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Chorus
The remaining lines of the play are chanted.
Sons of Zeus, is it right for us to draw near to speak with you? Dioskouroi
It is right, for those not polluted by this murder. Electra
[1295] May I too share your conversation, sons of Tyndareus? Dioskouroi
You too; to Phoebus I will attribute this bloody deed. Chorus
How was it that you, being gods and the brothers of this murdered woman, [1300] did not keep the death-goddesses away from her house? Dioskouroi
Necessity's fate led to what must be, and unwise speech from the mouth of Phoebus. Electra
But what Apollo, what sort of oracles, ordained for me to be my mother's murderer? Dioskouroi
[1305] The deeds were shared, the fates were shared; one ancestral curse has ground down both. Orestes
Ah, my sister, seeing you after a long time, at once I am robbed of your affection, [1310] and I must abandon you, abandoned by you. Dioskouroi
She has a husband and a home; she does not suffer pitiably, except that she leaves the city of the Argives. Electra
And what other unhappiness is greater [1315] than to leave the boundary of one's native land? Orestes
But I shall leave my father's house, and at a stranger's tribunal undergo trial for my mother's murder. Dioskouroi
Have courage; you will go [1320] to the holy town of Pallas; only hold out.
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2. Electra, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.
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