Clytemnestra hesitates before killing the sleeping Agamemnon by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin 1822
"Clytemnestra: The Argives hold the town of Troy this very day. I picture a city resounding with contrasting cries. Pour vinegar with oil into the selfsame bowl, then you would say they separate in loveless enmity. Just so I hear the cries of victims and of conquerors distinctly, both with a share of this double tragedy. For of the victims some have collapsed by the corpses of their husbands, brothers - and children, too, about the bodies of their elder dead, their parents' death they grieve, slaves now, lamenting those they loved, while hunger and weariness, after the battle they fought nightlong, dispose the victors to scavenge what food the city possesses, no billets fixed for anyone, each sleeping where his fortune's lot would have him lay. And sleep they do in the homes of those Trojans enslaved, free now of the frosty open sky and the damp cold air of the night, relaxed - no guard has been set - as they sleep the sound sleep of total success. So long as they respect that city's Gods, respect the temples of the Gods whose land they now possess, then they who have despoiled might yet themselves escape that fate; but let no lust to sack what they should not beset their force, seduce it with desire for gain. For still they need safe passage home, still need to make completion of their race's homeward leg; and if the army makes it home without offence to Gods, the curse of those that have been killed might be aroused and still cause unexpected griefs to strike."
-Aeschylus, Oresteia: lines 320-347
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| Clytemnestra hesitates before killing the sleeping Agamemnon by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin 1822. |
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