Agamemnon: Act IV

Agamemnon: At last in safety am I home returned.Oh, hail, belovéd land! I bring thee spoilFrom many barbarous tribes; and Troy at length,So long the mistress of the haughty east,Submits herself as suppliant to thee.But see, Cassandra faints, and trembling fallsWith nerveless form. Ye slaves with speed uplift her;Revive her drooping spirits with the chillOf water on her face. Her languid eyesAgain behold the light of day. Arise,Cassandra, and recall thy sluggish sense.That shelter from our woes, so long desired,Is here at last. This is a festal day.Cassandra: Remember Ilium's festal day.

Agamemnon: But come,We'll kneel before the shrine.

Cassandra: Before the shrineMy father fell.

Agamemnon: We will together prayIn thankfulness to Jove.

Agamemnon: Thou think'st of Ilium?

Agamemnon: This is not Troy.

Agamemnon: Fear not thy mistress, though in captive's bonds.

Cassandra: But freedom is at hand.

Cassandra: I think that death is my security.

Agamemnon: For thee there's naught to fear.

Agamemnon: What can a victor fear?

Agamemnon: Keep her, ye faithful slaves, in careful guard,Till she shall throw this mood of madness off,Lest in unbridled rage she harm herself.To thee, O father, who the blinding boltDost hurl, at whose command the clouds disperse,Who rul'st the starry heavens and the lands,To whom triumphant victors bring their spoils;And thee, O sister of thy mighty lord,Argolic Juno, here I offer nowAll fitting gifts--and so fulfil my vow.

Chorus of Argive women: O Argos, famed for thy worthy sons,And dear to the jealous Juno's heart,How mighty the children who feed at thy breast!Thou hast added a god to the ranks of immortals;For Alcides has won by his labors heroicThe right to be named with the lords of the sky.Alcides the great! at his birth were the lawsOf the universe broken; for Jove bade the nightTo double the dew-laden hours of the darkness.At his command did the god of the sunTo a sluggish pace restrain his car;And slow of foot around their course,O pale, white moon, thy horses paced.He also checked his feet, the star,Which hails the dawn, but glows as oftIn the evening sky; and he marveled that heShould be called Hesperus. 'Tis said that AuroraRoused to her wonted task, but againSank back to her sleep on the breast of Tithonus:For long must the night be, and tardy the morning,That waits for the birth of a hero divine.The swift-whirling vault of the sky stood stillTo greet thee, O youth to the heavens appointed.Thy labors how many and mighty! Thy handHas the terrible lion of Nemea felt,The fleet-footed hind, and the ravaging boarThat Arcadia feared. Loud bellowed the bullWhen torn from the fields of Crete;Thou didst conquer the Hydra, which fed on destruction,And severed the last of its multiplied heads.The dread giant, Geryon, three monsters in one,Fell slain with one blow of thy crashing club;But his oxen, the famous Hesperian herds,Were driven away as the spoils of the east.The terrible steeds of the Thracian king,Which their master fed not on the grass of the Strymon,Or the green banks of Hebrus (but, cruel and bloody,With flesh of the hapless wayfarer he fed them),These steeds did our Hercules take, and in vengeance,As their last gory feast gave the flesh of their master.The spoil of her girdle Hippolyte sawA-gleam on her conqueror's breast.The Stymphalian bird fell down from the cloudsBy his arrows death-smitten,And the tree which bears the fruit of goldFeared his approach, but, despoiled of its treasures,Lifted high in the air its burdenless branches.Forth from the ravished grove he strodeWith its golden fruit full laden; in vainDid the deadly, sleepless dragon guardHear the sound of the musical metal.By triple chains to the upper worldThe hound of hell was meekly dragged;His three great mouths in silence gaped,Amazed by the light of day.And, greatest of toils, beneath his might,The lying house of DardanusWas overthrown, and felt the forceOf that dread bow which it was doomedIn far-off time to feel again.Ten days sufficed for Troy's first overthrow;As many years her second ruins know.