Stasimon 1
[Choral 4]
This has pierced the earth and reached your earThe ear of Agamemnon. as if it were an arrow. O Zeus, O Zeus, who send long-deferred retribution up from below onto the reckless and wicked deeds done by the hands of mortals. . . .
380
Orestes
And yet it will be accomplished for our father’s sake.He thus justifies his (unvoiced) prayer, slay my mother
385
[Choral 5]
May it be mine to raise a hearty shout in triumph over the man when he is stabbed and over the woman as she perishes! Why should I try to keep hidden what nevertheless hovers before my soul?
Chorus
Full against the prow of my heart wrath blows sharply in rancorous hate.
390
[Choral 4]
And when will mighty Zeus bring down his hand on them
Electra
and split their heads open? Let it be a pledge to the land! After injustice I demand justice as my right. Hear, O Earth, and you honored powers below!
395
[Choral]
And it is the eternal rule that drops of blood spilled on the ground demand yet more blood. Murder cries out on the Fury, which from those killed before brings one ruin in the wake of another.
400
[Choral 6]
Alas, you sovereign powers of the world below, behold, you potent Curses of the slain, behold the remnants of the line of Atreus in their helpless plight, cast out from house and home in dishonor. Which way can we turn, O Zeus?
405
[Choral 5]
But again my heart throbs as I hear this pitiful lament. At once I am devoid of hope and my viscera are darkened at the words I hear.
410
Chorus
But when hope once again lifts and strengthens me, it puts away my distress and dawns brightly on me.
415
[Choral 6]
To what could we more fittingly appeal than to those very miseries we have endured from the woman herself who bore us?
Electra
She may fawn upon us, but they are past all soothing. For like a fierce-hearted wolf the temper we have acquired from our mother is implacable.
420
[Choral 7]
On my breast I beatAt the time of Agamemnon’s murder, when the women wailed with the extravagance of professional Asiatic mourners. Here they repeat those signs of mourning. an Arian
Aria was a district of Persia. For Eranians (Old-Persian ariya) the Greeks used Ἄριοι; at least Herodotus says this was an ancient name of the Medes. dirge in just the same fashion as a CissianCissia formed part of Susiana. wailing woman.
Chorus
With clenched fists, raining blows thick and fast, my outstretched hands could be seen descending from above, from far above, now on this side, now on that, till my battered and wretched head resounded with the strokes.
425
[Choral 8]
Away with you, cruel
Electra
and utterly brazen mother! You dared to give your husband a most cruel burial: unmourned, without lamentation, a king unattended by his people.
430
[Choral 9]
Ah me, your words spell utter dishonor.
Orestes
Yet with the help of the gods, and with the help of my own hands, will she not atone for the dishonor she did my father? Let me only take her life, then let me die!
435
Chorus
Yes, and I would have you know he was brutally mangled.An allusion to the savage custom by which the extremities of the murdered man were cut off, then hung about his neck and tied together under the arm-pits (μασχάλαι). At least one object of this arm-pitting was to disable the spirit of the dead from taking vengeance on the murderer.
And even as she buried him in this way, she acted with intent to make the manner of his death a burden on your life past all power to bear. You hear the story of the ignominious outrage done to your father.
440
