Thyestes

King Mercury gave it to Pelops, the mighty charioteer, and Pelops to Atreus, shepherd of his people.

Atreus, when he died, left it to Thyestes, rich in flocks, and Thyestes in his turn left it to be borne by Agamemnon, that he might be the lord of all Argos and of the isles.

Leaning then on his sceptre he addressed the Argives.

'My friends,' he said, 'heroes, servants of Mars, the hand of heaven has been laid heavily upon me.

But it is said that he too, no less than Demosthenes, was weak in his delivery, and therefore sought with care to imitate, now Roscius the comedian, and now Aesop the tragedian.

This Aesop, they tell us, was once acting in a theatre the part of Atreus, planning to take vengeance on Thyestes, when one of the assistants suddenly ran across the scene, and the actor, losing control of himself in the intensity of his passion, smote him with his sceptre and laid him dead.

Now, Cicero's delivery contributed not a little to his persuasive power.

Moreover, of those orators who were given to loud shouting, he used to say jestingly that they were led by their weakness to resort to clamour, as cripples were to mount upon a horse.

What skills belief or disbelief? Fate works its will, and thou wilt see, and say in ruth her tale was true.

Ah, 'tis Thyestes feasted on kindred flesh.

I guess her meaning, and with horror thrill, hearing no shadowed hint or the or true tale but its full hatefulness.

Yet for the rest, far from the track I roam, and know no more.

Dawn of the day of rightful vengeance, hail! I dare at length aver that gods above have care of men, and heed of earthly wrongs.

I, I who stand and thus exult to see this man lie wounded, robes the Furies wove, slain in requital of his father's craft.

Take ye the truth, that Atreus, this man's sire, the lord and monarch of this land of old, held with my sire Thyestes deep dispute, brother with brother, for the prize of sway, and drave him from his home to banishment.

Thereafter the lorn exile homeward stole, and clung a suppliant to the hearth divine, and for himself won this immunity, not with his own blood to defile the land that gave him birth.

King Mercury gave it to Pelops, the mighty charioteer, and Pelops to Atreus, shepherd of his people.

Atreus, when he died, left it to Thyestes, rich in flocks, and Thyestes in his turn left it to be borne by Agamemnon, that he might be the lord of all Argos and of the isles.

Leaning then on his sceptre he addressed the Argives.

'My friends,' he said, 'heroes, servants of Mars, the hand of heaven has been laid heavily upon me.

You've utterly ruined me with your wheeling speeches.

Amur, a cursed dinner of yours have I been dining upon than the ones that were said before Theastes and Tereus.

I'm dying.

I'm sick at heart.

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.

I will first speak, from my hearsay from Alectra, this.

Thou knowest the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes

I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb

Dost thou then remember weaving a representation of this on the deftly wrought web?