Electra
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/sophocles" aria-label="More works by Sophocles">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
570
570
Chorus
570
And now they are here! The red hand drips with sacrifice to Ares, and I cannot blame the deed.
571
571
Electra
571
Orestes, what happened?
1424a
1424a
Orestes
1424a
All is well within the house,
572
if Apollo’s oracle spoke well.
573
573
Electra
573
The miserable woman is dead?
574
574
Orestes
574
Have no more fear that your haughty mother will ever again trample on your rights.
575
575
Chorus
575
Quiet! For I see Aegisthus in plain sight.
576
576
Electra
576
You, young men, get back inside!
1430a
1430a
Orestes
1430a
Where do you see the man?
577
577
Electra
577
He is at our mercy walking from the suburb, full of joy.
578
578
Chorus
578
Go with all speed to the vestibule, so that, just as your first task prospered, so this one again may prosper now.
579
579
Orestes
579
Have courage. We will accomplish it.
580
580
Electra
580
Hurry, then, to wherever you wish.
581
581
Orestes
581
See, I am gone.
582
582
Electra
582
Things here will be my concern. Exeunt Orestes and Pylades, into the house.
583
583
Chorus
583
It would be well to whisper into this man’s ear some few words of seeming gentleness,
584
so that he may rush blindly upon his trial before Justice.
52
52
Chorus
52
Mournful was the voice heard at his return, and mournful the voice amidst your father’s reclining banquet
53
when the straight, swift blow of the bronze-jawed axe was sped against him. Deceit was the plotter, Lust the slayer, two dread parents of a dreadful
54
phantom, whether it was god or mortal that did this deed.
55
55
Electra
55
O that hated day, hated beyond all that have come to me; O that night, the terrible grief of that unutterable feast, the shameless death-strokes
56
my father saw from their twin hands, hands which took my life captive by treachery, which cast me to ruin! May the great god of Olympus
57
create for them sufferings in penalty, and may they never have enjoyment of their splendor since they have committed such crimes!
58
58
Chorus
58
Be advised to say no more; do you not see by what actions
59
under the present circumstances you plunge so shamefully into self-made miseries? You have far excelled in achieving misfortune, ever breeding wars in your hardhearted soul. But such strife
60
should not be pushed into a conflict with the powerful.
61
61
Electra
61
I have been forced to it, forced by a terrible compulsion. I know my own passion; it does not escape me; but, under such terrible compulsion, I will not restrain these disastrous cries of frenzy,
62
so long as life is in me. Who indeed, my noble friends, who that keeps what is appropriate in mind, would think any word of comfort right for my ears? Let me be, let me be, my comforters!
63
For these ills will be reckoned with those which have no cure; I will never know a respite from my pains, or the sum of this wailing.
1209a
1209a
Electra
1209a
Ah, what misery I will have because of you,
1221a
1221a
Electra
1221a
The man is alive?
1222a
1222a
Electra
1222a
What? Are you he?
1224a
1224a
Orestes
1224a
Blissful, I am your witness!
1225a
1225a
Orestes
1225a
Hear it from no other.
1226a
1226a
Orestes
1226a
May you hold me so always hereafter!
1323a
1323a
Electra
1323a
Go in, strangers, especially since you bring a thing which no one
1347a
1347a
Electra
1347a
No, nor can I imagine.
1349a
1349a
Orestes
1349a
I mean him, by whose hands and through your forethought
1475a
1475a
Orestes
1475a
Why so scared? Is the face so strange?
1477a
1477a
Orestes
1477a
Do you not perceive how you have long been addressing the living in terms suited to the dead?
1483a
1483a
Electra
1483a
By the gods, brother, do not allow him to speak any more or to plead at length!
1502a
1502a
Aegisthus
1502a
You lead.
1502b
1502b
Orestes
1502b
You must go first.
1503a
1503a
Orestes
1503a
No, lest you die in a manner which pleases you. I must be sure that your death is bitter for you.