Leader: I'm convinced, glad that I was wrong.
Never too old to learn; it keeps me young.
(CLYTAEMNESTRA enters with her women.)
First the house and the queen, it's their affair,
but I can taste the riches.
CLYTAEMNESTRA:
I cried out long ago! -
for joy, when the first herald came burning
through the night and told the city's fall.
And there were some who smiled and said,
'A few fires persuade you Troy's in ashes.
Women, women, elated over nothing.'
You made me seem deranged.
For all that I sacrificed - a woman's way,
you'll say - station to station on the walls
we lifted cries of triumph that resounded
in the temples of the gods. We lulled and blessed
the fires with myrrh and they consumed our victims.
(Turning to the herald.)
But enough. Why prolong the story?
From the king himself I'll gather all I need.
Now for the best way to welcome home
my lord, my good lord...
No time to lose!
What dawn can feast a woman's eyes like this?
I can see the light, the husband plucked from war
by the Saving God and open wide the gates.
Tell him that, and have him come with speed,
the people's darling - how they long for him.