“What choice is here, where all is ill?” he cried; “Am I to leave the vessels to their fate? Am I to lose the friends with me allied? Lo, now a sacrifice which shall abate Storm-winds with blood of victim virginal Law sanctions; they press hard; then God mend all!”
~ ‘Agamemnon’ by Aeschylus (G. M. Cookson translation. p54. line 210)
The play starts with a watchman praying to the gods for relief from his duty, which has taken so many years of waiting. He is waiting for the beacon of fire that will announce Greek victory. Due to the long nights, he has become familiar with the patterns of stars at night, allowing him to predict seasons and weather. He is unable to sleep and is desperate for the sign for which he has been waiting for long. Suddenly, he sees a beacon of light and is very happy.
The chorus, a group of old people, recounts the event of the departure of the Greek fleet with thousands of ships ten years ago. They say that justice and god (Zeus) are on their side since the Trojans were the transgressors for breaching the hospitality rules when Paris abducted Helen. They talk about how painful memories, like bleeding wounds, persist in the mind. They talk about the adverse winds blocking Greeks from starting out, which was abated only after Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigenia. They are surprised to suddenly see sacrificial fires and ask Clytemnestra, the queen, for the reason.