say we of them! For thee,
Since Menelaüs thy first care must be,
If by some word of Zeus, who wills not yet
To leave the old house for ever desolate,
Some ray of sunlight on a far-off sea
Lights him, yet green and living … we may see
His ship some day in the harbour!—'Twas the word
Of truth ye asked me for, and truth ye have heard!

[Exit HERALD. The CHORUS take position for the Third Stasimon.

CHORUS.

(Surely there was mystic meaning in the name HELENA, meaning which was fulfilled when she fled to Troy.)

  Who was He who found for thee
  That name, truthful utterly—
Was it One beyond our vision
Moving sure in pre-decision
  Of man's doom his mystic lips?—
  Calling thee, the Battle-wed,
  Thee, the Strife-encompassèd,
HELEN? Yea, in fate's derision,
  Hell in cities, Hell in ships,
Hell in hearts of men they knew her,
  When the dim and delicate fold
  Of her curtains backward rolled,
And to sea, to sea, she threw her
  In the West Wind's giant hold;
And with spear and sword behind her
  Came the hunters in a flood,
Down the oarblade's viewless trail
Tracking, till in Simoïs' vale
Through the leaves they crept to find her,
  A Wrath, a seed of blood.

(The Trojans welcomed her with triumph and praised Alexander till at last their song changed and they saw another meaning in Alexander's name also.)

  So the Name to Ilion came
  On God's thought-fulfilling flame,
She a vengeance and a token
Of the unfaith to bread broken,
  Of the hearth of God betrayed,
    Against them whose voices swelled
    Glorying in the prize they held
And the Spoiler's vaunt outspoken
  And the song his brethren made
'Mid the bridal torches burning;
  Till, behold, the ancient City
Of King Priam turned, and turning
Took a new song for her learning,
  A song changed and full of pity,
  With the cry of a lost nation;
    And she changed the bridegroom's name:
  Called him Paris Ghastly-wed;
  For her sons were with the dead,
  And her life one lamentation,
    'Mid blood and burning flame.

(Like a lion's whelp reared as a pet and turning afterwards to a great beast of prey,)

  Lo, once there was a herdsman reared
    In his own house, so stories tell,
  A lion's whelp, a milk-fed thing
  And soft in life's first opening
  Among the sucklings of the herd;
    The happy children loved him well,
  And old men smiled, and oft, they say,
  In men's arms, like a babe, he lay,
Bright-eyed, and toward the hand that teased him
  Eagerly fawning for food or play.

  Then on a day outflashed the sudden
    Rage of the lion brood of yore;
  He paid his debt to them that fed
  With wrack of herds and carnage red,
  Yea, wrought him a great feast unbidden,
    Till all the house-ways ran with gore;
  A sight the thralls fled weeping from,
    A great red slayer, beard a-foam,
High-priest of some blood-cursèd altar
  God had uplifted against that home.

(So was it with Helen in Troy.)

  And how shall I call the thing that came
    At the first hour to Ilion city?
  Call it a dream of peace untold,
  A secret joy in a mist of gold,
  A woman's eye that was soft, like flame,
    A flower which ate a man's heart with pity.

But she swerved aside and wrought to her kiss a bitter ending,
And a wrath was on her harbouring, a wrath upon her friending,
When to Priam and his sons she fled quickly o'er the deep,
With the god to whom she sinned for her watcher on the wind,
A death-bride, whom brides long shall weep.

(Men say that Good Fortune wakes the envy of God; not so; Good Fortune may be innocent, and then there is no vengeance.)

  A grey word liveth, from the morn
    Of old time among mortals spoken,
  That man's Wealth waxen full shall fall
  Not childless, but get sons withal;
  And ever of great bliss is born
     A tear unstanched and a heart broken.

But I hold my thought alone and by others unbeguiled;
'Tis the deed that is unholy shall have issue, child on child,
Sin on sin, like his begetters; and they shall be as they were.

But the man who walketh straight, and the house thereof, tho' Fate
  Exalt him, the children shall be fair.

(It is Sin, it is Pride and Ruthlessness, that beget children like themselves till Justice is fulfilled upon them.)

But Old Sin loves, when comes the hour again,
   To bring forth New,
Which laugheth lusty amid the tears of men;
Yea, and Unruth, his comrade, wherewith none
May plead nor strive, which dareth on and on,
  Knowing not fear nor any holy thing;
Two fires of darkness in a house, born true,
  Like to their ancient spring.

But Justice shineth in a house low-wrought
  With smoke-stained wall,
And honoureth him who filleth his own lot;
But the unclean hand upon the golden stair
With eyes averse she flieth, seeking where
  Things innocent are; and, recking not the power
Of wealth by man misgloried, guideth all
  To her own destined hour.

[Here amid a great procession enter AGAMEMNON on a Chariot. Behind him on another Chariot is CASSANDRA. The CHORUS approach and make obeisance. Some of AGAMEMNON'S men have on their shields a White Horse, some a Lion. Their arms are rich and partly barbaric.

LEADER.

All hail, O King! Hail, Atreus' Son!
Sacker of Cities! Ilion's bane!
With what high word shall I greet thee again,
How give thee worship, and neither outrun
The point of pleasure, nor stint too soon?
For many will cling. To fair seeming
The faster because they have sinned erewhile;
And a man may sigh with never a sting
Of grief in his heart, and a man may smile
With eyes unlit and a lip that strains.
But the wise Shepherd knoweth his sheep,
   And his eyes pierce deep
The faith like water that fawns and feigns.

But I hide nothing, O King. That day
When in quest of Helen our battle array
Hurled forth, thy name upon my heart's scroll
Was deep in letters of discord writ;
   And the ship of thy soul,
Ill-helmed and blindly steered was it,
Pursuing ever, through men that die,
One wild heart that was fain to fly.
   But on this new day,
From the deep of my thought and in love, I say
  "Sweet is a grief well ended;"
And in time's flow Thou wilt learn and know
   The true from the false,
Of them that were left to guard the walls
  Of thine empty Hall unfriended.

[During the above CLYTEMNESTRA has appeared on the Palace steps, with a train of Attendants, to receive her Husband.

AGAMEMNON.

To Argos and the gods of Argolis
All hail, who share with me the glory of this
Home-coming and the vengeance I did wreak
On Priam's City! Yea, though none should speak,
The great gods