This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
Pylades enters alone.
Pylades
I have come through the city quickly, as I should, [730] having heard and myself clearly seen the citizens assembling, against you and your sister, to kill you at once. What is happening? How is it with you? How are you doing, my best of comrades, friends and kin? For you are all these to me. Orestes
I am ruined, to make plain to you my troubles in brief. Pylades
[735] You must destroy me also; for friends have all in common. Orestes
Menelaus is the worst of men to me and my sister. Pylades
It is natural for the husband of an evil woman to become evil. Orestes
He no more repaid me by coming here, than if he had never come. Pylades
Oh, has he really arrived in this land? Orestes
[740] He took a long time, but he was very soon detected as evil to his friends. Pylades
And did he bring his wife, the worst of women, with him on his ship? Orestes
It was not he who brought her here, but she who brought him. Pylades
Where is she, the one woman who proved the ruin of so many Achaeans? Orestes
In my house; if, that is, I ought to call it mine. Pylades
[745] And what did you say to your father's brother? Orestes
Not to see me and my sister killed by the citizens. Pylades
By the gods! What did he say to that? I would like know this. Orestes
He was cautious, the usual policy of ignoble friends. Pylades
What excuse did he advance? When I have learned that, I know everything. Orestes
[750] There was a new arrival, the father who begot those noble daughters. Pylades
You mean Tyndareus; he was angry with you, perhaps, for his daughter's sake? Orestes
You understand. And Menelaus preferred the family relationship with him to that with my father. Pylades
He did not have the courage to share your troubles, when he was here? Orestes
No, for he was not born a warrior, though strong among women! Pylades
[755] Your case is desperate, it seems, and you must die. Orestes
The citizens must give their vote about us on the murder. Pylades
And what is that to decide? Tell me, for I am alarmed. Orestes
Our life or death; a brief speech on a large subject. Pylades
Leave the palace with your sister now and try to escape. Orestes
[760] Don't you see? We are being watched by guards on every side. Pylades
I saw that the streets of the city were secured with armed men. Orestes
We are as closely beleaguered as a city by its foes.
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.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.