Page 50 - the-odyssey

away from Achaean Argos, voyaging elsewhither among
mankind, that Aegisthus took heart and killed Agamem-
non?’
‘I will tell you truly,’ answered Nestor, ‘and indeed you
have yourself divined how it all happened. If Menelaus
when he got back from Troy had found Aegisthus still alive
in his house, there would have been no barrow heaped up
for him, not even when he was dead, but he would have
been thrown outside the city to dogs and vultures, and not
a woman would have mourned him, for he had done a deed
of great wickedness; but we were over there, fighting hard
at Troy, and Aegisthus, who was taking his ease quietly in
the heart of Argos, cajoled Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnes-
tra with incessant flattery.
‘At first she would have nothing to do with his wick-
ed scheme, for she was of a good natural disposition; {30}
moreover there was a bard with her, to whom Agamemnon
had given strict orders on setting out for Troy, that he was to
keep guard over his wife; but when heaven had counselled
her destruction, Aegisthus carried this bard off to a desert
island and left him there for crows and seagulls to batten
upon—after which she went willingly enough to the house
of Aegisthus. Then he offered many burnt sacrifices to the
gods, and decorated many temples with tapestries and gild-
ing, for he had succeeded far beyond his expectations.
‘Meanwhile Menelaus and I were on our way home from
Troy, on good terms with one another. When we got to Su-
nium, which is the point of Athens, Apollo with his painless
shafts killed Phrontis the steersman of Menelaus’ ship (and