GetPassage urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg005.perseus-eng2:1475a-1503 urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg005.perseus-eng2:1475a-1503
Why so scared? Is the face so strange?AegisthusWho are the men into whose nets I have miserably fallen?OrestesDo you not perceive how you have long been addressing the living in terms suited to the dead?AegisthusAh, I read the riddle! It cannot be thatthis is not Orestes who speaks to me!OrestesAnd, though so good a prophet, were you deceived so long?AegisthusOh, I am destroyed, undone! Yet allow me to speak just a little.ElectraBy the gods, brother, do not allow him to speak any more or to plead at length!When mortals are embroiled in misfortunes, how can one who is to die benefit from lapse of time? No, kill him as quickly as you can, and throw his corpse to the creatures from whom his kind should have burial, throw it far from our sight! For in my eyes thisalone can bring us release from the misery of the past.OrestesTo Aegisthus.Go in, and quickly. Words are not at stake here, but your life.AegisthusWhy take me into the house? If this deed is just, what need is there of darkness? Why is your hand not quick to strike?OrestesDo not give orders, but go to where you struck down my father, so that in that very place you may die.AegisthusIs this dwelling doomed to see all the sufferings of us descendants of Pelops, both now and in time to come?OrestesYours, at least. I am for you a consummate prophet in these matters.AegisthusThe skill you boast about did not belong to your father.OrestesYou bandy words, and our going is delayed. Move forward!AegisthusYou lead.OrestesYou must go first.AegisthusLest I escape you?