Epeisodion 4
Orestes
Ladies, have we been directed aright, and are we on the right path to our goal?
Chorus
What do you seek? What desire brings you here?
1100
Orestes
I have long been searching for the home of Aegisthus.
Chorus
Well, you have found it, and your guide is blameless.
Orestes
Which of you, then, would tell those inside of the long-desired presence of us travelers?
Chorus
She will, if the nearest in kin should announce it.
1105
Orestes
Go, lady, enter and make it known that certain men of Phocis seek Aegisthus.
Electra
Ah, miserable me! Surely you do not bring proof positive of that rumor which we heard?
Orestes
I know nothing of your rumor; but the aged Strophius ordered me to give report of Orestes.
1110
Electra
What is it, sir? Ah, how fear creeps over me!
Orestes
We come bearing his scanty remains in a small urn, as you see.
Electra
Oh, the misery! Here, at last, my eyes look for certain, it seems, upon that grievous burden in your hand.
1115
Orestes
If your tears are for any of Orestes’ tribulations, know that this vessel is
his body’s home.
Electra
Ah, sir, if this urn indeed contains him, then allow me,
by the gods, to take it in my hands, so that I may weep and wail, not for these ashes alone, but for myself and for all our house with them!
1120
Orestes
Take it and give it to her, whoever she may be. For she asks this for herself not as if with hostile intent,
but like one who is his friend, or a kinswoman by blood. The urn is placed in
Electra’s hands.
1125
Electra
Memorial of him whom I loved best on earth, sole remnant of Orestes’
vitality! How contrary to the hopes with which I sent you away do I receive you
back! Now I raise your nothingness in my hands;
but then, my child, you were radiant, when I sent you away from home! Would that I had first abandoned life, before, stealing you away with these hands, I sent you to a strange land and rescued you from death, in order that you might have lain dead on that same day
1130
and had your share in the tomb of our father!But now, an exile from home and fatherland, you have perished miserably, far from your sister. Ah, me, these loving hands have not washed or decked your corpse, nor taken up
1135
