Agamemnon — First Stasimon

The first stasimon opens by naming Zeus as the one who set mortals on the path to wisdom through pain. "Zeus it is who leads mortals to think rightly, who has established that wisdom comes by suffering." This is not consolation. It is description. The law operates whether or not the sufferer understands it or welcomes it.

The chorus turns to Paris, who stole Helen from Menelaus's house — violating the sacred bond of guest-friendship — and brought the Trojan War on his city in consequence. They describe Menelaus's grief at the empty bed, the empty chair, the ghost of Helen in his dreams. They describe the bronze urns coming home from Troy with the ashes of the dead, and the anger of the Argive people at the thought that so many men died for one woman.

But the ode does not stay on Paris. It turns to the problem of the man who seems to prosper from transgression — who has won the war, who is coming home in triumph — and warns that the gods see through such appearances. Excessive happiness breeds insolence; insolence breeds ruin. The man who has what he should not have will eventually be brought low. The chorus is not quite saying this about Agamemnon. But it is circling it.