Part 15 (1/2)

AIGISTHOS.

(_sheathing his sword and turning from them_).

Bah, I will be a hand of wrath to fall on thee in after days.

LEADER.

Not so, if G.o.d in after days shall guide Orestes home again!

AIGISTHOS.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams...and know such food is vain.

LEADER.

Go forward and wax fat! Defile the right for this thy little hour!

AIGISTHOS.

I spare thee now. Know well for all this folly thou shalt feel my power.

LEADER.

Aye, vaunt thy greatness, as a bird beside his mate doth vaunt and swell.

CLYTEMNESTRA.

Vain hounds are baying round thee; oh, forget them! Thou and I shall dwell As Kings in this great House. We two at last will order all things well.

[_The Elders and the remains of_ AGAMEMNON'S _retinue retire sullenly, leaving the Spearmen in possession._ CLYTEMNESTRA _and_ AIGISTHOS _turn and enter the Palace._]

NOTES TO THE AGAMEMNON

The chief characters in the play belong to one family, as is shown by the two genealogies:--

I.

TANTALUS | Pelops | --------------------------- | | Atreus Thyestes | | ----------------- | | | | Agamemnon Menelaus Aigisthos (= Clytemnestra) (= Helen) (= Clytemnestra) | ------------------------ | | | Iphigenia Electra Orestes

(Also, a sister of Agamemnon, name variously given, married Strophios, and was the mother of Pylades.)

II.

Tyndareus = Leda = Zeus | | ----------- ------------------------- | | | | Clytemnestra Castor Polydeuces Helen

P. 1, l. 1.]--The Watchman, like most characters in Greek tragedy, comes from the Homeric tradition, though in Homer (Od. iv. 524) he is merely a servant of Aigisthos.

P. 2, l. 28, Women's triumph cry.]--This cry of the women recurs several times in the play: cf. p. 26, ll. 587 ff., p. 55, l. 1234. It is conventionally represented by ”olol”; as the cry to Apollo, Paian is ”I-e,” l. 146, and Ca.s.sandra's sob is ”ototoi” or ”otototoi,” p. 47.