thyestes - key quotes

‘let anger know no limit/ no shame, while darkening passion whips their hearts’ - pg181

pg182;

'let the arrogant brothers lose their power’

‘while kings falter’

‘let brother fear brother, parent child, child parent; let children’s deaths be terrible, but even worse than their births’

‘let wife by enemy to husband, plotting against him’

‘all law perish’

pg183;

‘create in the kings/ the urge to fight and kill’

pg184;

‘do not allow each generation to get worse, each son more evil than the father was’

‘Goodness has done no good, and those alike in evil hurt each other’

‘Myrtilus deceived his master, was betrayed, and died, driven with treachery like his own’

pg185;

‘for a tyrant in crisis, you have not taken revenge’

pg186;

‘I do not care if this great and glorious house falls to ruin and kills me, as long as it kills him too’

‘to revenge a crime you must go one better’

‘his ambition knows no bounds when times are good; no rest, when times are bad’

‘persuasion and advice have no effect’

‘the best thing about being king is making folks accept whatever you do, and even praise it’

‘if you force praise by fear, hatred and fear come back around to you, true glory, true respect, come from the heart not from the lips’

pg187;

‘if there is no honour, no reverence for law, no trust, no faith, no goodness, the kingdom cannot stand’

‘kings follow their own way’

‘threatened by all my family; my wife was corrupted, my throne shaken by betrayal, my house was sick, my blood in doubt’

‘only weak kings kill. under my rule, people beg for the favour of death’

pg188;

‘I know not what it is, but it is something huge’

‘let the father carve and eat his children, and do it with greed, and even joy’

pg189;

‘young people are more obedient to bad orders’

‘crime often comes back round again to its teacher’

‘power itself will each it’ (the ways of crime and deceit)

‘they were born that way’ (the children)

pg190;

‘loyalty and fear - but loyalty mostly - keep your secret safe with me’

‘in your greed for power, you do not known where kingship really lies.’

‘wealth does not make the king’

‘a king is one who can set fear aside, who has no wickedness inside his heart. neither the rashness of ambition, nor the fickle favour of the populace’

pg191;

‘a strong mind is more powerful’

‘there is no need of arms and feeble weapons’

‘a king is a man without fear, a king is a man without desire, everyone makes this kingdom for himself’

pg192;

‘the slippery pinnacle of power’

‘let my place be humble’

‘let me grow old, but never rise in class, and let me die’

‘death weighs more heavily on those who are all too well known to everyone but who do not know themselves’

‘how I longed for my homeland, my house, and the wealth of Argos!’

‘greatest happiness for exiles… to see their native earth and their ancestral gods’

‘no reason to be dazzled by the false, flashy brightness of royal power’

pg193;

‘Poison is drunk from gold. I know of what I speak’ - corruption of desire for material wealth

pg194;

‘deep peace comes to those in modest circumstances.’

‘the ability to do without a kingdom is a kingdom’

‘family loyalty usually comes back again, the love we ought to feel will heal its long-lost strength’

‘his power is as great as his hatred’

pg195;

‘go, no hesitation’

‘my vengeance strains at the leash’

pg196;

‘having a kingdom is only luck; to give it away is a virtue’

‘I would prefer to be lost in the midst of the crowd’

‘this kingdom allows two rulers’

‘so wild and violent, so lacking self-control’

‘there is no greater power than true devotion’

‘loving duty overcomes the sword’

pg197;

‘for fear of war is even worse than war’

‘no situation lasts. pleasure and pain give way in turn; but pleasure is more brief’

pg198;

‘no one should trust too much in his good fortune, no one should give up hope of better luck’

‘no one has supporters rich enough that he can guarantee himself tomorrow’

‘god moves our lives around on his swift spindle and turns them upside-down’

pg199;

‘the vision of that crime will not go from my eyes’

‘if the people grow rebellious, kings can reach to strike them’

pg200;

‘incense was not forgotten, or the holy juice of Bacchus’

‘all due ritual was observed, in case such a horrible crime be done improperly’

‘he was the priest himself’

‘no part of the rite was lost’

‘his royal crown kept falling down’

pg201;

‘can nature allow a worse atrocity?'

pg202;

‘what more could he do?… refuse cremation?’

‘this man makes normal pain desirable’

‘the father rips apart his sons, putting into his murderous mouth his own dear flesh and blood’

‘his hair is wet and shiny with perfume, his body heavy with wine; his mouth is overstuffed, his jaws can hardly hold new morsels’

‘your only blessing is your ignorance’

pg203;

‘but we must see this evil; all is now revealed’

pg204;

‘fearing that everything is shaken and may topple into disaster, chaos come again, to overwhelm humanity and gods’

‘the mass of gods will be heaped away into a single chasm'

pg205;

‘were we from all humanity the ones who earned destruction, crushed by the overturning of the hinges of the world?’

‘we were born for a cruel lot’

‘enough complaints, enough of fear; one would have to be greedy for life not to want to die when the world is dying’

pg206;

‘Yes! I am God! Highest of all the powers, and King of Kings!’

pg207;

‘the mind gives indications of a grief to come, prophet of its future pain’

‘careless where his fury leads him’