« back to search

"This now at one moment bodes ill, while then again hope, shining with kindly light from the sacrifices, wards off the biting care of the sorrow that gnaws my heart."

— Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC-c. 456/455)

Author

Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC-c. 456/455)

Work Title

Agamemon [from the Oresteia]

Date

c. 458 BC

Metaphor

"This now at one moment bodes ill, while then again hope, shining with kindly light from the sacrifices, wards off the biting care of the sorrow that gnaws my heart."

Metaphor in Context

But, O daughter of Tyndareos, Queen Clytaemestra, [85] what has happened? What news do you have? On what intelligence and convinced by what report do you send about your messengers to command sacrifice? For all the gods our city worships, the gods supreme, the gods below, [90] the gods of the heavens and of the marketplace, have their altars ablaze with offerings. Now here, now there, the flames rise high as heaven, yielding [95] to the soft and guileless persuasion of holy ointment, the sacrificial oil itself brought from the inner chambers of the palace. Of all this declare whatever you can and dare reveal, and be a healer of my uneasy heart. [100] This now at one moment bodes ill, while then again hope, shining with kindly light from the sacrifices, wards off the biting care of the sorrow that gnaws my heart.

σὺ δέ, Τυνδάρεω
θύγατερ, βασίλεια Κλυταιμήστρα,
τί χρέος; τί νέον; τί δ᾽ ἐπαισθομένη, nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;85
τίνος ἀγγελίας
πειθοῖ περίπεμπτα θυοσκεῖς;
πάντων δὲ θεῶν τῶν ἀστυνόμων,
ὑπάτων, χθονίων,
τῶν τ᾽ οὐρανίων τῶν τ᾽ ἀγοραίων, nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;90
βωμοὶ δώροισι φλέγονται:
ἄλλη δ᾽ ἄλλοθεν οὐρανομήκης
λαμπὰς ἀνίσχει,
φαρμασσομένη χρίματος ἁγνοῦ
μαλακαῖς ἀδόλοισι παρηγορίαις, nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;95
πελάνῳ μυχόθεν βασιλείῳ.
τούτων λέξασ᾽ ὅ τι καὶ δυνατὸν
καὶ θέμις αἰνεῖν,
παιών τε γενοῦ τῆσδε μερίμνης,
ἣ νῦν τοτὲ μὲν κακόφρων τελέθει, nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;100
τοτὲ δ᾽ ἐκ θυσιῶν ἀγανὴ φαίνουσ᾽
ἐλπὶς ἀμύνει φροντίδ᾽ ἄπληστον
τῆς θυμοβόρου φρένα λύπης.