Had he not prepared for his house an encumbrance of woe?
Let him not loudly plead there below
That in paying the price of her death whom a nation deplored,
The branch I had reared from his loins, he is slain with iniquitous sword.
Men shall reap what they sow.
In regard to the penalty which Clytaemnestra expects to suffer, the language of Aeschylus is deliberately vague. The Chorus say[20]:
Hast thou cut him off? Thou shalt be cut off from the State.
Our citizens shall hate thee with firm hate.
Clytaemnestra interprets these words as a threat of exile: