Electra
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/sophocles" aria-label="More works by Sophocles">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
539
but instead afflicting me with stories, while possessed of sweetest reality? Welcome, Father, for it is a father that I seem to behold! Welcome, and know that in one day I have hated you and loved you as no man ever before!
540
540
Paedagogus
540
That is enough, I think. As for the recounting of intervening events,
541
many are the circling nights and an equal number of days which will reveal them to you clearly, Electra.
542
542
To Orestes and Pylades.
542
And this is my advice to you two, since you stand there: now is your opportunity to act, now Clytaemnestra is alone, now no man is inside. But if you pause,
543
consider that you will have to fight both those inside and others mightier and better skilled.
544
544
Orestes
544
Pylades, in no way does our task call any longer for many words, but rather demands that we enter the house immediately, after first adoring the shrines of my father’s
545
gods, the keepers of these gates. Orestes and Pylades enter the house, followed by the Paedagogus. Electra remains outside.
546
546
Electra
546
King Apollo! Hear them with favor, and hear me besides, who so often have come before your altar with hands rich in such gifts as I could obtain! And now, O Lycean Apollo, with what means I have
547
I pray to you, I supplicate you, I implore you, be our ready champion in these designs, and show what rewards the gods bestow on humans in return for their impiety! Exit Electra, into the house.
548
548
Chorus
548
Behold how Ares stalks onward,
549
breathing bloody vengeance that is hard to oppose. Just now have the hunters of wicked crimes passed beneath that roof there, the hounds which none may flee. And so not long shall
550
the vision of my soul hang in suspense.
551
551
Chorus
551
The champion of the spirits infernal is ushered on guileful feet into the house, the rich, ancestral palace of his father, and he bears keen-edged death in his hands.
552
Maia’s son Hermes, who has shrouded the guile in darkness, leads him right to his goal and delays no longer.
585
585
Aegisthus
585
Which of you can tell me where those Phocian strangers are, who are said to have brought report for us that Orestes passed away amidst the shipwrecked chariots?
586
You, you I ask, yes, you, who were in former days so bold. It seems to me that this concerns you most, so you must know best, and can best tell me.
587
587
Electra
587
I do know. How could I not? Otherwise I would be an alien to the fortune of my nearest kinsmen.
588
588
Aegisthus
588
Where, then, may the strangers be? Tell me.
589
589
Electra
589
Inside. They have found a way to the heart of their hostess.
590
590
Aegisthus
590
Have they in fact reported him truly dead?
591
591
Electra
591
No, not reported only. They have shown him.
592
592
Aegisthus
592
Then I can identify the corpse myself?
593
593
Electra
593
You can, indeed, though it is no enviable sight.
594
594
Aegisthus
594
You have indeed given me a joyful greeting, beyond your custom.
595
595
Electra
595
May joy be yours, if joy is what you find in these things.
596
596
Aegisthus
596
Silence, I say, and throw wide the gates for all Mycenaeans and Argives to see,
597
so that, if any one of them were once buoyed by empty hopes in this man, now by seeing his corpse, he may welcome my bit in his mouth, instead of waiting until my punishment makes him grow wits by force!
598
598
Electra
598
All will be done on my part. Time
599
has given me the sense to comply with the stronger.
600
600
Aegisthus
600
O Zeus, I see an image which could not have fallen without divine spite—but, if Nemesis attend what I say, let it be unsaid! To Orestes. Undo the coverings from his eyes, so that our kinship, at least, may receive due mourning from me also.
601
601
Orestes
601
Lift the veil yourself. It is not for me, but for you to look upon these remains and greet them kindly.
602
602
Aegisthus
602
You advise well, and I will obey you. To Electra. But you, call Clytaemnestra for me, if she is at home.
603
603
Orestes
603
She is near you; do not look elsewhere.
604
604
Aegisthus
604
O, what sight is this!
605
605
Aegisthus
605
Who are the men into whose nets I have miserably fallen?
606
606
Aegisthus
606
Ah, I read the riddle! It cannot be that
607
this is not Orestes who speaks to me!
608
608
Orestes
608
And, though so good a prophet, were you deceived so long?
609
609
Aegisthus
609
Oh, I am destroyed, undone! Yet allow me to speak just a little.
610
When mortals are embroiled in misfortunes, how can one who is to die benefit from lapse of time? No, kill him as quickly as you can, and throw his corpse to the creatures from whom his kind should have burial, throw it far from our sight! For in my eyes this
611
alone can bring us release from the misery of the past.
612
612
Orestes
612
To Aegisthus. Go in, and quickly. Words are not at stake here, but your life.
613
613
Aegisthus
613
Why take me into the house? If this deed is just, what need is there of darkness? Why is your hand not quick to strike?
614
614
Orestes
614
Do not give orders, but go to where you struck down my father, so that in that very place you may die.
615
615
Aegisthus
615
Is this dwelling doomed to see all the sufferings of us descendants of Pelops, both now and in time to come?
616
616
Orestes
616
Yours, at least. I am for you a consummate prophet in these matters.
617
617
Aegisthus
617
The skill you boast about did not belong to your father.
618
618
Orestes
618
You bandy words, and our going is delayed. Move forward!
619
619
Aegisthus
619
Lest I escape you?
620
This just penalty ought to come straightaway upon all who would break the laws: the penalty of death. Then wrongdoing would not abound.
621
621
Chorus
621
O seed of Atreus, through how many sufferings have you sprouted up at last in freedom,
622
fulfilled by this day’s enterprise!
41
41
Chorus
41
Not to you alone of mortals, my daughter, has sorrow come,
42
though you face it with less restraint than those girls inside, Chrysothemis and Iphianassa, whose parents and blood you share. They still live, as he, too, lives, sorrowing in his secluded youth,
43
yet happy in that this famous realm of the Mycenaeans shall one day receive him as a noble lord, if with the blessing of Zeus’s escort he, Orestes, returns to this land.
44
44
Electra
44
Yes, I await him with unwearied longing,
45
as I walk my sad path from day to day childless and unwed, bathed in tears, bearing that endless doom of evils. But he forgets all that he has suffered and learned.
46
What message comes to me that is not proven false? He constantly desires to be with us, but though he desires it, he does not choose to appear.
47
47
Chorus
47
Courage, my daughter, courage; Zeus in the sky
48
is still mighty, and he sees and rules all. Leave your oversharp anger to him; be neither excessively hostile to those you hate, nor forgetful of them, since Time is a god who brings ease.
49
Neither the son of Agamemnon, who dwells by Crisa’s cattle-feeding shore nor the god who reigns beside Acheron is unmindful of you.
50
50
Electra
50
But the best part of life has passed away leaving me in hopelessness, and I have no strength left. I waste away without children and have no loving husband to champion me, but like some despised foreign slave,
51
I serve in the halls of my father, wrapped in shabby garments and standing to eat scanty meals.
286
286
Chorus
286
Unhappy are you, unhappy your destiny!
287
287
Electra
287
How well I know that, all too well, with my life swept through all the months by abundant terrors and horrors!
288
288
Chorus
288
We have witnessed the events for which you mourn.
289
289
Electra
289
Cease, then, to divert me from it, since no longer—
856a
856a
Chorus
856a
What do you say?
290
290
Electra
290
—Since I no longer have hope in my brother, the seed of our shared noble line, to aid me.
291
291
Chorus
291
Nature ordains death as the destiny of all mortals.
292
292
Electra
292
What, a death like the one which that ill-fated one died beneath a race of swift hooves, entangled in the cutting, dragging reins?
293
293
Chorus
293
The mutilation is beyond thought!
294
294
Electra
294
Yes, so it is, when in foreign soil, without being tended by my hands—
295
295
Chorus
295
Ah, no!
296
296
Electra
296
—he has been buried not receiving from me either burial
297
or lamentation.
392
392
Chorus
392
None of the good willingly clouds his fair repute and becomes nameless by leading a corrupt life, my child.
393
Similarly, you, too, have chosen a lifetime of shared mourning and have armed against dishonor, so that you might win in one breath a twofold praise as wise, and as the best of daughters.
394
394
Chorus
394
May I yet see you live exalted in might and wealth above your enemies by as much as you now dwell beneath their hand! For I have found you enjoying no prosperous estate, yet
395
for observance of nature’s highest laws you win the noblest prize by your reverence toward Zeus.
553
553
Electra
553
My dearest friends, in a moment the men will do the deed. But wait in silence.
554
554
Chorus
554
How do they fare? What are they doing now?
555
555
Electra
555
She is decking the urn for burial; the two of them stand close to her.
556
556
Chorus
556
And why have you hurried out?
1402a
1402a
Electra
1402a
To guard against Aegisthus entering before we are aware.
557
557
Clytaemnestra
557
Oh! Oh! Our house
558
is empty of friends and filled with murderers!
559
559
Electra
559
Someone shouts inside. Do you not hear, friends?
560
560
Chorus
560
I heard, ah, me, sounds unfit to be heard, and I shudder!
561
561
Clytaemnestra
561
Ah, misery! Aegisthus, where, where are you?
562
562
Electra
562
Look, once more someone cries out!
563
563
Clytaemnestra
563
My son, my son, have pity on your mother!
1411a
1411a
Electra
1411a
Why? You had none for him, nor for the father that begot him.
564
564
Chorus
564
Wretched city, wretched race, now the fate that has held you day by day perishes—it perishes!
565
565
Clytaemnestra
565
Oh, I am wounded!
1415a
1415a
Electra
1415a
Stab her doubly, if you can!
566
566
Clytaemnestra
566
Ah, wounded again!
567
567
Electra
567
Would that Aegisthus, too, were wounded!
568
568
Chorus
568
The curses bring fulfillment: those who are buried live.
569
For men long dead are draining their killers’ blood in a stream of requital.