Erinyes

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. recording by expatriate in bangor maine agamemnon by a translated by edmund doge anderson moore's head eighteen forty nine to nineteen twelve author's prefaces first preface a son of euphorion an athenian of the dem of eleusis was born b c five twenty five he consecrated his life to the tragic art from his youth upwards yet he is held to have been a valiant soldier and with his brother cnagirus to have fought at marathon and at salamis and at plataea as some say afterwards being at variance with the athenians he went away from them unto sicily and dwelt at the court of hiero tyrant of gala and was held by him in high honour he died in his sixty-ninth year by a strange fate whereof he had been warned in an oracle saying a stroke from heaven shall slay thee for as he was walking on the shore an eagle that had snatched up a tortoise into the air let it drop and it fell upon him and he died such is almost all that we are told and more than we can be said to know certainly of the life of the poet whose masterpiece i have done my best to render into english verse with the hope of helping one or two of those to whom the original is a closed book to share in its treasures the remaining fragments of tradition the cause of his quarrel with his countrymen the statement that he divulged the sacred mysteries remain not now to be verified of those given above the tale of his death has been preserved for its striking singularity it has the authority of story and no more to his familiarity with war by land and sea his surviving dramas bear the strongest witness there is a priori likelihood and intrinsic evidence and some external testimony of his having shared in one or more of the great battles which saved the western world nor does his departure from athens to whatever cause it was due nor his residence apparently on two separate occasions in sicily admit of doubt a vague statement that his poetry was inspired by wine a portraiture of him by the pen of aristophanes in the frogs intended as i am convinced those of euripides and socrates by the same hand were intended mainly as a literary portrait of the author and teacher not a delineation of the man as he was some notices from aristotle of the improvements introduced by him into the arrangements of the dramatic stage these and a few others form the whole of our scanty information respecting the life of aeschylus and of euphorion stat magni nominis umbra of his works there remain to us seven dramas only out of a very large number fragments or notices bring up the total to seventy-eight plays of which the titles are known if we can judge of those we have not in any degree by those which we have and many of the fragments lead us towards such an estimate the chaos of lost things holds no equal treasure but it is not now to be rescued in his own words in distois pellithontos perhaps a list of the surviving dramas may be useful to those wishing to form an idea of the poet's scope and range these plays in the chronological order that seems most probable are one the suppliant maidens the scene is laid at argos two the prometheus bound the scene is on a scythian peak looking down from afar upon the euxine three the persians seen the tomb of darius at susa the treasure city of the king of persia for the seven against thebes seen the city of thebes in boeotia five the agamemnon six the libation bearers and seven the furies of these three last plays which form a consecutive whole called a trilogy and yet are individually complete the scene is argos or note argos and mycen are in reality about six miles apart in the great koilon argos wide valley of argolis the relics of the dynasty of atreus are undoubtedly at mycen aeschylus however calls the scene always argos not caring to particularize about a district so well known the fact that he describes the beacon fire on mount arachne as visible to the palace need not lead us to conclude that he had argos more in mind than mycen though the mountain is visible if i remember right from larissa the citadel of argos and not i am sure from the acropolis of mycen the beacon glare would have been clearly seen from either no doubt but aeschylus ignores such detail as mr clark peloponnesus page seventy remarks every athenian saw daily from his own hills the peak of arachne to the south and knew it looked upon the region of argos and this was enough for the poet afterwards the temple of apollo at delphi lastly the acropolis and areopagus at athens of an athenian trilogy that is a combination of three dramas by the same hand whether on the same or different subjects for consecutive presentment on the same day and followed by a lighter play called a satiric drama there remains to us this solitary specimen of the satiric drama the cyclops of euripides familiar to english readers by shelley's translation it may be added to explain the apparent difficulty of listening continuously to three dramas each in itself a perfect whole that in the first place a whole day of leisure and not the last few hours between work or play and sleep of an exhausted audience was devoted to the theatre and secondly that the whole length of the three plays combined which form this trilogy is rather less than that of hamlet i do not say that they would not necessarily take longer to act than hamlet but merely that the intellectual strain to an appreciative audience would not necessarily be greater change of interest not mere rest is the essential relaxation of the mind and this which shakespeare provides for example by the soliloquies of hamlet the greek dramatists and pre-eminently aeschylus provided by the choric odes or chants inserted between the several episodes of the play of such odes this trilogy and especially the agamemnon presents to us the noblest surviving specimens they may be regarded as the poet's profoundest musings on the moral and religious and historical problems suggested by the mythical tale which forms the groundwork of his drama of the grandeur the preternatural effect of these musings while the imminent doom is preparing no words of explanation or translation can give an adequate account if it is lawful to adopt words written for a very different purpose by a poet in whom survives more of the spirit of aeschylus than in any other modern one might say of these choric odes they are as a pause a breathing space a curtain behind which god the great scene shifter prepares the last and supreme act of the mighty drama listen how in the deep shadow behind a dull and heavy sound is waxing listen what footstep is that which passes to and fro look how the curtain sways and waves and trembles before the breath of that which is behind

note

victor hugo napoleon le petit last chapter of the mythical tale well known as it is which forms the groundwork of this trilogy some slight sketch may be useful atreus and thyestes sons of pelops fled from their father and dwelt at argos with eurystheus the king thereof and when he died atreus ruled in his place and wedded his daughter but thyestes wronged his brother's wife and was banished from argos and after a while he returned again and clung unto the altar at argos and atreus fearing to slay him devised this deed he slew certain of the children of thyestes and bade him to a banquet and gave him to eat of his own children's flesh and he ate knowing not what it was but when he knew what was done he spake a bitter curse upon the house of atreus that they should all perish by a doom like that of his own children and there befell these woes unto that house that for three generations the curse of murder departed not away for the children of atreus agamemnon and menelaus wedded the daughters of leda clytemnestra and helen and afterwards paris the son of priam being the guest of menelaus did bear away helen his queen unto troy and agamemnon and menelaus went forth to vengeance against paris and troy but artemis was wroth with the brothers and forbade their ships to sail and they lay at aulis many days then calchas the prophet proclaimed that they should not go forth unless agamemnon should offer up his daughter iphigenia in sacrifice unto artemis and the king was unwilling so to do yet for his oath's sake and for his brother and the captain's of the fleet he consented and offered up his daughter and the fleet sailed and they besieged troy for nine years and in the tenth year it fell but clytemnestra the wife of agamemnon was wroth because of her daughter's death and she did evil with aegisthus the youngest son of thyestes and they plotted to murder agamemnon when he should return and sent away his son orestes unto strophius king of phocis that he might not know what they did and when agamemnon came back from troy clytemnestra received him gladly and led him into the palace and as he was bathing himself she flung over him a net and smote him and he died and clytemnestra and aegisthus ruled in argos but orestes heard of his father's wrongful death and went unto the oracle of delphi to inquire thereof and apollo bade him avenge his father and not spare his own mother but slay her and secretly he came to argos bearing fain news of his own death in phocis and so came into the palace of his father again and slew his mother clytemnestra and aigisthus then was he distraught and maddened by the furies in revenge for clytemnestra's slaying and he wandered over the earth seeking purification for his deed but the furies followed him at last he came to the temple of delphi and clung to the altar and the god cast a deep sleep over the furies and bade him fly to athens where he should find safety but the ghost of clytemnestra arose from the shades and awoke the furies and they followed him and were wroth with apollo and they held dispute on the acropolis and athene bade certain of the men of athens decide the cause with her and in the end they proclaimed the deed of orestes to have been rightly done and the guilt of matricide to have been wiped away then the furies were angered with athena and her land but athena promised them great honour from the athenians and a sacred dwelling-place in the land even a cave beneath areopagus and they were appeased and were called no more furies but gracious goddesses and orestes went back unto his father's kingdom and the curse of blood upon the house of atreus was stayed note i have ventured to give to the whole trilogy the title of the house of atreus as the name most applicable to all three parts the older name oresteia seems to me to have meant in aristophanes the libation-bearers only it is hardly applicable to the agamemnon it will be obvious even from a compendium like the foregoing that the myth is an epic in itself and regarding aeschylus's treatment of it as a whole we may discern a special propriety in the poet's recorded saying that his dramas were scraps from the lordly feast of homer i have sometimes fancied that an interesting parallel might be drawn between the three parts of the trilogy and the three divisions of the divine comedy for we have in both the same central idea the succession i e of guilt atonement absolution dante fixes his epic in the future world aeschylus in the present but mutatis mutandis substituting the deepest religious thought of athens for that of the middle ages the most shadowy and gigantic vision of retributory forces for the clearest and most distinct we shall find the parallel curiously suggestive to say the least of the essential unity of moral speculation the first part of the trilogy the drama agamemnon takes up the above myth at the point where agamemnon's return from troy is being anxiously awaited at argos in the tenth year of the war the first coric ode recalls some of the previous history dwelling particularly on the circumstances of the sacrifice of iphigenia then follows the appearance of the herald and of agamemnon the treacherous welcome of clytemnestra the prophecy of cassandra daughter of priam now a captive in agamemnon's train the murder of the king and clytemnestra's savage exultation over his body and that of cassandra with the appearance of aegisthus and his avowal of his plot and motives the drama closes leaving clytemnestra and her paramour in supreme power over argos The second part, called the kyphoroi, or libation-bearers, from the duty imposed upon the chorus of pouring libations on Agamemnon's tomb, opens with the secret return of Orestes, the mutual recognition of himself and his sister Electra, and their invocation of the sleepless spirit of their father to aid their planned revenge.

Then Orestes, assuming the character of a Phocaean stranger, recounts to Clytemnestra a feigned tale of his own death in that land.

then received into the palace he slays aegisthus and clytemnestra and avows his commission from apollo to the deed but already his are but wild and whirling words and maddened by the guilt of blood he sees the furies arise with dark robes and snaky hair and calling on apollo for protection he flees wildly away

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Scene.

At Colonus, about a mile and a quarter northwest of Athens, in front of a grove sacred to the Erinyes or Furies, there worshipped under the propitiatory name of the Eumenides or Kindly Powers.

Argument.

Many years have passed since the events set forth in Oedipus the King.

Oedipus: Stranger, hearing from this maiden, who hath sight for herself and for me, that thou hast drawn nigh with timely quest for the solving of our doubts— Stranger: Now, ere thou question me at large, quit this seat; for thou art on ground which 'tis not lawful to tread.

Oedipus: And what is this ground, to what deity sacred? Stranger: Ground inviolable, whereon none may dwell; for the dread goddesses hold it, the daughters of Earth and Darkness.

Oedipus: Whom may they be, whose awful name I am to hear and invoke? Stranger: The all-seeing Eumenides, the folk here would call them; but other names please otherwhere.

Oedipus: Then graciously may they receive their suppliant! For never more will I depart from my rest in this land.

To the same effect we are told elsewhere that the sun will not transgress his measures, or the erinies who guard justice will find him out.

In Greek mythology, the Irenaeus had for their original function to avenge the violated sanctities of blood relationship, and more particularly, to punish the crime of matricide, a function subsequently extended to the punishment of all crime.

By a crowning generalization, they are here thought of as the guardians of natural law in the widest sense.

our philosopher calls this world-wide law by a name which had a great future before it it is no other than the logos so familiar to us as the word proclaimed in the proem to st john's gospel which became incarnate in jesus christ st john had derived it perhaps from philo of alexandria philo from the stoics and the stoics from heraclitus to the ephesian sage also as to the fourth evangelist the logos is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world the reason within him by which the cosmic reason is revealed his individual portion of the universal fire for just as anaximenes had assimilated the breath of life the animating and sustaining spirit of man with the all-constituting air heraclitus assigns the same twofold activity to his elemental fire It was a common principle in Greek philosophy that like knows like.

To look at them, in evil so delighting, you'd call them worthy guests, and welcome here.

They are the Furies, no one will believe us.

Fair, well-proportioned, friendly, young in years.

But make acquaintance, and straightway appears how snake-like are such doves to wound, deceive us.

The daughters of Danaus lay down their urns beside the sieve into which they were forever pouring water, and as the mournful wailing of Orpheus's lyre told the story of his lost love, they wept then for a sorrow not their own.

So plaintive indeed was the music that all the shadowy forms that flitted endlessly by shed tears of sympathy for the player's grief, and even the cheeks of the Furies were wet.

When Orpheus came before the throne of Pluto, that relentless monarch repulsed him angrily as he attempted to plead his cause and commanded him to depart.

Then the son of Apollo began to play upon his lyre, and through his music he told the story of his loss, and besought the ruler of these myriad souls to give him the single one he craved.

If the good outweighs the evil, the soul is led gently to the Elysian Fields.

But if the bad overbalances the good, then the wretched spirit is driven to Tartarus, there to suffer for all his wrongdoings in the fires that burn forever and ever behind the brazen gates.

To these gates the guilty one is urged by the three Furies, whose snaky hair shakes hideously as they ply their lashes to goad the shrinking soul to its place of torment.

Sometimes they are joined by Nemesis, goddess of revenge, who hurries the doomed spirit over the fiery water of the Phlegethon with her merciless whip and sees that it follows no path but the one leading to the brazen gates of Tartarus.

Scene.

At Colonus, about a mile and a quarter northwest of Athens, in front of a grove sacred to the Erinyes or Furies, there worshipped under the propitiatory name of the Eumenides or Kindly Powers.

Argument.

Many years have passed since the events set forth in Oedipus the King.

Oedipus: And what is this ground? To what deity sacred? Stranger: Ground inviolable, whereon none may dwell.

For the dread goddesses hold it, the daughters of Earth and Darkness.

Oedipus: Whom may they be, whose awful name I am to hear and invoke? Stranger: The all-seeing Eumenides, the folk here would call them.

But other names please otherwhere.

But most be ye my helpers, awful Powers, who know no blandishments, but still perceive all wicked deeds in the world.

Strong, swift, and sure, avenging Furies, understand my wrong; see how my life is ruined, and by whom.

Come, raven on Achaean flesh; spare none; rage through the camp.

Last, thou that drivest thy course up yon steep heaven, thou Sun, when thou behold'st my fatherland, tightening thy golden rein, report my fall and this my fatal end to my old sire and the poor soul who tends him.