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NOTES FOR AGAMEMNON
1. He is alluding to Clytemnestra.
2. An "ox on the tongue" refers to a proverbial expression connoting
complete silence.
3. Morshead's note here reads, "These are Uranus and Cronus, predecessors
of Zeus on the throne of heaven."
4. A complete discussion of the problem of the fire beacon, coupled
with an ingenious explanation, probably not tenable, may be found in
A. W. Verrall's introduction to his text of the Agamemnon.
5. The lapse of several days is assumed to take place here. Critics are
not unanimous in accepting this view. Morshead's translation for line
587 has been altered to accord with the theory here adopted.
6. Morshead, in a note to this passage, has pointed to the overwhelming
difficulties which face the translator in his attempt to render it in
English.
7. Morshead quotes as his source for this line a passage from M.
Arnold's Thyrsis.