Epeisodion 1
Orestes
What did you say? Has he come to be a light in our troubles, a man of our own family, who owes gratitude to our father?
Electra
He has come, and is bringing Helen from the walls of Troy—accept this as proof of what I say.
245
Orestes
If he had returned alone in safety, he would be more enviable; but if he is bringing his wife, he has come with great mischief.
Electra
Tyndareus begot a race of daughters notorious for blame,
infamous throughout Hellas.
250
Orestes
Then you be different from that evil brood, for you can be; and not only in words, but also in heart.
Electra
Ah! brother, your eye is growing wild, and in a moment you are turning mad again, when you were just now sane.
Orestes
Mother, I implore you! Do not shake at me those maidens with their bloodshot eyes and snaky hair. Here they are, close by, to leap on me!
255
Electra
Lie still, poor sufferer, on your couch; your eye sees nothing, you only imagine that you recognize them.
Orestes
O Phoebus! they will kill me, the hounds of hell, death’s priestesses with glaring eyes, the dreadful goddesses.
260
Electra
I will not let you go; but with arms twined round you, I will prevent your piteous leaping.
Orestes
Let me go! you are one of my Furies,
and are gripping me by the waist to hurl me into Tartarus!
265
Electra
Alas for me! What aid can I find, when we have Heaven’s forces set against us?
Orestes
Give me my horn-tipped bow, Apollo’s gift, with which he told me to ward off the goddesses,
if ever they sought to scare me with wild transports of madness.
270
A mortal hand will wound one of them, unless she departs from my sight. Don’t you hear me? Don’t you see the feathered arrows springing out from my far-shooting bow? What!
Do you linger still? Mount the sky on your wings, and blame those oracles of Phoebus.
275
Ah! why am I raving, gasping? Where, oh! where have I leapt, from my couch? Once more the storm is past, I see a calm.
Sister, why do you weep, your head wrapped in your robe? I am ashamed that I should make you a partner in my sufferings and distress a maiden like you through my sickness. Do not waste away over my troubles; for though you consented to it, yet I was the one that spilled
280
