Stasimon 6
[Episode]
and come here to the old hearth of Pelops, our ancestor, to hear something I have to say. He led her, led her, and she followed,
1440
Phrygian
no prophet of the future. But his accomplice, the Phocian villain, was off on other business: Out of my way! Well, Phrygians always were cowards. So he shut them up in different parts of the house, some in the stables, others in the halls,
1445
one here, one there, disposing of them severally at a distance from their mistress.
1450
Chorus Leader
What happened next?
Phrygian
Mother of Ida, great, great mother!
Oh! the murderous scenes and lawless wickedness that I saw, I saw, in the palace! They drew forth swords from hiding under their purple-bordered cloaks, each darting his eye a different way, lest anyone should be near. Like boar of the hills,
1455
they stood opposite the woman and said: You will die, you will die; your cowardly husband is killing you, because he betrayed his brother’s son to death in Argos.
1460
She screamed, oh, oh! she screamed, and brought down her white arm upon her breast and beat her poor head; then turned her golden-sandalled steps in flight, in flight; but Orestes got before her in his Mycenean boots and clutched his fingers in her hair,
1465
and, bending back her neck on to her left shoulder, was on the point of driving the black sword into her throat.
1470
Chorus Leader
Where were you Phrygians in the house to help her?
Phrygian
With a loud cry from the house we battered down with bars the doors and doorposts where we had been,
and ran to her assistance from every direction, one with stones, another with javelins, a third with a drawn sword; but Pylades came to meet us, undaunted, like
1475
Hector of Troy or Ajax triple-plumed, as I saw him, saw him, in Priam’s gateway; and we met at sword’s point. But then it was very clear how the Phrygians were,
1480
how much less we were in battle strength to the Hellene might. There was one man gone in flight, another slain, another wounded, yet another pleading to stave off death; but we escaped under cover of the darkness; while some were falling, some were about to fall, and others were lying dead.
1485
And just as her unhappy mother sank to the ground to die, the luckless Hermione came in. Those two, like Bacchantes when they drop the thyrsus for a mountain cub, rushed and seized her; then turned again to the daughter of Zeus to slay her; but she had vanished from the room,
1490
passing right through the house, O Zeus and Earth and light and night! whether by magic spells or wizards’ arts or heavenly theft.
1495
What happened afterwards I do not know; for I stole out of the palace, a runaway.
So Menelaus endured his painful, painful suffering to recover his wife Helen from Troy to no purpose.
1500
Chorus Leader
And look, here is a strange sight succeeding others; for I see Orestes sword in hand before the palace,
advancing with excited steps.
1505
