The Aeschylean Upsettedness of the People

by Ed Sanders

They say the English masses were so angry
at the Germans after World War I
they demanded harsh reparations

of the sort that fueled the rise of the right
and the Beerhall Putsch

Is that so?

The people can rise to a boil
that’s for sure

Recall the lines of Aeschylus in Agamemnon
when a herald has announced the fall of Troy

and the nervous chorus of elders tosses forth
some unsettling matters with Klytemnestra

such as

“Powerful is the voice of the people stirred with anger
It has the strength of a whole nation bound as one”

Aeschylus knew how the people can boil
but can they boil toward aught but war?

I don’t know Clio doesn’t know Helen is unaware
Gandhi wasn’t sure the Kennedys thought it could

and it’s our only chance