Orestes
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.
- You there! Keep your hands off those bolts; I mean you, Menelaus, towering in your audacity! Or I will tear off the ancient parapet, the work of masons,
- and shatter your skull with this coping-stone. The doors are bolted and barred, which will prevent your eagerness to bring aid and keep you from entering.
- Oh! What is this? I see a blaze of torches and men standing at bay on the top of the house,
- with a sword guarding my daughter’s throat.
- Would you question me or hear me speak?
- Neither; but I suppose I must hear you.
- I intend to kill your daughter, if you want to know.
- After slaying Helen, you will add murder to murder?
- Would I had accomplished that, instead of being duped by the gods!
- Do you deny having slain her, and say this out of wanton insult?
- Yes, I do deny it, to my sorrow. If only I had—
- Done what? You frighten me!
- Hurled the pollution of Hellas to Hades!
- Give back my wife’s dead body, so that I may bury her.
- Ask the gods for her; but I will kill your daughter.
- This matricide is adding murder to murder.
- This champion of his father, betrayed by you to death.
- Are you not content with the present stain of your mother’s blood?
- I would not grow tired if I had these wicked women to slay for ever.
- Are you too, Pylades, a partner in this bloody work?