Parerga/Speech of Cassandra
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SPEECH OF CASSANDRA.
FROM THE AGAMEMNON. (1178.)
Cassandra, after the storming of Troy, was included in the General-in-chief's allotted portion of the spoil. She accompanied him, as his slave, on his return to Argos; and was murdered, together with him, by Clytemnestra. Æschylus represents her, after Agamemnon has crossed the fatal threshold of his palace, as remaining for a short time on the stage with the Chorus of aged Argives. She breaks out into prophetic wailings of her coming doom; and on the Chorus terming her words vague and aimless, though of fearful omen, she challenges their confession of her inspired knowledge of the ancient crimes of the House of Agamemnon.
Καὶ μὴν ὁ χρησμὸς οὐκέτ᾽ ἐκ καλυμμάτωνἜσται δεδορκὼς νεογάμου νύμφης δίκηνΛαμπρὸς δ᾽ ἔοικεν ἡλίου πρὸς ἀντολὰςΠνέων ἐσήξειν, ὥστε κύματος δίκηνΚλύζειν πρὸς αὐγὰς τοῦδε πήματος πολὺΜεῑζον· κ.τ.λ.
CASSANDRA.No longer then shall the Oracular Power Look dimly forth from dark mysterious words, Like a bride muffled in her nuptial veil. Full into light it rushes, like the blast, The mighty Western blast, impetuously Bursting upon the regions of the East.[1] Beneath it like successive billows borneCrimes and calamities sweep into light,Each direr than the first!———Ha, speak I nowÆnigmas? Bear ye witness to the truthWith which I follow, hound-like, on the trackOf the evil deeds committed long ago.———There is a choir that never leaves this roof,Symphonious, not euphonious; for its notesAre not of good. A troop of wassailers,Drunk and made bold with draughts of human blood,A troop of Sister Furies, haunts this house,Hard, hard to be dislodged. To the doom'd wallsClose-clinging, loud they sing the primal wrong;Then loathingly repeat the name of himWho trampled on a brother's marriage-bed.Miss I the mark; or do my words strike home?Wilt call me now "Impostor, vagabond,"Wretched deceiver"?—On thine oath attestMy knowledge of this house's ancient crimes!
CHORUS.An oath, if plighted in a proper spirit,Is a most solemn tie twixt man and man.Oaths are uncall'd for here. I marvel at thee,That thou, a damsel from far-distant climes,Like an eye-witness speakest of the deedsWith which this land was stain'd in days gone by.
- ↑ I have expanded the translation into what I believe to be the full meaning of the Greek. Æschylus alludes to the West wind, which is the one most strongly felt on the eastern coasts of the Ægæan. He elsewhere, in this play, calls it the Ζέφυρου γίγαντος αὔρα.