“I nursed thy childhood, and in peace would die.”
Clytemnestra says only that she wished to be allowed to spend her old age in peace; but she implies further, according to a natural feeling strongly expressed by Greek writers, that it was the special duty of her son to support her old age, and thus pay the fee of his nursing. Thus, in Homer, it is a constant lament over one who dies young in battle—
“Not to his parents
The nursing fee (θρέπτρα) he paid.”
—Il. IV. 478.
“In general it was accounted a great misfortune by the Greeks to die childless (ἄπαιδα γηράσκειν, Eurip. Ion. 621). And at Athens there was a law making it imperative on an heir to afford aliment to his mother.”—Klausen.
“Thou art a woman sitting in thy chamber.”
“Go to thy chamber, mother, and mind the business that suits thee;