Epeisodion 3
Achilles
Where is Achaea’s general? Which of his servants will announce to him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is at his gates seeking him? For this delay at the Euripus is not the same for all of us;
there are some, for instance, who, bing still unwed, have left their houses desolate and are idling here upon the beach, while others are married but without children;Reading καὶ παῖδας with Musgrave for ἄπαιδες. so strange the longing for this expedition that has fallen on their hearts by the will of the gods.τῆσδε στρατείας οὐκ ἄνευ θεῶν τινός. Hennig rejects 11. 805-9.
805
My own just plea I must declare, and whoever else has any wish will speak for himself. Though I have left Pharsalia, and Peleus, still I lingerKirchhoff marks a lacuna of three lines after 1. 812 on the authority of one MS.; it is possible, however, that the passage is continuous, and an attempt has been made here to treat it as such. here by reason of these light breezes at the Euripus, restraining my Myrmidons, while they are always pressing on me,
810
saying: Why do we tarry, Achilles? how much longer must we count the days to the start for Ilium? do something if you are so minded; or lead home your men, and do not wait for the tardy action of these Atridae.
815
Clytemnestra
Hail to you, son of the Nereid goddess! I heard your voice
from within the tent and came forth.
820
Achilles
O modesty revered! who can this lady be whom I behold, so richly dowered with beauty’s gifts?
Clytemnestra
No wonder you do not know me, seeing I am one you have never before set eyes on; I praise your reverent address to modesty.
Achilles
Who are you, and why have you come to the mustering of the Danaids—you, a woman, to a fenced camp of men?
825
Clytemnestra
I am the daughter of Leda; my name is Clytemnestra; and my husband king Agamemnon.
Achilles
Well and shortly answered on all important points,
but it is shameful for me to stand talking to women.
830
Clytemnestra
Stay; why seek to escape? give me your hand, a prelude to a happy marriage.
Achilles
What is it you say? I give you my hand? To lay a finger where I have no right, I could never meet Agamemnon’s eye.
Clytemnestra
The best of rights you have, seeing it is my child you will wed, O son of the sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus.
835
Achilles
What wedding do you speak of? Words fail me, lady; can your wits have gone astray and are you inventing this?
Clytemnestra
All men are naturally shy in the presence of new relations,
when these remindμεμνημένους, so Hermann and Dindorf; if μεμνημένοις be retained from the MSS., the meaning must be when they call their marriage to mind; the latter is preferred by Kirchhoff and Monk. them of their wedding.
840
Achilles
Lady, I have never courted your daughter, nor have the sons of Atreus ever mentioned marriage to me.
Clytemnestra
What can it mean? Your turn now to marvel at my words, for yours are very strange to me.
Achilles
Hazard a guess; that we can both do in this matter; for it may be we are both correct in our statements.i.e., we may both be right, but at cross purposes. Markland proposes ἐφευδόμεθα, we may both have been deceived in what we say.
845
Clytemnestra
What! have I suffered such indignity? The marriage I am courting has no reality it seems; I am ashmed of it.
Achilles
Some one perhaps has made a mock of you and me;
pay no heed to it; make light of it.
850
Clytemnestra
Farewell; I can no longer face you with unfaltering eyes, after being made a liar and suffering undeservedly.
Achilles
It is farewell I bid you too, lady; and I go within the tent to seek your husband.
[Episode]
Stranger of the race of Aeacus, stay awhile! Ho there! I mean you, O goddess-born, and you, daughter of Leda.
855
Achilles
Who is it calling through the half-opened door? What fear his voice betrays!
Old man
A slave; of that I am not proud, for fortune does not permit it.
Achilles
Whose slave are you? not mine; for mine and Agamemnon’s goods are separate.
Old man
I belong to this lady who stands before the tent, a gift to her from Tyndareus her father.
860
Achilles
I am waiting; tell me, if you are desirous, why you have stopped me.
Old man
Are you really all alone here at the door?
Achilles
To us alone will you address yourself; come forth from the king’s tent.
Old man
O Fortune and my own foresight, preserve whom I desire!
Achilles
That speech will saveReading σώσει, Monk’s correction for ἀν ὤση. Others read ἀνοίσε with Markland, or ὀνήσει with Böckh. them in the future; it has a certain pompous air.
865
Clytemnestra
Delay not for the sake of touching my right hand, if there is anything that you would say to me.
Old man
Well, you know my character and my devotion to you and your children.
Clytemnestra
I know you have grown old in the service of my house.
Old man
Likewise you know it was in your dowry king Agamemnon received me.
Clytemnestra
Yes, you came to Argos with me, and have been mine this long time past.
870
Old man
True; and I bear all goodwill to you, less to your husband.
Clytemnestra
Come, come, unfold whatever you have to say.
Old man
Her father, he that begot her, is on the point of slaying your daughter with his own hand.
Clytemnestra
How? That for your story, old man! you are mad.
Old man
Severing with a sword the hapless girl’s white throat.
875
Clytemnestra
Ah, alas for me! Does my husband happen to have gone mad?
Old man
No; he is sane, except where you and your daughter are concerned; there he is mad.
Clytemnestra
What is his reason? what vengeful fiend impels him?
Old man
Oracles, at least so Calchas says, in order that the army may start—
Clytemnestra
Where? Alas for me, and for the one her father is going to kill!
880
Old man
To the halls of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
Clytemnestra
So Helen’s return then was fated to affect Iphigenia?
Old man
You know all; her father is about to offer your child to Artemis.
Clytemnestra
But that marriage—what pretext had it for bringing me from home?
Old man
An inducement to you to bring your daughter cheerfully, to wed her to Achilles.
885
Clytemnestra
On a deadly errand have you come, my daughter, both you, and I, your mother.
Old man
Piteous the lot of both of you, and dreadful Agamemnon’s venture.
Clytemnestra
Alas, I am undone; my eyes can no longer hold their tears.
Old man
If the lossReading with Wecklein εἴπερ ἄλλ᾽ εἰκὸς. Paley retains the old reading εἴπερ ἀλγεινὸν. Hartung gives οὐ γὰρ ἄλογόν ἐστι. Kirchhoff οὐ γὰρ ἀλλ᾽ εἰκὸς. of children is painful, shed your tears.
Clytemnestra
From where, old man, do you say you had this news?
890
Old man
I had started to carry you a letter referring to the former writing.
Clytemnestra
Forbidding or combining to urge my bringing the child to her death?
Old man
No, forbidding it, for your lord was then in his sober senses.
Clytemnestra
How comes it then, if you were really bringing me a letter, that you do not now deliver it into my hands?
Old man
Menelaus snatched it from me, he who caused this trouble.
895
Clytemnestra
Do you hear that, son of Peleus, the Nereid’s child?
Achilles
I have been listening to the tale of your sufferings, and I do not bear my own lightly.
Clytemnestra
They will slay my child; they have tricked her with your marriage.
Achilles
Like you I blame your lord, nor do I view it with mere indifference.
Clytemnestra
No longer will I let shameReading οὐκέτ᾽ αἰδεσθησόμεσθα, a conjecture of Nauck and Hermann’s. Paley regards 11. 900-2 as spurious. prevent my kneeling to you, a mortal to one goddess-born; why do I affect reserve? whose interests should I consult before my child’s? Throwing herself before Achilles. Oh! help me, goddess-born, in my sore distress, and her that was called your bride, in vain, it is true, yet called she was.
900
For you it was I wreathed her head and led her forth as if to marriage, but now it is to slaughter I am bringing her. On you will come reproach because you did not help her; for though not wedded to her, yet were you the loving husband of my hapless girl in name at any rate. By your beard, your right hand, and mother too I do implore you;
905
for your name it was that worked my ruin, and you are bound to stand by that. Except your knees I have no altar to fly to; and not a friend standsReading πέλας with Markland for MSS. γελᾷ, a conjecture adopted by Hermann and Monk. at my side. You have heard the cruel abandoned scheme of Agamemnon; and I, a woman, have come, as you see, to a camp of lawless sailor-folk, bold in evil’s cause,
910
though useful when they wish; Now if you boldly stretch forth your arm in my behalf, our safety is assured; but if not, we are lost.
915
Chorus Leader
A strange thing is motherhood, carrying with it a potent spell, in which all share, so that for their children’s sake they will endure affliction.
Achilles
On the following speech Paley has this remark: there are very grave reasons for doubting whether the genuine speech of Achilles has not been superseded, either wholly or in part, by the verses of a cunning imitator. The reasoning throughout is extremely difficult to follow, if indeed possible, and there are numerous exceptional phrases. Dindorf incloses large portions of this speech in brackets, but it is hard to see why he decides one part to be more suspicious than another.My proud spirit is stirred to range aloft, butI have learned to grieve in misfortune
and rejoice in high prosperity with equal moderation. For these are the men who can count on ordering all their life rightly by wisdom’s rules. True, there are cases where it is pleasant not to be too wise,
920
but there are others, where some store of wisdom helps. Brought up in godly Chiron’s halls myself, I learned to keep a single heart; and provided the Atridae lead well, I will obey them; but when they cease from that, no more will I obey;
925
no, but here and in Troy I will show the freedom of my nature, and, as far as in me lies, do honor to Ares with my spear. You, lady, who have suffered so cruelly from your nearest and dearest, I will, by every effort in a young man’s power, set right, investing you with that amount of pity
930
and never shall your daughter, after being once called my bride, die by her father’s hand; for I will not lend myself to your husband’s subtle tricks; no! for it will be my name that kills your child, although it does not wield the sword. Your own husband
935
is the actual cause, but I shall no longer be guiltless, if, because of me and my marriage, this maiden perishes, she that has suffered past endurance and been the victim of affronts most strangely undeserved.
940
So am I made the poorest wretch in Argos;
I a thing of nothing, and Menelaus counting for a man! No son of Peleus I, but the issue of a vengeful fiend, if my name shallReading φονεύσει with Schäfer. serve your husband for the murder. No! by Nereus, who begot my mother Thetis, in his home amid the flowing waves,
945
never shall king Agamemnon touch your daughter, no! not even to the laying of a finger-tip upon her robe; or SipylusA mountain in Lycia, near which was shown the grave of Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atridae; the town of the same name was swallowed up in very early times by an earthquake., that frontier town of barbarism, the cradle of those chieftains’ line, will be henceforth a city indeed, while Phthia’s name will nowhere find mention.
950
Calchas, the seer, shall rue beginning the sacrifice with his barley-meal and lustral water. Why, what is a seer? A man who with luck tells the truth sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there.
955
It is not to secure a bride that I have spoken thus—there are maids unnumbered
eager to have my loveReading οὐ for ἧ, and regarding μυρίαι—τοὐμὸν as parenthetical, which in the main is the view taken by Nauck and Klotz of this very nnsatisfactory passage. Paley, regarding it as an interpolation, disdains to emend it.—no! but king Agamemnon has put an insult on me; he should have asked my leave to use my name as a means to catch the child, for it was Ii.e., it was my rank, etc., as described by Agamemnon, that carried the day, and, such being the case, I ought to have had some voice in the matter. (Paley.) chiefly who induced Clytemnestra to betroth her daughter to me;
960
I would had yielded this to Hellas, if that was where our going to Ilium broke down; I would never have refused to further my fellow soldiers’ common interest. But as it is, I am as nothing in the eyes of those chieftains, and little they care of treating me well or ill.
965
My sword shall soon know if any one is to snatch your daughter from me, for then will I make it reek with the bloody stains of slaughter, before it reach Phrygia.Porson, whom Monk follows, corrects this passage thus: ὃν, πρὶν εἰσ᾽ Φρύγας | ἐλθεῖν φόνον, κλῖσιν αἵματος χρανῶ, an ingenious but not absolutely necessary emendation. Calm yourself then; as a god in his might I appeared to you, without being so, but such will I show myself for all that.
970
Chorus Leader
Son of Peleus, your words are alike worthy of you and that sea-born deity, the holy goddess.
975
Clytemnestra
Ah! would I could find words to utter your praise without excess, and yet not lose the graciousness of it by stinting it; for when the good are praised, they have some sort of feeling
of hatred for those who in their praise exceed the mean. But I am ashamed of intruding a tale of woe, since my affliction touches myself alone and you are not affected by troubles of mine; but still it looks well for the man of worth to assist the unfortunate, even when he is not connected with then.
980
Therefore pity us, for our suffering cries for pity; in the first place, I have harbored an idle hope, in thinking to have you marry my daughter; and next, perhaps, the slaying of my child will be to you an evil omen in your wooing hereafter, against which you must guard yourself.
985
Your words were good, both first and last; for if you will it so, my daughter will be saved.
990
Will you have her clasp your knees as a suppliant? it is no maid’s part; yet if it seems good to you, why, come she shall with the modest look of free-born maid;
but if I shall obtain the same end from you without her coming then let her abide within, for there is dignity in her reserve; still reserve must only go as far as the case allows.
995
Achilles
Paley regards 11. 998-1035 as spurious, pointing out much, that, in his opinion, stamps them as the work of a later hand.Do not bring your daughter out for me to see, lady, nor let us incur the reproach of the ignorant;
for an army, when gathered together without domestic duties to employ it, loves the evil gossip of malicious tongues. After all, should you both supplicate me, you will attain a like result as if I had never been supplicated;Reading ἡν for ᾑς, as Paley suggests; Nauck gives ἀνικετεύτως εἶς, to avoid the un-Attic εἰ . . . ᾔς. for I am myself engaged in a mighty struggle to rid you of your troubles.
1000
One thing be sure you have heard; I will not tell a lie; if I do that or idly mock you, may I die, but live if I preserve the girl.
1005
Clytemnestra
Bless you for always helping the distressed!
Achilles
Hearken then to me, that the matter may succeed.
Clytemnestra
What is your proposal? for hear you I must.
1010
Achilles
Let us once more urgeReading πείθωμεν. her father to a better frame of mind.
Clytemnestra
He is something of a coward, and fears the army too much.
Achilles
Still argument overthrows argument.
Clytemnestra
Cold hope indeed; but tell me what I must do.
Achilles
Supplicate him first not to slay his children; and if he is stubborn, come to me. ForDindorf marks 11. 1017-23 as spurious; the only wonder is, says Paley, that he tolerated the preceding part. if he consents to your request, my intervention need go no further, since this consent insures your safety. I too shall show myself in a better light to my friend,
1015
and the army will not blame me, if I arrange the matter by reason rather than force; while, should things turn out well, the result will prove satisfactory both to you and your friends, even without my interference.
1020
Clytemnestra
How sensibly you speak! I must act as seems best to you;
but should I fail of my object, where am I to see you again, where? Must I turn my wretched steps and find you ready to champion my distress?
1025
Achilles
I will keep watch to guard you, where occasion calls, that none may see you passing through the army of Danaids
with that scared look. Do not shame your father’s house; for Tyndareus does not deserve not to be ill spoken of, being a mighty man in Hellas.Line 1032 is inclosed in brackets by Nauck.
1030
Clytemnestra
It will be so.ἔστιν τάδ᾽. So Paley; but others, with Markland, read ἔσται τάδ᾽ i.e., I will do as you say. Command me; I must play the slave to you. If there are gods, you for your righteous dealing
will find them favorable; if there are none, what need to toil? Exeunt Achilles and Clytemnestra.
1035