"I was broken-hearted when I
heard that I must go back all that long and terrible voyage to Egypt;
nevertheless, I answered, ‘I will do all, old man, that you have
laid upon me; but now tell me, and tell me true, whether all the
Achaeans whom Nestor and I left behind us when we set sail from Troy
have got home safely, or whether any one of them came to a bad end
either on board his own ship or among his friends when the days of
his fighting were done.’
"‘Son of Atreus,’ he
answered, ‘why ask me? You had better not know my noos,
for your eyes will surely fill when you have heard my story. Many of
those about whom you ask are dead and gone, but many still remain,
and only two of the chief men among the Achaeans perished during
their return home. As for what happened on the field of battle - you
were there yourself. A third Achaean leader is still at sea, alive,
but hindered from returning [nostos]. Ajax was
wrecked, for Poseidon drove him on to the great rocks of Gyrae;
nevertheless, he let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of
all Athena's hatred he would have escaped death, if he had not
ruined himself by boasting. He said the gods could not drown him even
though they had tried to do so, and when Poseidon heard this large
talk, he seized his trident in his two brawny hands, and split the
rock of Gyrae in two pieces. The base remained where it was, but the
part on which Ajax was sitting fell headlong into the sea and carried
Ajax with it; so he drank salt water and was drowned.
"‘Your brother and his ships
escaped, for Hera protected him, but when he was just about to reach
the high promontory of Malea, he was caught by a heavy gale which
carried him out to sea again sorely against his will, and drove him
to the foreland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aigisthos was
then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he was to return
[nostos] safely after all, for the gods backed the
wind into its old quarter and they reached home; whereon Agamemnon
kissed his native soil, and shed tears of joy at finding himself in
his own country.
"‘Now there was a watchman
whom Aigisthos kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised
two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole year
to make sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare
war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go by, he went and told
Aigisthos who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked
[krînô] twenty of his bravest warriors
from the dêmos and placed them in ambuscade on one side
the room, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he
sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the
feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of
the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the banquet was
over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; not one of
Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of
Aigisthos’, but they were all killed there in the
cloisters.’
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