850 though Zeus has granted me intelligence as well.

  I tell you, if you part from here

  in favor of some other people’s land,

  then you shall come to feel fierce longing for this place.

  As time flows on, and as the standing

  of these citizens grows great, you should possess

  an honored dwelling near to their Acropolis,

  where men and women would bring offerings far greater

  (857) than you would receive from any others.

  (867) This is the kind of future you may choose

  to have from me: to do good deeds,

  and to secure good treatment, and to share

  good privileges in this land most favored by the gods.

  CHORUS

  870 For me to be demeaned,

  despite my age-old mind!

  To stay in this land where

  pollution’s everywhere!

  Such force is in my breath,

  its blast is full of wrath.

  Such pain is this that jabs

  me deep beneath my ribs.

  Hear me, my mother Night:

  the gods’ deceitfulness

  has stripped me of old rights,

  880 and made me nothingness.

  ATHENA

  I shall untiringly remind you of these benefits,

  to make quite sure you never will have cause

  to say that you, more ancient gods, because of me,

  the younger, and these human guardians of this city,

  have been made to wander,

  disrespected exiles from this place.

  But if you give Persuasion her due reverence,

  Persuasion who imparts enchantment to my words,

  then you will stay.

  And if you do not wish to stay,

  it still would not be right for you to bear down

  with your fury or bring harm upon these people,

  890 seeing that there is a way for you to be a sharer

  in this land, with privileges here forevermore.

  CHORUS LEADER

  Athena, queen, what is this place you tell me I shall have?

  ATHENA

  One that’s secure from all distress. Accept it, do.

  CHORUS LEADER

  And if I did, what privileges would there be for me?

  ATHENA

  No house could thrive except with your support.

  CHORUS LEADER

  Will you yourself make sure I have such influence?

  ATHENA

  I shall, through favoring those who show you reverence.

  CHORUS LEADER

  And do you pledge me this for all of future time?

  ATHENA

  The things I say I’m bound to carry through.

  CHORUS LEADER

  900 You are enchanting me, I think—I’m shifting from my rage.

  ATHENA

  And once you’re safely in this land, you shall gain friends.

  CHORUS LEADER

  What themes should I compose, then, for this place?

  ATHENA

  Such things as follow on a wholesome victory,

  drawn from the earth and sea and air.

  So sing to make the breezes blow

  across a ground that is well warmed with sun;

  and to ensure the produce of the earth and flocks

  may yield abundantly, unfailing through the years,

  to benefit these citizens;

  (910) and sing for human seed to issue in safe births.

  For like a gardener, I take tender care

  to cultivate the stock of these just men,

  and wish to keep them free from grief.

  Such matters are for you; and I shall make it sure

  that on the field of war this city shall emerge

  with victory conspicuous among mankind.

  Scene 9

  CHORUS

  Yes, I am gladly accepting

  Athena’s offer of home;

  and I’ll not go rejecting

  a city held in esteem

  by mighty Zeus and by Ares

  920 for its protection of shrines

  prized by the gods of the Hellenes.

  I conjure blessings to come:

  livelihood swelling in plenty,

  warmed by the rays of the sun.

  ATHENA

  I confer a favor on these

  citizens by asking powerful

  gods, not easily placated,

  to inhabit here. The whole of

  930 human being is their province;

  and the man who draws their anger

  can’t tell where the lashes come from

  as he is impelled to face them.

  He may bluster, but a silent

  doom destroys him through their anger.

  CHORUS

  I shall now tell of my blessings:

  I pray no tree-blighting wind

  940 or bud-searing blasts of the dog days

  may trespass into this land,

  nor any plague of the fruit crops

  encroach. And may the god Pan

  raise all the flocks impregnated

  with double lambs. And may grain

  grow from the earth in its richness,

  refreshed by the god-given rain.

  ATHENA

  Listen to these pledges, guardian

  950 citizens, what things they promise!

  Great the power that they dispose of,

  these Erinyes, both for the

  dead below and things for humans.

  Clearly they direct the shape of

  lives of others: some they give a

  world of music, while they make the

  days of others blurred with weeping.

  CHORUS

  I prohibit untimely death,

  mischance that lays men low;

  may all lovely young women claim

  960 a husband and a home.

  This I call for from you, Moirai,

  my mother’s sister powers,

  gods who allocate what’s right;

  you share in every house,

  charged with influence for all time,

  most honored in all ways.

  ATHENA

  I’m delighted how they offer

  kindly goodwill to my country.

  970 And I’m glad Persuasion looked with

  favor on my language as I

  coaxed them from their harsh refusals.

  Zeus, the god of civic meeting,

  won the day. So now we’re rivals

  in our giving out of blessings.

  CHORUS

  And I pray that internal strife,

  a harm that never wanes,

  shall not ever unleash its scourge

  within the city’s walls.

  980 May the dust never drink the blood

  of citizens as it’s shed,

  spur for retaliation

  and slaughter making mad.

  May they compensate joy for joy

  as benefit is shared,

  and agree on whom they oppose—

  thus many ills are cured.

  ATHENA

  You see how they’re tracing paths of

  gracious wording. I can see how

  blessings for my citizens will

  990 come yet from these fearsome faces.

  You should always treat these kind ones

  kindly and respect them: that way

  you shall keep your land and city

  glorious in the ways of justice.

  CHORUS

  Go with joy, yes, go with joy,

  wise in your prosperity,

  go with joy, Athenians,

  dear in your proximity

  to the dearest child of Zeus.

  1000 So in time you reach sound sense,

  held high in the father’s thoughts

  and Athena’s winged embrace.

  [During the following speech, women of all ages, attendants at ATHENA’s temple, come onstage with flaming torches.]

  ATHENA

  Go with joy, you also! I shall

  walk in front to show you to your

  dwelling by the light of sacred

  torches carried by this escort.

  Once you’re under earth, then ward off

  all disaster from this country;

  send instead the gain of victory.

  [To the jurors.]

  And you who sustain the city,

  1010 it is time for you to lead on

  these new settlers. And show favor

  in return for generous favor.

  CHORUS

  Go with joy, yes, go with joy,

  I repeat to all who hear,

  both divine and humans who

  hold Athena’s city here.

  If you stay firm and reverence

  my new settling-place,

  you will not have any cause

  1020 to complain in all your days.

  ATHENA

  I’m grateful for these benedictions.

  Now, illumined by the blaze of torches,

  I shall come along with you

  to your place down underneath the earth.

  And you shall be attended by the women

  who protect and serve my statue.

  Yes, the flower of all the land of Athens

  will escort you there, a splendid gathering

  of girls and women, young and old.

  [To the women.]

  It’s right for you to pay them honor,

  draping them around with purple robes.

  Then let the flaring lights proceed,

  1030 so that this kindly company may grant our land

  for all of time a favorable fortune with fine men.

  [The pro cession begins to move offstage, led by ATHENA, followed by the Erinyes with the attendant women, followed by the jurors.]

  SECONDARY CHORUS [of women attendants]

  Come now to your house,

  glorying in your powers,

  you daughters of dark Night,

  with kindly escort lit.

  Lift up your joyful sound,

  you people of this land!

  Down beneath the earth

  you shall have a wealth

  of praise and sacrifice

  in your primeval space.

  Lift up your joyful call,

  you people one and all!

  1040 With kindly theme

  for this land, come,

  you Solemn Gods;

  and take your joy

  in torches’ flame,

  along your way.

  Raise the triumph-cry!

  Praise in harmony!

  Assured in peace,

  approach your house.

  All-seeing Zeus

  with Moira joins

  to bless Athena’s

  citizens.

  Raise the triumph-cry!

  Praise in harmony!

  [The pro cession moves off.]

  NOTES

  Please note that the line numbers are those of the Greek text, not of the translation.

  Agamemnon

  3Agamemnon and his younger brother Menelaus are often paired as the “Atreidai,” or “sons of Atreus.” In the Oresteia, they rule jointly at Argos; in Homer’s epics, Agamemnon has his palace at Mycenae, not far from Argos, while Menelaus rules at Sparta, quite far away to the south.

  59An Erinys (plural Erinyes) is usually translated as a “Fury”; but since the Erinyes are so important in the Oresteia, this translation retains their Greek identity. For further explanation of their role and centrality, see p. xxx.

  116Supposed to be the side of good omen.

  123Calchas was the seer and prophet who accompanied the expedition.

  134The virgin goddess Artemis traditionally protected wild animals.

  168–75A short stanza has been omitted here, because it is so obscurely allusive. Its subject seems to have been the violent acquisition of power, with reference to the succession passing from Uranus to Cronus to Zeus himself.

  191Aulis is a bay on the mainland coast just across the strait from the island of Euboea. There are strong, frequently reversing currents in this strait.

  281Clytemnestra starts from Hephaestus because he is the god of fire. For some of the places named, see the map on p. xi.

  341The Greeks did commit some notorious sacrilege when they sacked Troy.

  419“Aphrodite” here means Menelaus’ desire for sex, because without Helen he is inconsolable.

  438Ares, the god of war, is evoked as a gold trader.

  511Scamander is the main local river at Troy.

  513Apollo had been opposed to the Greeks at Troy.

  681ff.In Greek the syllables hele-, used as a prefix before words such as “ships,” mean “destructive of.”

  696Simois was one of the rivers near Troy.

  827The leap from the wooden horse to the ground was famous.

  870Geryon was a legendary giant-man with three upper bodies; he was killed by Heracles in the course of one of his labors.

  881Phocis, where the child Orestes has been sent, was the area of central Greece to the east of Mount Parnassus.

  914Leda was the mother of both Clytemnestra, whose father was Tyndareus, and Helen, who was fathered by Zeus.

  958The highly prized purple dye was produced by a process that extracted it from murex shellfish.

  1040The story was that Heracles was sold as a slave to the Lydian queen Omphale.

  1080Cassandra calls Apollo her apollon, her “destroyer” (this is reflected by “appalling”).

  1096The first allusion to the story of Thyestes’ being served the meat of his own children.

  1143The song of the nightingale was often linked to the story of Procne, who killed her son, Itys, and then lamented him constantly after her metamorphosis into the bird.

  1160Acheron was one of the rivers of the underworld.

  1186ff.These lines take the form of a riddle, to which the answer—Erinyes—is finally supplied. The apparently fantastical picturing of the Erinyes as a “chorus” will in the third play become literal.

  1192The allusion is to Thyestes’ adultery with Aerope, the wife of his brother Atreus.

  1233The snake with two heads is in Greek the Amphisbaena; the female monster Scylla (already in the Odyssey) was sometimes envisaged with dogs’ teeth around her vagina.

  1297It was regarded as auspicious when an animal went to the sacrificial altar of its own accord.

  1386A third libation was conventionally made to Zeus soter (“saver”); Clytemnestra makes her macabre variation to “Zeus, saver of the dead,” meaning Hades.

  1439This alludes to Chryseis, the slave concubine of Agamemnon at the start of the Iliad. The following lines about Cassandra are strikingly obscene.

  1468ff.“Daimon” is used for the Greek daimon. This word indicates some sort of unspecified deity, but in this passage it is repeatedly tied to the curse on the house and family. The dissimilar brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus married the sisters Clytemnestra and Helen, who are alike in being bold and dangerous.

  1524This may bring to mind the story that Agamemnon used the false pretext of fetching Iphigeneia to Aulis to marry Achilles.

  1558An allusion to the ferry of Charon, which transported the newly dead across the river Acheron.

  1629A weak jibe, characteristic of Aegisthus, about Orpheus’ powers to lead with his music.

  Women at the Graveside

  1ff.The sole manuscript preserving this play begins at line 10 and does not contain the twenty to thirty lines that must have come before that point. Some of those lines survive in other sources, but most of the passage is lost; this translation supplies between angled brackets (< . . . >) some guesses as to the kind of things that might have been there in the original.

  1Hermes was associated with messages, trickery, and passage to and from the underworld (the realm of Hades). So he is especially relevant to this play.

  6Inachus was an important river running through the plain of Argos.

  248It was believed that the female viper bit the male to death after copulation; the baby snakes then killed the mother by biting their way out from her womb. So this is an apposite analogy.

  308The name Moirai is conventionally translated as “Fates,” but it is more meaningful to retain their Greek name—see p. xxx. They are a group of goddesses, closely associated with the Erinyes, whose role is to ensure that humans get what they deserve, especially in punishment for misdeeds.

  423The “beat” of their dirge is evoked through exotic Eastern terms: “Arian” and “Kissian” both refer to parts of what is now Iran (formerly Persia). This suggests that the music and choreography of the chorus convey traces of the lands of origin.

  439This refers to the primitive ritual of maschalismos, in which the ears, nose, and genitals of dead men were cut off and put under their armpits in order to counteract the power of vengeance.

  602ff.This song accumulates mythical examples of destructive female passion to compare with Clytemnestra. The first is Althaea, who had been told of a log that would keep her son Meleager alive for as long as it smoldered. When he grew up and killed her brothers, she burned it.

  613ff.Scylla’s father, Nisus, was the king of Megara. When the city was besieged by the Cretans, she was bribed by the offer of a gold necklace to cut off the magic lock of hair that kept her father strong.

  631ff.The women of the island of Lemnos killed all their husbands; they then paired up with the visiting Argonauts.

  653ff.The scene, which has previously been set at Agamemnon’s tomb, is now “refocused” in front of the palace.

  783ff.Unfortunately, the manuscript version of this choral song contains many problems of text and interpretation, and quite a lot has been trimmed.