Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/261

THE DEATH OF AGAMEMNON 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 Aigisthos.

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 members.

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

And, uplifting my voice, in wingèd 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

Cutting their oxen off, and their flocks so fair, or, it may be,

While in a town's defence, or in that of women, contending?"

Thus I spake, and he, replying, said to me straightway:

"Nobly-born and wise Odysseus, son of Laertes,

Neither within my ships was I subdued by Poseidon

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

Nor on the firm-set land did banded foemen destroy me,—

Nay, but death and my doom were well contrived by Aigisthos,

Who, with my cursèd wife, at his own house bidding me welcome,

Fed me, and slew me, as one might slay an ox at the manger!

So, by a death most wretched, I died; and all my companions 231