New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-01-13

Swan with blood! And heard the dolorous cry Oh
Kassandra
prIam's daughter, whom treacherous Kiytnmnestra
anear me
Slew and upon the ground fell In my deatn-'nroes'
vanly
Reaching out hands my sword while the shameless
woman departed,
Nor even stay press her hands on my eyehds'
No. nor 10 close my mouth although wac passing 10
Hades.
Oh, there is naught more dire, more insoent tnan
After the very thought of deeds like has possessed
her,
One who would dare devise act so utterly shame
less,
Lying in wait to slay her welded lord IbethOught me-
Verify home TO my children and servants giving me
welcome
Safe 70 return but wrought for herself CONFUSION
Plotting these evous woes and for other women here
after,
Even Tor those sooth whose thoughts are set upon
goodness
Thus he spake, and I, in turn replying, addressed nun
Heavens! how from the first has Zeus the thunderer
hated,
All for the womens wiles the brood OF Aureus! What
numbers
Perished in quest of Helen,-and Klytemnestra' the
meanwhile,
Wrought in soul this guile for thee aar on hy jour
ney."
"see that thou art not, then Ike ME 700 mia 10 'n'
helpmeet;
Nor to ear reveal each secret matter thou knowest
Tell her the part lorsooth and that the rest snail DC
hidden.
Natheess not unto thee will come such murder odys
seus,
Dealt by wife for wise indeed, ana true ID Der p0I
pOse
Noble Penelope il. the child OF Icarius. Truly,
she it wa. whom we left, fair young briie, when we
started
OF for The wars and then infant lay at her BOSOM
One who now, methinks, IN the list Of men must oe
seated,
Bst indeed ab yes for his weloved father returning
Him shall behold and the shall clasp the S'Te a. Is
fitting.
Not unto me TO feast my eyes with the sight OF my OF
spring
Granted the wife my BOSOM but first Of life she heret
member
INTO thine own dear land steer thou Thy vessel in secret
Not in the lights since faith be placed in woman no
longer"
Tins ends the Homeric version OF AgamemnOns
taking Of and like everything in Homer, 1t Is the
more impressive for its directncSs and pathetic SIM
plicitv Granting that the bard, nearly twentY-clght
| hundred years ago, recOuntng events that oc-
Cured two centuries earlier. the dreadful tale would
then nave btcn comparatively 44SSH 'A"NA''N'- '
! entitled to the force OF history.
VERSION or TIE ATTIC DRANATIsTs.
Four hundred y,ars afterwaTd. -Eschylos made
the Attic drama thing of power and life, affecting
the entire range of Greek literature and the sent-
men. of lis people and the State. BY ibis time the
simplicity Of Homer's history,-or OF The Homeric
legeI Dis if You chOose,-had been superseded Upon
Her ert Spencers theory of progress great advance
was made-the change from epic anncss to the COM
,rty of the drama. and especially 10 the abstract
J I. personations and psychological grandeur of the
cIloric mythology. stI more refined and complex
a1oup of ideas came in with SOphOklG- and EdrpI-
des Whether owing 20 the lapse of time or % the
imagination of these sublime tTagedlans the tales OF
Homer became interminged with variety Of heroic
lore CLOSED over with new dramatic interest and
thoroughly infused with q philosophy that was
but dimly perceived by the father OF epic song
| Among the ideas powerfully worked on. By -tschy-
los and Tightening the gloom and glory OF his
dramas. were those .. Tendency governing the his
tory of a person. ia = or race OF Nemesis waiting
upon crime Of Rc-Orsc, and Expiration finally Of
Destiny to which the Gods themselves must
bow. TO utilize these, and mako them effective
elements, he and his c0mpeers took liberties with
the record and legends OF their country liberties
greater than Shakespeare has taken with the
chronicles of Lear, Hamlet, or Macbeth.
The murder Of Agamemnon, 10 II already seen in
volved the great accessories of the highest drama
and necessarily became the leldpJ tragic theme in
creek literature 1t was the royaest chieftain OF his
are upon whom was wrought this murder most
fouI strange and unnatural In Homer. ambition,
guilty love- and jealousy, are the combined motives
Of the deed. But to satisfy the wider scope OF the
dramatists new forces had to be introduced. The
sun is not distinguished by convusiOn that nigh.
A., I,,. tf,o and, II I.u
ami the implacable Erinnyes can destroy an
Agame,nnon. Hence, .Eschyos compelled the
tragedy of the AtreidG to date back from the M
natural crime of Atreas himself, who proiered Lie
brother Thyeses the flesh of that brothers son, AMI
who was slain by Thyestes in atOnement. The
Gods were not fOrgetful, although permitting
Agamemnon 10 rule IN splendOr over Argos, and
Nenela0s to rule over sparta. Mencla0s loses
Helena and the King Of Men, at the hight OF his
renown, is murdered by his spouse and her para
mour Here HschylOs also adds, a human ele
ment the Indignation of Klytemnestra at the death
of her daughter, Iphigeneia, deeoyed by the King
IA Aulis under pretense of her marriage ~ Achilles
and there sacrificed To appease the goddess Artemis
To the kings death succeeds the punishment Of the
traitOrous lovers, who die by the hand of Orestes
The parricide, III turn, is pursued b" the Furies,
who are appeased only through the Intervention Of
| Athena ana the AJhcnlah-' fihally, be WOES anu
wanderngs of Eektra, the sister of Ortstos, supply
another theme " turns iorcefu and tender, to the
three tragedans and their differing dramatic modes
| If, among the seven plays of EschylOs remaining
TO us there two valuable for little more
than their illustration Of the birth of the Attic
drama we compensated by the preservation, not
only Of the sublime Prometheus DesnOtes, but OF
| the three intense IN human interest the Aganen-
| nOn." ChOGphOroi, and Eumenides,' which make
| the Orcsteian Trlogy complete. IL il the one the