and suggest the name ORESTES as avenger: At this Clytaemnestra
starts, _Aegisthus_ enraged gives the signal at which {1626}

_Bodyguard of Aegisthus pour in through both the Inferior doors on either
side of the Central door of the Palace, and fill the stage [thus
producing one of the Scenic Tableaux of which Aeschylus was fond]. The
Chorus, though of course outnumbered, are nothing daunted, as
representing the legitimate authority of the State now Agamemnon is dead,
and therefore sure to be backed by the City; they make as if to ascend
the stage._

Contest in blows between Chorus and Bodyguard of Aegisthus appears
inevitable, but Clytaemnestra throws herself between them, urges that
enough ill has already been done, and after further defiances, forces
Aegisthus away and play abruptly terminates: _the Chorus returning to the
Right into the City, and the Bodyguard into the Palace_.

[1] This is a mere guess: we have no information as to how the evolutions
of a Proem differed from those of a regular Choral Ode.

[2] The Chorus generally speak of themselves in the Singular.

[3] This is simply an English pun substituted for a Greek one: the name
Helen resembles a Greek root which signifies captivity.

SECOND PLAY: MIDDAY:

THE SEPULCHRAL RITES

(_CHOEPHORI_)

PROLOGUE

_The Permanent Scene, as before, represents the Palace of Agamemnon at
Argos. The only difference is that the place of the Thymele in the
centre of the Orchestra is taken up by Agamemnon's Sepulchre. Enter by
the Left Side-door (signifying distance) Orestes and Pylades, and
descending the Orchestra-staircase advance to the Sepulchre._

_Orestes_, invoking the Conductor of the Dead, lays locks of hair and
fragments of garments as offerings on his Father's tomb, cut off as he
had been by exile from being present at the actual Funeral-rites:

_He is interrupted by the opening of one of the Inferior Doors of the
Palace, out of which comes Electra, and a train of Trojan
Captive-maidens bearing urns of libations, all with dishevelled hair
and the well-known gestures proper to Sepulchral rites. They descend
(with the exception of Electra) the Orchestra-staircase, and perform a
Choral Ode with funeral rhythm and gestures. Orestes and Pylades,
recognizing them, stand aside._ {19}

SEPULCHRAL ODE AS CHORUS-ENTRY

_in three Strophes, Antistrophes, and an Epode,_

describes in words the tearings of cheeks, rending of garments, an