Electra

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 6: The Electra. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1894.

  1. of those from whom they derived life and enjoyment, why do we not pay these debts in like measure? No, by the lightning-flash of Zeus, by Themis throned in the sky,
  2. we are not long unpunished. O Voice of the underworld that reaches to mortals, shout for me a piteous cry to the sons of Atreus below. Carry the reproaches not appropriate to my dancing!
Chorus
  1. Tell them the affairs of their house, how it is now diseased; how among his children, double-sided strife has overwhelmed their loving manner.
  2. Electra, betrayed, braves the storm alone. In misery she bewails her father’s fate without pause, like the all-grieving nightingale. She cares not at all about death, but is ready for that eternal blindness,