Bibliotheca Polyglotta

‘ὢ πόποι, οἷον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται:
ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ᾽ ἔμμεναι, οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ
σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε᾽ ἔχουσιν,
35 ὡς καὶ νῦν Αἴγισθος ὑπὲρ μόρον Ἀτρεΐδαο
γῆμ᾽ ἄλοχον μνηστήν, τὸν δ᾽ ἔκτανε νοστήσαντα,

Heu amici qualiter iam deos immortalis inculpant.
A nobis effantur mala esse · sed et ipsi
Ipsorum stultitiis praeter fatum angustas habent
Sicuti et nunc egistos praeter fatum atridao ·
Nupsit uxor procax° (=procacem) hunc autem interfecit reuersum

Ha! how dare mortals tax the Gods, and say,
Their harms do all proceed from our decree,
And by our setting; when by their crimes they
[306] 40  Against our wills make their own destiny?
As now Ægistus did Atrides kill
Newly come home, and married his wife;

“Look you now, how ready mortals are to blame the gods.
It is from us, they say, that evils come, but they even of themselves,
through their own blind folly, have sorrows beyond that which is ordained.
[35] Even as now Aegisthus, beyond that which was ordained,
took to himself the wedded wife of the son of Atreus, and slew him on his return,

εἰδὼς αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον, ἐπεὶ πρό οἱ εἴπομεν ἡμεῖς,
Ἑρμείαν πέμψαντες, ἐύσκοπον ἀργεϊφόντην,
μήτ᾽ αὐτὸν κτείνειν μήτε μνάασθαι ἄκοιτιν:
40 ἐκ γὰρ Ὀρέσταο τίσις ἔσσεται Ἀτρεΐδαο,
ὁππότ᾽ ἂν ἡβήσῃ τε καὶ ἧς ἱμείρεται αἴης.

Sciens grauem perniciem ex quo ante sibi diximus nos ·
Mercurium mittentes exploratorem argifontem
Nec ipsum interficere nec procari uxori
2 Ab quidem oreste uindicta erit atridao ·
Quando adoleverit et propriam desideravit terram ·

Although he knew it was against my will,
And that it would cost him one day his life.
45  Sent we not Hermes to him to forbid
The murder, and the marriage of the wife;
And tell him if the contrary he did
Orestes should revenge it on his life?

though well he knew of sheer destruction, seeing that we spake to him before,
sending Hermes, the keen-sighted Argeiphontes,
that he should neither slay the man nor woo his wife;
[40] for from Orestes shall come vengeance for the son of Atreus
when once he has come to manhood and longs for his own land.

ὣς ἔφαθ᾽ Ἑρμείας, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ φρένας Αἰγίσθοιο
πεῖθ᾽ ἀγαθὰ φρονέων: νῦν δ᾽ ἁθρόα πάντ᾽ ἀπέτισεν.’

Sic factus est mercurius · sed non sensus egisti ·
Flexit bona sentiens · nunc autem simul omnia reddedit ·

All this said Hermes, as we bade him. But
50  Ægistus, for all this, was not afraid
His lust in execution to put.
And therefore now has dearly for it paid.

So Hermes spoke, but for all his good intent he prevailed not upon the heart of Aegisthus;
and now he has paid the full price of all.”

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