Aegisthus
You speak like that, you who sit at the lower oar when those upon the higher bench control the ship?1Old as you are, you shall learn how bitter it is
[1620]
at your age to be schooled when prudence is the lesson set before you. Bonds and the pangs of hunger are far the best doctors of the spirit when it comes to instructing the old. Do you have eyes and lack understanding? Do not kick against the goads lest you strike to your own hurt.
Chorus
[1625]
Woman that you are! Skulking at home and awaiting the return of the men from war, all the while defiling a hero's bed, did you contrive this death against a warrior chief?
Aegisthus
These words of yours likewise shall prove a source of tears. The tongue of Orpheus is quite the opposite of yours.
[1630]
He led all things by the rapture of his voice; but you, who have stirred our wrath by your silly yelping, shall be led off yourself. You will appear tamer when put down by force.
Chorus
As if you would ever truly be my master here in Argos, you who did contrive our king's death, and
[1635]
then had not the courage to do this deed of murder with your own hand!
Aegisthus
Because to ensnare him was clearly the woman's part; I was suspect as his enemy of old. However, with his gold I shall endeavor to control the people; and whoever is unruly,
[1640]
him I'll yoke with a heavy collar, and in truth he shall be no well-fed trace-horse!2 No! Loathsome hunger that houses with darkness shall see him gentle.
Chorus
Why then, in the baseness of your soul, did you not kill him yourself, but leave his slaying to a woman,
[1645]
a plague to her country and her country's gods? Oh, does Orestes perhaps still behold the light, that, with favoring fortune, he may come home and be the slayer of this pair with victory complete?
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Aeschylus. Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. 2.Agamemnon. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926.
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