Aigisthos

"‘Now there was a watchman whom Aigisthos kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole year to make sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go by, he went and told Aigisthos who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked [ krînô ] twenty of his bravest warriors from the dêmos and placed them in ambuscade on one side the room, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the banquet was over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; not one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of Aigisthos’, but they were all killed there in the cloisters.’ "Thus spoke Proteus, and I was broken hearted as I heard him. I sat down upon the sands and wept; I felt as though I could no longer bear to live nor look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I had had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the ground, the old man of the sea said, ‘Son of Atreus, do not waste any more time in crying so bitterly; it can do no manner of good; find your way home as fast as ever you can, for Aigisthos be still alive, and even though Orestes anticipates you in killing him, you may yet come in for his funeral.’

Odysseia ·Kitap 4 ·521-540 ·machine translation (native)

Telemakhos answered, "I can expect nothing of the kind; it would be far too much to hope for. I dare not let myself think of it. Even though the gods themselves willed it no such good fortune could befall me." On this Athena said, "Telemakhos, what are you talking about? Heaven has a long arm if it is minded to save a man; and if it were me, I should not care how much I suffered before getting home, provided I could be safe when I was once there. I would rather this, than get home quickly, and then be killed in my own house as Agamemnon was by the treachery of Aigisthos and his wife. Still, death is certain, and when a man's hour is come, not even the gods can save him, no matter how fond they are of him." "Mentor," answered Telemakhos, "do not let us talk about it any more. There is no chance of my father's ever coming back [ nostos ]; the gods have long since counseled his destruction. There is something else, however, about which I should like to ask Nestor, for he knows much more than any one else does. They say he has reigned for three generations so that it is like talking to an immortal. Tell me, therefore, Nestor, and tell me true [ alêthês ]; how did Agamemnon come to die in that way? What was Menelaos doing? And how came false Aigisthos to kill so far better a man than himself? Was Menelaos away from Achaean Argos, voyaging elsewhere among humankind, that Aigisthos took heart and killed Agamemnon?"

Odysseia ·Kitap 3 ·221-240 ·machine translation (native)

"Take my advice then, and do not go traveling about for long so far from home, nor leave your property with such dangerous people in your house; they will eat up everything you have among them, and you will have been on a fool's errand. Still, I should advise you by all means to go and visit Menelaos, who has lately come off a voyage among such distant peoples as no man could ever hope to get back from, when the winds had once carried him so far out of his reckoning; even birds cannot fly the distance in a twelvemonth, so vast and terrible are the seas that they must cross. Go to him, therefore, by sea, and take your own men with you; or if you would rather travel by land you can have a chariot, you can have horses, and here are my sons who can escort you to Lacedaemon where Menelaos lives. Beg of him to speak the truth, and he will tell you no lies, for he is an excellent person."

Odysseia ·Kitap 3 ·301-320 ·machine translation (native)

"When Persephone had dismissed the female ghosts [ psukhai ] in all directions, the ghost [ psukhê ] of Agamemnon son of Atreus came sadly up to me, surrounded by those who had perished with him in the house of Aigisthos. As soon as he had tasted the blood he knew me, and weeping bitterly stretched out his arms towards me to embrace me; but he had no strength nor substance any more, and I too wept and pitied him as I beheld him. ‘How did you come by your death,’ said I, ‘King Agamemnon? Did Poseidon raise his winds and waves against you when you were at sea, or did your enemies make an end of you on the mainland when you were cattle-lifting or sheep-stealing, or while they were fighting in defense of their wives and city?’ "‘Odysseus,’ he answered, ‘noble son of Laertes , I was not lost at sea in any storm of Poseidon's raising, nor did my foes dispatch me upon the mainland, but Aigisthos and my wicked wife were the death of me between them. He asked me to his house, feasted me, and then butchered me most miserably as though I were a fat beast in a slaughter house, while all around me my comrades were slain like sheep or pigs for the wedding breakfast, or dinner-party, or gourmet feast of some great nobleman. You must have seen numbers of men killed either in a general engagement, or in single combat, but you never saw anything so truly pitiable as the way in which we fell in that room, with the mixing-bowl and the loaded tables lying all about, and the ground reeking with our blood. I heard Priam's daughter Cassandra scream as Clytemnestra killed her close beside me. I lay dying upon the earth with the sword in my body, and raised my hands to kill the slut of a murderess, but she slipped away from me; she would not even close my lips nor my eyes when I was dying, for there is nothing in this world so cruel and so shameless as a woman when she has fallen into such guilt as hers was. Fancy murdering her own husband! I thought I was going to be welcomed home by my children and my servants, but her abominable crime has brought disgrace on herself and all women who shall come after - even on the good ones.’

Odysseia ·Kitap 11 ·381-400 ·machine translation (native)

Thus did they converse, and presently Hermes came up to them with the ghosts of the suitors who had been killed by Odysseus. The ghosts [ psukhai ] of Agamemnon and Achilles were astonished at seeing them, and went up to them at once. The ghost [ psukhê ] of Agamemnon recognized Amphimedon son of Melaneus, who lived in Ithaca and had been his host, so it began to talk to him.

Odysseia ·Kitap 24 ·81-100 ·machine translation (native)

"Therefore, my dear young friend, I returned without hearing anything about the others. I know neither who got home safely nor who were lost but, as in duty bound, I will give you without reserve the reports that have reached me since I have been here in my own house. They say the Myrmidons returned home safely under Achilles' son Neoptolemos; so also did the valiant son of Poias, Philoctetes. Idomeneus, again, lost no men at sea, and all his followers who escaped death in the field got safe home with him to Crete . No matter how far out of the world you live, you will have heard of Agamemnon and the bad end he came to at the hands of Aigisthos - and a fearful reckoning did Aigisthos presently pay. See what a good thing it is for a man to leave a son behind him to do as Orestes did, who killed false Aigisthos the murderer of his noble father. You too, then - for you are a tall, smart-looking young man - show your mettle and make yourself a name in story." "Nestor son of Neleus," answered Telemakhos, "honor to the Achaean name, the Achaeans will bear the kleos of Orestes in song even to future generations, for he has avenged his father nobly. Would that heaven might grant me to do like vengeance on the insolence of the wicked suitors, who are ill treating me and plotting my ruin; but the gods have no such happiness [ olbos ] in store for me and for my father, so we must bear it as best we may."

Odysseia ·Kitap 3 ·181-200 ·machine translation (native)

"‘Your brother and his ships escaped, for Hera protected him, but when he was just about to reach the high promontory of Malea, he was caught by a heavy gale which carried him out to sea again sorely against his will, and drove him to the foreland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aigisthos was then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he was to return [ nostos ] safely after all, for the gods backed the wind into its old quarter and they reached home; whereon Agamemnon kissed his native soil, and shed tears of joy at finding himself in his own country. "‘Now there was a watchman whom Aigisthos kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole year to make sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go by, he went and told Aigisthos who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked [ krînô ] twenty of his bravest warriors from the dêmos and placed them in ambuscade on one side the room, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the banquet was over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; not one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of Aigisthos’, but they were all killed there in the cloisters.’

Odysseia ·Kitap 4 ·501-520 ·machine translation (native)

"I will tell you truly [ alêthês ]," answered Nestor, "and indeed you have yourself divined how it all happened. If Menelaos when he got back from Troy had found Aigisthos still alive in his house, there would have been no grave marker heaped up for him, not even when he was dead, but he would have been thrown outside the city to dogs and vultures, and not a woman would have mourned him, for he had done a deed of great wickedness; but we were over there, fighting hard [ athlos ] at Troy , and Aigisthos who was taking his ease quietly in the heart of Argos , cajoled Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra with incessant flattery. "At first she would have nothing to do with his wicked scheme, for she was of a good natural disposition; moreover there was a singer with her, to whom Agamemnon had given strict orders on setting out for Troy , that he was to keep guard over his wife; but when heaven had counseled her destruction, Aigisthos led this bard off to a desert island and left him there for crows and seagulls to batten upon - after which she went willingly enough to the house of Aigisthos. Then he offered many burnt sacrifices to the gods, and decorated many temples with tapestries and gilding, for he had succeeded far beyond his expectations.

Odysseia ·Kitap 3 ·241-260 ·machine translation (native)

Now Poseidon had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the world's end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Zeus, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aigisthos, who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes; so he said to the other gods: "See now, how men consider us gods responsible [ aitioi ] for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aigisthos; he must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Hermes to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Hermes told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full." Then Athena said, "Father, son of Kronos, King of kings, it served Aigisthos right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aigisthos is neither here nor there; it is for Odysseus that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Odysseus, and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this, and yet when Odysseus was before Troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?"

Odysseia ·Kitap 1 ·21-40 ·machine translation (native)

…
πρῶτα μὲν ἐς Πύλον ἐλθὲ καὶ εἴρεο Νέστορα δῖον, κεῖθεν δὲ Σπάρτηνδε παρὰ ξανθὸν Μενέλαον· ὃς γὰρ δεύτατος ἦλθεν Ἀχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων. εἰ μέν κεν πατρὸς βίοτον καὶ νόστον ἀκούσῃς, ἦ τʼ ἂν τρυχόμενός περ ἔτι τλαίης ἐνιαυτόν· εἰ δέ κε τεθνηῶτος ἀκούσῃς μηδʼ ἔτʼ ἐόντος, νοστήσας δὴ ἔπειτα φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν σῆμά τέ οἱ χεῦαι καὶ ἐπὶ κτέρεα κτερεΐξαι πολλὰ μάλʼ, ὅσσα ἔοικε, καὶ ἀνέρι μητέρα δοῦναι. αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν δὴ ταῦτα τελευτήσῃς τε καὶ ἔρξῃς, φράζεσθαι δὴ ἔπειτα κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμὸν ὅππως κε μνηστῆρας ἐνὶ μεγάροισι τεοῖσι κτείνῃς ἠὲ δόλῳ ἢ ἀμφαδόν· οὐδέ τί σε χρὴ νηπιάας ὀχέειν, ἐπεὶ οὐκέτι τηλίκος ἐσσι. ἢ οὐκ ἀίεις οἷον κλέος ἔλλαβε δῖος Ὀρέστης πάντας ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπους, ἐπεὶ ἔκτανε πατροφονῆα, Αἴγισθον δολόμητιν, ὅ οἱ πατέρα κλυτὸν ἔκτα;

Odysseia ·Kitap 1 ·281-300