The gods have met in council, and Jove happens at the
moment to be thinking of AEgisthus, who had met his death at the
hand of Agamemnon's son Orestes, in spite of the solemn warning that
Jove had sent him through the mouth of Mercury. It does not seem
necessary for Jove to turn his attention to Clytemnestra, the
partner of AEgisthus's guilt. Of this lady we are presently told
that she was naturally of an excellent disposition, and would never
have gone wrong but for the loss of the protector in whose charge
Agamemnon had left her. When she was left alone without an adviser--
well, if a base designing man took to flattering and misleading
her--what else could be expected? The infatuation of man, with its
corollary, the superior excellence of woman, is the leading theme;
next to this come art, religion, and, I am almost ashamed to add,
money. There is no love-business in the Odyssey except the return
of a bald elderly married man to his elderly wife and grown-up son
after an absence of twenty years, and furious at having been robbed
of so much money in the meantime.
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