Chapter XLIV: Act IV

[_Enter_ Agamemnon. _He is met and greeted by his wife, who returns into the palace._]

_Agamemnon:_ At last in safety am I home returned.
Oh, hail, belovéd land! I bring thee spoil
From many barbarous tribes; and Troy at length,
So long the mistress of the haughty east, 785
Submits herself as suppliant to thee.
But see, Cassandra faints, and trembling falls
With nerveless form. Ye slaves with speed uplift her;
Revive her drooping spirits with the chill
Of water on her face. Her languid eyes
Again behold the light of day. Arise,
Cassandra, and recall thy sluggish sense.
That shelter from our woes, so long desired, 790
Is here at last. This is a festal day.

_Cassandra:_ Remember Ilium's festal day.

_Agamemnon:_ But come,
We'll kneel before the shrine.

_Cassandra:_ Before the shrine
My father fell.

_Agamemnon:_ We will together pray
In thankfulness to Jove.

_Cassandra:_ Hercean Jove?

_Agamemnon:_ Thou think'st of Ilium?

_Cassandra:_ And Priam too.

_Agamemnon:_ This is not Troy. 795

_Cassandra:_ Where a Helen is, is Troy.

_Agamemnon:_ Fear not thy mistress, though in captive's bonds.

_Cassandra:_ But freedom is at hand.

_Agamemnon:_ Live on secure.

_Cassandra:_ I think that death is my security.

_Agamemnon:_ For thee there's naught to fear.

_Cassandra:_ But much for thee.

_Agamemnon:_ What can a victor fear?

_Cassandra:_ What least he fears.

_Agamemnon:_ Keep her, ye faithful slaves, in careful guard, 800
Till she shall throw this mood of madness off,
Lest in unbridled rage she harm herself.
To thee, O father, who the blinding bolt
Dost hurl, at whose command the clouds disperse,
Who rul'st the starry heavens and the lands,
To whom triumphant victors bring their spoils;
And thee, O sister of thy mighty lord, 805
Argolic Juno, here I offer now
All fitting gifts--and so fulfil my vow.

[_Exit into the palace._]

_Chorus of Argive women:_ O Argos, famed for thy worthy sons,
And dear to the jealous Juno's heart,
How mighty the children who feed at thy breast! 810
Thou hast added a god to the ranks of immortals;
For Alcides has won by his labors heroic
The right to be named with the lords of the sky.
Alcides the great! at his birth were the laws
Of the universe broken; for Jove bade the night
To double the dew-laden hours of the darkness. 815
At his command did the god of the sun
To a sluggish pace restrain his car;
And slow of foot around their course,
O pale, white moon, thy horses paced.
He also checked his feet, the star,
Which hails the dawn, but glows as oft 820
In the evening sky; and he marveled that he
Should be called Hesperus. 'Tis said that Aurora
Roused to her wonted task, but again
Sank back to her sleep on the breast of Tithonus:
For long must the night be, and tardy the morning,
That waits for the birth of a hero divine. 825
The swift-whirling vault of the sky stood still
To greet thee, O youth to the heavens appointed.
Thy labors how many and mighty! Thy hand
Has the terrible lion of Nemea felt, 830
The fleet-footed hind, and the ravaging boar
That Arcadia feared. Loud bellowed the bull
When torn from the fields of Crete;
Thou didst conquer the Hydra, which fed on destruction, 835
And severed the last of its multiplied heads.
The dread giant, Geryon, three monsters in one,
Fell slain with one blow of thy crashing club;
But his oxen, the famous Hesperian herds,
Were driven away as the spoils of the east. 840
The terrible steeds of the Thracian king,
Which their master fed not on the grass of the Strymon,
Or the green banks of Hebrus (but, cruel and bloody,
With flesh of the hapless wayfarer he fed them), 845
These steeds did our Hercules take, and in vengeance,
As their last gory feast gave the flesh of their master.
The spoil of her girdle Hippolyte saw
A-gleam on her conqueror's breast.
The Stymphalian bird fell down from the clouds 850
By his arrows death-smitten,
And the tree which bears the fruit of gold
Feared his approach, but, despoiled of its treasures,
Lifted high in the air its burdenless branches.
Forth from the ravished grove he strode 855
With its golden fruit full laden; in vain
Did the deadly, sleepless dragon guard
Hear the sound of the musical metal.
By triple chains to the upper world
The hound of hell was meekly dragged; 860
His three great mouths in silence gaped,
Amazed by the light of day.
And, greatest of toils, beneath his might,
The lying house of Dardanus
Was overthrown, and felt the force
Of that dread bow which it was doomed
In far-off time to feel again.
Ten days sufficed for Troy's first overthrow; 865
As many years her second ruins know.