Electra
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Orestes
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And how could there be any more odious to look on than these?
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Electra
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Because I share house and table with the murderers.
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Orestes
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Whose murderers? Where lies the guilt at which you point?
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Electra
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The murderers of my father. And, further, I am forced to slave for them.
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Orestes
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Who is it that binds you with this compulsion?
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Electra
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She is called my mother, but in no respect is she like a mother.
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Orestes
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How does she do it? By violence or by inflicting hardship?
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Electra
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By violence and hardships and all manner of evil.
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Orestes
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And is there no one to help, or to prevent it?
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Electra
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No one. The one I had, his ashes you have put before me.
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Orestes
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Unfortunate girl, how seeing you stirs my pity!
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Electra
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Then know that you are the first who ever pitied me.
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Orestes
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Yes, for I alone have come and been pained by your troubles .
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Electra
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Surely you are not some unknown kinsman?
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Orestes
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I would tell you, if these women bear you goodwill.
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Electra
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Indeed they do, so you will speak to trustworthy companions.
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Orestes
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Give up this urn, then, and you shall know everything.
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Electra
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No, by the gods, do not do this to me, stranger!
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Orestes
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Do as I say, and you will never be mistaken.
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Electra
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No, I beg you, do not rip from me what I hold most dear!
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Orestes
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You must not keep it.
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Orestes, if I am robbed of your burial!
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Orestes
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Hush! No ill-omened words! You have no right to grieve.
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Electra
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How is it not right for me to grieve for my dead brother?
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Orestes
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It is not proper for you to speak of him as you do.
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Electra
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Am I so without rights in the dead?
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Orestes
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You are without rights in nothing; but this burial is not your concern.
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Electra
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Yes it is, if these are the remains of Orestes that I hold.
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Orestes
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They are not his, except inasmuch as fiction alone contrives to make them so. He gently takes the urn from her.
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Electra
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And where is that sufferer’s tomb?
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Orestes
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There is none; the living have no tomb.
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Electra
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What are you saying, boy?
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Orestes
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Nothing that is untrue.
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Orestes
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If there is life in me.
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Orestes
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Look at this signet, once our father’s, and know if I speak the truth.
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Electra
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O blissful day!
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Electra
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Is this your voice?
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Electra
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Do I hold you in my arms?
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Electra
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Ah, dear friends and fellow-citizens, see Orestes here, who was dead by design, and now by design has come safely home!
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Chorus
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We see him, daughter, and for this happy turn of fortune a tear of joy trickles from our eyes.
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Electra
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O seed, seed of the person to me most dear, you have just now come,
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you have come, and have found and seen her whom your heart desired!
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Orestes
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I am with you; but keep silence and wait.
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Electra
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What do you mean?
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Orestes
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It is better to be silent so that no one inside may hear.
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Electra
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No, by ever-virgin Artemis,
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I will never think it right to tremble before eternally house-bound women, that useless burden on the ground!
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Orestes
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Yes, but remember that Ares dwells in women, too. You know this well by experience, I believe.
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Electra
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oh, no! ah, me! You have reminded me of my sorrow, one which by its nature cannot be veiled,
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cannot be done away with, cannot be forgotten!
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Orestes
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I know this, too; but when occasion prompts, we must recall those crimes.
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Electra
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Each moment of all time, as it comes, would be a proper occasion
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for me to make these just complaints. Scarcely now have I had my lips set free.
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Orestes
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Yes, I agree; therefore guard your freedom.
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Electra
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What must I do?
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Orestes
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When it is inopportune, do not want to speak too much.
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Electra
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No, who could exchange due silence for speech, when you have appeared? For now my eyes have seen you, beyond all thought and hope!
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Orestes
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You saw me when the gods moved me to come.
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Electra
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You have told me of a grace higher still than the first, if a god brought you to our house;
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I acknowledge in it the work of the divine.
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Orestes
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On the one hand I hesitate to curb your gladness, but on the other I fear that you may be overwhelmed by too much joy.
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Electra
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O you who, after such a long time, saw fit to make your most happy journey and appear to me,
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do not, now that you have seen me in all my misery—
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Orestes
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What should I not do?—
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Electra
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—Do not rob me of the comfort of your face; do not force me to forego it!
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Orestes
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I would be angry, indeed, if I saw another attempt it.
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Electra
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You give your consent?
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Orestes
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Why would I not?
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Electra
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My friends, I heard a voice that I could never have hoped to hear; nor could I have restrained my emotion in silence and without a cry, when I heard it.
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ah, me! But now I have you. You have appeared with that dear face, which I could never, even in misery, forget.
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Orestes
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Spare all superfluous words, and inform me neither of our mother’s wickedness,
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nor how Aegisthus drains the wealth of our father’s house—what part he pours on the ground and what he squanders at random. For the story would preclude you from the opportunity afforded by the moment. Instead tell me that which will suit our present circumstances: where, either openly or in ambush,
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we may put an end to our enemies’ laughter by means of my coming. Make sure that our mother does not discover you by your radiant face, when we two have gone into the house. Rather, make lament, as if for the feigned disaster. For when we succeed, then
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there will be opportunity to rejoice and exult in freedom.
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Electra
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Brother, be assured that my conduct will be as pleases you, since all my joy derives from you, and is not my own. Nor would I consent
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to win a great good for myself at the cost of the slightest pain to you. For in doing so I would not honorably support the divine power that attends us now.But you know how matters stand here. I do not doubt it. You must have heard that Aegisthus is away from home, but that our mother is inside. And never fear that she
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will ever see my face lit up with smiles. My old hatred of her has been welded to my heart, and since I have seen you, for very joy I will never cease to weep. How indeed could I stop when I have seen you come home on this one day first as dead,
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and then in life? What you have done to me is inconceivable—so much so that, if my father were to return to me alive, I would no longer think it a portent, but would believe that I truly saw him. Therefore now that you have come to me by such a path, command me as your spirit bids you. For had I been alone,
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I would not have failed in one of two things: a noble salvation, or a noble destruction.
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Orestes
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Silence! I hear someone walking inside as if to come out.
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could either turn away from these doors, or rejoice at receiving.
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Paedagogus
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Utterly foolish and senseless children! Are you weary of your lives, or is there no wit inborn in you, that you do not see how you stand not on the brink, but in the very midst
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of immense danger? Had I not long kept watch at these doors, your doings would have been in the house before your bodies. But as it was, I put myself the task of averting that.
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Be done now with your long speeches and this insatiable shouting for joy, and go inside. In dealings of this sort delay is harmful, but the time is ripe for being done.
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Orestes
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Then how will things inside stand when I enter?
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Paedagogus
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All is well. The fact is that no one will know you.
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Orestes
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You have reported me as dead, I presume?
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Paedagogus
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Know that here you are a man numbered with the shades.
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Orestes
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Do they rejoice, then, at the news? Or what do they say?
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Paedagogus
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I will tell when all is completed. Meanwhile,
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all is favorable for us on their part, even that which is not favorable.
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Electra
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Who is this, brother? By the gods, tell me.
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Orestes
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Do you not know who he is?
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Orestes
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Do you not know the man to whose hands you gave me once?
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Electra
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What man? What do you mean?
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I was secretly conveyed away to Phocian soil.
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Electra
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Is this he in whom alone out of many I once found a true ally at the time of our father’s murder?
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Orestes
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This is he; question me no further.
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Electra
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O joyous day! O sole preserver of Agamemnon’s house,
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how did you come here? Are you indeed the man who saved my brother and myself from many sorrows? O dearest hands, O messenger whose feet were kindly servants! How could you be with me so long and remain unknown, without giving a ray of illumination,