¹ I am most grateful to Professor William Nethercut for reading and offering suggestions on this paper.

² Lebeck, A., The Oresteia: a Study in Language and Structure (Washington, 1971) 69Google Scholar. Cf. also 131, 133.

³ On these inversions cf. Zeitlin, F. I., TAPA 96 (1965) 463–508Google Scholar; Vidal-Naquet, P., PP 129 (1969) 401–25Google Scholar (especially 417–8); Winnington-Ingram, R. P., JHS 68 (1948) 130–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Such imagery has been treated before, most notably by Peradotto, J. J. in an excellent article on nature motifs in the trilogy in AJP 85 (1964) 378–93Google Scholar. Professor Peradotto gives a concise summary of all the light images, including many of those involving fire. The present article attempts to approach that idea from a different direction, and to suggest that Aischylos uses fire here, not simply as an aspect of light, but as a central destruction symbol for the whole trilogy.

⁵ Cf. frr. 455, 456 (Mette).

⁶ Cf. Knox, B. M. W. on the use of the lioncub image in CP 47 (1952) 18Google Scholar.

⁷ All citations, unless otherwise noted, are from Page's Oxford text (1972). The following standard commentaries are referred to only by author: Fraenkel, E., Agamemnon (Oxford, 1950)Google Scholar; Denniston, J. D. and Page, D., Agamemnon (Oxford, 1957)Google Scholar; Thomson, G., The Oresteia of Aeschylus (Amsterdam, 1966)Google Scholar.

⁸ Literally ‘torch’ thus Aischylos in his initial reference to the beacons looks forward already to the closing torches of the Eumenides.

⁹ For the Greek use of light as a symbol of triumph and salvation cf. Bultmann, R., Philologus 97 (1948) 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Tarrant, D., CQ 10 (1960) 181–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Note that the chain of beacons has not yet been explained; thus we are left with a literal impression of the actual fire of Troy bringing the news.

¹¹ On the many possibilities for this kind of ambiguity in Aischylos cf. Stanford, W. B., Ambiguity in Greek Literature (Oxford, 1939) 137–62Google Scholar; note also Lebeck's statement of method (op. cit. n. 2) 3.

¹² Fraenkel (II 15) and Page (68) both observe that elsewhere ὀρφναῑος always means ‘dark’. Here the literal meaning would seem to be, as they also observe, ‘in the darkness’, but surely Aischylos intended more. Cf. φῶς αἰνολαμπές at 1. 389.

¹³ Some difference of opinion exists over whether νυκτὸς should be construed directly with λαμπτὴρ, as I have done here, or more generally with φάος (thus yielding ‘light in the night’). Since both constructions are possible it seems likely that both were intended, but surely we can give preference to the more forceful image; we already know that it is night.

¹⁴ Peradotto (op. cit. n. 4) 389. This chorus of Furies is specifically mentioned at 1188 ff.

¹⁵ Cf. Zeitlin (op. cit. n. 3) 507 for the restoration of the ὀλολυγμός to its proper function at the end of the trilogy.

¹⁶ For the context of the reference cf. Fraenkel II 19–20. He himself comments that the concept of a beacon throwing dice is ‘very bold’. The triple six is clearly fortunate, but whether for Agamemnon or Klytaimestra remains to be seen.

¹⁷ The mss. ἀντολάς is preferred here to Pages' ἀντολαῑς. For arguments that 1. 7 is a gloss cf. Fraenkel II 6–9; against this Thomson, II 10; I 63.

¹⁸ Homer, (Il. viii 553–6)Google Scholar makes a very distinct comparison between watch fires and the stars: cf. Bultmann (op. cit. n. 9) 4. As for Aischylos himself, nothing in his extant work can be used to demonstrate conclusively that he conceived of stars as fire (unless perhaps Sept. 388). But such an idea was common enough among the Presocratics (Herakleitos and Anaximander in particular), and certainly Pindar had some such idea in mind when he called the sun the warmest of all stars (Ol. i 5–6). Cf. also below on Cho. 585–90.

¹⁹ Note the use of ἐπαντϵίλασαν in reference to Klytaimestra rising from her bed at 1. 27. The scholiast goes so far as to add ὡς ἐπὶ ἄστρου ἢ σϵλήνης. Both Fraenkel (II 18) and Page (69) find this farfetched, but perhaps we underestimate Aischylos.

²⁰ The words καὶ νῦν beginning 1. 8 seem to reinforce this impression of a shift from general pattern to specific example.

²¹ Cf. Peradotto (op. cit. n. 4) 389.

²² Cf. Lebeck (op. cit. n. 2) 172.

²³ Zeitlin (op. cit. n. 3) 502, notes that Klytaimestra's action follows close upon the chorus' insistence that unyielding tempers cannot be softened by sacrifices.

²⁴ Note here the use of λαμπάς, the beacon of the watchman's speech, for the sacrificial fires.

²⁵ Fraenkel II 54–5.

²⁶ LSJ defines πέλανος as ‘any thick liquid substance’ and adds several specific references to blood, among them the ἐρυθρὸν πέλανον which the Furies threaten to draw from Orestes' limbs at Eum. 265. Cf. also πέλανος αἱματοσταγὴς (αἱματοσφαγὴς) at Pers. 816. It should, however, be conceded that in such parallels πέλανος usually has a clarifying epithet.

²⁷ Cf. Goheen, R., AJP 76 (1955) 115–20Google Scholar, and Lebeck (op. cit. n. 2) 84–6.

²⁸ Page (75–6) would have her appear by 1.83; Fraenkel (with full discussion, II 51–2) argues perhaps more logically for an entrance at 1. 254.

²⁹ In the second edition of his commentary on the Agamemnon (1904) Verrall concedes that such a distance might be spanned in very clear weather. How Klytaimestra could count on such weather is another matter, and one that should trouble only the meteorologist.

³⁰ Page (96) translates ‘burning more than the aforementioned’ but even he admits this to be prosaic. For the translation used here cf. Fraenkel (II 159) and Thomson (II 30). Certainly nothing could be more appropriate to a drama in which numerous figures take vengeance beyond what is their due.

³¹ Cornford, F. M., Thucydides Mythistoricus (London, 1907) 148–9Google Scholar, and Lloyd-Jones, H., Aeschylus: Agamemnon (1970) 33–4Google Scholar, are among the very few commentators willing to allow these beacons any sort of poetic content, but I cannot agree with Lloyd-Jones', interpretation of them as the ‘avenging power of Zeus’. With regard to ἄπαππον cf. the chorus' thoughts at 750 ffGoogle Scholar.

³² Ll. 326–9 with their description of the bereaved at Troy may well look back to Agamemnon's butchering of his own daughter as well as forward to Klytaimestra's murder of her husband.

³³ I confess I do not follow Page, 's reference to ‘the awkardness of the metaphor πυρωθέντα καρδίαν’ (Page 115)Google Scholar. For possible fire imagery in θῆλυς ἔρος (ms ὅρος) ἐπινέμεται (485) cf. Thomson II 46.

³⁴ Note the contrast between the παραλλαγάς and the ἀπαλλαγή desired by the watchman in the play's opening line.

³⁵ On this image cf. Lebeck (op. cit. n. 2) 180 and Zeitlin (op. cit. n. 3) 499. The perversion of wealth is of course also carried out by the fusion of blood and riches in Agamemnon's carpet.

³⁶ Note here again that a normally propitious aspect of everyday life, in this case the hearth, centre of home and family, becomes instead a symbol of loss and ruin.

³⁷ The text is Murray, 's, based on Musgrave, 's πάρος for πυρός Page (162–3)Google Scholar expresses general doubts and questions in particular πρός σϕαγὰς with the meaning ‘to the slaughter’. Merkelbach's rearrangement of the lines to

τὰ μὲν ἑστίας ἤδη πάρος

ἕστηκε μῆλα πρὸς σϕαγὰς πεσομϕάλου

gives perhaps the most satisfactory sense, though it is hard to part with the directness of the mss. σϕαγὰς πυρός. Of course Page is right in noting that ‘it is not fire that slaughters the victims’ literally, but the figurative imagery would be quite consistent with Aischylos' use of fire elsewhere.

³⁸ Cf. Knox (op. cit. n. 6) 22, Vidal-Naquet (op. cit. n. 3) 417, and Zeitlin (op. cit. n. 3) 467–8. As before, in the offerings made throughout the city, fire and sacrifice interact to an impious end.

³⁹ Note also 11. 968–9, where Agamemnon's return is said to bring heat to the hearth of the house:

⁴⁰ Cf. Peradotto (op. cit. n. 4) 390.

⁴¹ Thomson (I 49) suggests here a reference to the Mysteries. Taken together with the watchman's last words at Agam. 39 such an illusion might well reflect a symbolic structure in which torches veiled by darkness are gradually made to reveal their secret.

⁴² Cf. Bultmann (op. cit. n. 9) 8–9.

⁴³ Cf. I. 492: φῶς ἐφήλωσεν φρένας. Vidal-Naquet (op. cit. n. 3), 401, also comments on the ‘éclat trompeur’ of the opening.

⁴⁴ Cf. Op. 217–37, 256–62.

⁴⁵ I add here briefly several indirect references to fire: at 1. 1097 Kassandra sees the children of Thyestes holding their roasted flesh (ὀπτάς τε σάρκας) in their hands, and at 1. 849 Agamemnon declares the problems of Argos curable by burning or cutting (κέαντες ἢ τεμόντες—Klytaimestra of course chooses cutting).

⁴⁶ Zeitlin, however, does note (op. cit. n. 3, 482–3) a shift in the eagle imagery which lends sympathy to Orestes. We should also keep in mind that Elektra at least begins to break the chain of corrupted sacrifices by refusing to offer the prayers Klytaimestra has ordered.

⁴⁷ Still another reference to torches may pehapsr be seen at Cho. 386–7, where the ms. reads πευκήεντ᾿ ὀλολυγμόν. The text, however, may be corrupt: cf. Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style (Dublin, 1942) 108–9Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ This is admittedly a much-vexed passage, which in Murray's text reads as follows:

The problem lies primarily in the referent of If 1. 319 is taken with what precedes could refer to Orestes, Agamemnon, or whatever Orestes brings to Agamemnon. On the other hand, if we punctuate definitively after then becomes a separate phrase (so Page, Thomson). This last possibility does not seem to add much to the sense. Of the other three, keeping in mind Thomson's point that the purpose of Orestes' speech is to win Agamemnon's help, not his happiness, I have chosen Agamemnon and construed accordingly. But the matter is clearly questionable.

⁴⁹ The ms. reading is πῶς ἀνάξομεν, emended by Wilamowitz following Schneidewin. Page's adoption of φῶς τ᾿ ἄναψον weakens the imagery to no good purpose.

⁵⁰ The text is Murray's.

⁵¹ Page adopts τίω in preference to the ms. τίων printed by Murray, and surely with good reason: for Klytaimestra to honour a cold hearth would contradict all the previous imagery.

⁵² The text is Murray's.

⁵³ The text is Murray's; for the full story of Meleager's death cf. Bakkhylides 5. 136–54.

⁵⁴ The various domestic murders of this ode— mother killing son, daughter killing father, wives killing husbands—are well brought out by Winnington-Ingram (op. cit. n. 3) 138–9, and Lebeck, , CP 62 (1967) 183–4Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Compare 1. 169, where the Furies reproach Apollo for having defiled his sanctuary ἐφεστίῳ … corrupts. With characteristic ambiguity Aischylos leaves open the question of whose hearth the pollution corrupts.

⁵⁶ Cf. Peradotto (op. cit. n. 4) 392. As we come full circle, so to speak, Klytaimestra's remark at Agam. 314 takes on perhaps fuller significance:

⁵⁷ The crimson robes donned by the Furies at this point in the play suggest a transformation parallel to that of fire into a beneficent element: φοινικοβάπτοις in 1. 1028 surely recalls the purple carpet spread by Klytaimestra and the whole complex of blood images created by Aischylos for the trilogy (cf. Goheen, op. cit. n. 27, 122–4, and Lebeck, op. tic. n. 2, 84–6). Now, however, this imagery as well is converted into gladness and prosperity for mankind. We might even find in the vermilion-clad Eumenides a reiteration of the torches guiding the procession to its new home.

⁵⁸ Cf. the Prometheus Bound, where the harnessing of fire plays such an important role in man's progress toward civilization. There man's ability to use fire to constructive ends is a literal facet of civilization, whereas here it functions primarily as a symbol of other facets.