that Aegisthus brought Clytaemnestra to his house—‘a willing lover and a willing lady.’ In another passage[56] we hear of the famous scout whom Aegisthus placed in a tower, to watch for the homecoming of Agamemnon. This scout had been watching for the space of a year[57] when Agamemnon arrived. Immediately upon his arrival, he accepted an invitation to a feast in the house of Aegisthus, who had prepared an ambush to destroy him in the event of his refusal.[58] After the feast he was slain ‘as one slayeth an ox at the stall’; but not without a struggle. ‘None of the “companions” of the son of Atreus who attended him survived, nor any of the “companions” of Aegisthus, but they were slain in the house.’[59] We have pointed out that Clytaemnestra was living in this house with her paramour. The reference to the time of the deed—‘after the feast’—and to the manner of the slaying—‘as one slayeth an ox’—suggests the use of the axe and the fatal bath of Agamemnon which has been made so familiar by the Attic tragedians. We are definitely informed[60] that Clytaemnestra was an active agent in the terrible bloodshed which took place. The ghost of Agamemnon speaking to Odysseus in Hades says: ‘Aegisthus contrived my death and doom and slew me, aided by my accursed wife ... most pitiful of all I heard was the voice of Cassandra, daughter of Priam, whom, close to me, the guileful Clytaemnestra slew. As I was dying I strove to raise my hands to avert (or grasp)[61] the sword, but let them fall to the ground again, and that shameless woman turned her back, nor could she bring herself, even when I was going to the house of Hades, to close my eyes or my mouth with her hands! Surely there is nought more horrible and shameless than a woman since she planned a foul deed, and wrought the death of her wedded lord.’ Aeschylus, then, as we think, has kept very closely to the Homeric narrative, when, in the _Agamemnon_, he makes Clytaemnestra the actual slayer of her husband, and represents Aegisthus as concerning himself only with an ambush and a battle against the retainers of Agamemnon. In Homer, Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra were equally guilty. Orestes, therefore, slays them both, and gains renown among all men.[62] In the clan-system, Aegisthus, a first cousin of Agamemnon, would not have been slain, if he had gone into exile, nor would wergeld have been payable, as he was akin to the victim. Clytaemnestra’s kindred might have compensated the crime by a wergeld paid to the kindred of Agamemnon. How strange it seems that the children of Aegisthus would have received a share! In historical Athens, Aegisthus would most probably have been put to death without the option of exile, since he was a kin-slayer, while Clytaemnestra could have gone into exile on the second day of the trial.[63] To the minds of post-Homeric legend-makers it would have been necessary for Orestes,[64] if he wished to be unimpeachably correct, to obtain