by Euripides
ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy, my father. — But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an unhappy corse?
CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.
ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.
CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?
ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.
CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?
ANT. No, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.
CRE. We do; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an enemy.
ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?
CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.
ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the kingdom?
CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.
ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.
CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.
ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.
CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.
ANT. By no means — for I will not let go this body.
CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.
ANT. And this too is decreed — that the dead be not insulted.
CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.
ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.
CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.
ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.
CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.
ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.
CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.
ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.
CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy lamentations.
ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?
CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape the marriage?
ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaïdæ.
CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?
ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.
CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?
ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.
CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.
ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.
CRE. Go — thou shalt not slay my son — quit the land.
ŒDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
ŒD. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.
ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?
ŒD. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.
ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?
ŒD. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.
ANT. But Œdipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?
ŒD. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.
ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?
ŒD. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.
ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.
ŒD. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.
ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.
ŒD. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!
ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.
ŒD. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?
ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.
ŒD. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.
ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.
ŒD. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.
ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.
ŒD. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.
ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?
ŒD. That I must die an exile at Athens.
ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?
ŒD. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But stay — minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing his exile.
ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.
ŒD. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.
ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.
ŒD. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.
ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the strength of a dream.
ŒD. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight! — To drive me, old as I am, from my country — Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful things that I have suffered!
ANT. What suffered! what suffered! Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor repays the foolishness of mortals.
ŒD. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song, having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.
ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in state not like a virgin’s.
ŒD. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!
ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious. Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother, who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom, even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.
ŒD. Go, show thyself to thy companions.
ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.
ŒD. But make thy supplications at the altars.
ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.
ŒD. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the mountains of the Mænades.
ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor on the Gods?
ŒD. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this Œdipus, who alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx, now, dishonored, forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why do I bewail these things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate proceeding from the Gods a mortal must endure.
CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not from crowning me!] (See note [H].)
ORESTES
Translated by Theodore Alois Buckley
Composed in 408 BC, this tragedy concerns the aftermath of Orestes’ murder of his mother Clytemnestra to avenge the death of his father Agamemnon. In the chronology of events following Orestes, the play takes place after the events contained in plays such as Electra by Euripides or The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, and before events contained in plays like The Eumenides by Aeschylus and Andromache by Euripides.
Despite Apollo’s earlier prophecy, Orestes finds himself tormented by Erinyes (Furies) to the blood guilt stemming from his matricide. The only person capable of aiding Orestes in his madness is his sister Electra. To complicate matters further, a leading political faction of Argos wants to put Orestes to death for the murder. Orestes’ only hope to save his life lies in his uncle Menelaus
, who has returned with Helen after spending ten years in Troy and several more years amassing wealth in Egypt.
Like in many of his other dramas, Euripides uses mythology to represent his own commentary on the politics of contemporary Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Orestes first played at the Dionysia during the waning years of the war, when both Athens and Sparta and all of their allies had suffered huge losses. Euripides challenges the role of the gods and perhaps more appropriately man’s interpretation of divine will. In the play, Orestes and other characters note that although man is subordinate to the gods, the superiority of the gods does not make them fair or rational. Even Apollo, the god synonymous with law and order, gives an unsatisfactory argument at the end, citing the reason for the Trojan War as the method the gods chose to cleanse the earth of surplus population. Many Athenians sitting in the original audience would have then question whether their own leaders had entangled the city in a costly and ultimately purposeless war.
‘Orestes Pursued by the Furies’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1862
CONTENTS
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
THE ARGUMENT.
ORESTES.
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
ELECTRA.
HELEN.
HERMIONE.
CHORUS.
ORESTES.
MENELAUS.
TYNDARUS.
PYLADES.
A PHRYGIAN.
APOLLO.
THE ARGUMENT.
Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off Ægisthus and Clyætmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives were about to give a public decision on this question, “What ought he, who has dared this impious deed, to suffer?” By chance Menelaus, having returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by night, but himself came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid him, he rather feared Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to be spoken among the populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill Orestes. * * * * But Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him first to take revenge on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on this project, they were disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching away Helen from them. But Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made her appearance, into their hands, and they were about to kill her. When Menelaus came, and saw himself bereft by them at once of his wife and child, he endeavored to storm the palace; but they, anticipating his purpose, threatened to set it on fire. Apollo, however, having appeared, said that he had conducted Helen to the Gods, and commanded Orestes to take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell with Pylades, and, after that he was purified of the murder, to reign over Argos.
The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of Argive women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring about the calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited to comedy. The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is discovered before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of his madness, lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his feet. A difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head? for thus would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she sat nearer him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this arrangement on account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then and with difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the women that constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we may infer from what Electra says to the Chorus, “Σιγα, σιγα, λεπτον ιχνος αρβυληις.” It is probable then that the above is the reason of this arrangement.
The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in its morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are bad persons.
ORESTES.
ELECTRA.
There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor heaven-inflicted calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be compelled to bear. For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his fortune, when I say this,) the son of Jupiter, as they report, trembling at the rock which impends over his head, hangs in the air, and suffers this punishment, as they say indeed, because, although being a man, yet having the honor of a table in common with the Gods upon equal terms, he possessed an ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He begat Pelops, and from him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having carded the wool spun the thread of contention, and doomed him to make war on Thyestes his relation; (why must I commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then killed his children — and feasted him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in silence the misfortunes which intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the illustrious, (if he was indeed illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother Aërope of Crete. But Menelaus indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods, but King Agamemnon obtained Clytæmnestra’s bed, memorable throughout the Grecians: from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother; Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part of the family, from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having covered him around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not decorous in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider as they will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Phœbus? Yet persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in the murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch there lies, but his mother’s blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to mention those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror). Moreover this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified by fire as to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down his throat, he has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak, when indeed his body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right mind he weeps, but at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a colt from his yoke. But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that no one shall receive us who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at their fire, and that none shall speak to us; but this is the appointed day, in the which the city of the Argives will pronounce their vote, whether it is fitting that we should die being stoned with stones, or having whet the sword, should plunge it into our necks. But I yet have some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus has arrived at this country from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with his oars is mooring his fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings from Troy a long time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to our palace, having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose children died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so far as to stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the calamity of her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for the virgin Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our palace, when he sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring up, in her she rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each avenue when I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on slender power, if we receive not some succor from him; the house of the unfortunate is an embarrassed state of affairs.
ELECTRA. HELEN.
HEL. O daughter of Clytæmnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that hast remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both you, and your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his mother)? For by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do, the blame to Phœbus. And yet I groan the death of Clytæmnestra, whom, after that I sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the maddening fate of the Gods!) I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my fortune.
ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou see
st thyself here present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes so little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and thy husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.
HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?
ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent’s blood.
HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!
ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for misery.
HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?
ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from watching by my brother.
HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?
ELEC. My mother’s tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?
HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.
ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy friends?
HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.
ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home disgracefully.
HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to me.
ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?
HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.
ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed against by every one’s mouth.
HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.
ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.
HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.
ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?
HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.
ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.
HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will send my daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione, before the house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair, and, going to the tomb of Clytæmnestra, leave there this mixture of milk and honey, and the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the mound, say thus: “Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations, in fear herself to approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of Argos:” and bid her hold kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my husband, and toward these two miserable persons whom the God has destroyed. But promise all the offerings to the manes, whatever it is fitting that I should perform for a sister. Go, my child, hasten, and when thou hast offered the libations at the tomb, remember to return back as speedily as possible.
