Orestes
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Electra
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I will not let you go; but with arms twined round you, I will prevent your piteous leaping.
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Orestes
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Let me go! you are one of my Furies,
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and are gripping me by the waist to hurl me into Tartarus!
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Electra
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Alas for me! What aid can I find, when we have Heaven’s forces set against us?
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Orestes
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Give me my horn-tipped bow, Apollo’s gift, with which he told me to ward off the goddesses,
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if ever they sought to scare me with wild transports of madness.
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A mortal hand will wound one of them, unless she departs from my sight. Don’t you hear me? Don’t you see the feathered arrows springing out from my far-shooting bow? What!
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Do you linger still? Mount the sky on your wings, and blame those oracles of Phoebus.
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Sister, why do you weep, your head wrapped in your robe? I am ashamed that I should make you a partner in my sufferings and distress a maiden like you through my sickness. Do not waste away over my troubles; for though you consented to it, yet I was the one that spilled
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our mother’s blood. I blame Loxias, for urging me on to do a deed most unholy, encouraging me with words but not in deed. I believe that, if I had asked my father to his face whether I must slay my mother,
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he would have strongly entreated me, by this beard, never to plunge a sword into her throat, since he would not regain his life, and I, poor wretch, would accomplish such evil!
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And now, my sister, unveil your face
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and cease to weep, despite our misery. Whenever you see me give way to despair, it is for you to calm and soothe the terrors and distorted fancies of my brain. Whenever sorrow comes to you, I must be at your side and give you comforting advice;
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for to help our friends like this is noble.
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Go in the house now, my poor sister; lie down and close your sleepless eyes; take food and bathe your body. For if you leave me or fall sick from nursing me,
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I am lost. You are my only ally; I am deserted by all the rest, as you see.
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Electra
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I will not leave you; with you I will choose to live and die; for it is the same: if you die, what shall I, a woman, do? How shall I escape alone,
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with no brother, or father, or friends? Still, if you think it right, I must do your bidding. But lie down upon your couch, and do not pay too great heed to the terrors and alarm that scare you from your rest; lie still upon your pallet. For even if you are not sick, but only think you are,
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this brings weariness and perplexity to mortals. Exit Electra.
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Chorus
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Ah! ah! you goddesses swiftly careering on your wings, whose lot it is to hold a revel, not with Bacchic rites,
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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!
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Allow the son of Agamemnon to forget his wild whirling frenzy.
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Alas for the toils which you, poor wretch, strove after to your ruin, when you heard the voice from the tripod, proclaimed by Phoebus,
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at his sanctuary, where the hollows are called the navel of the earth.
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Chorus
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O Zeus! What pity, what deadly struggle is here,
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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?
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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.
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For what other family must I still revere, rather than the one from a divine marriage, from Tantalus.
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Chorus Leader
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And see, a king draws near, lord Menelaus; from his magnificence it is plain to see
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that he belongs to the blood of the Tantalids.
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All hail! you that set out with a thousand ships to Asia’s land; good fortune is your friend,
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for you have accomplished, with divine aid, all that you prayed for.
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Menelaus
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O my home, some joy I feel to see you again on my return from Troy, but I also grieve at the sight; for never have I seen another house more closely encircled by dire affliction.
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For I learned Agamemnon’s fate and the death he died at his wife’s hands, as I was trying to put in at Malea; when the sailors’ prophet, the truthful god Glaucus, Nereus’ seer, brought the news to me from the waves;
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he stationed himself in full view and told me this: Menelaus, your brother lies dead, plunged in a fatal bath, the last his wife will ever give him. My sailors and I wept greatly at his words. When I arrived at Nauplia,
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my wife already on the point of starting here, I was expecting to give a fond embrace to Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, and his mother, thinking that they were doing well, when I heard from a sailor the unholy murder of Tyndareus’ child.
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And now tell me, young ladies, where to find the son of Agamemnon, who dared such evil. For he was a baby in Clytemnestra’s arms when I left my home to go to Troy, so that I would not recognize him if I saw him.
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Orestes
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Menelaus, I am Orestes, whom you are asking about. I will of my own accord inform you of my sufferings. But as my first portion, I clasp your knees as a suppliant, giving you prayers from the mouth of one without the suppliant’s bough; save me, for you have come at the crisis of my troubles.
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Menelaus
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O gods, what do I see? What living corpse greets my sight?
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Orestes
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You are right; I am dead through misery, though I still gaze upon the light.
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Menelaus
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How savage the look your unkempt hair gives you, poor wretch!
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Orestes
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It is not my looks, but my deeds that torture me.
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Menelaus
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Your tearless eyes glare dreadfully!
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Orestes
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My body is gone, though my name has not deserted me.
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Menelaus
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Unsightly apparition, so different from what I expected!
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Orestes
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Here I am, the murderer of my wretched mother.
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Menelaus
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I have heard, spare your words; evils should be seldom spoken.
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Orestes
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I will be sparing; but the deity is lavish of woe in my case.
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Menelaus
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What ails you? what is your deadly sickness?
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Orestes
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My conscience; I know that I am guilty of a dreadful crime.
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Menelaus
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What do you mean? Wisdom is shown in clarity, not in obscurity.
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Orestes
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Grief especially has ruined me—
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Menelaus
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Yes, she is a dreadful goddess, yet are there cures for her.
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Orestes
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And fits of madness, the vengeance of a mother’s blood.
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Menelaus
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When did your madness begin? Which day was it?
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Orestes
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On the day I was heaping the mound over my poor mother’s grave.
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Menelaus
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When you were in the house, or watching by the pyre?
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Orestes
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As I was waiting by night to gather up her bones.
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Menelaus
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Was any one else there, to help you rise?
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Orestes
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Pylades who shared with me the bloody deed, my mother’s murder.
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Menelaus
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You are sick from phantom shapes; what sort?
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Orestes
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I seemed to see three maidens, black as night.
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Menelaus
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I know whom you mean, but I do not want to name them.
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Orestes
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Yes, for they are revered; you were well-informed, to avoid naming them.
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Menelaus
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Are these the ones that drive you to frenzy, with the curse of kindred blood?
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Orestes
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Oh! the torment I endure from their pursuit!
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Menelaus
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It is not strange, if those who have done dreadful things should suffer them.
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Orestes
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But I have a way to recover from these troubles.
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Menelaus
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Do not speak of death; that is not wise.
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Orestes
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It is Phoebus, who commanded me to kill my mother.
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Menelaus
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Showing a strange ignorance of what is fair and right.
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Orestes
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We are slaves to the gods, whatever those gods are.
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Menelaus
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And does Loxias not help your affliction?
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Orestes
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He will in time; this is the nature of gods.
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Menelaus
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How long is it since your mother breathed her last?
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Orestes
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This is the sixth day; her funeral pyre is still warm.
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Menelaus
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How soon the goddesses arrived to avenge your mother’s blood!
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Orestes
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I am not clever, but I am by nature a true friend to my friends.
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Menelaus
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Does your father give you any help at all, for your avenging him?
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Orestes
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Not yet; I call delay the equal of inaction.
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Menelaus
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How do you stand in the city after that deed of yours?
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Orestes
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I am so hated that no one will speak to me.
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Menelaus
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Have your hands not even been cleaned of blood, according to custom?
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Orestes
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No, for wherever I go, the door is shut against me.
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Menelaus
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Which citizens are driving you from the land?
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Orestes
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Oeax, who refers to my father his reason for hating Troy.
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Menelaus
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I understand; he is avenging on you the blood of Palamedes.
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Orestes
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That was nothing to do with me; yet I am destroyed for three reasons.
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Menelaus
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Who else? Some of the friends of Aegisthus, I suppose?
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Orestes
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They insult me, and the city listens to them now.
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Menelaus
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Will the city allow you to keep the scepter of Agamemnon?
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Orestes
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How, seeing that they will not allow me to remain alive?
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Menelaus
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What is their method? Can you tell me plainly?
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Orestes
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A vote will be taken against us today.
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Menelaus
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To leave the city? Or to die, or not to die?
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Orestes
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Death by stoning at the hands of the citizens.
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Menelaus
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Then why not cross the border and try to escape?
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Orestes
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Because we are encircled by men fully armed.
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Menelaus
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Private foes or Argive troops?
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Orestes
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All the citizens, so that I may die; it is shortly told.