Euripides

“ Orestes! Life, not death, had been thy due.⁠1030
Orestes.
Ah, by the Gods, I pray, unman me not,
Nor bring to tears by mention of our woes.
Electra.
We die! I cannot but bemoan our fate.
All mortals grieve for precious life foregone.
Orestes.
This is our day of doom: the noose must coil⁠1035
About our necks, or our hands grasp the sword.
Electra.
Brother, thou slay me, that no Argive slay,
With outrage foul to Agamemnon's child.
Orestes.
Suffice the mother's blood: I will not slay thee.
Die in what wise thou wilt by thine own hand.⁠1040
Electra. ”

“ Who egged thee on against thy mother, aye
Sending to thine ear venomous messages,
Telling of dreams from Agamemnon sent,
Telling how Gods of the Underworld abhorred
Aegisthus' couch,—a hateful thing on earth,—⁠620
Till the house blazed with fire unnatural.
Menelaus, this I warn thee—yea, will do:—
If thou regard mine hate, our tie of kin,
Shield not this man from death in heaven's despite.
Leave him to die by stoning of the folk,⁠625
Or never set thou foot in Spartan land!
Thou hast heard—remember! Choose the impious not,
To thrust aside the friends that reverence God. ”

“ Menelaus.
Why not? He is son to one beloved of me.
Tyndareus.
That hero's son he!—such a wretch as he!
Menelaus.
His son. If hapless, worthy honour still.
Tyndareus.
Thou hast grown barbarian, midst barbarians long.⁠485
Menelaus.
Greek is it still to honour kindred blood.
Tyndareus.
Yea, and to wish not to o'erride the laws.
Menelaus.
Fate's victims are Fate's thralls in wise men's eyes.
Tyndareus.
Hold thou by that: not I will hold thereby.
Menelaus.
Thy rage with grey hairs joined makes not for wisdom.⁠490
Tyndareus. ”

“ Hears this, who lies 'neath earth, that over thee⁠675
His spirit hovers: what I say he saith.
This, urged with tears, moans, pleas of misery,
Have I said, and have claimed my life of thee,
Seeking what all men seek, not I alone.
Chorus.
I too beseech thee, woman though I am,⁠680
To succour those in need: thou hast the power.
Menelaus.
Orestes, verily I reverence thee,
And fain would help thee bear thy load of ills.
Yea, duty bids that, where God gives the power,
Kinsmen should one another's burdens bear,⁠685
Even unto death, or slaying of their foes. ”

“ Now Tyndareus and the city will I seek
To sway to temperance in their stormy mood.⁠705
A ship, if one have strained the mainsheet taut,
Dips deep; but rights again, the mainsheet eased.
For Heaven hateth over-vehemence,
And citizens hate. I ought, I grant, to save thee—
By wisdom, not defiance of the strong.⁠710
I cannot—as thou haply dream'st—by force
Save thee. How should I with my single spear
Triumph o'er all the ills that compass thee?
To move this land of Argos to relent [21] ⁠715
Never we stooped yet!—now is bitter need
That prudent men be bondmen unto fate. ”

“ Menelaus.
Of private foes, or of all Argos' power?⁠445
Orestes.
Of all the folk, that I may die;—soon said.
Menelaus.
Hapless! Misfortune's deepest depth thou hast reached!
Orestes.
In thee mine hope hath refuge yet from ills.
Thou com'st to folk in misery, prosperous thou:
Give thy friends share of thy prosperity,⁠450
And not for self keep back thine happiness,
But bear a part in suffering in thy turn:
Requite, to whom thou ow'st, my father's boon.
The name of friendship have they, not the truth,
The friends that in misfortune are not friends.⁠450
Chorus. ”

“ Phrygian.
Everywhere shall wise men better love to cling to life than die.
Orestes.
Didst thou not to Menelaus shout the rescue-cry but now?⁠1510
Phrygian.
Nay, O nay!—but for thine helping cried I:—worthier art thou.
Orestes.
Answer—did the child of Tyndareus by righteous sentence fall?
Phrygian.
Righteous—wholly righteous—though she had three throats to die withal.
Orestes.
Dastard, 'tis thy tongue but truckles: in thine heart thou think'st not so.
Phrygian.
Should she not, who Hellas laid, and Phrygia's folk, in ruin low?⁠1515
Orestes. ”

“ Electra.
Dearest, who bear'st a name desirable⁠1045
And sweet on sister's lips!—one soul with mine!
Orestes.
Ah, thou wilt melt me! Fain would I reply
With arms of love! Wretch, wherefore shame I now?
Ah, sister-bosom, dear embrace to me!
In children's stead, instead of wedded arms,⁠1050
This farewell to the hapless is vouchsafed.
Electra (sighs) .
Oh might the selfsame sword, if this may be,
Slay us, one coffin cedar-wrought receive!
Orestes.
Most sweet were this: yet, how forlorn of friends
Thou seest are we, who cannot claim one tomb!⁠1055
Electra. ”

“ It must not be that Menelaus thrive,
The while thy sire, thou, and thy sister die,
Thy mother—that I pass, unmeet to say,—⁠1145
And that he hold thine halls who won his bride
By Agamemnon's spear!—may I not live
If we shall not against her draw the sword! [33]
If haply we achieve not Helen's death,
Yon palace will we fire, and so will die.⁠1150
For, of two glories, one we will not miss,
To die with honour, or with honour 'scape.
Chorus.
This child of Tyndareus, who hath brought shame
On womankind, deserves all women's hate.
Orestes. ”

“ Orestes.
Pylades, sharer in my mother's blood.
Menelaus.
And by what phantom-shapes thus art thou plagued?
Orestes.
Methought I saw three maidens like to night.
Menelaus.
I know of whom thou speak'st, but will not name.
Orestes.
They are Dread Ones: wise art thou to name them not.⁠410
Menelaus.
Do these by blood of kindred madden thee?
Orestes.
Woe for their haunting feet that dog me aye!
Menelaus.
For dread deeds sufferings dread—not strange is this.
Orestes.
Yet can I cast my burden of affliction—
Menelaus. ”

“ Pylades.
That I helped thee slay thy mother, this he names an impious thing.
Orestes.
Woe is me! the anguish of mine anguish unto thee must cling!
Pylades.
I am not a Menelaus: these afflictions must I bear.
Orestes.
Fear'st thou not lest Argos doom thee with my deed my death to share?⁠770
Pylades.
I belong not unto them to punish, but to Phocis-land.
Orestes.
Fearful is the people's rage, when evil men its course command.
Pylades.
Nay, but when they take them honest chiefs, they counsel honest rede.
Orestes.
Come, let thou and I commune— [22]
Pylades. ”

“ Electra.
Helen, why tell thee what thyself mayst see—
The piteous plight of Agamemnon's son?
Sleepless I sit beside a wretched corpse;
For, but for faintest breath, a corpse he is.
His evils—I reproach him not with them. [4] ⁠85
But prosperous thou art come, and prosperous comes
Thy lord, to us the misery-stricken ones.
Helen.
How long hath he so lain upon his couch?
Electra.
Even since he spilt the blood of her that bare him.
Helen.
Ah wretch!—ah mother, what a death she died!⁠90
Electra. ”

“ Orestes.
Hero is there none in him!—mid women valiant he of mood.
Pylades.
Then art thou in depth of evil: death for thee must needs abide.⁠755
Orestes.
Touching this our murder must the vote of Argos' folk decide.
Pylades.
What shall this determine?—tell me, for mine heart is full of dread.
Orestes.
Death or life. The word that names the dateless doom is quickly said.
Pylades.
Flee then: yonder palace-halls forsake thou: with thy sister flee.
Orestes.
Seest thou not?—warded round on every hand by guards are we.⁠760
Pylades. ”

“ Thou a slave, and fearest Death, who shall from misery set thee free!
Phrygian.
Every man, though ne'er so much a thrall, yet joys the light to see.
Orestes.
Well thou say'st: thy wit hath saved thee. Hence within the house—away! ”

“ That, as a brother, in his friend's affliction
Afflicted, tending like a nurse the sick.
When now the Argive gathering was full,
A herald rose and cried: "Who fain would speak⁠885
Whether Orestes ought to live or die
For matricide?" Talthybius thereupon
Rose, helper of thy sire when Troy was sacked.
He spake—subservient ever to the strong—
Half-heartedly, extolling high thy sire,⁠890
But praising not thy brother; intertwined
Fair words and foul—that he laid down a law
Right ill for parents: so was glancing still
With flattering eye upon Aegisthus' friends. ”

“ Ye within the mansion—Atreus' children!—bar the bolted gate!—
Haste! oh haste! A formidable foeman is the fortunate
Unto such as be—as thou, Orestes, now—in evil strait.
Enter Menelaus, below; Orestes and Pylades above, with Hermionê. ”

“ Nay, nay, this task is mine no less than thine.
Since we shall surely die, debate we now
How Menelaus too may share our woe.
Orestes.
Dear friend, would I could look on this, and die!⁠1100
Pylades.
Hearken to me, and that sword-stroke defer.
Orestes.
I wait, if so I avenge me on my foe.
Pylades (pointing to Chorus) .
Speak low!—I put in women little trust.
Orestes.
Fear not for these: all here be friends to us.
Pylades.
Slay Helen—Menelaus' bitter grief!⁠1105
Orestes. ”

“ Safer were this, O friends.⁠1540
Lo there, lo there, where the smoke upleaping sends
⁠Its token afront of the halls through air!
⁠They will fire the palace of Tantalus!—glare
Already the brands, nor the deeds of murder they spare.
⁠Yet God overruleth the issue still,
⁠To mete unto men what issue he will:
⁠Great is his power! By a curse-fiend led
⁠This house on a track of blood hath been sped
Since Myrtilus, dashed from the chariot, plashed in the sea-surge, dead. ”

“ Orestes.
⁠Pardoned art thou.⁠1525
Phrygian.
⁠Kindly dost thou say.
Orestes.
Varlet, mine intent may change!—
Phrygian.
⁠Thou utterest now an evil note!
[Exit.
Orestes.
Fool! to think that I would brook with blood to stain me from thy throat,
Who art neither woman, neither found the ranks of men among!
Forth the palace I but came to curb the clamour of thy tongue,
For that swiftly roused is Argos if the rescue-cry she hear.⁠1530
Menelaus—set him once at sword-length—nothing do I fear.
Hence with him, [41] with golden locks whose pride about his shoulders falls! ”

“ With feeble help of friends yet left to me.⁠690
In battle could we never overcome
Pelasgian Argos. If we might prevail
By soft words, this is our hope's utmost bound.
For with faint means how should a man achieve
Great things?—'twere witless even to wish for this.⁠695
For, in the first rush of a people's rage,
'Twere even as one would quench a ravening fire.
But if one gently yield him to their stress,
Slacken the sheet, and watch the season due,
Their storm might spend its force. When lulls the blast,⁠700
Lightly thou mightest win thy will of them. ”

“ Orestes.
O nothing-worth—save in a woman's cause
To lead a host!—craven in friends' defence!
Turn'st from me?—fleest?—are Agamemnon's deeds⁠720
Forgot? Ah father, friendless in affliction!
Woe's me, I am betrayed: hope lives no more
Of refuge from the Argives' doom of death! ”

“ Menelaus.
And Argos—how on thy deed looketh she?
Orestes.
I am hated so, that none will speak to me.
Menelaus.
Cleansed are thine hands, as bids the law, from blood?
Orestes.
Barred from all homes am I whereto I seek. [12] ⁠430
Menelaus.
Who of the citizens would banish thee?
Orestes.
Oiax [13] —for Troy-born hate against my sire.
Menelaus.
Ay so—to avenge Palamedes' blood on thee.
Orestes.
Not mine the deed. I am trebly overmatched.
Menelaus.
What other?—be they of Aegisthus' friends?⁠435
Orestes. ”

“ Then, if Menelaus, lest his daughter die,⁠1195
Will save thee, seeing Helen fallen in blood,
Yield to her sire's embrace the maiden's form.
But if, controlling not his furious mood,
He seek to slay thee, pierce the maid's neck through.
I ween, though swelling be his port at first,⁠1200
His wrath at last shall cool. Nor brave nor stout
By nature is he. This I find for us
The bulwark of deliverance. I have said.
Orestes.
O thou who hast the spirit of a man,
Albeit in body woman manifest, [36] ⁠1205
How worthier far art thou to live than die!
Such woman, Pylades, shalt thou, alas! ”

“ Exeunt Helen and Hermionê.
Electra.
Ah Nature, what a curse art thou to men—
What blessing to thy virtuous heritors!
Mark, of her hair she shore the tips alone,
Sparing its beauty—still the Helen of old!
God's hate be on thee, who hast ruined me,⁠130
My brother, and all Hellas! Woe is me!
Lo, hither come my friends who wail with me
My dirges! Soon shall they uprouse from sleep
Him who hath peace now, and shall drown mine eyes
In tears, when I behold my brother rave.⁠135
Enter Chorus.
Ah friends, dear friends, with soundless footfall tread ”

“ Menelaus.
Sore lack was his of justice and of right!
Orestes.
The Gods' thralls are we—whatsoe'er gods be.
Menelaus.
And doth not Loxias shield thee in thine ills?
Orestes.
He long delays—such is the Gods' wont still.⁠420
Menelaus.
How long since passed thy mother's breath away?
Orestes.
The sixth day this: the death-pyre yet is warm.
Menelaus.
How soon those Powers required thy mother's blood!
Orestes.
Not wise, but loyal friend to friends was I. [11]
Menelaus.
Thy sire's avenging—doth it aught avail thee?⁠425
Orestes. ”

“ For heirless, if I die, I leave his house.
'Tis hopeless, wilt thou say?—thine hour is this.⁠665
In desperate need ought friends to help their friends.
When Fortune gives her boons, what need of friends?
Her help sufficeth, when she wills to help.
All Greece believeth that thou lov'st thy wife,—
Not cozening thee by soft words say I this:—⁠670
By her I pray thee! . . . (aside) woe for mine affliction! ”