Chorus Leader
Hush! hush! I caught the sound of a foot-fall on the road near the house.
Electra
My dearest friends, it is Hermione advancing into the middle of the bloodshed; let our clamor cease.
[1315]
For she comes headlong into the meshes of the net. The prey will be good, if it is caught. Take up your places again with looks composed and faces not betraying what has happened; I too will have a gloomy look,
[1320]
as if I knew nothing of what has been done.Hermione enters.
Ah! maiden, have you come from wreathing Clytemnestra's grave and pouring libations to the dead?
Hermione
Yes, I have returned after securing her favor; but I was filled with some alarm about a cry I heard from the palace
[1325]
as I was still at a distance.
Electra
But why? Our present lot gives cause for groans.
Hermione
Oh, don't say so! What is your news?
Electra
Argos has sentenced Orestes and me to death.
Hermione
Oh no! not my own relatives!
Electra
[1330]
It is decreed; we have put on the yoke of necessity.
Hermione
Was this the reason of the cry within?
Electra
Yes, a suppliant cried out as he fell at Helen's knees—
Hermione
Who is he? I know nothing more, if you do not tell me.
Electra
Unhappy Orestes, entreating mercy for himself and me.
Hermione
[1335]
The house then has good reason to shout.
Electra
What else would make someone entreat more earnestly? But come and throw yourself before your mother in her prosperity, join your friends' supplication that Menelaus may not see us die.
[1340]
O you that were nursed in my mother's arms, have pity on us and relieve our pain. Come here to the struggle, and I myself will be your guide; for you alone have power over our safety.
Hermione
See, I am hastening to the house;
[1345]
as far it as rests with me, regard yourselves as safe.Hermione enters the palace.
Electra
Now, friends in the house with swords, seize the prey!
Hermione
within
Oh no! Who are these I see?
Orestes
Silence! You are here for our safety, not yours.
Electra
Hold her, hold her! Point a sword at her throat,
[1350]
then wait in silence, that Menelaus may learn that he has found men, not Phrygian cowards, and he has been treated as cowards deserve.She enters the palace.
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Table of Contents:
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2. Orestes, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.
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