TRAGOEDIA ORESTIS

Introductory article, translation from ancient Greek and comments by V. N. Yarkho

The ancient world on the threshold of the Middle Ages "The Tragedy of Orestes" Dracontia

The work of the Late Latin poet Dracontius 1 (the second half of the fifth century) is not widely known here, although his legacy is of interest to both antiquarians and Medievalists. The fact is that the poetic heritage of Dracontius combines two trends. From him came, on the one hand, a large poem in three books, Die laudibus Dei, written entirely in the Christian spirit; 2 on the other , a whole series of works in which the pagan myths of Hercules and Hyla, Medea and Orestes, Helen and Achilles (with the same epic hexameter) are set forth. in terms of volume, they are, taken together, not inferior to "Praise the Lord").

Both these and other works of Dracontius were known, albeit to a relatively narrow circle (this is indicated by a small number of extant medieval manuscripts).

1 The author's name Dracontius is usually referred to as Dracontii. This is hardly true, since the combination of ti at the turn of the fifth and sixth centuries has long sounded like [tsi], and the Russian transliteration of names ending in-ntius through constantius is quite reasonable: Constantius, Prudentius, Fulgentius. Why should we make an exception for Draconius?

2 However, in this poem, along with examples of loyalty to God borrowed from the Old and New Testaments (III. 76-250), examples of selflessness shown by the heroes of mythology and ancient history: Codrus, Leonidas, Regulus and others (261-438) are given.

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readers, at least up to the turn of the XV-XVI centuries: a section on the creation of the world from the book. 1 "Praises to the Lord" was highly appreciated by such ecclesiastical authorities as Bishop Isidore of Seville (560-636), and a little later it was published in the middle of the same VII century on behalf of the Visigoth King Hindaswint by the Spanish bishop and poet Eugene of Toledo. 3 Several manuscripts of the ninth century date back to this edition, and excerpts from other books were included in two florilegies of the ninth and tenth centuries, thus two or three centuries ahead of the most ancient manuscript containing all three books of Praise to the Lord, compiled in the twelfth century.

As for poems with mythological content, the earliest manuscript of the Tragedy of Orestes (though without the author's name) belongs to the IX century. Individual verses from this poem are found in four manuscript florilegies of the 13th and 14th centuries, which go back to the prototype written in the 11th or 12th centuries. In 1329, the so-called Florilegium of Verona was compiled, which quotes verses from the poems of Dracontius "The Abduction of Helen" and "Reflections of Achilles", and in 1494 all the "secular poems", except "Orestes", made a handwritten book, the model for which was, according to researchers, the manuscript either VI1-VIII. whether IX century. Another manuscript of the Tragedies of Orestes also belongs to the second half of the 15th century (see the introduction to the translation for more details).

Then fate dealt with two parts of Dracontius 'legacy in different ways:" Praise the Lord " (although only the First book in the abridged form in which Isidore and Eugene knew it), was published several times in the XVII and XVIII centuries, and in the XX century quite often in its entirety, after in 1791. its full text was opened and published. On the contrary, the "secular" writings of Dracontius were forgotten until the beginning of the nineteenth century, which does not detract from his importance as one of the last pagan poets. Meanwhile, in the academic "History of Roman Literature" Draconius is given hardly a full page 4 . A more detailed description of it is contained in M. L. Gasparov's introductory note to translations from Dracontius in " Monuments of Medieval Latin Literature of the IV-IX centuries "(Moscow, 1970), but even there "The Tragedy of Orestes" is only mentioned, which, however, is quite understandable, since it is not among the translated works of Dracontius 5 . In the first case, the lack of interest in the "Tragedy of Orestes" can also probably be explained: after the events in the house of Agamemnon became the subject of depictions in Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides and Seneca, can we expect any artistic discoveries from a non-primary late author?

Who was this man really, whose position on the edge of two epochs and at the junction of two cultures just makes his work interesting for researchers of both antiquity and the Middle Ages?

His full name, Blossius Aemilius Dracontius, is preserved only in a single manuscript containing his secular writings, in the form of a postscript at the end of the rhetorical "Counter-version of the statue of the brave man" 6. Here we read: exp (licit) controversia statuae viri fortis, quam dixit in Gargilianis themnis Bloss(i) us (A) emilius Dracon(t) ius, vir clarissimus et togatus tori procunsulis almae Karthaginis, apud proconsulem Pacideum. From this it follows that Dracontius came from Carthage and belonged to a noble family (vir clarissimus). Before him, it is represented in the Roman prosopography by two other significant persons: Domitius Dracontius, who held the position of magister privatae rei Africae in 320/321, and Antony Dracontius, vicar of Africa in 364 and 367. The latter is mentioned together with the proconsul Julius Festus Hymetius in an inscription from Furnos Mimus 7, a bishop's residence located about 40 km west of Carthage and 50 km south of Thuburbo Minus. Excavations have uncovered Christian burial sites in Fournais with mosaics and inscriptions, one of which contains the name Blossius; the other is an epitaph

3 It is interesting that in Spain, in Leon, a tombstone was found with a quote from the " Praise of the Lord "(I. 611). It's about Christ: "Who washed away our transgressions with a flood of his own blood."

4 Istoriya rimskoi literatury [History of Roman Literature], vol. II, Moscow, 1962, pp. 394-395.

5 The great passage "Creation of the World" from "Praise to the Lord" and "Epithalamium to John and Vitula"are translated here.

6 See translation of the Counterversion in the collection "Late Latin Poetry", Moscow, 1982.

7 See Dracontius. Oeuvres. Т. I. Louanges de Dieu. Livres I et II. P., 1985. P. 9-10.

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A certain Blossius Trebonius Eucarpus, "a noble man." So the name "Blossius" may also indicate a connection between our Dracontius and the local senatorial nobility.

It follows further from the same final postscript that Dracontius held some legal office under the proconsul (togatus fori procunsulis). Whether he was the so-called curator and defender of the accused, as can be inferred from his own words, 9 or performed any other tasks of the proconsul, it is not known exactly, but in any case, this required a good rhetorical training, which later had an exceptional influence on the work of Dracontius.

Carthage was famous for its traditions in the field of education even during the Late Empire. From here came Marcian Capella, the author of the famous "Betrothal of Mercury and Philology" in the Middle Ages. About half a century later, in 447, the local physician Cassius Felix wrote a treatise "On medicine", actively using Greek sources, mainly Galen. This date takes us back to Carthage, which was captured in 439 by the vandals, who, having preserved the Roman state institutions in West Africa, seem to have realized the importance of rhetorical education for their maintenance. In the last quarter of the fifth century, several rhetorical schools existed in Carthage; his mentor, the grammarian Felicianus, who is no longer known, but seems to have occupied a fairly prominent position in the city , 10 Dracontius will eventually call the man who "restored the exiled sciences to the African city". Therefore, some modern researchers even talk about the "Carthaginian Renaissance", while others prefer a more cautious definition - " continuation of the past "("survival").

In any case, Dracontius ' rhetorical training, combined with his poetic talent, seems to have enabled him to make public recitations of his own works, and we learn from the same postscript to his Counter - Version that he read it in the Gargilian Baths in the presence of the Proconsul Pacidaeus. This was probably the time of Dracontius ' greatest success in the social and poetic fields.

Further events in the life of our poet are reported in his works by Dracontius himself. Apparently, at the height of his career, he had the temerity to incur the wrath of the Vandal King Guthamund (484-96) by dedicating an extant panegyric to a certain nobleman for whom Guthamund had no respect. As for who this person was, researchers disagree. It is known that he was a foreigner, 12 which is why some suspect him of being the Byzantine Emperor Zeno, to which others object that under the existing relations between the Vandal kingdom and Byzantium, Dracontius, who wrote such a panegyric, would hardly have survived. Therefore, others suggest as its addressee the Visigothic King Theodoric, and the reason for the message is considered to be his victories over the German prince Odoacer in 489-490. Meanwhile, Gutamund

8 By seizing the eastern half of Numidia in 439, the Vandals retained the Roman judicial system and the office of proconsul, who was still responsible for legal proceedings.

9 L. D. III. 630 sq.: "... I am accustomed to forgive the guilty, / / and if they ask me, having understood, I grant forgiveness"; 654-657: "I am the one who once defended the right, wearing a toga, / / drove death away from the guilty; criminally deprived of wealth / / my means gave speech, having taken away by court from those who possess; / / it has condemned some to slavery, and granted freedom to others."

10 Dracontius refers to him in the "prefaces" to two of his early works, which are part of the so-called Romulea cycle (we will discuss this collection in more detail below). In the first, the poet praises his mentor on a par with Orpheus for restoring to the African capital the fine literature that had previously been expelled from there (Rom. I. 13); in the second, he notes with deep gratitude that Felician awakened a poetic vocation in him (Rom. III.15-20). There is a difficult question connected with Felicianus ' training, which is directly related to the sources that Dracontius may have used: did he acquire from this time a knowledge of Greek that would allow him to read Homer, the tragedians, and the Septuagint in the original texts? Researchers answer this question in different ways. Some are quite sure that Dracontius knew Greek, others just as strongly reject this, but the arguments of the former seem to be more solid.

11 Rom. I. 13 ("sciences" - litteras, i.e. it is literature).

12 Satisf. 93-94: "It was my fault that I did not praise the just masters, / / but I decided to sing praises to the stranger as a master."

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He was also at enmity with Theodoric, and the praise of his rival could not give him any pleasure. In addition, the poet's politically reckless act was accompanied by some kind of denunciation, perhaps from a person close enough to him .13 In any case, Dracontius ended up in prison, losing all his property along with his social position. 14

It was in prison that he composed (in whole or in large part) his greatest work - the already repeatedly mentioned "Praise the Lord", as well as a small "Justification" ("Satisfactio"), addressed to Gutamund, but which had no effect. It should be noted that, apart from the short poem "On the Origin of the Roses," this was the only work of Dracontius written in elegiac distiches, probably influenced by the last cycles of Ovid, with whose position during the years of his exile he could relate his own.

The emancipation and return of the Dragon's possessions 15 brought only the accession in 496. Trasamund, to whom he dedicated another eulogy, also not extant. Nothing is known about the further life of Dracontius.

In an introductory article to one of the works of Dracontius, it is hardly necessary to give a description of his entire work, which is not supported by the translation of other texts. Therefore, we will confine ourselves here to a brief reference about his surviving works.

Along with" Praise the Lord "and the autobiographical" Justification " of Draconius, as already mentioned, there are also poems of mythological and secular content. Ten of them are combined in a collection called "Romulea", given to him, perhaps, by the author himself, the eleventh - "The Tragedy of Orestes". Scientists again argue about what is meant by the title "Romulea", but most likely the poet meant by this that in the poems included in the collection he follows the Roman poetic and rhetorical tradition. In any case, this intention is fully consistent with the poems written "in case": N V - the already mentioned "Counterversion on the statue of a brave man" and N VI-VI1-two epithalamies. The first, as is clear from the quotation in note 14, was written after the liberation of Dracontium. the second one was written in prison. Secular poems also include N I and III -two prefaces dedicated to Felician.

The second half of the collection consists of poems of mythological content: N II-the epillium "Gil" and N IV - the so-called etopea on the theme of what Hercules said when he saw how the Lerna Hydra instead of severed heads grow new ones. These two poems, together with the previous dedications to Felician, are almost unanimously attributed by researchers to the early period of Dracontius ' work. The question of another poem with a mythological content in a rhetorical design remains unclear - "Achilles' Reflections on whether he should give Hector's body for ransom "(N IX). Written in the genre of swazoria, this poem most likely belongs to the early rhetorical experiments of Dracontius, although some researchers admit that in the era of universal interest in oratorical recitations, Dracontius could have composed such a work (exceeding the volume of N 1 and IV combined) and at a later time.

13 Rom. VII. 127-131: "My sin is not so great, though the king was not angry in vain; / / A wicked - hearted man has defamed me with a wicked speech, / / he has made me vile, and has trebled my guilt viciously. // He who should have asked for my indulgence, / / a royal man is not a sinner, but a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, he has stirred up anger, he has made the master ferocious."

14 L. D. III. 600: "I was declared an enemy and lost most of my goods"; 605: "Crowds of slaves run away, clients despise me, / / and no one mourned for my destruction or fall."

15 Dracontius gratefully recalls this in his epithalamium on the marriage of two brothers to two sisters (Rom. VI. 36-44). As you can see, the groom's family provided some help in freeing the poet: "This house serves as a shield and shows its mercy to me: / / how many troubles I have experienced, how many times my life is threatened, - they have graciously covered me with their hand and salvation // they gave it to me, who suffered (this is especially important); / / also, all the property was returned by their good will. // Every learned poet, wise in his art, / / now already here and wants to glorify them in a wedding song, - should I linger with praises, those who do not sing according to their merits, / / who so caressed me?...".

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Unfortunately, there is no documentary data on the time of writing of the largest poems included in the collection: "The Abduction of Helen "(N VIII) and " Medea "(N X). In terms of content and style, they are very close to the "Tragedy of Orestes" and at the same time differ from the works of the early period in terms of artistic level. Apparently, all three can be attributed to the time of Dracontius ' creative maturity - the only question is when he reached it: by the beginning of the 80s? during his imprisonment, i.e. between 484 and 496? after his release? These questions are easier to ask than to answer. In any case, it is clear that all three of Dracontius 'mythological poems were written by a man who professed the Christian religion but was well versed in the ancient poetic tradition - a case that was not uncommon at that time (it is enough to recall Bishop Nonnus of Panopolis, the author of a huge poem about Dionysus' campaign in India), but rather indicative of the turn of two epochs.

Thus, we have probably come to the most significant and, in any case, the most voluminous work of Dracontius on the mythological theme - the "Tragedy of Orestes", which is the subject of this publication. Since this poem presents a rather peculiar version of the myth, it is necessary first of all to reproduce its main lines, as it developed in Greek literature by the end of the fifth century BC.

The starting point was the murder of Pelops ' sons Atreus and Fiestes (in late Latin pronunciation: Tiestes) their half-brother Chrysippus, for which they were both cursed, exiled by their father, and taken refuge in Mycenae. Here a dispute broke out between the brothers for the right to the vacant royal throne, and Fiestes hoped to win it by seducing Atreus ' wife Aerope and stealing with her help from the flock of his brother's golden-fleeced sheep, the possession of which gave the right to the Mycenaean kingdom. However, Zeus sided with Atreus, the deception of Fiesta was discovered, and Atreus took revenge on his brother in a terrible way: inviting him along with his young sons to a feast, he ordered the children to be slaughtered and served to their father as a treat. Recognizing the deception, Fiestes cursed his brother-this was the second curse that weighed on Atreus. To raise an avenger. Fiestes, on the advice of Apollo, took possession of his own daughter Pelopia, without being recognized by her. The boy born from this incestuous union was thrown into the domain of Atreus and fed by the goat that found him. The found child was adopted by Atreus and given the name Aegisthus (from the Greek word "goat", the root aiy-; in the late Latin pronunciation: Aegisthus). When all the details of the case eventually became clear, Aegisthus killed Atreus, and the Mycenaean throne was taken over by Fiestes, after which it went to Atreus ' son Agamemnon. After marrying Clytemestra, Agamemnon had three children with her: daughters Iphigenia, Electra, and a son, Orestes. The latter was still an infant when the Trojan War broke out and Agamemnon was chosen as the supreme leader of the Greek army.

While the Greeks were preparing for the campaign, gathering at Aulis on the coast of Boeotia, Agamemnon killed a deer on the hunt and boasted that Artemis (Roman Diana) herself could envy such a well-aimed shot. The offended goddess sent contrary winds to the fleet, which prevented it from leaving Troy, demanded Iphigenia as a sacrifice, and Agamemnon had to agree to the sacrifice of his daughter.

Meanwhile, Aegisthus, taking advantage of the absence of his spouse, seduced Clytemestra, which did not remain a secret to the inhabitants of Mycenae. When Agamemnon returned home at the end of the ten years ' war, he was killed - either by Aegisthus alone, or with the help of Clytemestra. Clytemestra herself often appears as the husband's murderer; in any case, she is assigned the first role in the murder of the prophetess Cassandra, the daughter of the Trojan king Priam, who was inherited by Agamemnon during the division of the spoils.

Orestes was not present, for either he had been sent in advance by Clytemestra to her husband's sister, who had been married to King Strofius of Phocis, or he had been rescued by Electra and, with the help of an old tutor, taken refuge there. After seven years of Aegisthus ' tyrannical rule, Orestes received orders in the temple of Apollo at Delphi to take revenge on his father's murderers by the same measure, which made it necessary for him to raise his hand against his own mother (the murder of the usurper Aegisthus did not count as a matter of course). However, having fulfilled his duty, Orestes was persecuted by the Erinii, who avenged the shedding of kindred blood.

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in the temple of Apollo, he was able to receive only ritual purification, but for the solution of the question of whether he had the right to kill, avenge his father, his own mother, he was sent to Athens, where, as a result of consideration in the court of the Areopagus, he was acquitted. However, the Erinii did not abandon their victim, and on the orders of the same Apollo, Orestes, accompanied by his cousin Pylades, with whom he grew up at Strofius, went to Tauris to steal an ancient statue of Artemis from the temple there and bring it to Greece. The task was not an easy one, since in Tauris all the foreigners who got there were sacrificed to the goddess, and they were dedicated to the death of her priestess, who was none other than Iphigenia, who was torn from the sacrificial knife by the goddess herself. Recognizing the newly captured stranger as her brother, she helped him steal the idol of Artemis and fled with him.

There was also another myth associated with the name of Orestes, which has only a distant relation to the previous one. Orestes was betrothed at an early age to Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, whom, however, his father promised to marry Pyrrhus, the son of the deceased Achilles, during the Trojan War. On his return to Sparta, Menelaus married Hermione to Pyrrhus, which naturally aroused Orestes ' indignation, and he arranged the murder of a rival in the same Delphic temple of Apollo, after which he married Hermione. Meanwhile, Pyrrhus already had a son named Molossus by the Trojan captive Andromache, the widow of Hector. When Hermione fled with Orestes, Andromache was married to the surviving Priam's other son, Helenus, and Molossus eventually took possession of his kingdom in Epirus. It goes without saying that different authors throughout the VIII - V centuries BC highlighted some elements of the myth, others were reinterpreted or completely omitted, and others were re-introduced.

Thus, in the Iliad, the transfer of power from Atreus to Fiestes, and from him to Agamemnon, is depicted as a completely peaceful act (II. 102-108), among the daughters of Agamemnon neither Electra nor Iphigenia are named (IX. 144 cf.), and the sacrifice of the latter can only be found in a hidden hint in one verse (I. 106). The author of the Odyssey knows about the murder of Agamemnon, with Aegisthus playing the main role, and Clytemestra is certainly accused as a traitor and criminal wife who did not prevent the execution of her husband (IV. 524-537; XI. 424-434). As for her murder, it is not explicitly mentioned, although the behavior of Orestes is regarded quite unambiguously as a just revenge (I. 29-43, 294-296), and no erinii interfere in this matter.

In Stesichorus ' sixth-century dilogy Oresteia (only minor passages have survived), the motif of Iphigenia's sacrifice was already used, and Clytemestra became the murderer of her husband, who many years later had a terrible dream that foreshadowed revenge on the part of Orestes. The latter received a bow from Apollo to defend himself from Erinia. Pindar, in the eleventh Pythian Ode (474), also called Clytemestra the murderer of Agamemnon and Cassandra, and wondered whether it was revenge for Iphigenia that prompted her to do so, or a criminal love affair and gossip among the citizens (17-29). These are the questions. however, they remained unanswered.

In Aeschylus ' Oresteia trilogy (458), the family curse of the Pelopids appeared in a complex interweaving as a kind of objective reality and subjective arguments that prompted Agamemnon to sacrifice Iphigenia, and Clytemestra to decide to kill her husband. Accordingly, she was the instigator and executor of the murder of her husband, and for Orestes, the need to take revenge for his father and kill his own mother became a serious moral problem. Only the acquittal of Orestes by the Areopagus court, presided over by Athena, signaled the state's victory over the archaic exterminatory law of blood feud .16

Sophocles and Euripides (each of them had a tragedy called Electra) We focused on the experiences of Agamemnon's children. Sophocles interpreted Orestes ' behavior as fulfilling the unquestionable will of such an immutable authority as the Delphic oracle of Apollo. As for Electra, like Aeschylus, she lives in a palace, experiences humiliating harassment from her mother and her lover, and dreams

16 See Yarkho V. for more information. Aeschylus, Moscow, 1958, pp. 138-184. Drama of Aeschylus and some problems of ancient Greek Tragedy, Moscow, 1978, pp. 97-141.

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He also announces the return of Orestes, to whom he provides all possible assistance in the implementation of his plan 17 .

Otherwise - in Euripides ' Electra, where a completely new version is proposed. To protect himself from a possible avenger - the heir of Agamemnon, Aegisthus gave the girl to a simple farmer, who, however, did not claim her marital rights. Here, in a squalid hut, Orestes finds his sister, here they bring the corpse of Aegisthus, who was killed by him during the sacrifice, and here they lure the unsuspecting Clytemestra, whom Orestes kills with a sword blow, but after that he experiences terrible mental torments. And Castor, who appears as the "god from the machine", admits that the manslayer deserved punishment, but it was not his own son who had to do it with his own hand. In this tragedy, the behavior of Orestes again became a moral problem that could not be solved unambiguously, and Euripides himself proved this in the tragedy "Orestes" (408): starting with the image of Orestes ' mental torment, the drama ends with a tragic farce in which Orestes, in search of salvation from the death sentence of his fellow citizens, tries to kill his sister Elena who came to visit the grave and her daughter Hermione, until the arrival of Apollo puts an end to this nonsense. At his command, Orestes must take Hermione as his wife, and no one cares what feelings a bride feels who has just escaped death by the sword of her fiance.

We also owe to Euripides the creation of the myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia and her subsequent fate. The first theme was the tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis (405), where Agamemnon's letter demanding Iphigenia's arrival in Aulis under the pretext of her betrothal to Achilles played a significant role. The second theme was developed in the previously written tragedy "Iphigenia in Tauris" (c. 414). Here only a random combination of circumstances allowed Iphigenia to recognize a native brother in a foreigner doomed to slaughter, and a complex intrigue allowed the brother and sister to steal the idol of Artemis 18 . Finally, Euripides 'tragedy Andromache (c. 424) dealt with themes that will also interest us in connection with Dracontius' poem: the abduction of Hermione by Orestes and the death of Nooptolemus (Pyrrhus) at Delphi.

More details about the contact or divergence of Dracontius with the traditions of Greek tragedy will be discussed in the notes, although the question already raised above remains unresolved, whether he could have used directly Greek sources (see above, note 10). In this state of affairs, the Latin tradition that goes back to the same Greeks, but in any case quite accessible to Draconius, takes on special significance, traces of which are obvious in his "Tragedy".

Thus, Dracontius undoubtedly knew Seneca's tragedy Agamemnon, which basically reproduces the storyline of the eponymous tragedy of Aeschylus 19 . Seneca, however, gives a much more detailed account of the maturation of Clytemestra's decision, in which Agamemnon's revenge for his love affair with Cassandra plays a significant role. The dark prophecies of Cassandra herself are also reproduced close to the original Greek. The first blow to the king is dealt by Aegisthus, who is immediately joined by Clytemestra. As for Orestes, Electra manages to hand him a Stanza, who came to congratulate Agamemnon on his victory, but got to the tragic ending. Dracontius knew, as can be seen from lexical borrowings, other tragedies of Seneca, and not only those related to the theme of his poem ("Fiestes" and "Troyanki").

Some help in constructing the plot could be provided by all sorts of mythological reference books distributed in Greece from at least the third century BC and subsequently translated into Latin. A similar work, compiled in the second century A.D., has come down to us under the name of Hyginus, and in it, in the form of separate stories, the content of many dozens of myths was briefly described, including, of course, such a common one as the myth of Agamemnon and Orestes. Here Dracontius could find information about the " feast

17 See Yarkho V. N. Antique Drama, Moscow, 1990, pp. 29-47.

18 Ibid., pp. 48-64.

19 During the Republic period, the story of Agamemnon and Orestes was often treated in Roman tragedy (in Ennius and Actium), but it is not known whether their entire works were preserved by the time of Dracontius.

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Fiesta" and about Aegisthus picked up by shepherds, about the sacrifice of Iphigenia and her subsequent meeting with Orestes in Tauris, not to mention the murder of Agamemnon and the subsequent revenge of Orestes. As for the story of Pyrrhus ' murder, which Dracontius added to the main plot, Ovid's EIGHTH "Heroide" might have been of some help: a letter to Orestes from Hermione, who is languishing in captivity with her captor.

Let us now see how the content of the poem unfolds in Dracontius. The introduction (1-24), designed according to all the rules of rhetoric, not only testifies to the good preparation of Dracontius in this area (this can be said about almost every section of the poem), but also from the very beginning determines the contrast of the narrative, in which victory turns into bloodshed, triumph turns into a nightmare.

The verses that follow the introduction (25-44) set the reader up for peace: Agamemnon, returning from Troy, is concerned about what gifts he will bring to the gods and what gifts he will make to his wife and children. The terrible storm that struck the Greek fleet on the way back and caused the death of some and the scattering of others is only mentioned in passing (see v. 42 and note), and the surviving Agamemnon calmly orders the rest of the ships to sail the same way, promising to immediately follow them.

The area where Agamemnon's fleet landed turns out to be Tauris-Dracontius introduces a completely new motif, which has not been presented anywhere before: the meeting of the king with Iphigenia, which everyone believes to have died long ago on the sacrificial altar (44-107). However, the joy of the father is overshadowed by the angry refusal of Diana to return his newly found daughter to him-this can be considered one of the first omens that the gods have turned away from the successful commander.

It is only now (108-132) that the reader is transported to Mycenae and sees Clytemestra overcome with anxiety, tormented by conflicting feelings: fear of retribution and the hope that Agamemnon will not return, as the fleet arrived without him. Cassandra's monologue (133-152) sobers the queen. Unlike the earlier versions, where Cassandra predicts the death of Agamemnon in the absence of Clytemestra, in Dracontius she throws harsh words right in the face of the criminal wife, which, on the one hand, forces her to make a final decision, and on the other, gives people hope for the coming revenge for Agamemnon (cf. 512 cf., 653). As for Cassandra herself, we will hear nothing more about her fate throughout the entire poem.

Another innovation is the next big episode, in which Clytemestra convinces Aegisthus 20 to kill the king and draws up a plan of action (153-238). Of course, in other tragedies, Clytemestra explained her motives for committing the crime. "true, it was after the murder, or many years later; at Seneca's, she also argued with the Wet Nurse about the need for 'preventive action,' but there Aegisthus argued with his mistress. In Draconius, their roles are reversed.

The scene of Agamemnon's return and murder (239-270) needs no special comment; it is, on the whole, quite traditional, except that the actual execution of the king is depicted with a hideous naturalness in which our poet surpasses even Seneca.

After a brief reflection on the unreliability of human happiness (271-283), Dracontius finally deduces the character after which the poem is named: Electra manages to take Orestes to Athens and accompany him herself (284-304). Here, for the late author, everything is unusual: both the fact that Electra leaves her homeland with her brother; and the fact that she takes him away not at Strofius, but in Athens - the famous "school of wisdom" of all Hellas, which they became no earlier than the V-IV centuries BC. e. and remained almost until the end of the Roman Empire. For the time of Agamemnon, this glory of theirs is, of course, a complete anachronism. Leaving Orestes with Pylades, whose stay in Athens is also a new motive, Dracontius returns to Mycenae for a long time, starting again with an innovation: to please Aegisthus, Clytemestra advises him on how to attract the Mycenaean nobility to his side (305-337). While loyal servants

20 The reader will have to come to terms with the fact that later Greek proper names containing Q (theta) are transmitted in the form presented in the text of Dracontius and in the notes (i.e., Aegisthus, Tiestes).

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Agamemnon is secretly condemned for his murder (338-349), and Orestes ' old tutor Dorilaus brings false news of a storm that supposedly killed Agamemnon's children (350-381).

Clytemestra's subsequent "throne speech" (381-413) recalls her dialogue with the elders in Aeschylus ' Agamemnon (1400-1549). but much closer to everyday life: there is not a word about the ancestral curse of the Pelopids, about revenge for Iphigenia - the queen clearly wants to look not as an instrument of divine revenge, but as a deliverer of her subjects from the calamities of war. Dracontius, on the other hand, spares no effort to paint the tyrannical behavior of Aegisthus (413-426).

The long-standing general grief of Agamemnon's countrymen serves as a reason for Dorilaus to appeal to the spirit of the murdered master for help in avenging the criminals (427-499) - this is a fairly traditional motive, which cannot be said about the king's response from the grave (500-514).

However, Dorilaus achieves his goal: on the same night, the ghost of Agamemnon appears in Athens in a dream to Orestes and Pylades (515-551). The intervention of otherworldly forces in the fate of mortals is not in itself new in ancient literature, but Agamemnon was never assigned this role anywhere before Dracontius. Let us also note that the appeal of the deceased is also addressed to Pylades, who are not bound by any obligations to the deceased, and from this point on, Pylades take on a much more significant role in the implementation of revenge than in the entire previous tradition. The hesitation of Orestes caused by the appearance of the ghost, the decisive intervention of Pylades (552-627) - all this can be found foreshadowed in the Greek tragedy, with the only difference that in Dracontius, Pylades, calling for Orestes 'revenge, takes on the role of Euripides' Electra. However, the state of Orestes at the time of making such a responsible decision really needed a rather serious justification.

The two friends ' journey to Mycenae leads them to a completely unexpected encounter with Dorilaus (628-644). How he ended up among the back paths that our heroes chose remains a mystery, and many researchers consider this scene unnecessary. One can hardly agree with this. Admitting the artificiality of the meeting, it cannot be denied that Dorilaus ' words further strengthen the spirits of the young men, and by returning to Mycenae, he prepares a favorable environment for their appearance there (645-681).

Further innovations await us: the household recognizes Orestes, and a certain slave manages to warn Aegisthus and Clytemestra about the approach of the avenger (682-709), - before that he always appeared incognito; the massacre of Aegisthus is carried out by Pylades (710-728) 21, - until Dracontius this remained the prerogative of Orestes. In the dialogue between the son and his mother (729-794), the discussion about where she should take her last breath is somewhat unexpected; her behavior at the moment of death is also unusual. From the verses that conclude this part of the poem (795-802), it is clear that Orestes is not in danger of being judged by his fellow citizens.

Here a new motive intervenes in the development of the action, which is not necessary in order to represent the further fate of Orestes: the dispute for Hermione and the murder of Pyrrhus (803-819), which will later lead to the fact that Orestes ' accuser before the court of the Areopagus will be Molossus, who has nothing to do with Orestes in all the previous tradition. However, the court of the Areopagus is still a matter of the future, but for now the author returns the reader to the fate of Orestes: the ghost of his mother appears and drives him to madness (820-861). It is not difficult to understand that Dracontius entrusts Clytemestra with the role played in the Greek tragedy by the Erinii, who persecuted Orestes both before and after the trial - it was precisely to save him from them that Apollo sent Orestes to Tauris. At Dracontius, Pylades sends Orestes to distant lands, and the reason is just the appearance of Molossus, demanding Orestes to answer (862-866).

Then the patter begins: the stay of the half-mad Orestes in Tauris, his recognition by Iphigenia, purification and flight with her take only 20 verses, and it remains unclear why Iphigenia is abducted by the idol of Diana (867-889). The speeches of the parties before the court of Athenian elders, both constructed according to the rules of rhetoric, emphasize

21 This role will be assigned to him one and a half thousand years later by G. Hauptmann in the tragedy "Elektra" - but hardly under the influence of Dracontius.

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various points: Molossus evaluates the act of Orestes from the point of view of human right, Orestes especially insists on the favor of the gods to him (890-938). However, none of them succeeds in convincing the majority of judges: the votes are divided in half, and only the vote cast by Minerva in defense of Orestes decides his fate (939-962). The poem ends with an appeal to the gods to put an end to all crimes among the Hellenes (963-974).

From the review of the development of the action in the Tragedy of Orestes, at least three conclusions arise.

The first: in terms of content, the poem corresponds, in general, to the coverage of events in Aeschylus ' Oresteia, but adds to them a number of episodes that do not contribute to its integrity. These include: Agamemnon's meeting with Iphigenia (44-107), which has no effect on the further development of the action; Clytemestra's advice to Aegisthus on how to use feminine charms to win over the Mycenaean nobility (305-337) - these suggestions have no consequences; Dorilaus ' fictional story about the death of Agamemnon's children (350-381) - it is not clear what is its meaning, if Orestes and Electra are already safe; the abduction of Hermione by Pyrrhus and Orestes ' revenge, which have nothing to do with his duty to avenge his murdered father (803-819); finally, it remains equally unclear why Pylades sent Orestes to Tauris, if the same Molossus is waiting for him on his return (865 pp., 887-889).

All these inconsistencies have given rise to the opinion among many researchers that the poem of Draconius is purely declamatory in nature, in which each episode is of independent interest to the performer and listeners. There is no need to argue with the fact that the image of a single scene sometimes attracts the author more than subordinating it to the whole. At the same time, there is another explanation for almost every deviation from the main line of the story, showing that Dracontius was not entirely carefree when creating unusual situations.

Thus, the meeting of Agamemnon with Iphigenia gives the author the opportunity to present him in a rather favorable light. Clytemestra's advice on ingratiating herself with the nobility reveals another trait of her character - the well-known ability to act not with an armed hand, but by diplomatic means. Dorilaus ' account may explain the carelessness of the usurpers in the face of inevitable vengeance - why should they be afraid if Orestes is dead (cf. 708 ff., 729 ff.; see also v. 353 et seq.)? As for the revenge of Orestes for the abduction of Hermione and the intervention of Molossus, the choice of this figure is explained by the fact that our poet did not want to resort to the participation in the litigation of such divine forces as Erinii and Apollo, since the problems of their dispute in Aeschylus (the conflict between patriarchal and matriarchal law, between old and young gods, instead of blood feud by the verdict of the state court) was completely alien to the Dragon, if not inaccessible. Finally, Orestes ' flight to Tauris gives him the opportunity to purify Iphigenia, and not Apollo in his Delphic temple, as was again the case with Aeschylus.

Here we come to the second conclusion: the fate of the participants in the "Tragedy of Orestes" divine forces, in fact, are not involved. Diana's refusal to return Iphigenia to her homeland is an accidental motive that does not play any further role. Clytemestra does not appeal to the gods, who allegedly created Agamemnon's punishment for the sacrifice of Iphigenia and the destruction of Trojan shrines. Orestes is summoned to life not by the oracle of Apollo, but by the ghost of his father, and the young man does not seek purification in the Delphic temple. It is not the Erinii who pursue him, but the shadow of his murdered mother, and it is not Apollo who sends him to Tauris, but Pylades. By voting for the acquittal of Orestes, Minerva does not justify her decision, which also has no practical significance: if the votes were equal, the accused was considered justified by ancient law,and the judges only have to conclude that the heavenly mercy is on the side of the matricide.

These considerations of the Athenian elders lead some researchers to look for the influence of the Christian worldview in Dracontius ' poem: a merciful god is able to forgive even the most terrible sinner if he repents of what he has done. However, in Orestes ' behavior, Dracontius has nothing like remorse and a willingness to atone for his guilt. In the whole poem, there is not the slightest hint of a single god who commands

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at the end of the book, it says that along with Jupiter the Thunderer (953, 963), the gods, whose power is perfect, granted deliverance to Orestes 22 . The mere fact that the gods have always been mentioned in the plural before , 23 saves Dracontius from the suspicion of wanting to subordinate the fate of his hero to the Christian god. True, the gods he addresses at the end are not really gods, but personifications of honesty, compassion, etc., but the personification of faith, harmony, friendship, etc. of moral qualities is quite in the spirit of the Roman religion. And the appeal to the " heavenly love inherent in nature "(358), and to nature itself - the "common mother of all things", to the poles, the elements, the underground womb (775 sl.) and does not fit well with the Christian ideology.

The third conclusion from the development of the action in the poem is closely related to the previous one: the absence of divine intervention gives complete freedom to the manifestation of the individual properties of the participants in the tragedy, and the representation of their feelings is perhaps the strongest point of Draconius. Of course, the image of Clytemestra should be put first here. The defining trait of her character is the criminal passion she feels for Aegisthus (117, 128, 504), although the queen herself is aware that this feeling has brought her indelible shame (177-179). In relationships between lovers, Dracontius emphasizes the sensual side (228-231, 453455, 620). The loss of Aegisthus is more terrible for Clytemestra than death (123, 168 cf.) - hence the idea of killing Agamemnon and the plan of the crime, to which she strongly encourages Aegisthus (163-203, 209-218), and helps him (250-257). Even in death, she does not want to be separated from her lover (755-760).

At the same time, Clytemestra takes up the reins of government with some dignity, making perfectly reasonable accusations against her husband, who bled his kingdom dry with war (384-411), and also with some dignity takes the death blow, feeling a sense of shame for the first time in his life (786-789). Neither the memory of Iphigenia plays any role in the behavior of the criminal queen. However, Dracontius restricts Cassandra's role to divination (137-151) and specifically emphasizes that the captive was not offended by anyone (133-135). Clytemestra is guided solely by human emotions-criminal passion, fear of detection and punishment.

Clytemestra's love is all the more reprehensible because the subject is not worthy of such feelings. The Aegisthus of Dracontius is not at all an avenger of Atreus ' crime; on the contrary, his low birth is strongly emphasized (see v. 139 and note, and v. 426 cf.). He is a coward who has made his way to the king's bed (140 cf.), and only fear compels him to submit to the will of Clytemestra (220-223, 258, 276, cf. 700). But when he comes to power, he reveals himself as an arrogant and cruel tyrant, under whose power his subjects groan (314 c., 413-424, 458 c., 546-550). Aegisthus disgraced the royal house with debauchery (646-650), and his murder is not regarded with censure (802).

A complete contrast to the figure of Aegisthus is Agamemnon. Unlike Aeschylus, who sees the objective guilt of the king in the "death of many" and, first of all, Iphigenia, Dracontius glorifies his victory over Troy (25-29, 239-244). Clytemestra's accusatory speech to the people does not meet with approval: the servants are still loyal to the memory of their master (338-349, 453-458, 651 cf.). As far as possible, the charge of sacrificing Iphigenia is removed from Agamemnon: it happened almost without his knowledge, with the help of a forged letter sent to Mycenae by Odysseus. At the meeting with Iphigenia, the king feels a deep sense of remorse: neither does the daughter sent under the sacrificial knife remember the evil, and at the meeting both burst into tears of joy (60-83). Agamemnon is an exemplary husband and father who took care of gifts for his wife and children (35-40). and defender of the shrine of marriage (165 sl.). There's not the slightest hint of a connection between him and Cassandra. Agamemnon does not forget his duty to the gods, to whom he brings abundant gifts (31-34, cf. 86-101). Nor does the hereditary curse of the house of Pelopides play any role in his fate, which, unlike the Greek tragedians, is not mentioned in the entire poem of Dracontius.

22 917, 922, 924, 929, 935, 937, 947, 956, 963, 973.

23 Cm. 9, 35, 279, 357, 465 sl., 739, 483, 860, 895.

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As for the image of Orestes, his very stay in Athens (291-301, 516-519) is a sharp contrast to the full account of his boyhood years in Strofius in the previous tradition. Having become friends with Pylades, Orestes does not even think about revenge for his father, until he is called to it by the shadow of the deceased (515-540). Of course, the need to raise the sword against his own mother raises deep doubts in the young man; Dracontius describes them with details completely unheard of before (557-580). Greek tragedians depicted the mental anguish of Orestes after the murder of Clytemestra; most often they were attributed to the influence of erinias. In Dracontius, Orestes is haunted by the ghost of his mother, and all his torments are of the nature of a real mental shift. We can blame our poet for a certain inconsistency: the arguments of Pylades (583-615) somehow turn out to be stronger than the appeal of the shadow of Agamemnon. But, having made a decision, Orestes remains faithful to him to the end, and no complaints of his mother can turn him away from fulfilling the duty of revenge.(616-621, 687- 692,745-752,761-772).

To sum up, we can say that for Dracontius, all the events that took place in the house of Atreides are a purely human tragedy of treason and revenge, in which the role of external - divine - forces is reduced to a minimum, although our author, who had before him a sample of Seneca tragedies, could not, of course, refuse to participate in the action of at least ghosts Agamemnon and the Clytemesters.

However, the influence of Roman poetry of the golden and Silver Ages is by no means limited to the introduction of a number of plot motifs, as indicated in the notes to the translation. There the reader will also find numerous references to the texts of Roman authors, 24 whom Dracontius often quotes verbatim, sometimes even quite unconsciously, as language cliches that are familiar to every educated person. In addition, it was even considered a kind of chic in a work designed for a sufficiently prepared audience, to recall a suitable passage from their predecessors who had already become classics. In the first place among them is Virgil as the standard of the heroic epic, but there are also enough borrowings from Seneca, Ovid, Statius and other authors. As a result, the verbal fabric of the poem is a rather peculiar fusion of epic and rhetorical elements.

Dracontius tries to reproduce the epic flavor with comparisons. Sometimes-according to all the rules of epic technique, with a double " so " (265-269, 631-638) or just with an introductory "so" (224-226, 242-244, 796 sl., 856-859); sometimes he refers to the names of heroes of the past as an argument or for comparison, recalling Medea, Alcestis, Evadne. Achilles, Hector, Pyrrhus. The author does not avoid repeatedly repeating important words in a limited space , a technique that partly resembles the technique of leitmotivs in archaic Greek poetry .25

However, much more than the epic style, the author pays tribute to rhetoric, as evidenced by his commitment to the speeches of characters: for 974 verses of the poem, there are about 500 lines spoken by one of its participants. Not to mention the actual rhetorical devices that the reader will find in abundance throughout the poem. Here are just the most striking examples. Anaphora: 467-471, 595-597, 846-848; accumulation of homogeneous terms, often without union (558-560, 775 syllables), sometimes with definitions (910 syllables); oxymoron: a whole bunch of them - in the prologue (1. 7-10, 15, 19); antitheses: 80, 441, 444 However artificial this style may seem to the modern reader, it nevertheless suited the tastes of the time when Dracontius was writing.

For us, his poem is evidence of an unusual approach to the myth of the House of Atreides, in which each era found something different or introduced innovations or unexpected interpretations. Novoe Vremya is no exception in this sense. We'll find

24 Citations from works translated into Russian are given from existing editions of Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, etc.; for the reader who wants to check references that are not provided with citations, it will not be difficult to use the same publications. In all other cases, the translation of citations belongs to the author of the notes.

25 Wed. repeat three times within one or two verses: "leader" (25)," Cassandra "(512 syllables), "mother" (850 syllables).

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here is an attempt to free Orestes from responsibility by explaining the murder of Clytemestra as an accident (Voltaire's Orestes, 1750), and - almost two centuries later-to solve the problem of responsibility and freedom of choice in the spirit of existentialist philosophy (Sartre's Flies, 1944), and the complete dehumanization of myth, leading to self-destruction of the individual (Eumenides"Lecomte de Lisle, 1873;" Mourning for Electra "by O'Neill, 1931; "Electra" by Hauptmann, 1944). We will also meet Orestes himself, who wants to avoid both guilt and responsibility altogether, in a play staged on Broadway in 1960 by the completely unknown American playwright Jack Richardson. But this is another topic.

* * *

"The Tragedy of Orestes" has come down to us in two manuscripts (both without the author's name): codex Bernensis 45 (B), IX c., and codex Ambrosianus O 74 sup. (A), copied in the second half of the XV c. from a manuscript brought to Italy by the Italian humanist Enoch of Ascoli, who discovered it during his journey to Scandinavia in 1451-1455. The first one is much more reliable, since the copyist, who, judging by the nature of the errors, did not know Latin, nevertheless copied the earlier copy very carefully. In the second, which ultimately goes back to the same manuscript tradition as B, there are significantly more unnecessary corrections and conjectures that distort the original text; in some cases, however, the text in A gives a more preferable reading than in B. In addition, about 20 scattered verses, mostly of an edifying nature, like For example, 279-281 or 927-928 were preserved in four anthologies of the 13th-14th centuries, dating back to a certain prototype of the 11th or 12th century and sometimes helping to clarify the reading of two complete codices. Despite the relatively early origin of manuscripts B and A, especially the first of them, the full text of the Tragedy of Orestes was first published (also without the author's name) only in 1858.1 , although two passages from it were also known before that, also anonymous: v. 1-53.2 and 752-770.3 . In subsequent editions, as a result of stylistic analysis, it was established that the poem was written at the end of the V - beginning of the VI century in Africa, and in 1871, Angelo May, already known to us, published The Tragedy of Orestes together with another poem on a mythological theme, The Abduction of Helen, belonging to Dracontius, spoke in favor of the authorship this poet also applies to the "Tragedy of Orestes". Further research confirmed its relationship with other mythological poems of Dracontius, so that from the beginning of the 80s of the XIX century, the opinion about his authorship was finally established.

In the less than one and a half centuries that have passed since the first edition, The Tragedy of Orestes has been published-separately or together with other works of Dracontius - over 10 times. The final edition for the XIX century should be considered Volmer's 4, equipped with an extensive philological and reference apparatus, for the XX century - J. Buquet and E. Wolf in the well-known series "Collections des Universites de France" 5 with an introductory article, detailed notes and a French translation. This translation is based on this edition, with rare exceptions specified in the notes. The Tragedy of Orestes has not been translated into Russian, except for the passage included in Scythica et Caucasica (Vol. II. Vol. 2. p. 431 pp. ) and reprinted in VDI for 1949 n 4. p. 29 pp.

In conclusion, we would like to point out an analytical bibliography reflecting the results of studying the work of Dracontius during the XX century: Studi Draconciani (1912-1996). A whitefish di L. Castagna. Napoli, 1997. "Tragedies of Orestes" are devoted here pp. 42-69 6 .

1 Carmen epicum inscriptum Ore.stis tragedia quod ex codicibus Bongarsiano et Ambrosiano primum edidit C.W. Mliller. Rudolstadt, 1858.

2 Mai A. Spicilegium Romanum. I. Romae, 1839. P. XXIV- XXVI.

3 Sinner J.R. Catalogus codicum mss. Bibliothecae Bemensis. T. I. Bernae, 1760. P. 507-508.

4 Vollmer Fr. Dracontii Orestis tragoedia// Monumenta Germaniae historica. T. XIV. Berolini, 1905 (repr. 1961). P.197-226.

5 Drucontius. Oeuvres. Tome III. La tragedie d'Oreste. Poemes profanes I-V. Introduction par J. Bouquet et Е. Wolff. Texte etabli et traduit par J. Bouquet. P., 1995. Here the reader will also find more detailed information about the history of the text and the editions of The Tragedy of Orestes (pp. 8-9, 79-80).

6 I was able to read this book thanks to the help of Drs. M. Heuss and T. Schmidt (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium), to whom I offer my sincere thanks here.

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THE TRAGEDY OF ORESTES 7

I will sing a dark joy, a triumph, a curse worthy of 8 ,

instead of victory, a murder, a celebration spattered with blood,

death's wish, the lamentable vow of that trojan consort 9 ,

That she couldn't kill Lord Atreides herself;

5 a laurel-covered crown stained with royal blood,

and the diadem of the leader, defiled by the spilled brain 10 .

I will sing Orestes to those who remembered their mother in unconsciousness,

who is dishonorable in piety, who is blameless in depravity;

the mind of cruel gods, unjust by right,

10 and without the guilt of the guilty; a remote Thracian temple 11 ,

where from sisters 12 was cleared, where to the brother salvation from slaughter

by pious deception and lies, Sister 13 gave.

You, Melpomene, descend 14 from the tragic high coturns,

let the Iambic be silent - it's time to sound dactylic

footsteps:

15 Give me the strength to remind you of the glory of the filial crime and of the one condemned by the sisters in the opinion of the people., -

sorrow sears him, shame drives him away, anger stirs him up; misery

mind and soul facilitate, the onslaught oppresses the noble

7 The title of the poem has long been the subject of controversy. Some researchers believe that the word "tragedy" in it belongs not to Dracontius, but to a late copyist: after all, the author himself calls Melpomene to leave the tragic coturns and give way to dactylic feet (13-14). This opinion seems to be confirmed by the title in the rcp A: Horestis fabula ab Enoch Asculano reperta - " The Story of Orestes. found by Enoch of Ascoli." Other researchers accept the concept of "tragedy" in the title as a definition not of a genre, but of a work with a sublime content - such an understanding of the term is already found in Cicero (Orator, I. 51), and then in later authors. To this we may add that many of the monologues and dialogues in the poem are quite dramatic in nature, in no way inferior in this sense to the corresponding parts of Seneca's tragedies. Not so long ago, an attempt was even made to find in the "Tragedy of Orestes" three consecutive tragedies, each in five acts, and the first - also with the participation of the choir. If we leave aside the extremes, it is not at all impossible that Dracontius, calling his poem a tragedy, could have intended it for public recitation (cf. to 616-621), in which monologues from the tragedies of Seneca were heard from the time of the early Roman Empire, or for home reading - this possibility is also assumed in relation to the tragedies of the same Seneca. Thus, there is hardly any serious reason to doubt the authenticity of the title that has come down to the RCP in: Incipit Orestis tragoedia - "The Tragedy of Orestes begins".

8 Verses 1-12 contain a list of the main motives of the poem: 2, 5 syllables - the murder of Agamemnon, 7 syllables-the revenge of Orestes. 10-12-his purification and justification. At the same time, 6 verses are devoted to the fate of the father and son (1-6: Agamemnon, 7-12: Orestes).

9 Refers to the prophecy of Cassandra, who foresaw her own death. In Dracontius, this motif is only named here, and it is not used hereafter. Cassandra was not Agamemnon's wife, but came to him as a concubine in the division of the spoils taken at Troy. However, Seneca already identified these two statuses, calling Cassandra a captive consort and simultaneously a concubine (Ag. 1002). Cassandra had no intention of slaughtering Agamemnon, either, although she was not without joy awaiting his death as payback for the destruction of Troy. See Enrip. Tgo. 359-364, 404-405, 460-461; Sen. Ag. 720-759, 867-874, 1005-1009.

"10 Wed. 262.

11 The temple... Thracian. - In the rcp B-meaningless templa tertia, in the RCP A-Thracia. Of course, Thrace and Tauris (see 44) are not the same thing, but Dracontius ' geographical knowledge was not very precise.

12 From... the sisters-furies (Greek: Erinius, who in the Athenian tragedy pursue Orestes, plunging him into madness: Aesch. Cho. 1048-1062; Eurip. Iph. T. 289-308; Or. 253-279). Cf. 16; Drac. Med. 448.

13 Sister Iphigenia, who saved Orestes by lying: 878-886.

14 You, Melpomene, come down. - Dracontius means that he undertakes to describe in epic size (dactylic feet) the events that served as the subject of the Iambic tragedy.

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(does holy rage hand over weapons, is it criminal sanctity?);

20 his passion for healing 15 pushes him to restore his former honor

restore by reviving the weapon of victory of the buried 16 .

The one who marked for guilt is disfigured by a new guilt,

the one who marked 17 for his wife dies in front of his wife,

and in front of the bedroom on guard - the marital bedroom

amateur 18 .

25 A leader over leaders and a king over kings 19 , the leader himself

Agamemnon.

after two chandeliers 20 returning and twice triumphant

glorified,

the king almighty, the lord, the ruler of the Martian cries,

Pergamon suffered 21 defeats on the Argolidian forages,

the maidens of the Ilium crowd, the mothers of the Trojans offspring.

30 The king, mentally calculating the wealth of the conquered country,

the gift assigned the greatest thunder and lightning to the Master

and the best offering is for the benefit of Juno the great;

he awarded the gift to Athena (otherwise-to the goddess Minerva),

also to all the other gods who helped the Greeks in the war.

35 About the crimes of not knowing a wife, about the deceit of Aegisthus,

the king of Clytemestra, who was not worthy of it, was preparing a gift;

more gifts are assigned with a smile by the parent to Orestes,

faithful to the father's love and the sacred bonds of birth, -

still not equal to the filial merits in the coming years;

40 to his pure daughter, 22 he saved expensive gifts.

But meanwhile, how to make your way through the calm expanses of azure

It seems that the winds have come at the will of the wrathful god. ;

winds that roam the sea, inflate the fabric of the sails,

but they are not being led to where they sailed, but to the Taurida riverbank

15 To healing. - Wed. 923.

16 The weapon of victory of the buried , i.e. the sword of Agamemnon as a symbol of his power.

17 He avenged his guilt... for the wife-Agamemnon, who avenged the abduction of Helen; cf. 167, 507 cf. In front of the wife-Clytemestra.

18 Egist. - Cf. Sen. Ag. 299-300.

19 Chief over chiefs. Sen. Ag. 39: "Chief over chiefs, Agamemnon, king of kings."

20 After two chandeliers - an anachronism: a chandelier was defined as a time interval of 5 years by the Romans. Wed. Sen. Ag. 624: "Troy held out twice for five years." Twice glorified in triumph. "Here Dracontius pays tribute to the version of the myth that the Greek army first went to Mysia, and then returned to Hellas, only to go again to Troy ten years later. This version is reflected in II. XXIV. 765 cf., and from later literature - in Apollodorus (Epit. III. 17, 19), but it contradicts the idea of a ten-year absence of Agamemnon. Triumph, in contrast to v. 1, where it has a generalized meaning of "victory", here, as in 464 and 648, is a completely Roman concept, which implies the solemn entry of the victorious general into the city. In the future, however, the arrival of Agamemnon is not accompanied by any triumph.

21 On Argolid feed. - Cf. Drac. Ach. 66. Moved Pergamum. - I.e. loaded his ships (cf. 636) with war booty. Cf. Sen. Ag. 204-206. Pergamum is another name for Troy used in Roman poetry.

22 His pure daughter, Elektra.

23 By the will of the wrathful god. - Deus (god) can also mean a goddess, and in this case Minerva, who sent a night storm to the Greek fleet, is most suitable. From the explanation of the reasons for this divine wrath (the destruction of the Trojan temples, the blasphemy of Ajax Oileid) and from the details in the description of the disaster. Dracontius refrains from burdening the fate of Agamemnon with dark memories (cf. Aescli. Ag. 648-660; Eurip. Tro. 69-94; Hel. 1126-1 136: Sen. Ag. 465-578; Apold. Ep. VI. 7; Hyg. 116; Quint. Srn. XIV. 611-628). Some researchers believe that the god Dracontius meant Diana, allegedly still continuing to be angry with Agamemnon for the sacrifice of Iphigenia. However, this action was taken just to appease the goddess - why should she be angry?

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45 Austr 24 ships drives Pelasgians 25, their path has changed.

The king, without hesitation, orders to send the loot to Mycenae, -

He would follow her, fulfilling his vows to Diana:

reverently invoking the power of the Virgin Goddess,

he enters the temple with supplication, hurrying to the altar with gifts

50 (the silk cloths shone purple,

peplos sparkled brightly with a pattern of precious stones.), -

suddenly Iphigenia sees with an incense burner-a sacred burden.

The king freezes, and with a startled look he stares at the virgin;

with his father's thought, he realizes the guilt of the old days and becomes numb.

55 The one that he sent under the sacrificial knife for the sake of the Danaean army,

the king recognized her, believing that one similar to her was born.

The pure virgin meanwhile begins to recognize her father

and helps him in performing a quick rite, -

taken vase 27 with fire it fills with unquenchable.

60 Now the virgin princess is hanging from her father's neck. ,

here he gives clean kisses and receives them,

the holy shower waters the father and the virgin Lanita.

My father sheds tears of unexpected joy in silence

and interrupts the continuous moaning chredu with a kiss;

65 the power of a father's love finally opens the way for words:

"My daughter, our love, and my crime, O child, -

You've appeared to me alive, or just a shadow, or an image

flying 29 ?

Manam 30 underground are you not given, doomed to death?

(I'm glad, I'm sorry...). Didn't the sword strike you down to please the goddess?

70 The body, however, is alive I see, the actions are alive.

So explain, finally, what fate holds you

with my dear mother in separation, in the sacred priesthood,

and, most surprisingly, in the temple of fierce Diana?"

So her father told her, and so her daughter answered him:

75 " There was a time when you were rushing towards Hector.,

your name under letter 31 on the advice of Ulysses was

false, as if you were telling me to come quickly -

I want to marry Achilles - I'm supposed to be his wife.

My mother didn't hesitate, and I was handed over to Ulysses,

80 but not to the marriage bed - they bring me to the altar as a sacrifice.

Meekness, however, was also shown by the goddess as a sign of compassion

she laid a doe on the altar , because there is no one to cry for her.

Snatched from under the knife, I serve by worshipping Diana."

Happy before, Atreides was saddened by this story

85 and, as a sign of reverence, he offers prayers and incense to the goddess.

"God's sister plectronic 33, Phoebe, Latona's daughter,

No matter how you are called, great goddess of glory,

24 Aust - the south wind that drove Agamemnon's fleet from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.

25 Pelasgi is an ancient Greek name; cf. 137, 436, 974.

26 For the wine of former days , the sacrifice of Iphigenia. See 75-80.

27 Vase-incense burner, see 52.

28 On the neck hung. - Wed. 229.

29 The flying image-created by the gods? See Verg. Aen. X. 636: "Weaving... the ghost is flying."

30 Mines-souls of the dead; kingdom of shadows.

31 Your name under the letter is a modification of the motif from the prologue Eurip. Iph. A. 98-105.

32 Not on the marriage bed... down the aisle. - Cf. Sen. Ag. 166 sl.: "Father. before the altar stood sacrificial, / / As before the marriage".

33 Plectrum-bearing god-Apollo as the leader of the Muses, with a cithar and plectrum (a stick used to strike strings) in his hands. The epithet "plectronic" is a neologism of Dracontia. Same beginning of the verse: Drac. Med. 285.

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your divine face listens to whatever is asked of you, -

you have shown us mercy by rejecting the blood sacrifice,

90 reason for moans withdrawn, parental cries listening 34 .

The priest's knife was inflamed, but he drank blood.;

having desired human blood, he is forced to give it up.

You kidnap people from the altars who are doomed to die;

do not return the daughter to the king, but to the father who mourned the loss,

95 so that you don't save her from being killed in vain. Don't you

I will make a vow to bring goats, sheep, pigs, and deer

one thousand 35, also gobies with a crescent moon between their horns.

No, we have not taken Troy, unless I am in Mycenae

with my daughter together, returning her to her mother, grieving bitterly;

100 the one who thinks she is dead, she will see and believe

in your mercy, Diana, and sorrow will turn to joy."

But all the prayers of the father only inflamed the anger in the goddess,

she turned away her face, her eyes , and her thoughts from it.

The mighty warrior realized that Diana's heart was burning, -

105 retreats back in fear, supplication reined in involuntarily,

with sadness, he speeds up his steps to the expanse of the sea

and, having boarded the ship, it cuts the water surface again.

And yet how does Atreides navigate the foaming waves? ,

the entire coast of Mycenae 38 is filled with flying glory,

110 that the leader returns, gifted with a military victory.

Immediately the spoils are carried by palm-bearing ships 39; gazes

from the towers of the city, the Danaians 40 " strive to meet them, and are full of

the walls are everywhere fortified by crowds of Mycenaean women.

Agamemnon's wife went out to see the Phrygian prisoners,

115 in fear, with an unclean soul before her husband's unexpected return;

The Mycenaean wives flowed away at the sight of her .

The queen stopped, mad with criminal passion,

he curses the general joy, interrupting the curses with tears

(her heart is pounding incessantly as she is seized with fear.)

120 the wife is afraid of punishment. inevitable with the arrival of a spouse;

with eyes full of horror, everyone runs around themselves;

a pallor covered lanits 42, recently glowing with heat,

the idea of an ill-fated lover constantly disturbs her.

He sees, however, that the king does not come down from the stern of the ship,

She believes that her guilt can remain unpunished,

glad; an unflattering witness to the secret of her soul,

the pallor has been banished, and the cheeks are flushed again,

and depraved joy plays in the criminal gaze.

The wife thinks that the king is swallowed up in the depths of the sea,

34 Articles 87-90 are designed in the style of the oratorical device of" gaining favor " (captatio benevolentiae) of the audience. Wed. 892, 911 sl.

35 Thousand. - The maximum number of animals sacrificed was usually 100 heads - the so-called hecatomb. With a crescent, i.e. with a sign corresponding to the symbol of Diana, which the Romans often identified with the moon. See Cic. Nat. d. II. 27. 68 cf.; Ill, 20. 51; Verg. Eel. IV. 10; Caful. XXXIV. 13; 5cn.Ag.839.

36 Your face and eyes. - Cf. Verg. Aen. I. 482: "Minerva looked down."

37 Let them walk on the foaming waves. - Cf. Verff. Aen. III. 268; "We run through the waves foamed".

38 Mycenaean coast. Dracontius had little idea of the geography of Greece: Mycenae is located far from the sea coast. The same error in 111 sl., 152, 233 sl., 364. Sr. 491 and approx.

39 Palm-bearing ships-decorated with palm leaves. Page 233.

40 The Danaeans everywhere at Dracontius correspond simply to the Greeks.

41 The Mycenaean wives flowed out, as a sign that they disapproved of her behavior. Wed. Cic. Cat. I. VII. 16: The senators all left the benches close to the one where Catilina sat.

42 A pallor covered the lanits. 126. A change in complexion as a sign of emotional excitement is a frequent motif in ancient poetry. Let us confine ourselves here to a few examples from Roman authors: Verg. Aen. IV. 499, 644; VIII. 709; Ovid. Metam. II. 775; III. 491; VII. 801; XI. 418; XIV. 775; Tr. III. 9. 18; Sen. Ag. 237; Med. 859-861; Herc. Oet. 251-252.

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She's glad he's not here, and she doesn't want to wait any longer:

quick foot seeks to run to Aegisthus and tell,

that her husband had not returned; but her hope had deceived her.

Priestess Cassandra from the captives by lot went to Atreides,

and in the midst of the Dardanian massacre, among the victorious Danaian clamors

135 did not offend her 43, even though she was part of the loot.

Here, Clytemestra envying, sacred madness embraced,

"Hello," shouts from afar, " the queen of the mighty Pelasgians,

Vengeance for the Dardanids 44 and joy for the captive Troy;

Hello, Aegisthus, good shepherd of the people, tamer of the leader,

140 are you used to a bed of furs covered with soft down?,

you that found the way to the royal house from under the roof of the poor, -

that you still haven't decided to get rid of your fears?

Beat, and do not let your passion pass love delight

(the time has come, and fate commands, and guilt compels),

145 and a double-edged axe will cut off the winner's neck!

May a similar punishment await you from heaven, -

there is a time limit for criminals until Orestes grows up.

Mother, if you become the victim of your son, it turns him into an executioner

the death of the father, and with you will die a cruel lover,

150 pav from Pylades hands 46 (believe me), Orestes ' friend.

Another madness does not possess it-may it be cleansed!"

So she said, and fell down among the ship's ropes.

The queen listens to the prophetic words in fear the worthless one;

the lanits grew pale again, and in a cruel heart

155 the thirst for crime grows; the passion of love compels,

fear runs rampant in her restless thoughts.

Looking cheerful, she returned to the house with a gloomy soul,

in fear, the queen and, with heavy sighs, entering the bedroom

a groan stifles the pain in my chest , but my face is full of feigned joy.

160 " What do they say, what are the rumors, what are the tidings?" -

Aegisthus pricks up his ears and asks the wanton.

With the cunning inherent in the female sex, hiding its deception,

so she begins: "Tell me, what do you want me to do?

We are dying: after the war ended, the victorious spouse returned;

165 the evil one is wounded by jealousy; he threatens the Argives who are subject to him

a strict law to put on the reins of chaste morals.

Who took revenge for someone else's guilt 49 , to what extent is that measure

will it work in your own business? And we will die without you.

vengeance 50 ,

our love will perish, for immediately in a terrible rage

43 Article 135. They didn't hurt her. "Dracontius avoids mentioning the violence Cassandra suffered after the capture of Troy and the fact that she was Agamemnon's concubine-not of her own free will, of course.

44 Revenge for the Dardanids. 9. The Dardanids are Trojans, descendants of Dardanus, who first settled in the region of Troy.

45 The Good Shepherd. Dracontius insists on calling Aegisthus a shepherd, either because he was found by shepherds (see Hyg. 87 and 88), or wanting to contrast his low social status with the hereditary royal rights of Agamemnon. See especially 141, 275 cf., 338, 419, 425 cf.., 453, 479, 530, 750.

46 Surfactants from Pylades of the hand. - See 710-724. According to the traditional version, Pylades is the son of Strophius, the brother-in-law of Agamemnon, with whom Orestes was sheltered. In Draconius, the relationship between young people is not reflected in any way.

47 Other madness. - Cassandra is referring to the murder of Pyrrhus (cf. 809), although Orestes commits it in his right mind. Let it be cleared. - Cf. 16, 885, although here we are talking about the purification of Orestes from the blood of his mother.

48 A groan stifles in my chest. - Cf. (almost verbatim): Verg. Aen. X. 464 cf.; II. Lat. 975 (about Hector, left alone with Achilles): "Ready and deep for death // The moan is overwhelming in my chest."

49 Who took revenge for the guilt. - Wed. 22.

50 Let us die without vengeance. - Cf. Verg. Aen. II. 670: "That we may not die without vengeance."

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170 Atreides will doom us to the slaughter: he is a deadly sword

he dares to punish the guilty. There is no other hope for salvation 51 ,

how can we both neglect salvation and life itself?

May we slay the tyrant in the glory of a glorious victory

and he will rattle his armor, not knowing about our embrace;

175 Atreides is so exalted by success 52 in the field of battle,

so proud of his victory over the house of Priam,

that he doesn't care about the price of human blood.

Because of you, I am reputed to be vicious and have lost my shame,

but I don't want to part with the fruits of criminal treason.

180 Although I am brave in words, I am petrified by the deed itself;

we have everything in common, we are one in life and in death,

shared happiness forever and shared danger,

The lot is one and equal: I command and ask,

as the shepherd is driven by the queen, driven by fear

185 a terrible death, obedient to the weakness of the female sex.

Business calls you reliable-life's salvation,

so that I don't die a bloody death with you,

for you yourself will fall with me, you traitorous wretch,

Only Agamemnon will return; we will be snatched from the grave.

190 The work is not great to lay down the winner with a sharp iron:

the one who overcame the enemy, became careless, slumbers in peace

and, without being afraid of anyone, it easily falls into an ambush.

There is no foe for you either: Orestes is still a small fool,

the ashes of one became the daughter of 53 in the distant temple of Diana,

195 but the other daughter is powerless, timid; what dares she?

Also, Atreides Menelaus wanders far away in a foreign land 54 .

Whatever you do, you will get away with it, and the crime will be committed.

it will be your reward, not mine; you will be happy

the kingdom of Atreides to own and the rich Mycenaean palace.

I'll give you a fresh example: a Spartan guilty of death

so many kings and common people, living to their heart's content. ,

in happiness and complete peace, doomed to the death of many.

And I am not afraid of the Danaeans, for I am saving my son Tiesta 56."

205 "By what means, tell me," he says, " can I do it?"

execute

is this a serious crime? Finish off the king-that's the task,

if he returns to his palace in triumph, too."

Opening the way to murder, the criminal queen says:

"The ashes of battles are smeared 57, in clothes soaked with blood."

with blood,

210 the cruel king will return , and she must be replaced immediately;

I'll give you a clean tunic, but I'll sew up the collar in advance-"

51 No one else is safe for salvation. - Cf. Verg. Aen. II. 354: "For the vanquished, salvation is one thing - do not think about salvation!".

52 Exalted by success. - Cf. Sen. Ag. 247-252.

53 The ashes alone became the daughter - the only mention in the mouth of Clytemestra of Iphigenia, unlike Seneca (Ag. 158-173), not to mention the Greek tragedy. In the temple of Diana. - It would be more correct to say "at the altar", since there was no temple of Diana in Avlida.

54 Menelaus wanders far. - See Od. III. 274-302; IV. 351-586. However, Clytemestra could not have known this, especially since Dracontius says nothing about the consequences of the storm that drove Menelaus far from his native shores. See note 23.

55 The Spartan woman eats her fill-Elena, who escaped the vengeance of Menelaus and the Greek army. 196, since Helen must still be "wandering" with Menelaus or, if we accept the version developed by Euripides in the tragedy of the same name, be in Egypt.

56 I save my son Tiesta-Aegisthus. Wed. 308 and approx.

57 smeared with the ashes of battles - an implausible statement: did Agamemnon not have the opportunity to change his battle armor for clean clothes?

58 I'll sew up the collar in advance. - Cf. Eurip. Or. 25; Lycophr. 1099-1100; Sen. Ag. 887-889; Apold. Epit. VI. 23.

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The tyrant tries unsuccessfully to free his head,

then suddenly you strike a cruel blow,

head, neck, back of the head smashed with a merciless axe.

215 The last path remains, and it also dictates the decision.

Obey my thoughts: this remedy alone is possible,

let us avoid our own death, and let them mourn for the other mournfully.

We must not delay: he is already here, the avenger of our crime."

Thus speaking impiously, she burst into tears.

220 He grasps at the iron, burning with fear and excitement

(makes fear bold, makes timidity bold),

with an armed hand, he scatters blows around and

strikes the enemy in fright, although it does not see at all.

So, hiding in the stream, the snake appears with its mouth open,

225 the body leaning forward and trembling with a split tongue,

accumulates its deadly poison, which brings death to people.

Rejoicing at these attacks, the queen felt in her heart

the infamous passion surges, and lust revives in it.

Here on the shepherd's neck hung in a sinful embrace,

230 having sealed the sweetness of a kiss with the lips of a wanton;

he kisses her back, covering her entire body.

So both enjoy a common criminal plan., -

the royal ship is already here, decorated with wreaths of all colors.

More and more wine inflames their defiant souls:

235 The tunic is in her hands, and the shepherd has prepared an axe.

Everyone has their own business: a lover took cover in an ambush,

a woman approaches the door, holding her tunic in her hands,

putting a lot of hope on the deadly outfit.

The king, however, stepped off the ship and touched the ground, triumphantly

240 military traces of labor shines, from the blood is beautiful 61 ,

the city is great and mighty, lit up by the frenzy of battles.

Was Jupiter the same , defeating the giant foes:

on his brow he raised a royal crown in the stars to heaven,

the flames around his head spilled out, sparking and glittering.

245 Cute Atreido children given by nature - run out

towards my father - there are hugs, kisses on both sides.

Greedily looking for eyes, however, the parent spouse;

he enters the sleeping chamber and closes the door behind him.

Having met the king, Clytemestra greets with a false speech:

250 " Military glory mighty, take off your dirty dress;

you have brought peace with yourself-honor him with a peaceful garment;

Here I have woven you a garment, sparing no effort;

the threads on it are golden and radiate purple."

So to speak, it strips the king of his protective coverings.

255 and he deceitfully clothes him with a funeral garment.

In the tunic, Atreid searches for the head hole in vain, -

holding her husband's hand, Queen Aegista calls to him.

The same, raising the axe with a trembling right hand,

the king's head with a deadly swing smites unholy,

59 Makes a bold fright. - Cf. Ovid. F. III. 644.

60 So the serpent lurks. - The comparison goes back to Virgil (Aen. II. 471-475).

The smell of blood is beautiful. - Unlike 209, here this description describes the greatness of the winner.

62 Jupiter was like that. - In this comparison, the anthropomorphic characteristic of God is combined with the personification of the sky: his crown is in the stars, the flame reflects the radiance of the ether. Giant foes. - This refers to a famous episode from Greek mythology - an attempt by giants to overthrow the Olympian gods, which ended in the defeat of the rebels. See above, 242; Verg. Ge. I. 281- 286; Ovid. Metam. I. 151-162. F. V. 354; Apold. I. 6. 1-2; the poem in Greek "Gigantomachy" was in Claudian. Wed. 930 and approx.

63 The murder scene in v. 254-264 is very similar to that depicted by the mouth of Cassandra in Seneca (Ag. 887-903), except that Clytemestra also strikes there. Cf. 254-256 - Ag. 881-889; 260-262 - Ag. 901-903; 265-268 - Ag. 892-894.

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260 the crown of the king's head and brow splits together with the crown,

cutting them in two, and the blows fall again:

third, fourth 64, - from the skull the brain spills wet.

The queen praises the murderer, the innocent king falls down,

a bloody trembling body shook the floor beneath it.

265 So 65, entangled in the snare, a huge, ferocious boar,

looking for a release, tormenting hunting nets,

the muzzle is covered with foam, the teeth are bared-in vain

he wastes punches, biting the trap viciously.

And so the lord found his bloody end,

270 its members have been defiled, alas! a shepherd's axe.

The gloomy share of people is 66, their mind is not domineering over the future!

Who would have believed (even if they had listened to a hundred whiffs,

At Delphi, the prophetess-priestess 67, swinging the tripod, said,

the sound of speeches resounding cave and plectrum tiring),

275 that the conqueror of Asia is a shepherd who knows little,

a timid fugitive will surely strike down the flocks of sheep and goats, and

he who destroyed Troy with flames will not be burned at the stake 69 .

People, learn in happiness not to believe the fate of unreliable:

the gods easily endow us with benefits 70, soon, however,

280 do they harm the poor themselves or suddenly for no reason at all

they are abandoned and the past happiness is replaced by punishment.

Whoever doesn't want to believe that, let them remember Priam's fate

and the palace will give Atreides a look of disbelief.

The virgin of the Pelopian race 71 is crushed by the unexpected slaughter,

285 yet Orestes was saved, so that he might become his father's avenger;

Having snatched her brother from the mouth of her impudent mother, Elektra

I boarded the ship with him and headed straight for Athens;

to those who are devoted to learning and wisdom, he was introduced

(the same ship that brought Agamemnon, brother and sister -

290 of the royal house of Nadezhda-treasures of Troy delivered).

Pylades the most faithful became a friend of Orestes who was saved,

they learned wisdom together and were famous for their skillful speech .72

Both wanted the same thing, both didn't want the same thing. :

if the struggle was practiced in the Palaestra, it was peaceful;

295 if you were going to hunt alone, prowl the dens,

immediately there was another hunter with him; a fighting horse

the bridle was taken by one, the same passion in the other

waking up;

64 Third, fourth. - See Ovid. Metam. XII. 288: "Three times, four times the stitches of the head with a heavy blow / / He broke".

65 So... so. - Cf. parallelism in comparison: 631-38; Drac. Hel 350-363, 576-585; Med. 307-309.

66 Grim share of people. - Cf. Lucret. II. 14-16.

67 The image of the prophetess-priestess, driven into a frenzy by the breezes, that is, by the vapors emanating from the cleft in Delphi. Swaying the tripod on which she sits. The pythia accompanies her divination with plectrum strikes on the strings of the cithara. In modern times, it has been proven that the prophetic ecstasy of the Pythia was not achieved by the action of vapors, as was thought in ancient times, but was something like the frenzy of a shaman.

68 The timid fugitive. - For Aegisthus ' refusal to participate in the Trojan War, see Aesch. Ag. 1625-1627.

69 He who destroyed Troy with flames will not be burned at the stake. - Wed. (about the fate of Priam) Sen. Tgo. 54 sl.: "Royal / / The father of children is deprived of the last bonfire / / In burning Troy!"; Drac. Hel. 144 sq.

70 The gods easily endow us with benefits-a common idea for all ancient poetry about the incomprehensibility of the divine will.

71 Virgin of the Pelopian family-Elektra, great-granddaughter of Pelops.

72 Wisdom and skillful speech were two elements that formed the goal of traditional "higher" education during the Roman Empire: philosophy and rhetoric.

We both didn't want that. - "To want and not to want the same thing is a sign of true friendship" - a common thought for antiquity. Cf. Os. Planet. 2. 5; De amic. XVII. 61; Sail. Cat. XX. 4; Sil. Ital. IX. 406: "... to want the same and not to want the same for both of them."

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if there was a hunt for throwing a spear, they threw

both of them were good-naturedly playing their favorite game. ;

but if suddenly someone had pebbles lying down right away,

one was not afraid of losing to the other; when he won, he did not brag.

Once Castor the brother was so loved and cherished by Pollux 75 ,

Castor also loved Pollux wholeheartedly.;

in death, having gained their turn, they also compensate for the loss of life.

305 In Tyrian purple dresses dressed lover-killer

and on his criminal head sparkles a crown.

He enters Agamemnon's palace like a legitimate heir

(more, however, it would be appropriate for the heir to be called Tiesta.),

he seeks to find the tsar's son Orestes everywhere 77 .

310 ... However, when did he realize that the wealth of the Danaians was buried,

there was still hope to plunder the Trojan hoards;

I soon learned that these, too, had been abducted along with Orestes.

Indignation rages that the royal name is empty

he has gained that he has lost riches, but as a tyrant they are only

315 it could have been made by providing it with iron and gold 78 .

But Clytemestra Lukava: an ally in crime

cleverly, she comforts him, so that he keeps to the old rules;

everything flaunts riches, my dears.:

rings, crowns; chirping like a magpie, he brings out the boxes

She tries on her jewelry and necklaces to fit her vicious body.

"This will buy us favor all over Argolis,

we will attract the new nobility and calm the old nobility,

to be loyal to us. After all the husband of any spouse,

be he mighty and great, and she both modest and beautiful,

325 putting on these ornaments, placing hope in them,

can appease, but if to the sweetness of their flattering words

ours will add 80 riches, then sweet poison.

your spouse's ears will be filled with confusion; a gentle embrace

he will finish the job skilfully. So the female gender is crafty

330 those who stand high, we will be able to make friends.

Zlato is beautiful, but the zlata woman is much more beautiful:

gold covers the shame, gold adorns the honor,

but only Kyprida softened in the battles of the cruel Mars.

Believe me, husband: I, the wife, talk like this about women

you have the right."

335 By such speech she strengthens the lover's will;

rejoicing in the female courage, the former is taken up again;

74 Favorite game indulged-in pebbles.

75 Castor and Pollux Polydeucus) - two twin brothers, sons of Leda. According to the most common version, the father of Castor is Tyndareus, the earthly spouse of Leda, the father of Polydeucus is Zeus. In a battle with his cousins, Castor was killed, and Polydeucus was granted immortality by Zeus, turning him into a star. However, Polydeucus refused this gift, not wanting to part with his brother, and then Zeus allowed them to either be in heaven or in hell every other day, or alternate in such a way that one day Polydeucus was in heaven, and Castor in Hades, and the next day they changed places. See Hyg. 80.

76 The name of the heir is Tiesta. "It seems that Dracontius also treats Tiestes as a commoner whose son has no right to the throne, which, however, contradicts article 203.

77 After v. 309, there is an obvious lacuna in the surviving text, which should have indicated the failure of Aegisthus ' attempts to find Orestes and Agamemnon's treasures (see 310-312, cf.

78 with iron and gold. - The first is to curb the discontented, the second is to bribe them. Cf. 321-331.

Creating a new and old nobility is a clear anachronism, implying the formation of a new nobility in the era of the Roman Empire from rich freedmen, imperial favorites, etc. Dracontius, as a representative of an old family, could hardly sympathize with this process.

80 Threads will add wealth. - This sentence is somewhat in conflict with 325, where these ornaments are named, i.e. presumably already given to the wives of noble Mycenaeans.

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dirty soul longs for the kingdom and wants to hold the scepter.

"In the cunning ambush of the wife, the shepherd's boldness is criminal,

entering the house without fear, our glorious father was ruined.

the ruler", -

340 so silently in their hearts do their fellow citizens suppress the Duma;

in a timid whisper 81, through tears, so they say among themselves;

"Il unholy Lachesis 82 according to the fatal law

death awarded to the tsar under the infamous axe blow?

Oh, if only the Amazon had slain this man in battle!

345 Penthesilea, raging, which he barely escaped,

nor did he perish prostrate, a victim of an inglorious death,

to the family, passing the blame to their own, and to the Danaians-murder,

would not be dragged along the ground 84, he did not lie the Kremlin in the distance,

his corpse, buried at night, would not be deprived of honor."

350 Muse, tell me, pray, why is a stepmother a mother

I ignored the search for children I could have killed.

put him to death like his father? There was a tsar's freedman. ,

faithful to the family, Dorilai 86, tutor of the younger Orestes.

False in a cunning mind he invented the news that by sea

355 the Atreides were taken by the furious and drowned in the stormy waves.

Standing on the bank, he called out: "Creators of the holy sky! ,

gods of the earth and seas, love that is inherent in nature!

I implore you to agree with my bold deception,

Help my false words: let me be heard,

360 Let them believe me, even if I am lying , for I am like the intercessor of Orestes

I strive to snatch the innocent from my father's fate, which is my own

the mother is ready to weave them and the stepfather, the hated enemy."

So he said and enters the wandering waters clothed,

and in the midst of the azure sea in violently boiling waves

I sank down to my head and came out again.

In a terrible agitation, with crying, he runs to the ill-fated one

hail,

In a plaintive voice, he calls out: "Jupiter, it pleases you so much

Should the Greeks now be destroyed as enemies, marking them for the Trojans?

For the sake of the Phrygians, the sea is raging in revenge for Troy.

370 What is the fault of children? What could a tender age do

on the fields of Ilion in the year of war? So for what

escape desired by them is not allowed by the water plain?

I saw for myself how the wave swallowed up the children together with the ship -

I sailed on it as a companion, a long-time Atreid tutor, -

81 In a timid whisper. - Same beginning of the verse: Drac. Med. 201, 236.

82 Lachesis is one of the three systems responsible for human destiny. One of the few cases of Dracontius turning to divine powers. Cf. Drac. Med. 375.

277). - It would have been better for Agamemnon to have perished and been buried with honor at Troy than to have fallen victim to a conspiracy at home: Aesch. Cho. 345-354. However, nothing is known about the meeting of Agamemnon in battle with Penthesilea. Seneca (Ag. 217 ff.) admits this only as one of the possibilities.

84 Do not drag b on the ground. - Compare Achilles ' handling of the body of the murdered Hector: 11. XXII. 395-404; XXIV. 14-18; and below: 526,720,725.

85 The tsar's freedman is another anachronism: Orestes 'wet nurse in Aeschylus' Choephors, his Tutor in Sophocles 'Electra, and the Old Man in Euripides' Electra remain slaves.

86 Dorilai. - The name of the tutor Orestes is introduced by Dracontius, although it is found in quite different plots in Ovid (Metam. V. 130; XII. 380) and Statius (Theb. II. 571; 111. 13). A false account of the death of Orestes is a constant element of tradition: Aesch. Cho. 674-687; Soph. El. 673-760, 1098-1122; Hyg. 119, but there it is intended to blunt the vigilance of usurpers. Here it can be regarded as an explanation of Articles 350-352. Cf. also 707-709.

87 Creators of the holy sky! - Cf. appeal to the gods of the earth and seas: Verg. Aen. III. 528; Ovid. Tr. 1. 2. 1; Ibis. 67.

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375 lost everything, but he escaped by swimming to the shore.

Yes, the queen is just and Aegisthus the Cruel is gentle;

the waves of the sea are fiercer: our children were not spared

even after the war! "Consider Troy happy!"

Mournfully he thus exclaimed, and being carried away by force into the palace,

380 lavished with gifts for bringing joy

to criminal souls. Shameless the queen soon ordered

gather all the people to her, and they come, but under compulsion.

Here in the middle of the palace she begins her speech like this:

"The best Greek leaders and you, inconspicuous people,

385 who escaped destruction for the triumphs of Atreides

in the years of iron, you, who, collecting the last of your strength,

sit with your belly empty, weak from spilled blood, -

the fact that Bellona has so tormented you with a brutal war,

king Agamemnon is to blame for depriving his city of its citizens. ;

390 he tried to make wives widows, and elders childless,

weasel father's depriving unripe young growth.

He died for this, struck by the blow of an axe,

also, the deep of the sea took revenge on his descendants.

I promise you 90 days of peace and hope for a peaceful rest;

395 peaceful will be leisure, sleeping at night will not be

from the bed, the sound of a trumpet is plucked, drilling open ears;

you can enjoy a gentle sleep in due course.

Cruel spears sleep; let swords turn into sickles;

by the strength of your bones, strong muscles bent bows

400 only aim at wild animals and fast birds.

Warm old age with fun, feasts that bring joy,

raise gentle granddaughters, let your children give them to you.

Let only diseases lead to the end of a blissful life,

let you hope that nature will help you in the world,

405 at the end of years, put - not wounds, iron

to you inflicted; the proper funeral rite will be performed,

and the funeral pyre you will have; every grave

he will be able to prepare for himself in his lifetime forever for the ashes.

Agmemnon was a cruel king and a wicked enemy

410 to his children, was the ruler of the fatherland too harsh;

Egist will be a citizen of 91 : I declare him my spouse."

So she said and ordered everyone from the palace to leave

and go home. But her lover, unable to

reins from the kingdom to hold, unskilled and rude ignoramus,

415 swaggering, he only considered himself a god-genius of house 92: with the servants

tsarskoy was terribly severe; like a stranger, he treated the slaves.

His orders were not meek, but when they should have happened

to do them himself, he would consider them a disgraceful fault.

The scepter of triumphs in the hands of a shepherd-that's the price

crimes;

88< St. 377 sl. - Wed. Drac. Hel. 54.

89 Citizens have lost their city. - Cf. Verg. Aen. VII1. 571: Intervention "the city deprived many citizens"; Stat. Silvae. III. 72-73: "The terrible Vesuvius yawn and the cruel mountain breeze / / Firestorm not so cities deprive their citizens".

I promise you peace. - The following lists the signs of the golden Age. See Ovid. Metam. I. 98-100:

There were no straight pipes, no twisted brass horns,

There were no helmets, no swords, no military exercises.,

Sweet peace was enjoyed by safely living people.

See also Verg. Ge. II. 539 cf.; Tibull. I. 3. 47-8.

91 Aegisthus will be a citizen - an anachronism caused, perhaps, by the fact that after the vandal conquest of Africa, the inhabitants of Carthage ceased to feel like citizens of the Roman Empire.

92 The genius God of the house is a deity inherent in every house and revered by its inhabitants. Aegisthus, by claiming veneration for himself, usurps the right of God.

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420 the tyrant is stained with blood , and purple is his reward;

in the house of the spouse-a disgrace, the path opened to marriage by the fault, -

who wouldn't moan? But fear commanded

subordinates

with a new disgrace to put up with: they were more afraid of the bullock 93 ,

than Hector Wrath was feared on the Trojan plain.

425 Agamemnon's reign ended: after the fall of Pergamum

Scourge worthy has matched the hero mighty Atreides 94 .

453 Almost eight years old 95 a mediocre shepherd in Mycenae

rules, hated by fate, and all this time with his wife

455 both of them enjoyed their wicked passion;

Meanwhile the whole crowd of Wednesday night's slaves came to the grave

the royal family flocked to weep over the king incessantly;

They are afraid that their trembling voice will be heard,

they stifled their mournful groans.

460 Here, in the midst of sad cries, he spat out a bitter word

A clever released 96-year-old he was Orestes ' tutor.

"Tsar, the best once 97, and now-a sad ghost,

you, whose cruelty was luck and death was victory,

You, whose military triumph ' 98 has only produced one crime,

465 you, whose calls are surely heard by the wrathful gods 99 ,

to whom you prayed in the temple , but you were denied success, -

if the Danaean victory at Troy was fair,

if spartan was rightfully cut off from Paris's heart

(how much effort did you expend if only 100 shepherds didn't own Elena?

470 Now owns yours!), if death is a different state,

if the deceased retains his consciousness and souls,

the members, having left, live if the spirit is immortal after death. ,

listen to our tears and sobs of your faithful servants!

Crack the earth with your fingers, and the firmament will split open with an unusual yawn!

93 Volopas-Egist.

94 Equaled Atreides. - Translated from Behrens ' conjecture (Poetae Latini minores. T. 5. Lipsiae, 1883. P. 126-214; Dracontii carmina profana); Achilles is named in the rcp, and the idea should be that Agamemnon and Achilles were the most important heroes of the Greeks at Troy, and Aegisthus, taking the place of the murdered king, as it were became on a par with Achilles. The latter, however, long dead at the time of the poem's action, had never been a king in Mycenae, and it is much more natural to contrast Aegisthus with Atreides, i.e. Agamemnon, whose power ended (425). The following articles 427-452 are moved after v. 540 by Behrens and Vollmer, because here the recollection of all sorts of criminal wives seems to be out of place and much more suitable to the speech of the ghost of Agamemnon, 527-551, while V. 453, which introduces the motive of popular discontent with the rule of Aegisthus, joins well with V. 426. It is also supported by the fact that in most of the anthologies mentioned in the introduction, article 452 is placed between articles 539 and 544: therefore, in the manuscript of the Tragedy of Orestes, from which extracts were made, the order of verses corresponded to the one proposed by Behrens and supported by Vollmer. This rearrangement is accepted by most publishers, although there are objections to it, since in this case Agamemnon's speech is doubled, and such an accumulation of mythological examples as is contained in v. 427-452 seems superfluous, even taking into account the rhetorical sympathies of Dracontius. To leave 4274-52 in its place, they are suggested to be considered a statement from the author, who comments here on the situation that developed in the house of Atreides after the usurpers seized power.

Almost eight years old. - See Od. III. 305.

96 Dorilai is a smart freedman. See 352.

97 The king, the best once. - Seeking help from the shadow of the deceased is a fairly frequent motif in ancient tragedy. Cf. Aesch. Re. 623-680; Cho. 129-151, 456-509; Eurip. El. 676-683.

98 Triumph. - See 26 and note.

99 Angry gods-for the destruction of Troy?

100 The shepherd-Paris, who judged the three goddesses while he was tending his flocks on Mount Ida, in the vicinity of Troy. Today, another shepherd owns yours, that is, the land of the Dead. Egist.

101 The spirit after death is immortal. - See Drac. Ach. 16-30.

102 Crack the ground! - Compare Seneca's call to the shadow of Achilles (Tro. 519-521: "Earth, open up! Thou, my husband, by the abyss / / Split It bottomless...") and its appearance in Ovid (Metam. XIII. 442 sl.: "From under the ground

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475 In the host of subterranean shadows 103, heavily avenging, upon them

based on,

Arise from the tomb, as the shadow of Achilles once rose. ;

execute your wife, let the punishment be paid to Aegisthus,

each member is 105 years old . Will you die unavenged,

giving the kingdom to a shepherd? Beyond the grave is harsh

480 the hero of Thessaly exacted the death penalty from an innocent woman.

virgins - the perpetrators of so many heinous, criminal acts

will you leave them without punishment, giving them victory and the kingdom?

Gods, lords of the cruel abyss of the underworld,

Tear open the mouth of Tartarus, from the throat that is wide open,

Send 485 serpentine maidens under the roof of the criminal house.

Make no mistake: Ferocious 106 sami to Tiesta's domain

They'll find a path they know, and they'll follow the old trail

(no, you are not furies 107 if you need prayer first,

if you don't want to avenge your guilt of your own free will).

490 I also have no doubt that I am rightfully asking for punishment,

Though bloody, Thebes has 108 neighboring walls.

I am served, once doomed to Tartarus darkness

and in the middle of a clear day, deprived of the light of day.

So I pray you: when the sentence of death is rightfully pronounced

495 the merciless sword will defeat both criminal villains,

you add plenty of flame to the Acheron torturers 109 ,

furies grow frenzy, their poison is deadly.;

let Enyo brutally torture those responsible for the murder, -

no matter what you torture them with, they will not be satisfied with execution."

500 said. And a groan came from the depths of the deep tomb. :

widely dispersed, the face showed its // Terrible Achilles") and Seneca (Tgo. 178-180: "A bottomless cleft opened up in an instant / / And the yawning Erebus opened the way to the stars, / / Cracking the earth...").

103 In the host... shadows - For the effect that the appearance of subterranean spirits produced in theatrical productions, see Cic. Tusc. I. XVI. 37.

104 The Shadow of Achilles rebelled. - Further (479181), the Greeks were stopped before sailing from Troy by the shadow of Achilles (the hero of Thessaly), who demanded Polyxena (the innocent virgin) as a sacrifice, who was promised to him as a wife. This motif, elaborated in detail in Euripides (Ness. 37-46, 107-140, 218- 228, 518-582; Tgo. 260-270), was widely used in the future. See Verg. Aen. III. 321-324; Ovid. Metam. XII. 597-609; Sen. 170-200; Apold. III. 13.6, Epit. V. 3; Hyg. 110.

105 To every member of it. - Wed. 908.

106 Ophiuchus virgins... Ferocious-furies that are familiar with the house of Tiest and can therefore follow the old trail like hounds. See Aesch. Bum. 231; Verg. Aen. VI. 257; Lucan. VI. 733. On this point, Virgil's commentator Servius remarks: "Lucan calls the furies dogs, because howling is the property of both dogs and furies."

107 No, you are not furies. - See Drac. Med. 458.

108< Thebes neighboring walls. - In fact, Mycenae was by no means adjacent to Thebes, but Dracontius ' geographical ideas about Greece were not very clear; see 109 and note. The doomed ones... Tartarus to darkness - i.e., as a result of the "Fiesta feast", those who deserve the intervention of underground forces and are deprived of the light of day: at the sight of a father eating the meat of his children. The sun lost its way and turned east. Wed. Sen. Tgo. 784-826, 990-995.

109 Add plenty of flame. "The furies have gone from being deities who persecute man on earth to torturers who torment sinners in the underworld. It is hardly necessary to see in this the Christian idea of the torment of criminals in hell: Greek mythology already knew about the executions that await villains in the next world (the punishment of Titus, Ixion). Pindar spoke of the afterlife judgment and retribution in the Second Olympian Ode; see also fr. 130-133 Sn. - M. Plato did not return to this topic many times (Gorg. 523 Е-525 D; Phaed. 113 D-l 14 S; cf. Resp. X. 617 D-621 B). Numerous fierce gods inhabited the otherworld of the Etruscans, who had an obvious influence on the religious beliefs of the Romans. For Dracontius, the direct source may have been Virgil (Aen. VI. 554-627). Enyo - in Greek mythology, the companion of Ares, embodying the horrors of war; her Roman parallel is Bellona, who was often depicted with a burning torch in her hands, which contributed to the identification of Enyo with the Erinii (Roman furies). Wed. 785.

110 Groans... from the bowels... tombs. - Cf. Verg. Aen. III. 39-48, where the buried Polydorus calls out to Aeneas: "A plaintive moan reached our ears / / Directly from the bowels of the hill."

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"Do not torment my soul with heavy sorrow, misery

don't share your saint: the one to calm down in the grave

your should be love, who is the world's worst spouse,

burning with a criminal heat and giving himself up to shameful passion,

505 to the glory of the depraved for the sake of their female weapons,

only with the victory he returned to the house, killed immediately.

I spent ten years as 111 avengers of the fraternal lodge,

the avenger of treason, forever tamed by the betrayal of his wife, -

she was not afraid to desecrate the house or the penates

510 a mortal blow to splash in your impious deception.

But I will not be avenged: they will find a bloody punishment.

I don't need any more words - Cassandra told you the truth,

believe Cassandra, Cassandra the prophetess knows the truth."

Quoth he; all depart, leaving the king's tomb.

515 On this night, however, she appeared within the borders of Athens.

light shadow of Agamemnon 112 (for Orestes has matured

I was there with Pylades, and we fell into a peaceful sleep,

filling the house with its even breath; in the palaestra

they were both very fond of games, and they were both tired.)

520 Standing at the head of the bed, Atreides appeared to them both 113

sleeping, - not at all the same as 114 was, triumphant

victory,

but how did he fall, with his head smashed by the blow of an axe? ,

sad, powerless, trembling, with groans sighs interfering;

red blood dripped continuously from his pale face,

525 the hands trembled and grew weak; the head trembled powerlessly;

the king was dragged out of the palace because of his shackled feet.

"Are you not ashamed of yourselves , young men," he said, " in the days of your prosperity?

years,

(the first curly fluff put on your delicate cheeks),

who knows so many sciences and bravely wields weapons,

530 what, exalted in the Kremlin, does the shepherd disgrace my kingdom,

taking a bloody fee; what, among his many crimes,

joyful, not tamed, and raising his puffed-up neck,

he readily believes the rumor, O wicked one, that the children have perished.

Or should the descendants of Cecrop 117 be called upon for vengeance? But the son

alive,

535 he and Pylades are unharmed. 118 showed themselves differently ,

loving Achilles ' friend, Patroclus, Pyrrhus-Aegeis.

111 I spent. - In the rcp there is a meaningless credo, which publishers, following Behrens, usually correct in eggo, also not quite satisfactory: why should Agamemnon define the years spent near Troy as wandering? The translation attempts to mitigate this awkwardness. Avenger of the fraternal lodge. - Compare the same turn of speech and also at the end of the verse in Lucan, III. 286.

112 The apparition of Agamemnon's shadow resembles the ominous dream motif of Aeschylus (Cho. 32-41, 523-550) and Sophocles (El. 410-426), but there the dream threatens Clytemestra. In Roman literature, Dracontius may have found a similar device in Virgil (Aep. V. 722-740), where Anchises instructs his son Aeneas; there, however, there is no talk of any revenge.

113 Appeared to both - an incredible situation; cf. 555 cf.

114 Not at all what he was. - Cf. Verg. Aep. II. 270-280; Sen. Tro. 443-450 (the apparition of Hector's shadow).

115 Smashed by an axe blow. - Pp. 259-262.

116 Aren't you ashamed? - Cf. Verg. Aep. IX. 598; XII. 229 (both times at the beginning of the verse); Sil. Ital. III. 506.

117 Or to the descendants of Cecrop? - that is, to the Athenians, so named after their legendary king. A somewhat obscure argument: why should the Athenians avenge Agamemnon? Perhaps the idea is that Agamemnon equates Orestes and Pylades, who were brought up in Athens, with the Athenians (cf. 655)?

118 They showed themselves differently - examples are not very successful: Patroclus is indeed a friend of Achilles: however, it is not clear how he showed himself. On the contrary, Achilles showed his friendly feelings by going into battle and defeating Hector, from whose hand Patroclus fell. Pyriphoi , king of the Lapiths, who decided to go down to Hades to kidnap Persephone; Aegeides agreed to help him in this. Theseus; so here again the relation is reversed, and there is no need to speak of revenge on anyone on the part of Theseus; Pirithous remained forever in Hades, and Theseus himself was saved only by the intervention of Hercules.

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Arm yourself with 119 weapons, pick up your swords, and a home battle awaits, -

and destroy the wicked mother with your father's iron;

there is no fault in that, if you punish the criminal cruelly:

540 in the death of your spouse, you will justly destroy the guilty party.

427 Geth Queen Tamiris 120 killed the king, but shameful

It was not her act: she avenged her own people;

let it be Medea's fault 121: engulfed in flames of sorrow

430 by the passing of love, she set fire to the royal palace:

she became a widow with her husband, who brought the concubine Glauca;

the wives of Lemnos 122 took the weapons of crime in their hands,

they have defiled their marriage bed with the blood of their husbands:

The wrath was fierce of Venus; a terrible deed had been done

435 Scythian wives 123-however, among the barbarians it was possible

this is villainy. But you, Queen of the Pelasgians, are Hellas

our born, mother of wise laws, spouse

glorious avenger-warrior, husband by brutal murder

the passion of criminal guilt you doubled 124 .

440 I could have remembered Alcestis 125: by my death at the manes

she tore out her husband; dishonoring herself, she did him honor.

What can we say about Evadne 126, who was burned in the fire of Thebes?

(To be continued)

119 Arm yourself. - Despite the plural, the following words are addressed, in fact, only to one Orestes.

120 Tamiris (or Tomiris) - queen of the Massagetae, whose army defeated the Persians who invaded their land in battle. The Persian king Cyrus himself fell in the battle, having previously treacherously attacked the Massagetae detachment and captured the queen's son, who committed suicide in captivity (Herod. I 205-214). Thus, although Tamiris did not kill the king with her own hand, she certainly avenged her own. In subsequent sources, the Massagetae are often confused with the Scythians and Getae; hence, Dracontius calls Tamiris the queen of the Getae. In the mouth of Agamemnon, the example given is, of course, an anachronism, which is used, in particular, by opponents of the permutation of v. 427-452 after 540 (see note to 453). However, anachronisms are not uncommon among Dracontius, including in the mouths of his characters (see 648, 770, 775-777, 890, 906, etc.).

121 Medea. - The story is told, in general, according to the tragedy of the same name by Euripides, except that there the offended woman did not set fire to the royal palace, but sent poisoned clothes to the new lover of Jason, from which both she and her father were burned alive; that the palace caught fire, Ovid adds (Metam. IX. 394 cf.). The name of Glaucus is found in Pausanias (II. 47. 3.6; cf. Apold. I. 9. 28: Hyg. 25), and none of the mythographers considers her a concubine: the Corinthian king Creon gave Glauca to Jason as a legitimate wife.

122 Wives of Lemnos. "The women of Lemnos neglected to offer sacrifices in honor of Aphrodite (Venus), and the angry goddess gave them a smell that turned away husbands who found new wives in Thrace. Out of a sense of revenge, the women of Lemnos killed all the men on the island, except for one who was saved by his daughter Hypsipyle. See Stat. Theb. V. 248-264; Apold. I. 9. 17; Hyg. 15.

123 Scythian wives. "The one Dracontius was referring to here. the opinions of researchers differ. Some believe that the poet counted among the Scythian wives, along with Tamiris, also Medea (later tradition often confused Colchians with Scythians) and Lemnos wives (as we know, his geographical knowledge did not prevent this). Then 434-436 should be considered a kind of summary for the three previous examples. Another interpretation is based on the version preserved by Justin in the retelling of Pompey Trog's "History": the Amazons, which tradition usually places on the banks of the river Fermodonta in Cappadocia, moved here from Scythia; their husbands, being constantly attacked by neighbors, were almost all exterminated. Then the women began to defend themselves against their enemies with weapons in their hands, and the men who remained alive were killed, "so that some women would not seem happier than others "(II. 4).

124 You doubled your guilt. - Wed. 901 and Sen. Oct. 605: "The son doubled his sin by his wickedness," says the ghost of Agrippina about Nero.

125 Alcestis, the consort of King Admetus, who agreed to die to save her husband from death. See the eponymous tragedy of Euripides.

126 Evadne-wife of Capaneus, one of the participants in the campaign of the seven against Thebes, who boasted to take the city even against the will of Zeus (husband-blasphemer, 450). See Aesch. Sept. 423-445. Not wanting to survive the death of her husband, who was struck down by lightning for his boast. Evadne threw herself into the fire (fire, Theban), lit for Capaneus. See Eurip. Suppl. 980-1072; in Roman literature: Ovid. Pont. III. 1. 111-112; named together with Alcestis: Ars am. III. 19-22; Tr. V. 14. 37-38; Stat. Theb. XII. 800-802; Claudian. Laus Ser. (XXIX). 150-151: "... Evadne's wife Capanea threw herself down, / / To mingle with her burning husband in the ashes they shared."

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