“He silent stood in sadness, not in wrath.”
Here commences one of the most difficult, and at the same time one of the most beautiful passages in the Agamemnon. The words,
πάρεστι σιγᾶς᾽, ἄτιμος, ἀλόιδορος
ἅδιστος ἀφἐμένων ἰδεῖν,
are so corrupt, that a translator is quite justified in striking that sense out of them which is most fit on grounds of taste, and in this view I have little hesitation in adopting Hermann’s reading,
πάρεστι σιγὰς (σιγηλος) ἄτιμος ἀλόιδορος
ἄληστος ἀφεμένων ἰδεῖν;
modified thus by Orelli—
ἄπιστος ἀφεμέναν ἰδεῖν—(See Wellauer).