THE AGAMEMNON
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Aeschylus and Murray, Gilbert
SECOND ELDER. How? Will she prophesy about her own Sorrows? That power abides when all is gone!
CASSANDRA. Apollo, Apollo! Light of all that is! Mine enemy! Where hast thou led me? … Ha! What house is this?
LEADER. The Atreidae’s castle. If thou knowest not, I Am here to help thee, and help faithfully.
CASSANDRA (whispering).
Nay, nay. This is the house that God hateth. There be many things that know its secret; sore And evil things; murders and strangling death. ’Tis here they slaughter men…A splashing floor.
SECOND ELDER. Keen-sensed the strange maid seemeth, like a hound For blood.—And what she seeks can sure be found!
CASSANDRA. The witnesses … I follow where they lead. The crying … of little children … near the gate: Crying for wounds that bleed: And the smell of the baked meats their father ate.
SECOND ELDER (recognizing her vision, and repelled).
Word of thy mystic power had reached our ear Long since. Howbeit we need no prophets here.
CASSANDRA. Ah, ah! What would they? A new dreadful thing. A great great sin plots in the house this day; Too strong for the faithful, beyond medicining … And help stands far away.
LEADER. This warning I can read not, though I knew That other tale. It rings the city through.
CASSANDRA. O Woman, thou! The lord who lay with thee! Wilt lave with water, and then … How speak the end? It comes so quick. A hand … another hand … That reach, reach gropingly….
LEADER. I see not yet. These riddles, pierced with blind Gleams of foreboding, but bemuse my mind.
CASSANDRA. Ah, ah! What is it? There; it is coming clear. A net … some net of Hell. Nay, she that lies with him … is she the snare? And half of his blood upon it. It holds well…. O Crowd of ravening Voices, be glad, yea, shout And cry for the stoning, cry for the casting out!
SECOND ELDER. What Fury Voices call’st thou to be hot Against this castle? Such words like me not.
And deep within my breast I felt that sick And saffron drop, which creepeth to the heart To die as the last rays of life depart. Misfortune comes so quick.
CASSANDRA. Ah, look! Look! Keep his mate from the Wild Bull! A tangle of raiment, see; A black horn, and a blow, and he falleth, full In the marble amid the water. I counsel ye. I speak plain … Blood in the bath and treachery!
LEADER. No great interpreter of oracles Am I; but this, I think, some mischief spells.
What spring of good hath seercraft ever made Up from the dark to flow? ’Tis but a weaving of words, a craft of woe, To make mankind afraid.
CASSANDRA. Poor woman! Poor dead woman! … Yea, it is I, Poured out like water among them. Weep for me…. Ah! What is this place? Why must I come with thee…. To die, only to die?
LEADER. Thou art borne on the breath of God, thou spirit wild, For thine own weird to wail, Like to that wingèd voice, that heart so sore Which, crying alway, hungereth to cry more, “Itylus, Itylus,” till it sing her child Back to the nightingale.
CASSANDRA. Oh, happy Singing Bird, so sweet, so clear! Soft wings for her God made, And an easy passing, without pain or tear … For me ’twill be torn flesh and rending blade.
SECOND ELDER. Whence is it sprung, whence wafted on God’s breath, This anguish reasonless? This throbbing of terror shaped to melody, Moaning of evil blent with music high? Who hath marked out for thee that mystic path Through thy woe’s wilderness?
CASSANDRA. Alas for the kiss, the kiss of Paris, his people’s bane! Alas for Scamander Water, the water my fathers drank! Long, long ago, I played about thy bank, And was cherished and grew strong; Now by a River of Wailing, by shores of Pain, Soon shall I make my song.
LEADER. How sayst thou? All too clear, This ill word thou hast laid upon thy mouth! A babe could read thee plain. It stabs within me like a serpent’s tooth, The bitter thrilling music of her pain: I marvel as I hear.
CASSANDRA. Alas for the toil, the toil of a City, worn unto death! Alas for my father’s worship before the citadel, The flocks that bled and the tumult of their breath! But no help from them came To save Troy Towers from falling as they fell!… And I on the earth shall writhe, my heart aflame.
SECOND ELDER. Dark upon dark, new ominous words of ill! Sure there hath swept on thee some Evil Thing, Crushing, which makes thee bleed And in the torment of thy vision sing These plaining death-fraught oracles … Yet still, still, Their end I cannot read!
CASSANDRA. [By an effort she regains mastery of herself, and speaks directly to the Leader.]
’Fore God, mine oracle shall no more hide With veils his visage, like a new-wed bride! A shining wind out of this dark shall blow, Piercing the dawn, growing as great waves grow, To burst in the heart of sunrise … stronger far Than this poor pain of mine. I will not mar With mists my wisdom. Be near me as I go, Tracking the evil things of long ago, And bear me witness. For this roof, there clings Music about it, like a choir which sings One-voiced, but not well-sounding, for not good The words are. Drunken, drunken, and with blood, To make them dare the more, a revelling rout Is in the rooms, which no man shall cast out, Of sister Furies. And they weave to song, Haunting the House, its first blind deed of wrong, Spurning in turn that King’s bed desecrate, Defiled, which paid a brother’s sin with hate…. Hath it missed or struck, mine arrow? Am I a poor Dreamer, that begs and babbles at the door? Give first thine oath in witness, that I know Of this great dome the sins wrought long ago.
ELDER. And how should oath of mine, though bravely sworn, Appease thee? Yet I marvel that one born Far over seas, of alien speech, should fall So apt, as though she had lived here and seen all.
CASSANDRA. The Seer Apollo made me too to see.
ELDER (in a low voice).
Was the God’s heart pierced with desire for thee?
CASSANDRA. Time was, I held it shame hereof to speak.
ELDER. Ah, shame is for the mighty, not the weak.
CASSANDRA. We wrestled, and his breath to me was sweet.
ELDER. Ye came to the getting of children, as is meet?
CASSANDRA. I swore to Loxias, and I swore a lie.
ELDER. Already thine the gift of prophecy?
CASSANDRA. Already I showed my people all their path.