by Aeschylus
CHORUS
[783] Now at my supplication, O Zeus, father of the Olympian gods, grant that the fortunes of our house be firmly established, so that those who rightly desire the rule of order may behold it. Every word of mine has been uttered in justice. O Zeus, may you safeguard it!
[789] O Zeus, set him who is within the palace before his foes; since, if you exalt him, he will gladly pay you with double and triple recompense. Know that the orphaned colt of a loved one is harnessed to the chariot of distress. And by setting bounds to his course may you grant that we see him keep a steady pace through this race and win the goal in the straining stride of a gallop.
[800] And you who within the house inhabit the inner chamber that exults in its wealth, hear me, you gods, that feel with us! By a fresh award redeem the blood of deeds done long ago. May aged Murder cease begetting offspring in our house!
[806] And you who occupy the mighty, gorgeously built cavern, grant that the man’s house may lift up its eyes again in joy, and that with glad eyes it may behold from under its veil of gloom the radiant light of freedom.
[811] May Maia’s son, as he rightfully should, lend his aid, for no one can better sail a deed on a favoring course, when he would do so. But by his mysterious utterance he brings darkness over men’s eyes by night, and by day he is no more clear at all.
[819] And then at last with a loud voice we shall sing a song of the deliverance of our house, the song that women raise when the wind sits fair, and not the shrill strain of those who mourn: “The ship goes well. This grows to profit for me, for me, and calamity holds off from those I love.”
[827] But may you with good courage, when the part of action comes, cry out loud the name “Father” when she exclaims “Son,” and accomplish the baneful but irreproachable deed.
[831] Raise up Perseus’ spirit within my breast. And for those dear to you below the earth, and for those above, exact satisfaction for their dire wrath by working bloody ruin in our house and obliterating the guilt of murder.
[Enter Aegisthus.]
AEGISTHUS
[838] I have come not unasked but summoned by a messenger. I heard startling news told by some strangers who have arrived, tidings far from welcome: — that Orestes is dead. To lay this too upon our house would be a fearful burden when it is still festering and galled by the wound inflicted by an earlier murder. How can I believe this tale is the living truth? Or is it merely a panic-stricken report spread by women which leaps up to die away in nothingness? What can you tell me of this to make it plain to my mind?
CHORUS
[848] We heard the tale, it is true. But go inside and inquire of the strangers. The certainty of a messenger’s report is nothing compared with one’s own interrogation of the man himself.
AEGISTHUS
[851] I wish to see the messenger and put him to the test again — whether he himself was present at the death or merely repeats from vague reports what he has heard. No! Be sure he cannot deceive a mind with eyes open.
[Exit Aegisthus.]
CHORUS
[854] O Zeus, O Zeus, what should I say? Where shall I begin this prayer of mine, this appeal to the gods? How in my loyal zeal can I succeed in finding words to match need? Now is the moment when the blood-stained edges of the blades that lay men low are utterly forever to destroy the house of Agamemnon. Or else, kindling a flaming light in the cause of freedom, Orestes will win both the rule over his realm and the rich possessions of his fathers. Our gallant Orestes, with no one to assist him, is now to meet with two in such a contest. And may it be to triumph!
[A shriek is heard from within.]
AEGISTHUS
[869] within Oh! Oh! O woe!
CHORUS
[870] Ah! Ah! Alas! What is happening? What is being accomplished for our house? Let us stand apart while the matter is still unsettled so that we may be considered blameless in these ills. For the issue of the fighting has now been decided.
[The Chorus withdraws to the side of the scene; then a servant of Aegisthus rushes in.]
SERVANT
[875] O woe, oh utter woe! My master is slain! O woe! I cry yet again, for the third time. Aegisthus is no more! Come, with all speed! Unbar and open the women’s door! And a strong arm indeed is needed, but not to help him who is already slain: what good is there in that? Help! Help! Am I shouting to the deaf and fruitlessly wasting my voice on people who are asleep? Where has Clytaemestra gone? What is she doing? Her own neck, near the razor’s edge, is now ready to fall beneath the stroke.
[Clytaemestra hurries in unattended.]
CLYTAEMESTRA
[885] What is this? What cry for help are you raising in our house?
SERVANT
[886] I tell you the dead are killing the living.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[887] Ah! Indeed I grasp the meaning of the riddle. We are to perish by treachery, just as we committed murder. Someone give me a battle-axe, and quickly! Let us know if we are victors or vanquished: for I have even come to this in this wretched business.
[Exit Servant. The door is opened and the corpse of Aegisthus is discovered. Nearby stands Orestes, and at a distance Pylades.]
ORESTES
[892] It is you I seek. He over there has had enough.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[893] Oh no! My beloved, valiant Aegisthus! You are dead!
ORESTES
[894] You love this man? Then you will lie in the same grave, and you will never abandon him in death.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[896] Wait, my son! Have pity, child, upon this breast at which many times while you slept you sucked with toothless gums the milk that nourished you.
ORESTES
[899] Pylades, what shall I do? Shall I spare my mother out of pity?
PYLADES
[900] What then will become in the future of Loxias’ oracles declared at Pytho, and of our sworn pact? Count all men your enemies rather than the gods.
ORESTES
[903] I judge you victor: you advise me well. [To Clytaemestra.] Come, this way! I mean to kill you by his very side. For while he lived, you thought him better than my father. Sleep with him in death, since you love him but hate the man you were bound to love.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[908] It was I who nourished you, and with you I would grow old.
ORESTES
[909] What! Murder my father and then make your home with me?
CLYTAEMESTRA
[910] Fate, my child, must share the blame for this.
ORESTES
[911] And fate now brings this destiny to pass.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[912] Have you no regard for a parent’s curse, my son?
ORESTES
[912] You brought me to birth and yet you cast me out to misery.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[914] No, surely I did not cast you out in sending you to the house of an ally.
ORESTES
[915] I was sold in disgrace, though I was born of a free father.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[916] Then where is the price I got for you?
ORESTES
[917] I am ashamed to reproach you with that outright.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[918] But do not fail to proclaim the follies of that father of yours as well.
ORESTES
[919] Do not accuse him who suffered while you sat idle at home.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[920] It is a grief for women to be deprived of a husband, my child.
ORESTES
[921] Yes, but it is the husband’s toil that supports them while they sit at home.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[922] You seem resolved, my child, to kill your mother.
ORESTES
[923] You will kill yourself, not I.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[924] Take care: beware the hounds of wrath that avenge a mother.
ORESTES
[925] And how shall I escape my father’s if I leave this undone?
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p; CLYTAEMESTRA
[926] I see that though living I mourn in vain before a tomb.
ORESTES
[927] Yes, for my father’s fate has marked out this destiny for you.
CLYTAEMESTRA
[928] Oh no! I myself bore and nourished this serpent!
ORESTES
[929] Yes, the terror from your dream was indeed a prophet. You killed him whom you should not; so suffer what should not be.
[He forces Clytaemestra within; Pylades follows.]
CHORUS
[931] Truly I grieve even for these in their twofold downfall. Yet since long-suffering Orestes has reached the peak of many deeds of blood, we would rather have it so, that the eye of the house should not be utterly lost.
[935] As to Priam and his sons justice came at last in crushing retribution, so to Agamemnon’s house came a twofold lion, twofold slaughter. The exile, the suppliant of Pytho, has fulfilled his course to the utmost, justly urged on by counsels from the gods.
[942] Oh raise a shout of triumph over the escape of our master’s house from its misery and the wasting of its wealth by two who were unclean, its grievous fortune!
[946] And he has come whose part is the crafty vengeance of stealthy attack, and in the battle his hand was guided by her who is in very truth daughter of Zeus, breathing murderous wrath on her foes. We mortals aim true to the mark when we call her Justice.
[942]
[961] Look, the light has come, and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our household. House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground. But soon time that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. The dice of fortune will turn as they fall and lie with faces all lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house. Look, the light has come, and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our household. House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground.
[Orestes with the branch and wreath of a suppliant is disclosed standing by the bodies. With him are Pylades and attendants who display the robe of Agamemnon.]
ORESTES
[973] Behold this pair, oppressors of the land, who murdered my father and ransacked my house! They were majestic then, when they sat on their thrones, and are lovers even now, as one may judge by what has happened to them, and their oath holds true to their pledges. Together they vowed a league of death against my unhappy father, and together they vowed to die, and they have kept their promise well.
[980] But now regard again, you who hear this account of ills, the device for binding my unhappy father, with which his hands were manacled, his feet fettered. Spread it out! Stand around in a circle, and display this covering for a man, that the Father may see — not mine, but he who surveys all this, the Sun — that he may see the impious work of my own mother, that he may be my witness in court that I justly pursued this death, my own mother’s. For I do not speak of Aegisthus’ death: he has suffered the penalty prescribed for adulterers.
[991] But she who devised this abhorrent deed against her husband, whose children she bore, a burden under her belt, a burden once dear, but now a hateful ill, as it seems: what do you think of her? Had she been born a seasnake or a viper, I think her very touch without her bite would have caused anyone else to rot, if shamelessness and an immoral disposition could do so.
[He again takes up the bloody robe.]
[997] What name shall I give it, however tactful I may be? A trap for a wild beast? Or a shroud for a corpse in his bier, wrapped around his feet? No, rather it is a net: you might call it a hunting net, or robes to entangle a man’s feet. This would be the kind of thing a highwayman might posses, who deceives strangers and earns his living by robbery, and with this cunning snare he might kill many men and warm his own heart greatly. May such a woman not live with me in my house! Before that may the gods grant me to perish childless!
CHORUS
[1005] Alas! Alas! Sorrowful work! You were done in by a wretched death. Alas! Alas! And for the survivor also suffering blossoms.
ORESTES
[1010] Did she do the deed or not? No, this is my witness, dyed by Aegisthus’ sword. This is a stain of blood that helps time to spoil the many tinctures of embroidered fabric. Now at last I speak his praises. Now at last I am present to lament him, as I address this web that wrought my father’s death. Yet I grieve for the deed and the punishment and for my whole clan. My victory is an unenviable pollution.
CHORUS
[1018] No mortal being shall pass his life unscathed, free from all suffering to the end. Alas! Alas! One tribulation comes today, another tomorrow.
ORESTES
[1021] But since I would have you know, for I do not know how it will end: I think I am a charioteer driving my team far beyond the course. For my ungoverned wits are whirling me away overmastered, and at my heart fear wishes to sing and dance to a tune of wrath. But while I am still in my senses, I proclaim to those who hold me dear and declare that not without justice did I slay my mother, the unclean murderess of my father, and a thing loathed by the gods.
[1029] And for the spells that gave me the courage for this deed I count Loxias, the prophet of Pytho, my chief source. It was he who declared that, if I did this thing, I would be acquitted of wrongdoing. But if I refrained — I will not name the penalty; for no bowshot could reach such a height of anguish.
[1034] And now observe me, how armed with this branch and wreath I go as a suppliant, an outcast for the shedding of kindred blood, to the temple set square on the womb of the earth, the precinct of Loxias, and to the bright fire said to be imperishable. To no other hearth did Loxias bid me turn. And as to the manner in which this evil deed was wrought, I charge all men of Argos in time to come to bear me witness. I go forth a wanderer, estranged from this land, leaving this repute behind, in life or death.
CHORUS
[1043] And you have done well. Therefore do not yoke your tongue to an ill-omened speech, nor let your lips give vent to evil forebodings, since you have freed the whole realm of Argos by lopping off the heads of two serpents with a fortunate stroke.
ORESTES
[1048] Ah, ah! You handmaidens, look at them there: like Gorgons, wrapped in sable garments, entwined with swarming snakes! I can stay no longer.
CHORUS
[1051] What fantasies disturb you, dearest of sons to your father? Wait, do not be all overcome by fear.
ORESTES
[1053] To me these are no imagined troubles. For there indeed are the hounds of wrath to avenge my mother.
CHORUS
[1055] It is that the blood is still fresh on your hands; this is the cause of the disorder that assails your wits.
ORESTES
[1057] O lord Apollo, look! Now they come in troops, and from their eyes they drip loathsome blood!
CHORUS
[1059] There is one way to cleanse you: the touch of Loxias will set you free from this affliction.
ORESTES
[1061] You do not see them, but I see them. I am pursued. I can stay no longer.
[Rushes out.]
CHORUS
[1063] Then may blessings go with you, and may the god watch benevolently over you and guard you with favorable fortunes!
[1065] Look! Now again, for the third time, has the tempest of this clan burst on the royal house and run its course. First, at the beginning, came the cruel woes of children slain for food; next, the fate of a man, a king, when the warlord of the Achaeans perished, murdered in his bath. And now, once again, there has come from some
where a third, a deliverer, or shall I say a doom? Oh when will it finish its work, when will the fury of calamity, lulled to rest, find an end and cease?
THE EUMENIDES
Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth
The final part of the Oresteia explores the question of Orestes’ guilt and whether he should be punished for the killing of his mother. In the drama, the Furies drive him from Argos and into the wilderness. He makes his way to the temple of Apollo, where he begs the deity to drive the Furies away. Apollo had encouraged Orestes to kill Clytemnestra and so bears some of the guilt for the murder. The Furies are a more ancient race of the gods and so Apollo has to send Orestes to the temple of Athena, with Hermes as a guide.
The Furies track him down, and the goddess Athena, patron of Athens, intervenes, declaring that a trial is necessary. Apollo argues Orestes’ case and, after the judges, including Athena deliver a tie vote, Athena announces that Orestes is acquitted. She renames the Furies ‘The Eumenides’ (The Good-spirited, or Kindly Ones), and extols the importance of reason in the development of laws, hinting that the ideals of a democratic Athens should be praised.
‘Orestes Pursued by the Furies’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ARGUMENT
THE EUMENIDES
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
THE PYTHIAN PROPHETESS
APOLLO
ORESTES
SHADE OF CLYTAEMESTRA
CHORUS OF FURIES
ATHENA
ESCORT
SCENE. — (1) The temple of Apollo at Delphi ; (2) Athena’s temple at Athens.
TIME. — The heroic age.
DATE. — 458 B.C., at the City Dionysia.
ARGUMENT
The priestess of Apollo discovers Orestes as a suppliant in the inner shrine of the god at Delphi, and fronting him the Erinyes of his mother, a band of fearsome creatures who, wearied with the pursuit of the fugitive, have fallen on sleep. Under promise of his support, Apollo bids Orestes flee to Athens, where he shall submit his case to judgment and be released from his sufferings. The ghost of Clytaemestra rises to upbraid the sleeping Erinyes because of their neglect, whereby she is dishonoured among the other dead. Awakened by her taunts, they revile Apollo for that he has given sanctuary to a polluted man whom they rightly pursue by reason of their office — to take vengeance on all who shed kindred blood.
