Page:Parerga.djvu/12

Arrogance in success is always the forerunner of miserable reverse: and the visitations of the Gods are particularly directed against those "that have shed much blood^[1]."

On these principles, the Greek Dramatists studiously exhibit the crime committed by Paris in the seduction of Helen as the cause that drew down ruin on himself and his country. But the Greeks, who wrought the vengeance of Heaven on Troy, themselves incurred its judgements by the pride of their hearts in the hour of triumph, and by the slaughter and misery which they inflicted. Above all, Agamemnon, the King of men, the Chief of the victorious armament, became an instance of sudden downfal from the very summit of prosperity and renown to the abyss of ruin. "The Ruler, the Hero, the Commander of the collected hosts of Greece, at the very instant of his success in that most glorious achievement, the destruction of Troy, for which his name was to be re-echoed in time present and time to come—in the very act of crossing the threshold of the house for which he had so long been sighing, and amidst the careless preparations for a banquet—is murdered, as Homer expresses it, 'like an ox beside his crib'—murdered by his faithless wife; his throne is seized on by her worthless paramour; and his children are consigned to banishment or hopeless servitude^[2]."