Yet on each shrine I set the sacrifice,
And, in the strain they held for feminine,
Went heralds thro' the city, to and fro,
With voice of loud proclaim, announcing joy;
And in each fane they lit and quenched with wine
The spicy perfumes fading in the flame.
All is fulfilled: I spare your longer tale—
The king himself anon shall tell me all.
Remains to think what honour best may greet
My lord, the majesty of Argos, home.
What day beams fairer on a woman's eyes
Than this, whereon she flings the portal wide,
To hail her lord, heaven-shielded, home from war?
This to my husband, that he tarry not,
But turn the city's longing into joy!
Yea, let him come, and coming may he find
A wife no other than he left her, true
And faithful as a watch-dog to his home,
His foemen's foe, in all her duties leal,
Trusty to keep for ten long years unmarred
The store whereon he set his master-seal.
Be steel deep-dyed, before ye look to see
Ill joy, ill fame, from other wight, in me![1]
- ↑ This expression, intentionally obscure in the original, requires explanation for its full force to be seen. It is, literally, "I know not pleasure, nor scandalous report, from another man, more than (I know) the dipping of bronze." This most naturally seems to imply, not a known process, such as dipping metal to temper or harden it (cf. Othello, Act v., Sc. 2: "It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper"), but some unknown or very difficult thing perhaps the dyeing of metal throughout Such, at least, is the meaning to the Herald, and through him, to Agamemnon. Meantime, as elsewhere in her speech, there is a "double entendre," ominous to the chorus, who seem vaguely to know of her unfaithfulness, and to the Athenian audience, acquainted with the whole story, of thrilling effectiveness. "I know no more of evil report with any other man, than I know of imbruing the steel." Before long she will stand forth with the
