Peasant
Entering and catching sight of strangers talking to Electra.
Oh! who are these strangers I see at my door? Why have they come here to my rustic gate? Do they want something from me? For it is shameful for a woman to be standing with young men.
Electra
[345]
Dearest, do not be suspicious of me; you shall hear the truth; for these strangers have come to me as messengers of news from Orestes. But, strangers, pardon him for what he said.
Peasant
What do they say? The man is alive and sees the light of day?
Electra
[350]
He is, at least in their report, and I believe them.
Peasant
Surely then he remembers something of your father's wrongs and your own?
Electra
These are things to hope for; a man in exile is powerless.
Peasant
What message from Orestes have they come to declare?
Electra
He sent them as spies of my wrongs.
Peasant
[355]
Then they see a part of it, and perhaps you are telling them the rest.
Electra
They know; they have all these things in abundance.
Peasant
Then shouldn't you have opened the doors to them long before? Go into the house; for in return for your good tidings, you shall find as much hospitality as my house holds in store.
[360]
Servants, take their baggage within the house. Do not contradict me, since you are friends coming from a friend; for, even if I am poor, I will not display manners that are ill-bred.
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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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