often a sinister figure in
tragedy. Cf. Sophocles _Oedipus_ , ll. 915 ff., pp. 52 ff., and the
similar scene, _Electra_, 655 ff. Here it is a shock to the Herald to come
suddenly on the god who was the chief enemy of the Greeks at Troy. One
feels Apollo an evil presence also in the Cassandra scene, 11. 1071 ff.,
pp. 47 ff.

P. 23, l. 530, Happy among men.]--The crown of his triumph! Early Greek
thought was always asking the question, What is human happiness? To the
Herald Agamemnon has achieved happiness if any one ever did. Cf. the
well-known story of Croesus asking Solon who was the happiest man in the
world (Herodotus, I. 30-33).

P. 24, ll. 551 ff., Herald's second speech.]--The connexion of thought is:
"After all, why should either of us wish to die? All has ended well." This
vivid description of the actualities of war can be better appreciated now
than it could in 1913.

P. 25, l. 577, These spoils.]--Spoils purporting to come from the Trojan
War were extant in Greek temples in Aeschylus' day and later.

P. 26, l. 595, Our women's joy-cry.]--There seems to have been in Argos an
old popular festival, celebrating with joy or mockery the supposed death
of a man and a woman. Homer (Od. iii. 309 f.) derives it from a rejoicing
by Orestes over Aigisthos and Clytemnestra; cf. below, ll. 1316 ff., p.
59; Aeschylus here and Sophocles in the _Electra_, from a celebration by
Clytemnestra of the deaths of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Probably it was
really some ordinary New Year and Old Year celebration to which the poets
give a tragic touch. It seems to have had a woman's "Ololugmos" in it,
perhaps uttered by men. See Kaibel's note, Soph. _Electra_ 277-281.

P. 26, l. 612, Bronze be dyed like wool.]--Impossible in the literal
sense, but there is after all a way of dying a sword red!

P. 27, l. 617, Menelaus.]--This digression about Menelaus is due, as
similar digressions generally are when they occur in Greek plays, to the
poet feeling bound to follow the tradition. Homer begins his longest
account of the slaying of Agamemnon by asking "Where was Menelaus?" (Od.
iii. 249). Agamemnon could be safely attacked because he was alone.
Menelaus was away, wrecked or wind-bound.

P. 28, l. 642, Two-fold scourge.]--Ares works his will when spear crosses
spear, when man meets man. Hence "two-fold."

P. 29, CHORUS. The name HELENA.]--There was a controversy in Aeschylus'
day whether language, including names, was a matter of Convent