The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.. Euripides
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And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?
ORES. No: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.
PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee to die.
ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder we have committed.56
PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.
ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great import.
PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.
ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,
PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.
ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.
PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.
ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.
PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from his house.
ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with the citizens?
PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he banished me, calling me unholy.
ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my evils.
PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners – this must be borne.
ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it does also me?
PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the Phocians.
ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil leaders.
PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good things.
ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.
PYL. On what affair of necessity?
ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say —
PYL. – that thou hast acted justly?
ORES. Ay, avenging my father:
PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.
ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!
PYL. This were cowardly.
ORES. How then can I do?
PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?
ORES. I have none.
PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy miseries?
ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.
PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?
ORES. Shall I go then?
PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.
ORES. And I have a just cause.
PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.
ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of cowardice.
PYL. More than by tarrying here.
ORES. And some one perchance may pity me —
PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.
ORES. – indignant at my father's death.
PYL. All this in prospect.
ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.
PYL. These sentiments I praise.
ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?
PYL. No, by the Gods.
ORES. Why, there might be tears.
PYL. This then is a great omen.
ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.
PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.
ORES. This one thing only opposes me.
PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?
ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their torments.
PYL. But I will take care of thee.
ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus disordered.
PYL. Not for me to touch thee.
ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.
PYL. Let not this be thought of.
ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?
PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.
ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.
PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.
ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.
PYL. To what end is this?
ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.
PYL. This at least is just.
ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.
PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease, on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for the multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend, if I assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?
ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a man who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better friend for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.
CHORUS
The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece, and by the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune of the Atridæ, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when the strife of the golden lamb57 arose among the descendants of Tantalus; most shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from whence murder responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of Atreus. What seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a fierce hand, and brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the sunbeams. But, on the other hand, to act wickedly58 is mad impiety, and the folly of evil-minded men.
But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked out, "My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not, attending to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting disgrace."
What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe of golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's sufferings.
ELECTRA, CHORUS
ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with heaven-inflicted madness, rushed any where from this house?
CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.
ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?
CHOR. Pylades. – But this messenger seems soon about to inform us of what has passed there concerning thy brother.
MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS
MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered Electra, hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.
ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech. For thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.
MESS.
επι τωι φονωι, τουτεστι δια τον φονον, ‛ον ειργασαμεθα. PARAPH.
Thyestes and Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's kingdom, agreed, that whichever should discover the first prodigy should have possession of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden lamb, which, however, Ærope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to show before the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and served up before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by his intrigues with Ærope.
Alluding to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytæmnestra. This is the interpretation and explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better translated, "