Epeisodion 3
[Episode]
From where, old man, do you say you had this news?
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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.
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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.
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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;
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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,
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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.
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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,
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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;
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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
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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
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