Sophocles, Electra
Sir Richard Jebb, Ed.

Electra
[920] Oh, what foolishness! How I have been pitying you!

Chrysothemis
What, is my news unpleasing to you?

Electra
You do not know where on earth or into what dreams you wander.

Chrysothemis
How could I not know what I have plainly seen?

Electra
He is dead, poor girl, and your [925] salvation by him is gone. Do not look to him.

Chrysothemis
Ah, miserable me! From whom have you heard this?

Electra
From the man who was present when he perished.

Chrysothemis
And where is he? Amazement steals over my mind.

Electra
He is inside, a welcome guest, not unpleasing to our mother.

Chrysothemis
[930] Ah, misery! Who, then, can have made those ample offerings to my father's tomb?

Electra
Most likely, I think, someone placed those gifts in memory of the dead Orestes.

Chrysothemis
Oh, my misfortune! And I was hurrying here [935] with such joyous nows, ignorant after all of our downfall. But now that I have arrived, I find fresh sorrows added to the old!

Electra
So it stands with you. Yet if you will be persuaded by me, you will lighten the load of our present trouble.

Chrysothemis
[940] How can I ever raise the dead back to life?

Electra
That is not what I meant; I was not born so foolish.

Chrysothemis
What do you urge, then, of those things that I am capable of doing?

Electra
That you be brave in executing what I recommend.

Chrysothemis
If any good can be done, I will not refuse.

Electra
[945] Remember, nothing succeeds without toil.

Chrysothemis
I know it, and I will share your burden with all my power.