Set not upon the ground, my lord, that foot of thine
That hath sack’d Ilium. Maid servants! Why delay
To strew the foot-path of his road with tapestries?
Forthwith be purple-paved his way! Let Justice lead
On to a dwelling where he scarce had hoped to come.”
Agamemnon, flattered, makes a show of resistance, and finally, to ward off the evil consequences of presumption, compromises by bidding the slaves unloose his shoes:—
“Lest bolt of envy from the gods’ eyes from afar
Shall strike me as the costly purple I tread down.”
As he yields there surges before the vision of the exultant Clytemnestra another sea:—
“There is a sea and who shall ever drain it dry?