[To the CHORUS.]

  830 Also, remembering your sentiments,

  I quite agree—you have me as corroboration.

  For it comes to few by nature to admire a friend

  in times of happy fortune with no taint of envy.

  I speak from my own knowledge:

  for I can read the mirror of true attitudes,

  and see that those who seemed so well disposed to me

  840 were really shadows, ghosts.

  And as for what remains concerning gods and city,

  we’ll convene assemblies that are communal,

  consulting all the people, so we can consider

  how to make quite sure that what works well at present

  will remain effective in the longer term.

  And if there’s any issue stands in need of remedy,

  850 we shall endeavor to avert malignant spread

  by the judicial use of surgery—the knife or burning-out.

  And now I’m going to go into my palace,

  home and hearth, where first I shall do honor to the gods

  who sent me out and now have brought me back.

  I pray for Victory, as she has followed me,

  to stay on steadfast at my side.

  [As he is about to descend, CLYTEMNESTRA, with women attendants, comes out of the palace.]

  CLYTEMNESTRA [to the CHORUS]

  Gentlemen, you elder citizens of Argos,

  I am not ashamed to tell you of my husband-loving ways.

  It’s from my own direct experience

  that I shall speak about the burdens of my life

  860 throughout the time this man was kept at Troy.

  It is a dreadful anguish for a woman

  sitting by herself at home without her male,

  forever listening to malicious rumors.

  They would arrive, man after man,

  announcing news of ever worse catastrophes.

  And as for wounds: if this man here had suffered blows

  as many times as was reported to this house,

  he’d be more perforated than a net!

  And if he’d died as often as the stories told,

  he’d have to have been triple-

  870 bodied, like some second Geryon.

  Thanks to grim rumors of this sort,

  I’ve had to be unbound by others from the noose

  I’d fixed above and round my neck.

  [She turns finally to AGAMEMNON.]

  And that is why our child, the token of our pledges,

  yours and mine, is not here by my side,

  as should have been the case: Orestes.

  880 Don’t be concerned at this, because a family friend

  is looking after him, king Strophius of Phocis.

  He wisely warned me of two grave uncertainties:

  the danger you were threatened by at Troy;

  and then the risk, supposing popular unrest

  attempted to contrive a hostile plot . . .

  there is a tendency to kick a man who’s down.

  So caution of this kind brings no deception with it.

  And as for me . . . the wellsprings of my tears

  are all dried up, with not a droplet left;

  my eyes are bleared from lying late awake

  890 and weeping for my beacons standing there inactive.

  When I did have dreams, they were so shallow

  I’d be woken by the whine of a mosquito in my ear.

  And now that I’ve endured all this,

  I can, with heart released from grief,

  address this man of mine as guard dog of the fold;

  the forestay that secures the ship;

  the firm-fixed pillar that supports the roof on high;

  (900) dry land to storm-tossed sailors who’d lost hope;

  a flowing fountain to the thirsting traveler.

  I hold him worthy of descriptions such as these. . . .

  But let this not attract resentment,

  since we’ve borne so many troubles in the past.

  And now, my dearest heart, step from this carriage,

  but do not, great king, set down upon the soil

  this foot which flattened Troy.

  [To her servant women, who are waiting ready.]

  Come, women, get on with your task of spreading fabrics

  all along the pathway he will walk.

  910 Yes, let us have a passage strewn with purple,

  so that Justice may escort him well

  inside a home that lies beyond his hopes.

  [The women spread out the purple cloths between the wagon and the door.]

  Our close attention, ever wakeful, shall ensure

  that all the rest is, with the gods’ help, rightly done.

  AGAMEMNON

  Offspring of Leda, guardian of my house,

  your speech was fitting to my absence—

  stretching out at length.

  But proper eulogy remains a prize

  it’s right for others to award.

  So do not pamper me in female fashion,

  nor, like some barbarian, bow down to me

  920 with gawping salutations.

  And stop this spreading of my path with woven stuff

  which might attract resentment—

  it’s the gods who should be honored in this style.

  For mortals to take steps upon such ornaments of beauty

  is, in my belief, a thing that’s fraught with fear.

  So pay me homage like a man, I say, not like a god.

  There is a very different ring between the sound

  of foot-mats and of fancy fabrics.

  Keeping clear of dangerous thoughts

  remains the greatest gift from god.

  One should not call a life well blessed

  until it has been lived right through in full prosperity.

  If I can act entirely in this frame of mind,

  930 then I may rest secure.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Well, tell me this in open honesty. . . .

  AGAMEMNON

  For sure I’ll not betray my honest judgment.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Might some alarming turn have made you vow these to the gods?

  AGAMEMNON

  If someone with authority had authorized this deed.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  And Priam? If he’d had success like yours . . . what do you think?

  AGAMEMNON

  I’m sure he would have stepped upon the precious cloths.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Then pay no heed to people’s carping talk.

  AGAMEMNON

  Yet grumbling from the populace can be a powerful force.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  The unresented man’s the one with nothing to be envied.

  940 AGAMEMNON

  It’s not a woman’s place to show such relish for a fight.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Yet those who reap success may properly concede defeat.

  AGAMEMNON

  Does victory in this contest mean so much to you?

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Agree! You’re still in charge if you give way to me by choice.

  AGAMEMNON

  All right, if this is what you want:

  here, somebody unlace my boots.

  [One of CLYTEMNESTRA’s women unlaces and takes off his boots.]

  And as I tread upon these fabrics dyed with purple,

  may no envious eye light on me from afar.

  I have deep qualms about destroying

  household properties by crushing underfoot

  these precious cloths that must have cost much silver coin.

  So much for that.

  [Draws attention to CASSANDRA.]

  950 And now this stranger: offer her a kindly welcome—

  god looks favorably from afar upon the man

  who wields his power with gentleness.

  No one puts on the yoke of slavery on purpose.

  She’s had to come along with me, the army’s gift,

  the bloom selected out of many captured spoils.

  Well, now I’ve been subjected to your wish like this,

  I’ll make my way inside my house

  with trampling on purple.

  [AGAMEMNON steps onto the cloths and makes his way toward the door.]

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  The sea there is—and who could drain it dry?

  The sea produces many, many dye-shells,

  an inexhaustible supply of welling purple,

  960 worth much silver, rich for steeping fabrics.

  Thank the gods we have a wealth of these, my lord—

  this house does not know poverty.

  I would have vowed to trample

  on innumerable woven cloths,

  if that had been prescribed by prophets

  to ensure deliverance of this man’s life.

  As long as there’s the root, the leafage

  can grow back around the house,

  and spread its shade against the fierce dog days.

  And now that you’ve returned to your domestic hearth,

  your coming signals warmth in winter;

  970 and in summer, when the grapes are sour,

  there then is coolness through the palace,

  as the complete master ranges through his home.

  [By now AGAMEMNON is going in through the door.]

  Zeus, Zeus, god complete,

  now see my prayers through to the end;

  make sure those things that you ensure

  become complete.

  [CLYTEMNESTRA and her servants follow him inside.]

  Choral Song

  CHORUS

  Why does this clinging dread

  overcast me with foreboding,

  fluttering around my heart,

  as I try to read the omen?

  Why this prophetic chant

  with no payment, no commission?

  Why can’t my reason spit

  980 it out, dreamlike, and dismiss it?

  Time has gone aging on

  since the sand jumped off the cable

  hauled from the ocean bed

  when it sailed for Troy, that navy.

  They have returned back home,

  my own eyes have been the witness,

  yet all the same my heart

  uninstructed sings within me

  990 dirge-notes without the lyre,

  dirge an Erinys composes,

  dismissive of the strength

  that hope offers to oppose it.

  My heart is churning, whirled

  with the dread of due completion:

  I hope my fears prove wrong—

  1000 may it never reach completion.

  Insatiable desire

  can fill a house too full;

  corruption lives next door

  and leans against the wall.

  A life that’s laden rich

  will strike on a dark reef,

  unless some dread can reach

  1010 it first to keep it safe,

  by throwing off the side

  a share of all those goods.

  The house may then survive,

  not sunk by its crammed holds.

  Once blood has spurted black

  1020 and soaked the ground with death,

  there’s none can chant it back

  to life from the stained earth.

  An overriding fate

  holds back those who transgress—

  a warning that my heart

  should make clear with full voice:

  1030 it lurks in dark instead,

  and murmurs in its pain,

  and can’t unwind the thread—

  meanwhile, my mind’s aflame.

  Scene 5

  [CLYTEMNESTRA reenters.]

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  You! Come along inside as well—

  it’s you I mean . . . Cassandra.

  Zeus, far from showing anger, has delivered you

  where you may share the rituals of the house,

  and take your place with all the other slaves

  around the altar of our household Zeus.

  So step down off this carriage,

  1040 and don’t act aloof—they say that even Heracles

  was sold to be a slave, and had to feed on barley gruel.

  So since compulsion has tipped down

  the balance of your fortune, count it as a blessing

  you belong to masters with ancestral wealth—

  those who unexpectedly strike rich prove cruel owners,

  while from us you shall receive what is the proper custom.

  [CASSANDRA is unresponsive.]

  CHORUS LEADER [to CASSANDRA]

  It’s you she has been speaking to, and speaking clearly.

  Now that you’ve been captured in a fatal net,

  you should obey . . . if you are going to.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  Unless she speaks some unintelligible

  1050 foreign tongue and chirrups like a swallow,

  I should be reaching through into her understanding.

  CHORUS LEADER

  Go on. She’s telling you what course is best for you.

  Obey, and leave your seat here in the wagon.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  I don’t have time to waste out here.

  The animals are waiting, ready for the sacrifice

  before the central altar of the palace.

  [To CASSANDRA.]

  If you wish to join in this, then don’t delay.

  1060 Or if you can make nothing of my words,

  then wave your hands instead

  with alien gestures to communicate.

  CHORUS LEADER

  It seems the stranger needs a good interpreter;

  she is behaving like some new-caught creature.

  CLYTEMNESTRA

  She’s crazy and delusional.

  She has arrived here from a conquered city,

  yet she has no notion how to wear the bridle—

  not, that is, before she has been broken in,

  her mouth blood-flecked with foam.

  I’ll not waste further words on her,

  just to be disrespected in this way.

  [Exit CLYTEMNESTRA back indoors.]

  CHORUS LEADER

  Well, I feel pity for you, so I’ll not be angry.

  1070 Come, poor woman, get down from this wagon;

  yield before necessity and take on this new yoke.

  Scene 6

  CASSANDRA

  ototototoi popoi da.

  Apollo, Apollo!

  CHORUS LEADER

  Why these strange sounds about Apollo?

  He is not the god for someone who laments.

  CASSANDRA

  ototototoi popoi da.

  Apollo, Apollo!

  CHORUS LEADER

  There she goes again, profanely calling on the god

  who’s not appropriate for joining cries of grief.

  CASSANDRA

  1080 Apollo, Apollo,

  appalling, you destroyed me!

  Now for a second time

  you easily destroy me.

  CHORUS LEADER

  It seems she is to prophesy her own misfortune—

  although a slave, the gift remains strong in her mind.

  CASSANDRA

  Apollo, Apollo,

  appalling, you destroyed me!

  What kind of home is this?

  Where’s this that you have drawn me?

  CHORUS LEADER

  This is the palace of the sons of Atreus,

  if you did not know—I’m telling you the truth.

  CASSANDRA

  1090 No, a house god-hating—

  it’s a house that’s freighted

  with much inbred bloodshed,

  where its own are butchered.

  A human abattoir,

  a blood-bespattered floor.

  CHORUS LEADER

  The stranger seems keen-scented like a hound;

  she’s on the track of murders, that’s for sure.

  CASSANDRA

  This is what confirms me,

  what I see before me:

  these little ones bewailing

  their own cruel killing,

  and the roasted meat

  their father had to eat.

  CHORUS LEADER

  We’ve heard about your reputation as a prophet;

  but we do not need your visions.

  CASSANDRA

  io, so hard!

  1100 What is this, this scheming,

  what trauma is this now?

  Utter wrong this scheming,

  here within this house,

  unbearable, incurable—

  far off from all defense.

  CHORUS LEADER

  I cannot understand this prophecy.

  I recognized that other one—it is well known.

  CASSANDRA

  io, so harsh!

  So this is what you’re hatching?

  The man who shares your bed,

  your husband, as you bathe him . . .

  how to tell the end?

  1110 Immediate, inexorable,

  hand reaches over hand.

  CHORUS LEADER

  I still don’t see. I’m at a loss to understand

  the prophecies these riddles are obscuring.