Drama and Lyric Roman Roads Reader Drama and Lyric Roman Roads Reader Greek Plays and Poems Companion Book for The Greeks: Drama and Lyric, a curriculum by Roman Roads Media. Drama and Lyric: Roman Roads Reader, Second Edition. Version 3.2.1 Copyright © 2016 Roman Roads Media Published by Roman Roads Media, LLC 121 E 3rd St., Moscow ID 83843 509-906-8635 | www.romanroadsmedia.com [email protected] Editor: George Callihan Copy Editor: George Callihan Cover Design: Daniel Foucachon and Rachel Rosales Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by the USA copyright law. Drama and Lyric: Roman Roads Reader, Second Edition Roman Roads Media, LLC. ISBN: 978-1-944482-00-8 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book has been designed to accompany the Old Western Culture curriculum by Roman Roads Media. To find out more about this course, visit www.romanroadsmedia.com Other titles in the Old Western Culture Series by Roman Roads Media: The Greeks: — The Epics (The Iliad & The Odyssey) — Drama and Lyric (The Tragedies, Comedies, and Minor Poets) —The Histories (Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon) —The Philosophers (Plato and Aristotle) The Romans: — The Aeneid (The Aeneid, Ovid, and Lucretius) —The Historians (Livy, Tacitus, Salust, Julius Caesar, Plutarch, and Cicero) — Early Christianity (Clementine, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Eusebius) — Nicene Christianity (Athanasius, Augustine, and Boethius) Christendom: — Early Medievals (St. Benedict, Bede, Charlemagne, and Alfred the Great) — The Defense of the Faith (Anselm, Geffrey of Monmoth, The Golden Legend) — The Medieval Mind (Dante and Aquinas) — The Reformation (Erasmus, Calvin, Cranmer, Spencer, and Chaucer) Early Moderns: — Early British Poetry (Metaphysical Poets, Milton, Shakespeare, and Bunyan) — The Rise of Enlightenment (Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Rousseau, Jefferson, Burke, and Alexis de Toqueville) — Later British Poetry (Neo-Classical Poetry, Victorian Poetry, and Romantic Poetry) — The Novels (Austen, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Hugo) Other curriculum by Roman Roads Media: Grammar of Poetry (Matt Whitling) Fitting Words: Classical Rhetoric for the Christian Student (James Nance) Introductory Logic (James Nance) Intermediate Logic (James Nance) Copyright © 2016 by Roman Roads Media, LLC Roman Roads Media 121 E 3rd St Moscow, Idaho 83843 www.romanroadsmedia.com Roman Roads combines its technical expertise with the experience of established authorities in the field of classical education to create quality video courses and resources tailored to the homeschooler. Just as the first century roads of the Roman Empire were the physical means by which the early church spread the gospel far and wide, so Roman Roads Media uses today’s technology to bring timeless truth, goodness, and beauty into your home. By combining excellent instruction augmented with visual aids and examples, we help inspire in your children a lifelong love of learning. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-944482-00-8 Note from the editor The first edition of Drama and Lyric: Roman Roads Reader included The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes and The Clouds by Aristophanes. In an effort to balance the reading load, we have decided to remove these particular works from the assigned reading and have made them an optional assignment. As such, we have left them out of our Reader. However, they are still available for free on our website if you want to read the story of Jason and the Argonauts or the play The Clouds for yourself! You can find them at: romanroadsmedia.com/materials. Enjoy the reading! - George Callihan Contents THE AGAMEMNON – Aeschylus ............................................................ 2 THE LIBATION BEARERS – Aeschylus ................................................... 79 THE EUMENIDES – Aeschylus ............................................................ 131 OEDIPUS THE KING – Sophocles ....................................................... 181 OEDIPUS AT COLONUS – Sophocles .................................................. 254 ANTIGONE – Sophocles ..................................................................... 341 THE TROJAN WOMEN – Euripides .................................................... 400 THE MEDEA – Euripides .................................................................... 461 THE FROGS – Aristophanes ............................................................... 493 POEMS OF SAPPHO ............................................................................ 553 ODES OF PINDAR ................................................................................ 557 IDYLLS OF THEOCRITUS ...................................................................... 568 WORKS AND DAYS – Hesiod .............................................................. 587 THE FALL OF TROY – Quintus of Smyrna ........................................... 607 BOOK I ............................................................................................ 607 BOOK III .......................................................................................... 628 BOOK V ........................................................................................... 646 BOOK XII ......................................................................................... 662 A ROMAN ROADS READER THE AGAMEMNON Aeschylus TRANSLATED BY GILBERT MURRAY, REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY - AGAMEMNON, son of Atreus and King of Argos and Mycenae; - Commander-in-Chief of the Greek armies in the War against Troy. - CLYTEMNESTRA, daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen; wife to Agamemnon. - AIGISTHOS, son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy to Agamemnon lover to Clytemnestra. - CASSANDRA, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess; now slave to Agamemnon. - A WATCHMAN. - A HERALD. - CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON. CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY - MENELÂÜS, brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen, and King of Sparta. The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae. - HELEN, most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus, wife to - MENELÂÜS; beloved and carried off by Paris. - PARIS, son of Priam, King of Troy, lover of Helen. Also called ALEXANDER. - PRIAM, the aged King of Troy. 2 THE AGAMEMNON The Greeks are also referred to as Achaians, Argives, Danaans; Troy is also called Ilion. [The Scene represents a space in front of the Palace of Agamemnon in Argos, with an Altar of Zeus in the centre and many other altars at the sides. On a high terrace of the roof stands a WATCHMAN. It is night.] WATCHMAN. This waste of year-long vigil I have prayed God for some respite, watching elbow-stayed, As sleuthhounds watch, above the Atreidae's hall, Till well I know yon midnight festival Of swarming stars, and them that lonely go, Bearers to man of summer and of snow, Great lords and shining, throned in heavenly fire. And still I await the sign, the beacon pyre That bears Troy's capture on a voice of flame Shouting o'erseas. So surely to her aim Cleaveth a woman's heart, man-passioned! And when I turn me to my bed—my bed Dew-drenched and dark and stumbling, to which near Cometh no dream nor sleep, but alway Fear Breathes round it, warning, lest an eye once fain To close may close too well to wake again; Think I perchance to sing or troll a tune For medicine against sleep, the music soon Changes to sighing for the tale untold Of this house, not well mastered as of old. Howbeit, may God yet send us rest, and light The flame of good news flashed across the night. 3 A ROMAN ROADS READER [He is silent, watching. Suddenly at a distance in the night there is a glimmer of fire, increasing presently to a blaze.] Ha! 0 kindler of the dark, O daylight birth Of dawn and dancing upon Argive earth For this great end! All hail!—What ho, within! What ho! Bear word to Agamemnon's queen To rise, like dawn, and lift in answer strong To this glad lamp her women's triumph-song, If verily, verily, Ilion's citadel Is fallen, as yon beacons flaming tell. And I myself will tread the dance before All others; for my master's dice I score Good, and mine own to-night three sixes plain. [Lights begin to show in the Palace. Oh, good or ill, my hand shall clasp again My dear lord's hand, returning! Beyond that I speak not. A great ox hath laid his weight Across my tongue. But these stone walls know well, If stones had speech, what tale were theirs to tell. For me, to him that knoweth I can yet Speak; if another questions I forget. [Exit into the Palace. The women's "Ololûgê" or triumph-cry, is heard within and then repeated again and again further off in the City. Handmaids and Attendants come from the Palace, bearing torches, with which they kindle incense on the altars. Among them comes CLYTEMNESTRA, who throws herself on her knees at the central Altar in an agony of prayer. 4 THE AGAMEMNON Presently from the further side of the open space appear the CHORUS of ELDERS and move gradually into position in front of the Palace. The day begins to dawn.] CHORUS. Ten years since Ilion's righteous foes, The Atreidae strong, Menelaüs and eke Agamemnon arose, Two thrones, two sceptres, yoked of God; And a thousand galleys of Argos trod The seas for the righting of wrong; And wrath of battle about them cried,