Great is the power; by avenging fiends, this house has fallen, fallen, through blood, by reason of the hurling Myrtilus from the chariot.

Chorus LeaderBut look! I see Menelaus approaching the palace in haste; no doubt he has heard what is happening here. Descendants of Atreus within, make haste and secure the doors with bars. A man in luck is a dangerous adversary for luckless wretches like you, Orestes.Orestes and Pylades appear on the roof, holding Hermione.

MenelausI have come at the report of strange and violent deeds perpetrated by a pair of lions, men I do not call them. What I heard was that my wife was not dead, but had vanished out of sight, an idle rumor which someone fooled by his own fear brought me. But that is a plot of the matricide’s—ridiculous!Open the doors! I tell my servants to force the gates, so that I may rescue my child at any rate from the hands of those blood-stained men and recover my poor wretched wife, while the ones who destroyed her must die at my hands.