a noble maiden which the Gods required
as the price of victory, of an old warrior
by miracle made young, and of the
vengeance of
Alcmena.
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Hecabe
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9
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WHEN Troy was
taken by the Greeks,
Hecuba, the
wife of Priam,
and her daughter,
Cassandra the
prophetess, and
Polyxena,
with the other women of
Troy, were made
slaves, being portioned among the victors,
so that
Cassandra
became the concubine of
Agamemnon.
But Polydorus, the youngest of
Priam's sons,
had long ere this been sent, with much
treasure of gold, for safe keeping to his
father's friend, Polymestor king of
Thrace, so that his mother had one
consolation of hope amidst her
afflictions. Now the host of Greece could
not straightway sail home, because to the
spirit of their dead hero
Achilles was
given power to hold the winds from
blowing, till meet sacrifice were rendered
to him, even a maiden of
Troy, most
beautiful of the seed royal; and for this
they chose
Polyxena. And
now king Polymestor, lusting for the gold,
and fearing no vengeance of man, slew his
ward, the lad Polydorus, and flung his
body into the sea, so that it was in
process of time cast up by the waves on
the shore whereby was the camp of the
Greeks, and was brought to
Hecuba. And
herein are told the sorrow of
Hecuba and her
revenge.
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Helen
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13
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IT is told that one of the old bards,
named Stesichorus, who lived six
generations before Euripides; did in a
certain poem revile
Helen, for that
her sin was the cause of misery to Hellas
and to Troy.
Thereupon was he struck blind for railing
on her who had after death become a
goddess. But the man repented of his
presumption, and made a new song wherein
he unsaid all the evil he had sung of
Queen Helen, and
move into his lay an ancient legend,
telling how that not she, but her wraith
only, had passed to
Troy, while she
was borne by the Gods to the land of
Egypt, and there remained until the day
when her lord, turning aside on the
homeward voyage, should find her there.
When he had done this, his sight was
straightway restored to him. In this play
is Helen's story
told according to the "Recantation of
Stesichorus."
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Heracles
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27
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Hercules
was hated from his birth by
Hera, and by her
devices was made subject to
Eurystheus,
king of Argos. At
his command he performed the great Twelve
Labours, whereof the last was that he
should bring up Cerberus, the Hound of
Hades, from the
Underworld.
Ere he departed, he committed
Amphitryon
his father, with Megara his wife, and his
sons, to the keeping of
Creon, king of
Thebes, and so
went down into the Land of Darkness. Now
when he was long time absent, so that men
doubted whether he would ever return, a
man of Euboea, named Lycus, was brought
into Thebes by
evil-hearted and discontented men, and
with these conspired against
Creon, and slew
him, and reigned in his stead. Then he
sought further to slay all that remained
of the house of
Hercules,
lest any should in days to come avenge
Creon's murder.
So these, in their sore strait, took
refuge at the altar of
Zeus. And herein
is told how, even as they stood under the
shadow of death,
Hercules
returned for their deliverance, and how in
the midst of that joy and triumph a yet
worse calamity was brought upon them by
the malice of
Hera.
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Hippolytus
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10
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HIPPOLYTA, Queen, of the
Amazons, bore
to Theseus,
king of Athens
and Troezen, a
son whom he named from her, Hippolytus.
Now this youth grew up of all men most
pure in heart, reverencing chiefly
Artemis the
Maiden, Goddess of the Chase, and utterly
contemning the worship of
Aphrodite.
Wherefore the wrath of the Queen of Love
was kindled against him, and she made
Phaedra, his
father's young wife, mad with love for
him; and although she wrestled with her
malady, and strove to hide it in her
heart, till by the fever of it she was
brought nigh to death's door, yet in the
end it was revealed, and was made
destruction to her and to Hippolytus also.
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Ion
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8
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IN the days when Erechtheus ruled over
Athens,
Apollo wrought
violence to the kings young daughter
Creusa. And she, having borne a son, left
him, by reason of her fear and shame, in
the cave wherein the God had humbled her.
But Apollo cared
for him, and caused the babe to be brought
to Delphi, even
to his temple. Therein was the child
nurtured, and ministered in the courts of
the God's house. And in process of time
Erechtheus died, and left no son nor
daughter save Creusa, and evil days came
upon Athens,
that she was hard bestead in war. Then
Xuthus, a chief of the Achaean folk,
fought for her and prevailed against her
Euboean enemies, and for guerdon of
victory received the princess Creusa to
wife, and so became king-consort in
Athens. But to
these twain was no child born; so, after
many years, they journeyed to
Delphi to
inquire of the oracle of
Apollo touching
issue. And there the God ordered all
things so that the lost was found, and an
heir was given to the royal house of
Athens. Yet,
through the blind haste of mortals, and
their little faith, was the son well-nigh
slain by the mother, and the mother by the
son.
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Iphigenia
in Aulis
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19
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WHEN the hosts of Hellas were mustered
at Aulis beside the narrow sea, with
purpose to sail against
Troy, they were
hindered from departing thence by the
wrath of
Artemis, who
suffered no favouring wind to blow. Then,
when they enquired concerning this,
Calchas the
prophet proclaimed that the anger of the
Goddess would not be appeased save by the
sacrifice of
Iphigenia,
eldest daughter of
Agamemnon,
captain of the host. Now she abode yet
with her mother in Mycenae, but the king
wrote a lying letter to her mother,
bidding her send her daughter to Aulis,
there to be wedded to
Achilles. All
this did
Odysseus
devise, but
Achilles knew
nothing thereof. When the time drew near
that she should come,
Agamemnon
repented him sorely. And herein is told
how he sought to undo the evil, and of the
maiden's coming, and how
Achilles
essayed to save her, and how she willingly
offered herself for Hellas' sake, and of
the marvel that befell at the sacrifice.
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Iphigenia
in Tauris
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12
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WHEN
Iphigenia,
daughter of
Agamemnon,
lay on, the altar of sacrifice at Aulis,
Artemis
snatched her away, and bare her to the
Tauric land, which lieth in Thrace to
north of the Black Sea. Here she was made
priestess of the Goddess's temple, and in
this office was constrained to consecrate
men for death upon the altar; for what
Greeks soever came to that coast were
seized and sacrificed to
Artemis. And
herein is told how her own brother
Orestes came
thither, and by what means they were made
known to each other, and of the plot that
they framed for their escape.
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Medea
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9
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WHEN the Heroes, who sailed in the ship
Argo to bring home the Golden Fleece, came
to the land of Colchis, they found that to
win that treasure was a deed passing the
might of mortal man, so terribly was it
guarded by monsters magical, even
fire-breathing bulls and an unsleeping
dragon. But
Aphrodite
caused Medea the
sorceress, daughter of
Aeetes the king
of the land, to love
Jason their
captain, so that by her magic he overcame
the bulls and the dragon. Then
Jason took the
Fleece, and Medea
withal, for that he had pledged him to wed
her in the land of Greece. But as they
fled, Absyrtus her brother pursued them
with a host of war, yet by
Medea's devising
was he slain. So they came to the land of
lolcos, and to
Pelias, who
held the kingdom which was
Jason's of right.
But Medea by her
magic wrought upon
Pelias'
daughters so that they slew their father.
Yet by reason of men's horror of the deed
might not Jason
and Medea abide
in the land, and they came to
Corinth. But
there all men rejoiced for the coming of a
hero so mighty in war and a lady renowned
for wisdom unearthly, for that
Medea was
grandchild of the Sun-god. But after ten
years, Creon the
king of the land spake to
Jason, saying,
"Lo, I will give thee my daughter to wife,
and thou shall reign after me, if thou
wilt put away thy wife
Medea; but her
and her two sons will I banish from the
land." So Jason
consented. And of this befell things
strange and awful, which are told herein.
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Orestes
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17
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WHEN
Orestes had
avenged his father by slaying his mother
Clytaemnestra
and Aegisthus
her paramour, as is told in the Tragedy
called "Electra," he was straightway
haunted by the
Erinyes, the
avengers of parricide, and by them made
mad; and in the torment thereof he
continued six days, till he was brought to
death's door. And herein is told how his
sister Electra
ministered to him, and how by the Argive
people they were condemned to death, while
their own kin stood far from their help,
and how they strove against their doom.
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The
Phoenician Women
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15
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When
Oedipus, king
of Thebes, was
ware that he had fulfilled the oracle
uttered ere he waas born, in that he had
slain his father, king Laius, and wedded
his mother Jocasta, he plucked out his own
eyes in his shame and misery. So he ceased
to be king; but, inasmuch as his two sons
rendered to him neither love nor worship,
he cursed them with this curse, "that they
should divide their inheritance with the
sword." But they essayed to escape this
doom by covenanting to rule in turn, year
by year. So Eteocles, being the elder,
became king for the first year, and
Polyneices his brother departed from the
land, lest any occasion of offence should
arise. But when after a year's space he
returned, Eteocles refused to yield to him
the kingdom. Then went he to
Adrastus,
king of Argos,
who gave him his daughter to wife, and led
forth a host of war under seven chiefs
against Thebes.
And herein is told how the brothers met
in useless parley; by what strange
sacrifice Thebes
was saved; of the Argives' vain assault;
and how the brothers slew each other in
single combat.
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Rhesus
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15
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WHEN Hector
and the Trojans, as Homer telleth in the
Eighth Book of his lliad, had
driven the Greeks from before
Troy back to their
camp beside the sea, the host of
Troy lay for that
night in the plain overagainst them. And
the Trojans sent forth Dolon a spy to know
what the Greeks were minded to do. But
there went forth also two spies from the
camp of the Greeks, even
Odysseus and
Diomedes, and
these met Dolon and slew him, after that
he had told them in his fear all that they
would know of the array of the Trojans,
and of the coming of their great ally,
Rhesus the
Thracian, the son of a Goddess. And herein
is told of the coming of the Thracian
king, and of all that befell that night in
the camp of the Trojans.
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Suppliants
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9
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IN the days when
Theseus ruled
in Athens, there
was war between
Argos and
Thebes. For the
two sons of
Oedipus, being
mindful of their father's curse, that they
should divide their inheritance with the
sword, covenanted to rule in turn, year by
year, over
Thebes. So
Eteocles, being the elder, became king for
the first year, and Polyneices his brother
departed from the land, lest any occasion
of offence should arise. But when after a
year's space he returned, Eteocles refused
to yield to him the kingdom. Then went he
to Adrastus,
king of Argos,
who gave him his daughter to wife, and led
forth a host of war under seven chiefs
against Thebes.
But, forasmuch as in going he set at
naught oracles and seers, his array was
utterly broken in battle, and of those
seven captains none returned, but
Adrastus
only. Thereafter, according to the sacred
custom of Hellas, and the law of war, the
Argives sent to require the Thebans to
suffer them to bear away their slain that
they might bury them. For, among the
Greeks, if a man being dead obtained not
burial, this was accounted a calamity
worse than death, forasmuch as he was
thereby made homeless and accurst in
Hades. Yet did the Thebans impiously and
despitefully reject that claim, being
minded to wreak vengeance on their enemies
after death. Then king
Adrastus,
with the mothers of the slain chiefs, came
to Eleusis in
Atlica, and made supplication at the altar
of Demeter to
Aethra the mother of
Theseus, and to
the king's self. So
Theseus
consented to their prayer, and led the
array of Athens
against Thebes,
and there fought and prevailed, and so
brought back the bodies of those chiefs,
and rendered to them the death-rites at
Eleusis.
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Daughters
of Troy
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15
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WHEN Troy was
taken by the Greeks, the princesses of the
House of Priam
mere apportioned by lot to the several
chiefs of the host. But
Polyxena they
doomed to be sacrificed on
Achilles'
tomb, and Astyanax, the son of
Hector and
Andromache,
they hurled from a high tower. And herein
is told how all this befell; and beside
there is naught else save the lamentations
of these Daughters of
Troy, till the
city is set aflame, and the captives are
driven down to the sea.
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[Arguments from the
LCL]
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