_Aegisthus_ salutes the happy day of vengeance which shows him Agamemnon paying penalty for the deeds of his father: he relates the quarrel between this father Atreus and his own father Thyestes, how when the one brother came as suppliant to the other Atreus spread before him the horrid banquet of his own child's flesh, at the knowledge of which he died. Aegisthus himself had suffered banishment at the hands of Atreus while yet a child, and now has returned full grown to work vengeance on the son of his wronger, to see the long contrived nemesis brought to full conclusion.--_Chorus_ note that he confesses the deed, and he shall not escape the righteous curse a people hurls with stones.--_Aeg._ Know your place: you are oarsmen, we command the ship; prison and fasting are admirable devices for helping old people to keep their tempers within bounds. Defiances are interchanged: the _Chorus_ taunting him that he had to get a woman to do the deed he dared not do himself,--_Aeg._ contemptuously says the working out of the fraud was the proper province of a woman, especially as he was a known foe.--The Chorus threaten vengeance and suggest the name ORESTES as avenger: At this Clytaemnestra starts, _Aegisthus_ enraged gives the signal at which {1626} _Bodyguard of Aegisthus pour in through both the Inferior doors on either side of the Central door of the Palace, and fill the stage [thus producing one of the Scenic Tableaux of which Aeschylus was fond]. The Chorus, though of course outnumbered, are nothing daunted, as representing the legitimate authority of the State now Agamemnon is dead, and therefore sure to be backed by the City; they make as if to ascend the stage._ Contest in blows between Chorus and Bodyguard of Aegisthus appears inevitable, but Clytaemnestra throws herself between them, urges that enough ill has already been done, and after further defiances, forces Aegisthus away and play abruptly terminates: _the Chorus returning to the Right into the City, and the Bodyguard into the Palace_. [1] This is a mere guess: we have no information as to how the evolutions of a Proem differed from those of a regular Choral Ode. [2] The Chorus generally speak of themselves in the Singular. [3] This is simply an English pun substituted for a Greek one: the name Helen resembles a Greek root which signifies captivity. SECOND PLAY: MIDDAY: THE SEPULCHRAL RITES (_CHOEPHORI_) PROLOGUE _The Permanent Scene, as before, represents the Palace of Agamemnon at Argos. The only difference is that the place of the Thymele in the centre of the Orchestra is taken up by Agamemnon's Sepulchre. Enter by the Left Side-door (signifying distance) Orestes and Pylades, and descending the Orchestra-staircase advance to the Sepulchre._ _Orestes_, invoking the Conductor of the Dead, lays locks of hair and fragments of garments as offerings on his Father's tomb, cut off as he had been by exile from being present at the actual Funeral-rites: