by Aeschylus
CHORUS
[439] Yes, and I would have you know he was brutally mangled. And even as she buried him in this way, she acted with intent to make the manner of his death a burden on your life past all power to bear. You hear the story of the ignominious outrage done to your father.
ELECTRA
[445] My father was murdered just as you say. But all the while I was kept sequestered, despised, accounted a worthless thing. Kennelled in my room as if I were a vicious cur, I gave free vent to my streaming tears, which came more readily than laughter, as in my concealment I poured out my lament in plentiful weeping. Hear my tale and inscribe it on your heart.
CHORUS
[451] Yes, let it sink deep into your ears, but keep inside a quiet steadfastness of soul. So far things are so. But you yourself be eager to resolve what is to follow. You must enter the contest with inflexible wrath.
ORESTES
[456] Father, I call on you; side with your loved ones!
ELECTRA
[457] And I in tears join my voice to his.
CHORUS
[458] And let all our company blend our voices to echo the prayer. Hear! Come to the light! Side with us against the foe!
ORESTES
[461] Ares will encounter Ares; Right will encounter Right.
ELECTRA
[462] O you gods, judge rightly the plea of right!
CHORUS
[462] A shudder steals over me as I hear these prayers. Doom has long been waiting, but it will come in answer to those who pray. Ah, inbred trouble and bloody stroke of ruin striking a discord! Ah, lamentable and grievous sorrows! Ah, the unstaunched pain! Our house has a cure to heal these woes, a cure not from outside, from the hands of others, but from itself, by fierce, bloody strife. This hymn is for the gods beneath the earth. O you blessed powers below, hear this supplication of ours, and with a favorable will send forth to these children your aid for victory!
ORESTES
[479] O father, who perished by a death unbefitting a king, grant in answer to my prayer the lordship over your halls!
ELECTRA
[481] And I too, father, have a like request of you: to escape when I have wrought great destruction on Aegisthus.
ORESTES
[483] Yes, for then the customary funeral feasts of men would be established in your honor. But otherwise, at the rich and savory banquet of burnt offerings made to the earth, you will be without a portion of honor.
ELECTRA
[486] And I will likewise at my wedding offer libations to you out of the fullness of my inheritance from my father’s house, and before all else I will hold this tomb of yours in the highest honor.
ORESTES
[489] O Earth, send up my father to watch my battle!
ELECTRA
[490] O Persephone, grant us indeed a glorious victory!
ORESTES
[491] Father, remember the bath where you were robbed of life.
ELECTRA
[492] And remember how they devised a strange net to cast about you.
ORESTES
[493] You were caught, my father, in fetters forged by no smith’s hand.
ELECTRA
[494] And in a fabric shamefully devised.
ORESTES
[495] Father, are you not roused by taunts such as these?
ELECTRA
[496] Are you not raising that dearest head of yours?
ORESTES
[497] Either send Justice to battle for those dear to you, or grant us in turn to get a similar grip on them, if indeed after defeat you would in turn win victory.
ELECTRA
[500] So listen, father, to this last appeal of mine as you behold these fledglings crouching at your tomb. Have compassion on your offspring, on the woman and on the man as well, and let not this seed of Pelops’ line be blotted out: for then, in spite of death, you are not dead. For children are voices of salvation to a man, though he is dead; like corks, they buoy up the net, saving the flaxen cord from out of the deep. Hear! For your own sake we make this lament. By honoring this plea of ours you save yourself.
CHORUS
[510] In truth you have drawn out this plea of yours to your own content in showing honor to this unlamented tomb. As for the rest, since your heart is rightly set on action, put your fortune to the test and get to your work at once.
ORESTES
[514] It will be so. But it is in no way amiss to inquire how, from what motive, she came to send her libations, seeking too late to make amends for an irremediable deed. They would be a sorry gift to send to the senseless dead: I cannot guess what they mean. The gifts are too paltry for her offence. For though a man may pour out all he has in atonement for one deed of blood, it is wasted effort. So the saying goes. If indeed you know, tell me: I wish to learn.
CHORUS
[523] I know, my child, for I was there. It was because she was shaken by dreams and wandering terrors of the night that she sent these offerings, godless woman that she is.
ORESTES
[526] And have you learned the nature of the dream so as to tell it properly?
CHORUS
[527] She dreamed she gave birth to a serpent: that is her own account.
ORESTES
[528] And where does the tale end, and what is its consummation?
CHORUS
[529] She laid it to rest as if it were a child, in swaddling clothes.
ORESTES
[530] What food did it crave, the newborn viper?
CHORUS
[531] In her dream she offered it her own breast.
ORESTES
[532] Surely her nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast?
CHORUS
[533] No: it drew in clotted blood with the milk.
ORESTES
[534] Truly it is not without meaning: the vision signifies a man!
CHORUS
[535] Then from out of her sleep she raised a shriek and awoke appalled, and many lamps that had been blinded in the darkness flared up in the house to cheer our mistress. Then she sent these libations for the dead in the hope that they might be an effective cure for her distress.
ORESTES
[540] Well then, I pray to this earth and to my father’s grave that this dream may come to its fulfilment in me. As I understand it, it fits at every point. For if the snake left the same place as I; if it was furnished with my swaddling clothes; if it sought to open its mouth to take the breast that nourished me and mixed the sweet milk with clotted blood while she shrieked for terror at this, then surely, as she has nourished a portentous thing of horror, she must die by violence. For I, turned serpent, am her killer, as this dream declares.
CHORUS
[551] I choose your reading of this portent. Let it be so. As for the rest, give your friends their parts. Tell some what to do, others what to leave undone.
ORESTES
[554] It is a simple story. My sister must go inside, and I charge her to keep concealed this pact with me, so that as by craft they killed a worthy man, so by craft they may likewise be caught and perish in the very same snare, even as Loxias decreed, lord Apollo, the prophet who has never before been false.
[560] In the guise of a stranger, one fully equipped, I will come to the outer gate, and with me Pylades, whom you see here, as a guest and ally of the house. Both of us will speak the speech of Parnassus, imitating the accent of a Phocian tongue. And in case none of the keepers of the door will give us a hearty welcome on the plea that the house is afflicted with trouble by the gods, then we will wait so that anyone passing the house will consider and say: “Why then does Aegisthus have his door shut on his suppliant, if in fact he is at home and knows?”
[571] But if I indeed pass the outermost threshold of the gate and find that man sitting on my father’s throne, or if then coming face to face with me he lifts and casts down his eyes, know well: before he can even say “Of what land is this stranger?” I will skewer him with my swift sword and lay
him dead. The fury that has no fill of slaughter shall for her third and crowning drink drink unmixed blood!
[579] Now you, Electra, keep strict watch over what happens inside the house, so that our plans may fit together well. You [addressing the Chorus] had best keep a discreet tongue: be silent when there is need and speak only what the occasion demands. As for the rest, I call on him to cast his glance this way and direct the contest of the sword for me.
[Exeunt Orestes, Pylades, and Electra.]
CHORUS
[585] Many are the horrors, dread and appalling, bred of earth, and the arms of the deep teem with hateful monsters. Likewise between heaven and earth lights hung high in the air draw near; and winged things and things that walk the earth can also tell of the stormy wrath of whirlwinds.
[594] But who can tell of man’s overweening spirit, and of the reckless passions of women hardened of soul, partners of the woes of mortals? Inordinate passion, overmastering the female, gains a fatal victory over the wedded unions of beasts and humans alike.
[602] Let whoever is not flighty in his wits know this, when he has learned of the device of a lit brand contrived by Thestius’ heartless daughter: she destroyed her own child by burning the charred brand of the same age as he when, coming from his mother’s womb, he cried out, and it aged in pace with him through his life to the day decreed by fate.
[612] And there is in legend another murderous virgin to be loathed, who ruined a loved one at the bidding of his foes, when, lured by Minos’ gift, the Cretan necklace forged of gold, she with her dog’s heart despoiled Nisus of his immortal lock as he drew breath in unsuspecting sleep. And Hermes overtook him.
[623] But since I have recalled tales of pitiless afflictions, it is the right time to tell of a marriage void of love, an abomination to the house, and the plots devised by a wife’s cunning against her warrior lord, against her lord revered with reason by his foes. But I honor the hearths of homes not heated by passion’s fires, and in woman a spirit that shrinks from audacious deeds.
[631] Indeed the Lemnian holds first place among evils in story: it has long been told with groans as an abominable calamity. Men compare each new horror to Lemnian troubles; and because of a woeful deed abhorred by the gods a race has disappeared, cast out in infamy from among mortals. For no man reveres what is hated by the gods. Is there one of these tales I have gathered that I do not justly cite?
[639] But the keen and bitter sword is near the breast and drives home its blow at the bidding of Justice. For truly the injustice of him who has unjustly transgressed the sovereign majesty of Zeus lies on the ground trampled under foot.
[646] The anvil of Justice is planted firm. Destiny fashions her arms and forges her sword quickly, and the famed and deeply brooding Fury is bringing the son into our house, to requite at last the pollution of blood shed long ago.
[Enter, with attendants, Orestes and Pylades before the palace.]
ORESTES
[653] Boy! Boy! Hear my knocking at the outer door! Who is inside? Boy! Boy! I say again, who is at home? Again for the third time I call for some one to come out of the house, if by Aegisthus’ will it offers welcome to strangers.
SERVANT
[657] Yes, yes, I hear. Of what land is the stranger, and whence?
ORESTES
[658] Announce me to the masters of the house, for it is in fact to them that I come bearing news. And hurry, since the chariot of night is speeding on with darkness, and it is time for wayfarers to drop anchor in some house friendly to all guests. Tell some one to come forth who has authority over the house, the mistress in charge. But the master would be more fitting, for then no delicacy in speaking makes words obscure: man speaks boldly to man and reveals his meaning without reserve.
[The Servant withdraws. Clytaemestra appears at the door with a maid-servant in attendance.]
CLYTAEMESTRA
[668] Strangers, you have only to declare your need, for we have everything that suits this house: warm baths, beds to charm away fatigue, and the presence of honest faces. But if there is another matter requiring graver counsel, that is the concern of men, and we will communicate with them.
ORESTES
[674] I am a stranger, a Daulian of the Phocians. As I was on my way, carrying my pack on business of my own to Argos, just as I ended my journey here, a man, a stranger to me as I to him, fell in with me, and inquired about my destination and told me his. He was Strophius, a Phocian (for as we talked I learned his name), and he said to me, “Stranger, since in any case you are bound for Argos, keep my message in mind most faithfully and tell his parents Orestes is dead, and by no means let it escape you. Whether his friends decide to bring him home or to bury him in the land of his sojourn, a foreigner utterly forever, convey their wishes back to me. In the meantime a bronze urn contains the ashes of a man rightly lamented.” This much I tell you as I heard it. Whether by any chance I am speaking to those with whom the question rests and whose concern it is, I do not know. But his parent should know the truth.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[691] Oh no! Your story spells our utter undoing. O curse that haunts this house, so hard to wrestle down: how far forward you look! Even what was laid well out of harm’s way you bring down with your well-aimed shafts from far off, and you strip me of those I love, utterly wretched as I am. And now Orestes: he was indeed prudent in keeping his foot out of the mire of destruction, but now mark down as having abandoned us what was once the one hope in our house of a cure for its fine revelry.
ORESTES
[700] As for me, I am sure that with hosts so prosperous I would rather have been made known and welcomed for favorable news. For where is goodwill greater than from guest to host? Yet to my mind it would have been irreverent not to fulfill for friends a charge like this when I was bound by promise and hospitality pledged to me.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[707] Rest assured you will receive no less a reward than you deserve nor be the less welcome to this house: someone else might just as well have brought your message. But it is the hour when strangers who have been travelling on a long day’s journey should have their proper entertainment. [To an attendant.] Conduct him to the rooms where the men are hospitably lodged, him and his attendants here and his fellow-traveller, and let them be tended to there as is proper in our house. I command you to do this as you shall be held to strict account. Meantime we will communicate this matter to the master of the house, and since we have no lack of friends we will confer on this occurrence.
[All withdraw except the Chorus.]
CHORUS
[719] Ah, loyal handmaidens of the house, low long will it be before we display the power that lies in our mouths to do Orestes service?
[721] O hallowed earth, and hallowed barrow raised high that now lies on the royal form of the commander of the fleet, now hear me, now lend me aid! Now is the hour for Persuasion with her guile to join forces with him, and for Hermes of the nether world, who works in stealth, to direct this encounter of the deadly sword.
[Enter Orestes’ Nurse.]
[729] Our stranger, I think, is working mischief: for over there I see Orestes’ nurse all in tears. Cilissa! Where are you going? Why as you set foot in the palace gate do you have a grief as an unhired companion?
NURSE
[734] My mistress commands me to summon Aegisthus for the strangers in all haste, so that he may come and learn more clearly, from man to man, these tidings that have just arrived. Indeed, before the servants, behind eyes that feigned grief she hid her laughter over what has occurred fortunately for her. But the news so plainly told by the strangers means utter ruin for this house. I expect that when he hears it he will rejoice in his heart to know the story. Miserable woman that I am! How the old unbearable troubles of every sort that occurred in this house of Atreus have always made my heart ache within my breast! But never yet have I endured a blow like this. For all the other troubles I bore patiently, but my beloved Orestes, on whom I spent my soul, whom I took
from his mother at birth and nursed, and the many and troublesome tasks, fruitless for all my enduring them, when his loud and urgent cries broke my rest . . . For one must nurse the senseless thing like a dumb beast, of course one must, by following its humor. For while it is still a baby in swaddling clothes, it has no speech at all, whether hunger moves it, or thirst perhaps, or the call of need: children’s young insides work their own relief. I would anticipate these needs. Yet many a time, I think, having to wash the child’s linen because of my own errors, laundress and nurse had the same function. It was I who, with these two handicrafts, received Orestes for his father. And now, wretch that I am, I hear that he is dead. But I am on my way to fetch the man who wrought destruction on our house, and he will be glad enough to hear this news.
CHORUS
[766] Then arrayed how does she tell him to come?
NURSE
[767] Arrayed how? Say it again so that I may catch your meaning better.
CHORUS
[768] With his guards or perhaps unattended?
NURSE
[769] She tells him to come with his retinue of spearmen.
CHORUS
[770] Well, do not give this message to our loathed master, but with all haste and with a cheerful heart tell him to come himself, alone, so that he may be told without alarm. For in the mouth of a messenger a crooked message is made straight.
NURSE
[775] What! Are you gladdened at heart by the present news?
CHORUS
[775] Why not, if Zeus at last may cause our ill wind to change?
NURSE
[776] But how can that be? Orestes, the hope of our house, is gone.
CHORUS
[777] Not yet; he would be a poor prophet who would so interpret.
NURSE
[778] What are you saying? Do you know something beyond what has been told?
CHORUS
[779] Go, deliver your message! Do what you are asked to do! The gods take care of what they take care of.
NURSE
[781] Well, I will go and do your bidding. With the gods’ blessing may everything turn out for the best!
[Exit Nurse.]
