Orestes

1The Chorus of Argive Maidens enters quietly. The following lines between Electra and the Chorus are chanted responsively. Chorus Hush, hush! let your footsteps fall lightly! not a sound! Electra Go further from his couch, further, I beseech you! Chorus There, I obey. Electra Ah, ah! Speak like the breath of a slender reed-pipe, my dear, I pray. Chorus See, how soft and low I drop my voice. Electra Yes, do so; approach now, softly, softly! Give me an account of why you have come here. For at last he has lain down, and sleeps.

1Chorus How is he? You give us an account, my dear; what has happened, what misfortune? Electra He is still breathing, but his moans grow feeble. Chorus What are you saying? turning to Orestes. Unhappy Orestes! Electra You will kill him, if you disturb him from the sweet sleep he now enjoys. Chorus Poor sufferer, for his hateful deeds, inspired by a god! Electra Ah, misery! Injustice it was, after all, from an unjust mouth, when Loxias on the tripod of Themis decreed my mother’s most unnatural murder.

2Chorus Do you see? He stirs beneath his robe! Electra Alas! Your noisy chatter has roused him from his sleep. Chorus No, I think he is asleep. Electra Leave us, go away from the house! circle back again! cease this noise! Chorus He is asleep. Electra You are right.†O Lady Night, giver of sleep to hard-working mortals, come from Erebus, come, wing your way to the palace of Agamemnon. For with misery and woe we are lost, we are gone. There! To the Chorus. that noise again! Do be still and keep the sound of your voice away from his couch; let him enjoy his sleep in peace, my dear!

2Chorus Tell me, what end of troubles awaits him. Electra Death, death; what else? For he has no desire for food. Chorus Then his destiny is already clear. Electra Phoebus offered us up for sacrifice, when he ordered the pitiable, unnatural murder of our mother, who killed our father. Chorus It was just. Electra But it was not well done. You killed and were killed, my mother! and you have slain a father and your own children; for we are dead or as good as dead. You are in your grave, and the greater part of my life is spent in weeping and wailing, and tears at night; unmarried, childless, I drag out forever a joyless existence.

1Chorus Ah! ah! you goddesses swiftly careering on your wings, whose lot it is to hold a revel, not with Bacchic rites, in tears and groans; you black-skinned avenging spirits, that dart along the spacious air, exacting a penalty for blood, a penalty for murder, I beg you, I beg you! Allow the son of Agamemnon to forget his wild whirling frenzy. Alas for the toils which you, poor wretch, strove after to your ruin, when you heard the voice from the tripod, proclaimed by Phoebus, at his sanctuary, where the hollows are called the navel of the earth.

1Chorus O Zeus! What pity, what deadly struggle is here, hurrying you on, the wretch on whom some avenging fiend is heaping tears upon tears, bringing to the house your mother’s blood, which drives you raving mad? Great prosperity is not secure among mortals. I lament, I lament! But some divine power, shaking it to and fro like the sail of a swift ship, plunges it deep in the waves of grievous affliction, violent and deadly as the waves of the sea. For what other family must I still revere, rather than the one from a divine marriage, from Tantalus.

1Chorus The great prosperity and the prowess, proudly boasted throughout Hellas and by the streams of Simois, went back again from good fortune for the Atreidae long ago, from an old misfortune to their house, when strife came to the sons of Tantalus over a golden ram, to end in most pitiable banqueting and the slaughter of high-born children; and this is why murder exchanges for murder, through blood, and does not leave the two Atreidae.

1Chorus What seemed good was not good, to cut a mother’s flesh with ruthless hand and show the sword stained black with blood to the sun’s bright beams; to commit a noble crime is an impious, subtle, malignant madness! The wretched daughter of Tyndareus in terror of death screamed to him: My son, this is unholy, your bold attempt upon your mother’s life; do not, while honoring your father, fasten on yourself an eternity of shame.

1Electra O Pelasgia, I take up the dirge, doing bloody outrage on my cheeks with white nail, and beating on my head; these are the portion of Persephone, fair young goddess of the nether world. Let the Cyclopian land break forth into wailing for the sorrows of our house, laying the steel upon the head to crop it close. This is the piteous, piteous strain that goes up for those who are about to die, once the battle-leaders of Hellas.

1Electra It has gone, it has gone, and is lost, all the race of Pelops, and the glory that crowned their happy home once; the envy of heaven seized them and that cruel murdering vote among the citizens. Oh, oh! you tribes of short-lived men, full of tears, full of suffering, see how fate runs counter to your hopes! All receive in turn their different troubles in length of time; and the whole of mortal life is uncertain.

1Electra My dear friends of Mycenae, of foremost rank in Argos, the home of the Pelasgians. Chorus What are you saying to us, mistress? For this honored name is still left for you in the Danaid town. Electra Station yourselves, some here along the high road, others there on some other path, to watch the house. Chorus But why do you call me to this service? Tell me, my dear. Electra I am afraid that some one, who is stationed at the house for slaughter, may find trouble upon trouble. First Semi-Chorus Let us make haste and go on; I will keep careful watch upon this road towards the east. Second Semi-Chorus And I on this one, that leads westward. Electra Throw a glance sideways. Chorus Here and there, then we are looking back again, as you tell us.

1Electra Cast your eyes around, let them see everything, through your tresses. First Semi-Chorus Who is that on the road? Who is this country-man wandering round your house? Electra Ah! friends, we are ruined; he will at once reveal to our enemies the armed ambush. Second Semi-Chorus (Reconnoitring. Calm your fears; the road is not occupied, as you think, my dear. Electra (Turning to the other watchers.) Well? Is your side still secure? Give me a good report, if the space before the court-yard is deserted. First Semi-Chorus All goes well here; look to your own watch, for no Danaid is approaching us. Second Semi-Chorus Your report agrees with mine; there is no noise here either. Electra Well then, I will listen in the gateway. Chorus (Calling through the door.) You within the house, why are you delaying to spill your victim’s blood, now that all is quiet?

1Chorus Oh, oh, friends! raise a din, a din and shouting before the house, that the murder when done may not inspire the Argives with wild alarm, to make them bring aid to the palace, before I see for certain that Helen’s corpse lies bloody in the house, or hear the news from one of her attendants; for I know a part of the tragedy, of the rest I am not sure. In justice, retribution from the gods has come to Helen; for she filled all Hellas with tears, through that accursed, accursed Paris of Ida, who drew Hellas to Troy.

1Chorus Ah, fortune! Again and yet again the house comes to a fearful contest, for the race of Atreus. What are we to do? Carry tidings to the town? Or hold our peace? It is safer, friends. Look, look at that sudden rush of smoke to the sky in front of the palace, telling its tale! They are kindling torches to fire the halls of Tantalus; nor do they hold back from murder. A god determines the end where he wishes, for mortals. Great is the power; by avenging fiends, this house has fallen, fallen, through blood, by reason of the hurling Myrtilus from the chariot.