Epeisodion 1
[Episode]
He was ever shifty by nature, siding with the mob.
Menelaus
True, he is enslaved by the love of popularity, a fearful evil.
Agamemnon
Don’t you think, then, he will arise among the Argives and tell them the oracles that Calchas delivered,
saying of me that I undertook to offer Artemis a victim, and after all am proving false? Then, when he has carried the army away with him, he will bid the Argives slay us and sacrifice the girl; and if I escape to Argos, they will come and destroy the place,
530
razing it to the ground, Cyclopean walls and all. That is my trouble. Woe is me! to what perplexities the gods have brought me at this pass! Take one precaution for me, Menelaus, as you go through the army, that Clytemnestra does not learn this,
535
till I have taken my child and devoted her to death, that my affliction may be attended with the fewest tears. Turning to the Chorus. And you, foreign women, keep silence. Exit Menelaus.
540
