anew from the hollow rock, go forth, and fly in troops over the vernal[1] flowers, and some have flitted in bodies here, and some there; thus of these [Greeks] many nations from the ships and tents kept marching in troops in front of the steep shore to the assembly. And in the midst of them blazed Rumor, messenger of Jove, urging them to proceed; and they kept collecting together. The assembly was tumultuous, and the earth groaned beneath, as the people seated themselves, and there was a clamor; but nine heralds vociferating restrained them, if by any means they would cease from clamor, and hear the Jove-nurtured princes. With difficulty at length the people sat down, and were kept to their respective[2] seats, having desisted from their clamor, when king Agamemnon arose, holding the scepter, which Vulcan had laboriously wrought. Vulcan in the first place gave it to king Jove, the son of Saturn, and Jove in turn gave it to his messenger, the slayer of Argus.[3] But king Mercury gave it to steed-taming Pelops, and Pelops again gave it to Atreus, shepherd of the people. But Atreus, dying, left it to Thyestes, rich in flocks; but Thyestes again left it to Agamemnon to be borne, that he might rule over many islands,[4] and all Argos.[5] Leaning upon this, he spoke words among the Greeks:
"O friends, Grecian heroes, servants of Mars, Jove, the son of Saturn, has entangled me in a heavy misfortune. Cruel, who before indeed promised to me, and vouchsafed by his nod, that I should return home, having destroyed well-fortified Ilium. But now he has devised an evil deception, and commands me to return to Argos, inglorious,
- ↑ i. e., over the flowers in the spring-time, when bees first appear. See Virg. 1. c. Eurp. Hipp. 77, μέλισσα λειμῶν' ἠρινὸν διέρχεται—Nicias, Anthol. i. 31, ἔαρ ϕαίνουσα μέλισσα— Longus, i. 4.
- ↑ Observe the distributive use of {polytonic|κατά}}. Cf. Od. iii. 7.
- ↑ Mercury. Cf. Ovid. Met. i. 624, sqq.
- ↑ On the extended power of Agamemnon, see Thucyd. i. 9.
- ↑ On this scepter, the type of the wealth and influence of the house of the Atrides, see Grote, vol. i, p. 212.
to Stadelmann and Kühner, who are followed by Anthon. I have restored the old interpretation, which is much less far-fetched, and is placed beyond doubt by Virgil's imitations—"per florea rura," Æn. i. 430; "floribus insidunt variis." ÆEn. vi. 708. "Among fresh dews and flowers, Fly to and fro."—Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 771.
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