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Aegisthus
I have come not unasked but summoned by a messenger. I heard startling news told by some strangers who have arrived, tidings far from welcome: [840] —that Orestes is dead. To lay this too upon our house would be a fearful burden when it is still festering and galled by the wound inflicted by an earlier murder. How can I believe this tale is the living truth? Or is it merely a panic-stricken report spread by women [845] which leaps up to die away in nothingness? What can you tell me of this to make it plain to my mind? Chorus
We heard the tale, it is true. But go inside and inquire of the strangers. The certainty of a messenger's report is nothing compared with one's own interrogation of the man himself. [850] Aegisthus
I wish to see the messenger and put him to the test again—whether he himself was present at the death or merely repeats from vague reports what he has heard. No! Be sure he cannot deceive a mind with eyes open.Exit
Aeschylus. Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. 2. Libation Bearers. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926.
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