Epeisodion 5
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
The third blow add I, giving — of Below-ground
Zeus, guardian of the dead — the votive favour.
Thus in the mind of him he rages, falling,
And blowing forth a brisk blood-spatter, strikes me
With the dark drop of slaughterous dew — rejoicing
1390
No less than, at the god-given dewy-comfort,
The sown-stuff in its birth-throes from the calyx.
Since so these things are, — Argives, my revered here, —
Ye may rejoice — if ye rejoice: but I — boast!
If it were fit on corpse to pour libation,
1395
That would be right — right over and above, too!
The cup of evils in the house he, having
Filled with such curses, himself coming drinks of.
CHOROS.
We wonder at thy tongue: since bold-mouthed truly
Is she who in such speech boasts o’er her husband I
1400
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
Ye test me as I were a witless woman:
But I — with heart intrepid — to you knowers
Say (and thou — if thou wilt or praise or blame me,
Comes to the same) — this man is Agamemnon,
My husband, dead, the work of the right hand here,
1405
Ay, of a just artificer: so things are.
