Shame on thy tongue ! how bold of mouth thou art
That vauntest such a speech above thy husband !

KLYTAIMNESTRA.
Ye try me as a woman loose of soul ;

But I with dauntless heart avow to you

Well knowing — and whether ye choose to praise or



360 TRANSLATIONS.
I care not — this is Agamemnon ; yea,

My husband ; yea, a corpse, of this right hand,

This craftsman sure, the handiwork ! Thus stands it



\Agamemnony 1466-1507.]

Chorus — Sebh-chorus — Klytaibinestra.
CHORUS.
Woe! Woe!
King ! O how shall I weep for thy dying ?

What shall my fond heart say anew ?
Thou in the web of the spider art lying,

Breathing out life by a death she shall me.
SEMI-CHORUS.
Alas ! alas for this slavish couch ! By a sword

Two-edged, by a hand untrue,
Thou art smitten, even to death, my lord !

KLYTAIMNESTRA.
Thou sayest this deed was mine alone ;

But I bid thee call me not
The wife of Agamemnon's bed ;
'T was the ancient fell Alastor* of Atreus' throne,
The lord of a horrid feast, this crime begot.
Taking the shape that seemed the wife of the dead, — 1

His sure revenge, I wot,
A victim ripe hath claimed for the young that bled*

^ The Evil Genius, the Avenger.
THE DEATH OF AGAMEMNON, 36 1

SEMI-CHORUS.
Who shall bear witness now, —
Who of this murder, now, thee guiltless hold ?
How sayest thou ? How ?
Yet the fell Alastor may have holpen, I trow :
Still is dark Ares driven
Down currents manifold
Of kindred blood, wherever judgment is given,
And he comes to avenge the children slain of old,
And their thick gore cries to Heaven !

CHORUS.
