Aegisthus

And Agamemnon plainly was despised by his wife because of the defeat, and Aegisthus attacked him and mastered him easily, and the Argives, taking up the matter, appointed Aegisthus king—which they would not have done had he killed Agamemnon coming with such repute and power, having mastered Asia.

And the children of Thyestes were cut to pieces, and the father lay with Pelopia and begot Aegisthus;

And Aegisthus killed Agamemnon "having feasted him, as one slays an ox at the manger.

My mistress commands me to summon Aegisthus for the strangers in all haste, so that he may come and learn more clearly, from man to man, these tidings that have just arrived.

Well, do not give this message to our loathed master, but with all haste and with a cheerful heart tell him to come himself, alone, so that he may be told without alarm.

O children, O saviors of your father’s hearth, speak not so loud, dear children, in case someone should overhear and report all this to our masters merely for the sake of rumor.

but Aegisthus rules the land, possessing Agamemnon’s wife, the daughter of Tyndareus.

So if strangers must join in the sacrifice with citizens, Aegisthus, we are ready and will not refuse, lord.

When Aegisthus heard that, he said, You must be my guests for the feast with us now, for I happen to be sacrificing an ox to the Nymphs;

She deserves to die even more than you, for it was she who embittered you against your mother, always carrying tales to your ear to increase your hate the more, announcing dreams from Agamemnon, and Aegisthus’ bed, may the gods in Hades loathe it!

Aegisthus was her secret husband in the home;

and all the while he was darting lively glances at the friends of Aegisthus.

My accursed bed in that house of suffering there knows well already how I observe my night-long rites—how often I bewail my miserable father, whom bloody Ares did not welcome with deadly gifts in a foreign land, but my mother and her bedfellow Aegisthus split his head with murderous axe, just as woodmen chop an oak.

And then think what manner of days I pass, when I see Aegisthus sitting on my father’s throne;

Now by our mistress Artemis, you shall not escape the consequences of this audacity once Aegisthus returns.

that is why our old men fight our battles, while our young men make speeches— they take Alcibiades as their model, Alcibiades who carries his villainy to such unheard-of lengths that, after recommending that the people of Melos be sold into slavery, he purchased a woman from among the prisoners and has since had a son by her, a child whose birth was more unnatural than that of Aegis—thus, since he …

Oedipus, Aegisthus, or what?

nor, when we see the lust of Aegisthus or that of Paris, do we ask a cause sent by a god, when we almost hear the voice of guilt itself;

for we are told, in the third book of the Odyssey, that Ægisthus, who had added the crime of murder to that of adultery, was honoured with funeral ceremonies by Orestes, the son of the murdered king.

But at last, with the help of Ares, he killed his mother and laid Aegisthus low in blood.

Then can you tell me whether Aegisthus, who slew Agamemnon in Argos, governed all these people that you mean craftsmen and ordinary people, both men and women, or some other persons?