Stasimon 5
[Episode]
Oh, don’t say so! What is your news?
Electra
Argos has sentenced Orestes and me to death.
Hermione
Oh no! not my own relatives!
Electra
It is decreed; we have put on the yoke of necessity.
1330
Hermione
Was this the reason of the cry within?
Electra
Yes, a suppliant cried out as he fell at Helen’s knees—
Hermione
Who is he? I know nothing more, if you do not tell me.
Electra
Unhappy Orestes, entreating mercy for himself and me.
Hermione
The house then has good reason to shout.
1335
Electra
What else would make someone entreat more earnestly? But come and throw yourself before your mother in her prosperity, join your friends’ supplication that Menelaus may not see us die.
O you that were nursed in my mother’s arms, have pity on us and relieve our pain. Come here to the struggle, and I myself will be your guide; for you alone have power over our safety.
1340
Hermione
See, I am hastening to the house;
as far it as rests with me, regard yourselves as safe.
Exit Hermione .
1345
Electra
Now, friends in the house with swords, seize the prey!
1345
Hermione
Oh no! Who are these I see?
Orestes
(within.) Silence! You are here for our safety, not yours.
Electra
Hold her, hold her! Point a sword at her throat,
then wait in silence, that Menelaus may learn that he has found men, not Phrygian cowards, and he has been treated as cowards deserve.
1350
[Choral 1]
Oh, oh, friends! raise a din, a din and shouting before the house, that the murder when done
Chorus
may not inspire the Argives with wild alarm, to make them bring aid to the palace, before I see for certain that Helen’s corpse lies bloody in the house, or hear the news from one of her attendants;
1355
