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. The same death that you gave to her husband, Aegisthus.
Orestes
  1. I will go in; it is a dreadful task I am beginning and I will do dreadful things. If the gods approve, let it be; to me the contest is bitter and also sweet.
Orestes withdraws into the house.
Chorus
  1. Hail, Queen of the land of Argos, child of Tyndareus,
  2. and sister of those two noble sons of Zeus who dwell in the fiery heavens among the stars, whose honored office it is to save mortals in the high waves. Welcome, I give you worship equal to the blessed gods
  3. for your wealth and great prosperity. Now is the time to pay our court to your fortunes. Welcome, o queen.
Clytemnestra
  1. Come out of the wagon, Trojan maids, and take my hand, that I may step down from the chariot.
  2. The homes of the gods are adorned with Phrygian spoils, but I have obtained these women, choice objects from the land of Troy, in return for the daughter whom I lost, a slight reward but an ornament to my house.
Electra
  1. And, mother—for I live as a slave
  2. in this miserable house, cast out from my father’s home—may I not take that blessed hand of yours?