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.

  1. All the citizens, so that I may die; it is shortly told.
Menelaus
  1. Poor wretch! you have arrived at the extremity of woe.
Orestes
  1. In you I have hopes of escape from my troubles. But since you have come with good fortune,
  2. share with your friends, who are wretched, your prosperity; do not hold aside that goodness for yourself alone; but partake of troubles in your turn, and so pay back my father’s kindness to those who have a claim on you. For such friends as desert us in adversity
  3. are friends in name but not in deed.
Chorus Leader
  1. And here is Tyndareus, the Spartan, struggling with aged step, clad in black robes, with his hair cut short in mourning for his daughter.
Orestes
  1. Menelaus, I am ruined. See, Tyndareus
  2. approaches us, the man of all others I most shrink from facing, because of the deed I have done. For he nursed me when I was small, and lavished on me many a fond caress, carrying me about in his arms as the son of Agamemnon; and so did Leda;