Electra
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 6: The Electra. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1894.
- Is this your voice?
- Hear it from no other.
- Do I hold you in my arms?
- May you hold me so always hereafter!
- Ah, dear friends and fellow-citizens, see Orestes here, who was dead by design, and now by design has come safely home!
- We see him, daughter, and for this happy turn of fortune a tear of joy trickles from our eyes.
- O seed, seed of the person to me most dear, you have just now come,
- you have come, and have found and seen her whom your heart desired!
- I am with you; but keep silence and wait.
- What do you mean?
- It is better to be silent so that no one inside may hear.
- No, by ever-virgin Artemis,
- I will never think it right to tremble before eternally house-bound women, that useless burden on the ground!
- Yes, but remember that Ares dwells in women, too. You know this well by experience, I believe.
- oh, no! ah, me! You have reminded me of my sorrow, one which by its nature cannot be veiled,
- cannot be done away with, cannot be forgotten!
- I know this, too; but when occasion prompts, we must recall those crimes.
- Each moment of all time, as it comes, would be a proper occasion
- for me to make these just complaints. Scarcely now have I had my lips set free.
- Yes, I agree; therefore guard your freedom.