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Agamemnon of Aeschylus, The. A translation published in London, 1877. The
scene of the play is laid by Aeschylus at Argos, before the palace of
Agamemnon, Mycenæ, however, really being his seat. Agamemnon was a son of
Atreus according to Homer, and was the brother of Menelaus. In a later
account he is described as the son of Pleisthenes, who was the son of
Atreus. He was king over Argolis, Corinth, Achaia, and many islands. He
married Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, by whom he had
three daughters Chrysothemis, Iphigenia and Electra, and one son Orestes.
When Helen was carried off by Paris, Agamemnon was chosen to be
commander-in-chief of the expedition sent against Troy by the Greeks, as
he was the mightiest prince in Greece. He contributed one hundred ships
manned with warriors, besides lending sixty more to the Arcadians. The
fleet being detained at Aulis by a storm, it was declared that Agamemnon
had offended Diana by slaying a deer sacred to her, and by boasting that
he was a better hunter than the goddess; and he was compelled to sacrifice
his daughter Iphigenia to appease her anger. Diana is said by some to have
accepted a stag in her place. Homer describes Agamemnon as one of the
bravest warriors before Troy, but having received Chryseis, the daughter
of Chryses, priest of Apollo, as a prize of war, he arrogantly refused to
allow her father to ransom her. This brought a plague on the Grecian host,
and their ruin was almost completed by his carrying off Briseis, who was
the prize of Achilles—who refused in consequence to fight, remaining
sulking in his tent. After the fall of Troy the beautiful princess
Cassandra fell to Agamemnon as his share of the spoils. She was endowed
with the gift of prophecy, and warned him not to return home. The warning,
however, was disregarded, although he was assured that his wife would put
him to death. During the absence of Agamemnon Clytemnestra had formed an
adulterous connection with Ægisthus, the son of Thyestes and Pelopia; and
when he returned, the watchman having announced his approach to his
palace, Clytemnestra killed Cassandra, and her lover murdered Agamemnon
and his comrades. The tragic poets, however, make Clytemnestra throw a net
over her husband while he was in his bath, and kill him with the
assistance of Ægisthus, in revenge for the sacrifice of her daughter
Iphigenia. In the introduction to the translation of the Agamemnon in
Morley’s Universal Library we have an excellent description of the great
play. “In this tragedy the reader will find the strongest traces of the
genius of Æschylus, and the most distinguishing proofs of his skill. Great
in his conceptions, bold and daring in his metaphors, strong in his
passion, he here touches the heart with uncommon emotions. The odes are
particularly sublime, and the oracular spirit that breathes through them
adds a wonderful elevation and dignity to them. Short as the part of
Agamemnon is, the poet has the address to throw such an amiable dignity
around him that we soon become interested in his favour, and are
predisposed to lament his fate. The character of Clytemnestra is finely
marked—a high-spirited, artful, close, determined, dangerous woman. But
the poet has nowhere exerted such efforts of his genius as in the scene
where Cassandra appears: as a prophetess, she gives every mark of the
divine inspiration, from the dark and distant hint, through all the noble
imagery of the prophetic enthusiasm; till, as the catastrophe advances,
she more and more plainly declares it; as a suffering princess, her grief
is plaintive, lively, and piercing; yet she goes to meet her death, which
she clearly foretells, with a firmness worthy the daughter of Priam and
the sister of Hector; nothing can be more animated or more interesting
than this scene. The conduct of the poet through this play is exquisitely
judicious: every scene gives us some obscure hint or ominous presage,
enough to keep our attention always raised, and to prepare us for the
event; even the studied caution of Clytemnestra is finely managed to
produce that effect; whilst the secrecy with which she conducts her design
keeps us in suspense, and prevents a discovery till we hear the dying
groans of her murdered husband.” As Mr. Browning announces in his preface
to his translation of the tragedy, he has aimed at being literal at every
cost, and has everywhere reproduced the peculiarities of the original. He
has also made an attempt to reproduce the Greek spelling in English, which
has made the poem more difficult than some other translations to the
non-classical reader. We have ample recompense for this peculiarity by the
way in which he has imbibed the spirit of his author, and so faithfully
reproduced, not alone his phraseology, but his mind. It required a rugged
poet to interpret for us correctly the ruggedness of an Æschylus. Line
for line and word for word we have the tragedy in English as the Greeks
had it in their own tongue. If there are obscurities, we must not in the
present instance blame Mr. Browning: a reference to the original, so
authorities tell us, will prove that Greek poets were at times obscure.
The Agamemnon is part of the Oresteian Trilogy or group of three plays;
this trilogy of Æschylus is our only example extant, and it is necessary
to say something of the other parts. Atreus, the son of Pelops, was king
of Mycenæ. By his wife Ærope were born to him Pleisthenes, Menelaus, and
Agamemnon. Thyestes, the brother of Atreus, had followed him to Argos, and
there seduced his wife, by whom he had two, or according to some, three
children. Thyestes was banished from court on account of this, but was
soon afterwards recalled by his brother that he might be revenged upon
him. He prepared a banquet where Thyestes was served with the flesh of the
children who were the offspring of his incestuous connection with his
sister-in-law the queen. When the feast was concluded, the heads of the
murdered children were produced, that Thyestes might see of what he had
been partaking. It was fabled that the sun in horror shrank back in his
course at the horrible sight. Thyestes fled. The crime brought the most
terrible evils upon the family of which Agamemnon was a member. When this
hero was murdered by his wife and her paramour, young Orestes was saved
from his mother’s dagger by his sister Electra. When he reached the years
of manhood, he visited his ancestral home, and assassinated both his
mother and her lover Ægisthus. In consequence of this he was tormented by
the Furies, and he exiled himself to Athens, where Apollo purified him.
The murder of Clytemnestra by her son is described in the second play of
the Trilogy, called the Choëphoræ or the Libation Pourers. The Furies
is the title of the third and concluding play of the Trilogy.
Notes.—[N.B. The references here are to the pages of the poem in the last
edition of the complete works in sixteen vols.]—P. 269, Atreidai, a
patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus, as being the sons of
Atreus; Troia, the capital of Troas == Troy. p. 270, Ilion, a citadel
of Troy; Menelaos, a king of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon. p. 271,
Argives, the inhabitants of Argos and surrounding country; Alexandros,
the name of Paris in the Iliad: Atreus, son of Pelops, was king of
Mycenæ; Danaoi, a name given to the people of Argos and to all the
Greeks; Troes == Trojans. p. 272, Tundareus, king of Lacedæmon, who
married Leda; Klutaimnestra == Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus by
Leda. p. 273, Teukris land, the land of the Trojans—from Teucer, their
king; “Achaians’ two-throned empery”: the brother kings Agamemnon and
Menelaos. p. 274, Linos, the personification of a dirge or lamentation;
Priamos, the last king of Troy, made prisoner by Hercules when he took
the city. p. 275, Icïos Paian, an epithet of Apollo; Kalchas, a
soothsayer who accompanied the Greeks to Troy. p. 277, Kalchis, the
chief city of Eubœa, founded by an Athenian colony; Aulis, a town of
Bœotia, near Kalchis; Strumon, a river which separates Thrace from
Macedonia. p. 282, Hephaistos, the god of fire, according to Homer the
son of Zeus and Hera. The Romans called the Greek Hephaistos Vulcan,
though Vulcan was an Italian deity. The news of the fall of Troy was
brought to Mycenæ by means of beacon fires, so fire was the messenger.
Ide == Mount Ida; of Lemnos, an island in the Ægean Sea. p. 283,
Athoan, of Mount Athos; Makistos == Macistos, a city of Tryphylia;
Euripos, a narrow strait separating Eubœa from Bœotia;
Messapios, a name of Bœotia; Asopos, a river of Thessaly; Mount
Kitharion, sacred to the Muses and Jupiter. Hercules killed the great
lion there; Mount Aigiplanktos was in Megaris; Strait Saronic:
Saronicus Sinus was a bay of the Ægean Sea; Mount Arachnaios, in
Argolis. p. 286, Ate, the goddess of revenge; Ares, the Greek name of
the war-god Mars. p. 288, Aphrodite, a name of Venus. p. 290, Erinues
== the Furies. p. 292, Puthian == Delphic; Skamandros, a river of
Troas. p. 293, Priamidai, the patronymic of the descendants of Priam. p.
300, Threkian breezes == Thracian breezes; Aigaian Sea, the Ægean Sea;
Achaian, pertaining to Achaia, in Greece. p. 301, Meneleos, son of
Atreus, brother to Agamemnon and husband of Helen; water-Haides, the
engulfing sea. p. 302, Zephuros, the west wind; Simois, a river in
Troas which rises in Mount Ida and falls into the Xanthus. p. 304,
Erinus, an avenging deity. p. 307, the Argeian monster == the company
of Argives concealed in the wooden horse; Pleiads, a name given to seven
of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione, one of the Oceanides. They became a
constellation in the heavens after death. p. 309, “triple-bodied Geruon
the Second,” Geryon, king of the Balearic Isles, fabled to have three
bodies and three heads: Hercules slew him; Strophios the Phokian, at
whose house Orestes was brought up with Pylades son of Strophios. p. 316,
Kassandra, daughter of Priam, slain by Clytemnestra. p. 317, “Alkmene’s
child”—Hercules was the son of Alkmene. p. 319, Ototoi—alas!;
Loxias, a surname of Apollo. p. 322, papai, papai == O strange!
wonderful! p. 324, Itus, or Itys, son of Tereus, killed by his mother.
p. 325, “Orthian style,” in a shrill tone. p. 332, Lukeion
Apollon—Lyceus was a surname of Apollo. p. 335, Surian == Syrian. p.
343, Chruseids, the patronymic of the descendants of Astynome, the
daughter of Chryses. p. 348, Iphigeneia, daughter of Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra; her father offered to sacrifice her to appease the wrath of
Diana. p. 350, The Daimon of the Pleisthenidai, the genius of
Agamemnon’s family. p. 351, Thuestes, son of Pelops, brother of Atreus;
Pelopidai, descendants of Pelops, son of Tantalus.
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