Electra

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. I shall prepare my mother’s slaughter!
Orestes
  1. And as for the other matter, fortune will ordain well.
Electra
  1. Let this man here help us with both.
Old man
  1. I will; but how will you find a way to kill your mother?
Electra
  1. Go to Clytemnestra, old man, and say this: report that I have given birth to a male child.
Old man
  1. That you have given birth some time ago, or quite recently?
Electra
  1. Ten days ago, in which a woman who has given birth stays pure.
Old man
  1. And how does this grant us the slaughter of your mother?
Electra
  1. She will come, when she hears of my childbirth pangs.
Old man
  1. How is that? Do you think she cares for you, child?
Electra
  1. Yes; and she will weep, surely, over my child’s low rank.
Old man
  1. Perhaps; bring your story back again to the turning-point.
Electra
  1. Well then, if she comes, it is clear that she will die.
Old man
  1. Yes, she will come right up to the door of your house.
Electra
  1. Won’t it then be a little thing for her to turn aside to Hades?
Old man
  1. May I die, once I have seen this!
Electra
  1. First of all, old man, guide my brother—
Old man
  1. To the place where Aegisthus is now sacrificing to the gods?
Electra
  1. Then, going to meet my mother, give her my message.
Old man
  1. So that the very words will seem to have been said by you.