Calls thee on thy behoof no less than hers,
Thy sons withal; for these must also hear
Her words." The burial of Polyxena
Late-slaughtered, Agamemnon, thou delay:895
So sister joined with brother in one flame,
A mother's double grief, shall be entombed.
Agamemnon.
So shall it be: yet, might the host but sail,
No power had I to grant this grace to thee:
But, seeing God sends no fair-following winds,900
Needs must we tarry watching idle sails.
Now fair befall: for all men's weal is this,—
Each several man's, and for the state,—that ill
Betide the bad, prosperity the good.
[Exit Agamemnon.
Chorus.
(Str. 1)
O my fatherland, Ilium, thou art named no more
Mid burgs unspoiled,
Such a battle-cloud lightening spears enshrouds thee o'er,
All round thee coiled!
Thou art piteously shorn of thy brows' tower-diadem,910
And smirched with stain
Of the reek; and thy streetways—my feet shall not tread them,
Ah me, again!
(Ant. 1)
At the midnight my doom lighted on me, when sleep shed
O'er eyes sweet rain,
When from sacrifice-dance and from hushed songs on his bed
My lord had lain,
