Parodos
[Episode]
But tell me, how shall my message find credit with your wife or child?
Agamemnon
Preserve the seal which you bear on this tablet. Away! Already the dawn is growing grey, lighting the lamp of day and the fire of the sun’s four steeds;
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help me in my trouble. Exit Old man.
No mortal is prosperous or happy to the last, for no one was ever born to a painless life. Exit Agamemnon.
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[Choral 1]
To the sandy beach
Chorus
of sea-coast Aulis I have come after a voyage through the tides of narrow Euripus, leaving Chalcis, my city which feeds the waters
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of far-famed Arethusa near the sea, so that I might behold the army of the Achaeans and the ships rowed by those godlike heroes; for our husbands tell us
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that fair-haired Menelaus and high-born Agamemnon are leading them to Troy on a thousand ships in quest of Helen, whom Paris the herdsman
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carried off from the banks of reedy Eurotas, his gift from Aphrodite, when that queen of Cyprus entered beauty’s contest with Hera and Pallas at the gushing fountain.Dindorf, with whom Paley agrees, regards 11. 171-84 as the work of a later hand, and gives good reasons for his opinion.
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Through the grove of Artemis, rich with sacrifice, I sped my course, my cheek stained with red from maiden modesty, in my eagerness to see the soldiers’ camp,
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the tents of the mail-clad Danaids, and their crowd of horses. The whole of the following long passage from l.192-302 is inclosed in brackets by Paley. Dindorf and Hermann condemn the greater part, retaining a few lines here and there.I saw two met together in council; one was Aias, son of Oileus; the other Aias, son of Telamon, crown of glory to the men of Salamis;
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and I saw Protesilaus and Palamedes, sprung from the son of Poseidon, sitting there amusing themselves with intricate figures at checkers; Diomedes too
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at his favorite sport of hurling quoits; and Meriones, Ares’ son, a marvel to mankind, stood at his side; likewise I beheld the son of Laertes, who came from his island hills, and with him Nireus,
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handsomest of the Achaeans.
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[Choral]
Achilles next, that nimble runner, swift on his feet as the wind, whom Thetis bore and Chiron trained, I saw
Chorus
upon the beach, racing in full armor along the shingle, and straining every nerve to beat a team of four horses,
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as he sped round the track on foot; and Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres, their driver, was shouting when I saw him, goading on his lovely steeds,
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with their bits of chased gold-work; the center pair, that bore the yoke, had dappled coats picked out with white, while the tracehorses, on the outside, facing the turning-post in the course,To turn the post without losing ground would require the driver to rein in his near trace-horse and let the outer one come round on a curve, facing the turning-post.
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were bays with spotted fetlocks. Close beside them Peleus’ son leapt on his way, in all his harness, keeping abreast
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the rail by the axle-box.
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[Choral 2]
Next I sought the countless fleet, a wonder to behold, that I might fill my girlish eyes with gazing, a sweetThe reading μείλινον ἁδονάν of the MSS. cannot be right, nor are may of the proposed emendations much more probable; in the absence of anything more intelligible, Markland’s μείλιχον is here adopted. delight.
