Libation Bearers

Aeschylus

Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.

  1. My child, the fire’s ravening jaw does not overwhelm the wits of the dead man,
  2. but afterwards he reveals what stirs him. The murdered man has his dirge; the guilty man is revealed. Justified lament for fathers and for parents,
  3. when raised loud and strong, makes its search everywhere.
Electra
  1. Hear then, O father, as in turn we mourn with plentiful tears. Look, your two children mourn you
  2. in a dirge over your tomb. As suppliants and exiles as well they have sought a haven at your sepulchre. What of these things is good, what free of evil? Is it not hopeless to wrestle against doom?