NOTES ON ORESTES
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Buckley, Theodore Alois
ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy children calling, who die for thee.
PYL. O thou relation[36] of my father, give ear, O Agamemnon, to my prayers also, preserve thy children.
ORES. I slew my mother.
PYL. But I directed the sword.
ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.
ORES. Succoring thee, my father.
ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.
PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought against thee,[37] defend thy children?
ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.
ELEC. And I with lamentations.
PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers penetrate under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou revered deity of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this virgin, for over us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either for all to live, or all to die!
ELECTRA, CHORUS.
ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the Pelasgian seat of the Argives;—
CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.
ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some there, in that other path, to guard the house.
CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my friend.
ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account of this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.
SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends toward where the sun flings his first rays.
SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.
ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now here, now there, then take some other view.
CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.
ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way through your ringlets.
SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?—Who is this rustic that is standing about thy palace?
ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the enemy the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.
SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest not.
ELEC. But what?—does all with you remain secure? Give me some good report, whether the space before the hall be empty?
SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no one of the Danaids is approaching toward us.
SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a disturbance here.
ELEC. Come now,—I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye that are within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in quiet?—They hear not: Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords then struck dumb at her beauty? Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in with the foot of succor will approach the palace.—Now watch more carefully; it is no contest that admits delay; but turn your eyes some this way, and some that.
CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.
HELEN. (within) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!
ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the murder.—It is the shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.
SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every way.
HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!
ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two double-edged swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her husband, who destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at the river, whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account of the iron weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.
CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along the path around the palace.
ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione is present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall into the meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken. Again to your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that shall not give evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a pensive cast of countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what has happened.
HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clytæmnestra's tomb, and pouring libations to her manes?
HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror has come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear being a far distance off the house.