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. that he will get the better of Justice, until he comes to the end of the finish-line and makes the last turn in life.
Chorus Leader
  1. He did terrible things, and repaid them to you and Orestes; for Justice has great strength.
Electra
  1. Well then; you must carry the body of this man inside
  2. and hide it, slaves, so that when my mother comes, she may not see his corpse before her slaughter.
Orestes
  1. Wait! Let us go into another matter.
Electra
  1. What? Those are not rescuers from Mycenae whom I see?
Orestes
  1. No, but the mother who bore me.
Electra
  1. Then finely she walks to the middle of the net. —And here she comes, splendid in her chariot and dress.
Orestes
  1. What are we going to do? Shall we kill our mother?
Electra
  1. Surely pity did not seize you, when you saw your mother?
Orestes
  1. Ah! How can I kill her when she bore me and brought me up?
Electra
  1. As she killed your father and mine.
Orestes
  1. O Phoebus, you prophesied a great folly—
Electra
  1. Where Apollo is a fool, who are the wise?
Orestes
  1. You who declared I was to kill my mother, whom it is clearly wrong to kill.
Electra
  1. How can you be hurt by avenging your father?
Orestes
  1. I shall stand trial as a matricide, though I was pure before.
Electra
  1. And by not defending your father, you will be impious.
Orestes
  1. I, my mother—? To whom will I pay the penalty for her murder?
Electra
  1. And to whom, if you give up our father’s vengeance?