Electra
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/euripides" aria-label="More works by Euripides">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
543
543
Electra
543
And what other unhappiness is greater
544
than to leave the boundary of one’s native land?
545
545
Orestes
545
But I shall leave my father’s house, and at a stranger’s tribunal undergo trial for my mother’s murder.
546
546
Dioskouroi
546
Have courage; you will go
547
to the holy town of Pallas; only hold out.
548
548
Electra
548
Clasp me to your breast, my dearest brother; for the curse of our mother’s blood is separating us from our father’s home.
549
549
Orestes
549
Throw your arms in close embrace about me. Lament as if I were dead, over my grave.
550
550
Dioskouroi
550
Alas! You have said things terrible even for gods to hear. For in me and in the Olympians there is
551
pity for much-suffering mortals.
552
552
Orestes
552
I shall no longer see you!
553
553
Electra
553
Nor will I draw near your sight!
554
554
Orestes
554
These are my last words to you.
555
555
Electra
555
Farewell, my city!
556
And a long farewell to you, my fellow-countrywomen!
557
557
Orestes
557
Are you going already, most faithful one?
558
558
Electra
558
I am going, my young eye wet with tears.
559
559
Orestes
559
Go, Pylades, and be happy; marry Electra.
560
560
Dioskouroi
560
Marriage will be for them to think of. But go towards Athens, seeking to escape these hounds of hell, for they are pursuing you fearfully,
561
the dark-skinned ones, with snakes for hands, holding a reward of dreadful pains. But we two must go in haste over the Sicilian sea to rescue the seagoing ships. As we go through the plains of the air,
562
we do not come to the aid of those who are polluted; but we save and release from severe hardships those who love piety and justice in their ways of life. And so, let no one wish to act unjustly,
563
or set sail with perjurers; as a god, I give this address to mortals.
564
564
Chorus
564
Farewell! Any mortal who is able to fare well, and is not worn down by any misfortune, achieves happiness.
36
36
Electra
36
Take this pitcher from my head and put it down, so that I may cry aloud the night-time laments for my father. A wail, a song of death, of death, for you, father, under the earth, I speak the laments
37
in which I am always engaged, day by day, tearing my skin with my nails, and striking my cropped head with my hand, for your death.
40
40
Electra
40
washed by the very last bath, in the most piteous bed of death. Oh, me,
41
your bitter cleaving by the axe, father, the bitter plans of the way from Troy! Your wife welcomed you with no victor’s garlands or crowns, but with a two-edged sword,
42
making you the mournful victim of Aigisthus, she got a treacherous bed-fellow.
178
178
Chorus
178
I heard, from someone who had arrived at the harbor of Nauplia from Ilium, that
179
on the circle of your famous shield, O son of Thetis, were wrought these signs, a terror to the Phrygians: on the surrounding base of the shield’s rim, Perseus the throat-cutter, over
180
the sea with winged sandals, was holding the Gorgon’s body, with Hermes, Zeus’ messenger, the rustic son of Maia.
181
181
Chorus
181
In the center of the shield the sun’s bright circle
182
was shining on winged horses, and the heavenly chorus of stars, Pleiades, Hyades, bringing defeat to the eyes of Hector;
183
and upon his gold-forged helmet were sphinxes, bearing in their talons prey from singing. On his breast-plate a lioness, breathing flame, was eager in flight, with her claws,
184
seeing the colt of Pirene.
326
326
Chorus
326
Then, it was then that Zeus changed the radiant paths of the stars, and the light of the sun, and the
327
bright face of dawn; and the sun drove across the western back of the sky with hot flame from heaven’s fires, while the rain-clouds went northward and Ammon’s
328
lands grew parched and faint, not knowing moisture, robbed of heaven’s fairest showers of rain.
329
329
Chorus
329
It is said, but I have small belief in it, that the sun turned round his glowing
330
throne of gold, changing it to the misfortune of mankind, for the punishment of mortals. But tales that frighten men are profitable for service to the gods; of whom you had no thought, when you
331
killed your husband, you who are the relative of famous brothers.
503
503
Orestes
503
Did you see how the unhappy one threw off her robe and showed her bosom in the slaughter, alas, hurling to the ground the limbs that gave me birth? And her hair, I—
504
504
Chorus
504
I know it well; you passed through agony, hearing the mournful wail of the mother that bore you.
505
505
Orestes
505
She uttered this cry, putting her hand to my chin:
506
My child, I entreat you! And she clung to my cheeks, so that the sword fell from my hand.
507
507
Chorus
507
The unhappy one! How did you endure to see the blood
508
of your mother, breathing her last before your eyes?
43
43
Chorus
43
O Electra, daughter of Agamemnon, I have come to your rustic courtyard. A milk-drinker from Mycenae has come, he has come,
44
a mountain walker; he reports that the Argives are proclaiming a sacrifice for the third day from now, and that all maidens are to go to Hera’s temple.
45
45
Electra
45
My unhappy heart beats fast, friends, but not at adornment or gold; nor will I set up choruses with the maidens of Argos
46
and beat my foot in the mazes of the dance. By tears I pass the night; tears are my unhappy care day by day. See if my filthy hair,
47
and the rags of my dress, will be fit for a princess, a daughter of Agamemnon, or for Troy, once taken, which remembers my father.
48
48
Chorus
48
Mighty is the goddess; come then, and borrow from me thick-woven clothes to wear, and gold—as a favor to me—accessories to adornment. Do you think to rule over your enemies by tears, if you do not revere the gods?
49
Honoring the gods not by lamentation but by prayers, you will have good fortune, child.
50
50
Electra
50
No god attends to the voice of the ill-fated one,
51
or to the slaying of my father long ago. Alas for the dead, and for the living vagabond, who dwells in another land somewhere,
52
miserably wandering to a slave’s hearth, yet born of that renowned father. I myself live in a poor man’s house, wasting my life away, an exile from my father’s house,
53
on the mountain crags. But my mother, with a new husband, makes her home in a bed stained by blood.
509
509
Orestes
509
I threw my cloak over my eyes, and began the sacrifice by plunging the sword into my mother’s throat.
510
510
Electra
510
And I urged you on and
511
put my hand to the sword together with you.
512
512
Chorus
512
You have done the most dreadful of deeds.
513
513
Orestes
513
Take and hide the limbs of our mother beneath a robe, and close the wounds. Turning to the corpse Ah! You gave birth to your own murderers.
514
514
Electra
514
There, I am putting this cloak over the one loved and not loved.
515
515
Chorus
515
An end of great troubles for the house.
579b
579b
Orestes
579b
And you are held by me at last.
580b
580b
Orestes
580b
Nor did I hope.
581b
581b
Orestes
581b
Yes, your one ally. If I draw back the cast of the net I am aiming for—but I have confidence; or else we must no longer believe in gods, if wrong is to be victorious over right.
693b
693b
Electra
693b
Therefore you must be a man. Exeunt Orestes, Pylades, and Old Man. And you, women, please take care to give