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. What affliction on earth surpasses this? What calls for keener grief or pity, than to shed with your hand a mother’s blood? Oh! what a dreadful crime he committed,
  2. and now is raving mad, a prey to the Furies, whirling blood with racing eyes, the son of Agamemnon! O the wretch! when
  3. he saw a mother’s bosom over her robe of golden weave, and yet he made her his victim, in recompense for his father’s sufferings.
Electra
  1. Women, has my poor Orestes left the house,
  2. mastered by the heaven-sent madness?
Chorus Leader
  1. Not at all; he has gone to the Argive people to stand the appointed trial for his life, in which he and you must live or die.
Electra
  1. Oh! Why did he do it? Who persuaded him?
Chorus Leader
  1. Pylades; but this messenger will no doubt soon tell us what happened to your brother there.
Messenger
  1. Wretched, unhappy daughter of the general Agamemnon, my lady Electra, hear the sad tidings I bring you.
Electra
  1. Alas! we are ruined; your words show it; you have clearly come with tidings of woe.
Messenger
  1. The Pelasgians have decided by vote that you, poor lady, and your brother are to die this day.
Electra
  1. Alas! my expectations are realized; I have long feared this,
  2. and have been wasting away in mourning for what was sure to happen. But what was the trial, what was said by the Argives, to condemn us and ratify our death? Tell me, old friend; must I die by stoning or the sword?
  3. For I share my brother’s misfortunes.
Messenger
  1. I had just come from the country and was entering the gates, needing to learn what was decided about you and Orestes, for I was always well disposed to your father when he was alive, and it was your house that reared me,
  2. poor indeed, yet loyal in the service of friends. I saw a crowd going and taking their seats on the height, where they say Danaus first gathered his people for a meeting, making amends to Aegyptus. So, when I saw the throng, I asked a citizen:
  3. What news in Argos? Tidings of the enemy haven’t ruffled the city of Danaus, have they? But he said: Don’t you see Orestes there, on his way to he tried for his life? I saw an unexpected sight, which I wish I had not seen,
  4. Pylades and your brother approaching together, the one with his head down, weakened by sickness; the other sharing his friend’s sorrow like a brother, tending his illness with constant care.
  5. Now when the Argives were fully gathered,
  6. a herald rose and said: Who wishes to give his opinion whether Orestes should be slain or not for the murder of his mother? Then up stood Talthybius, who helped your father sack the Phrygians. He spoke out of both sides of his mouth, a mere tool of those in power as he always is,