If only the herdsman had not brought him up with the flocks, not reared him, Paris, Alexander, to watch his flock by the clear springs where the nymphs rise, and the rich pastures starred with roses and hyacinths for the goddesses to gather.

No mortal ever knows happiness and good fortune all the way to the end. Each one is born with his bitterness waiting for him.

AGAMEMNON: Oh immovable law of heaven! Oh my anguish, my relentless fate!CLYTEMNESTRA: Yours? Mine. Hers. No relenting for any of us.

Truly we are creatures of labor and suffering, and nothing for long. Labor and suffering, and the plain sight of our destiny is the cruelest thing of all.

Apollo, Apollo—but he is my lord. I will keep silence. He is wise forever, though his oracle spoke brutal words. We are bound to acquiesce. And you must do now as Fate and Zeus ordain.

You gave birth to your own death.

Give me a man, for his sons make courageous soldiers while pretty boys can only decorate the dance.

Of most dreadful suffering, I am the cause.

Yet censure strikes hard at women, while men, the true agents of trouble, hear no reproach.