story, to the moment in the CZoefAori, when Orestes has entered the
palace to execute his vengeance, when the murderers, of Agamemnon
are about *to be slain by stratagem even as they slew! It is thus that
the chorus, expectant without, sum up the issue to be decided. ‘Now
either shall the bloody violence of the murderous axes make an end
utterly and altogether of Agamemnon’s house: or else Orestes, burning
"4 fire and a light for liberation and lawful rule, shall win again the
‘high prosperity of his fathers! It is plain that in the first part of the
alternative the metaphor of the axes is chosen for its reference to the
manner of Agamemnon's death. What was it that suggested in the
second alternative the choice of the far from obvious metaphor of a
fire? Certainly nothing in the plan of Orestes himself as given us in
the Choephori. ls it not at least a fair prima facie conjecture that this
also refers to the former plan of his enemies; and that the restoration
of the lawful monarchy is likened to the lighting of a fire for liberty,
because by the lighting of a fire for tyranny it had been formerly
overthrown? But if this is so, we must revise our reading of the
Agamemnon.
