Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/248

GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS render by an equal number of English lines the verse of the original:

THE DEATH OF AGAMEMNON

[Odyssey, XI., 385-456.]

Afterward, soon as the chaste Persephone hither and thither

Now had scattered afar the slender shades of the women,

Came the sorrowing ghost of Agamemnon Atreides;

Round whom thronged, besides, the souls of the others who also

Died, and met their fate, with him in the house of Ægisthos.

He, then, after he drank of the dark blood, instantly knew me,—

Ay, and he wailed aloud, and plenteous tears was shedding,

Toward me reaching hands and eagerly longing to touch me;

But he was shorn of strength, nor longer came at his bidding

That great force which once abode in his pliant menbers.

Seeing him thus, I wept, and my heart was laden with pity,

And, uplifting my voice, in wingéd words I addressed him:

"King of men, Agamemnon, thou glorious son of Atreus.

Say, in what wise did the doom of prostrate death overcome thee?

Was it within thy ships thou wast subdued by Poseidon

Rousing the dreadful blast of winds too hard to be mastered,

Or on the firm-set land did banded foemen destroy thee

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