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Lecture 17: Aeschylean metaphors
and riddles
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A) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 184-254
So then the captain of the Achaean ships, the elder of the two - 185 holding no seer at fault, bending to the adverse blasts of fortune, when the Achaean people, on the shore over against Khalkis 190 in the region where Aulis' tides surge to and fro, were very distressed by opposing winds and failing stores;and the breezes that blew from the Strymon, bringing harmful leisure, hunger, and tribulation of spirit in a cruel port, idle wandering of men, and sparing neither ship 195 nor cable, began, by doubling the season of their stay, to rub away and wither the flower of Argos; and when the seer, pointing to Artemis as cause, proclaimed to the chieftains another remedy, 200 more oppressive even than the bitter storm, so that the sons of Atreus struck the ground with their canes and did not stifle their tears
- then the elder king spoke and said: "It is a hard fate to refuse obedience, and hard, if I must slay my child, the glory of my home, and at the altar-side stain 210 a father's hand with streams of virgin's blood. Which of these courses is not filled with evil? How can I become a deserter to my fleet and fail my allies in arms? 215 For that they should with all too impassioned passion crave a sacrifice to lull the winds - even a virgin's blood - stands within their right. May all be for the best."
But when he had donned the yoke of Necessity, with veering of mind, 220 impious, unholy, unsanctified, from then he changed his intention and began to conceive that deed of uttermost audacity. For wretched delusion, counselor of ill, primal source of woe, makes man bold. So then he hardened his heart to sacrifice his daughter 225 so that he might further a war waged to avenge a woman, and as an offering for the voyaging of a fleet!
For her supplications, her cries of "Father," and her virgin life, 230 the commanders in their eagerness for war cared nothing. Her father, after a prayer, told his ministers to raise her - fallen about her robes, she lay face-down 235 in supplication with all her thûmos - to lift her like a young goat, high above the altar; and with a gag upon her lovely mouth to hold back the shouted curse against her house -
by the bit's strong and stifling might. Then, as she shed to earth her saffron robe, she 240 struck each of her sacrificers with a glance from her eyes beseeching pity, looking as if in a drawing, wishing she could speak; for she had often sung where men met at her father's hospitable table, 245 and with her virgin voice would lovingly honor her dear father's prayer for blessing at the third libation.
What happened next I did not see and do not tell. The art of Kalkhas was not unfulfilled. 250 Justice [Dikê] inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering [pathos]. But the future, that you shall know when it occurs; till then, leave it be - it is just as someone weeping ahead of time. Clear it will come, together with the light of dawn.
B) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 355-366
355 Hail, sovereign Zeus, and you kindly Night, possessor of the great kosmoi, you who cast your meshed snare upon the towered walls of Troy, so that neither old nor young could overleap 360 the huge enslaving net of all-conquering Atê. I revere great Zeus of xenoi - he who has brought this to pass. He long kept his bow bent against Alexander 365 until his bolt would neither fall short of the mark nor, flying beyond the stars, be launched in vain.C) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 908-913
Why this loitering, women, to whom I have assigned the task to strew with tapestries the place where he shall go? 910 Quick! With purple let his path be strewn, that Dikê may usher him into a home he never hoped to see. The rest my unslumbering vigilance shall order duly - if it please the god - even as is ordained.D) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1114-1124
Cassandra: Ah! Ah! What apparition is this? 1115 Is it a net of death? No, it is a snare that shares his bed, that shares the guilt of murder. Let the fatal group, insatiable against the family, raise a shout of jubilance over a victim accursed!
Chorus: What Spirit of Vengeance [Erinys] is this that you bid 1120 raise its voice over this house? Your words do not cheer me. Back to my heart surge the drops of my pallid blood, even as when they drip from a mortal wound, ebbing away as life's beams sink low; and Destruction [atê] comes speedily.
E) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1372-1392
Much have I said before to serve my need and I shall feel no shame to contradict it now. For how else could one, devising hate against enemies [ekhthroi] 1375 who bear the semblance of philoi, fence the snares of ruin too high to be overleaped? This is the agôn of an ancient feud, pondered by me of old, and it has come - however long delayed. I stand where I dealt the blow; my purpose is achieved. 1380 Thus have I done the deed - deny it I will not. Round him, as if to catch a haul of fish, I cast an impassable net - fatal wealth of robe - so that he should neither escape nor ward off doom. Twice I struck him, and with two groans 1385 his limbs relaxed. Once he had fallen, I dealt him yet a third stroke as a prayer of gratitude [kharis] to the infernal Zeus, the savior [sôtêr] of the dead. Fallen thus, he gasped away his thûmos, and as he breathed forth quick spurts of blood, 1390 he struck me with dark drops of gory dew; while I rejoiced no less than the sown earth is gladdened in heaven's refreshing rain at the birthtime of the flower buds.F) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1596-1611
And when unknowingly my father had quickly taken servings that he did not recognize, he ate a meal which, as you see, has proved fatal to his family. Now, discovering his unhallowed deed, he uttered a great cry, reeled back, vomiting forth the slaughtered flesh, and invoked 1600 an unbearable curse upon the line of Pelops, kicking the banquet table to aid his curse: "Thus perish all the family of Pleisthenes!" This is the reason that you see this man fallen here. I am he who planned this murder with dikê. For together with my hapless father he drove me out, 1605 me his third child, still a baby in swaddling clothes. But grown to manhood, Dikê has brought me back again. Exile though I was, I laid my hand upon my enemy, compassing every device of cunning to his ruin. 1610 So even death would be sweet to me now that I behold him in the net of Dikê.G) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1393-1398 (continuation of passage E)
Since this is so, old men of Argos, rejoice, if you would rejoice; as for me, I glory in the deed. 1395 And had it been a fitting act to pour libations on the corpse, over him this would have been done with dikê. With dikê and then some! With so many accursed lies has he filled the mixing-bowl in his own house, and now he has come home and himself drained it to the dregs.
If you need more help with metaphor, see Seamus Cooney's Basics of Metaphors and Similes.Pindar's Pythian 11 is a victory ode for a winner of a foot race. In this poem Pindar discusses the murder of Agamemnon and the motivations behind it, including the sacrifice of Iphigeneia.
