Stasimon 3
[Episode]
Ah, loyal handmaidens of the house,
Chorus
low long will it be before we display the power that lies in our mouths to do Orestes service?
O hallowed earth, and hallowed barrow raised high that now lies on the royal form of the commander of the fleet,
720
now hear me, now lend me aid! Now is the hour for Persuasion with her guile to join forces with him, and for Hermes of the nether world, who works in stealth, to direct this encounter of the deadly sword. Enter Orestes’ Nurse
725
Our stranger, I think, is working mischief: for over there I see Orestes’ nurse all in tears. CilissaSlaves were commonly named from their native country! Where are you going? Why as you set foot in the palace gate do you have a grief as an unhired companion?
730
Nurse
My mistress commands me to summon Aegisthus for the strangers
in all haste, so that he may come and learn more clearly, from man to man, these tidings that have just arrived. Indeed, before the servants, behind eyes that feigned grief she hid her laughter over what has occurred fortunately for her.
735
But the news so plainly told by the strangers means utter ruin for this house. I expect that when he hears it he will rejoice in his heart to know the story. Miserable woman that I am! How the old unbearable troubles of every sort
740
that occurred in this house of Atreus have always made my heart ache within my breast! But never yet have I endured a blow like this. For all the other troubles I bore patiently, but my beloved Orestes, on whom I spent my soul,
745
whom I took from his mother at birth and nursed, and the many and troublesome tasks, fruitless for all my enduring them, when his loud and urgent cries broke my rest.... For one must nurse the senseless thing like a dumb beast, of course one must, by following its humor.
750
For while it is still a baby in swaddling clothes, it has no speech at all, whether hunger moves it, or thirst perhaps, or the call of need: children’s young insides work their own relief. I would anticipate these needs. Yet many a time, I think, having to wash the child’s linen because of my own errors,
755
laundress and nurse had the same function. It was I who, with these two handicrafts, received Orestes for his father. And now, wretch that I am, I hear that he is dead. But I am on my way to fetch the man who wrought destruction on
760
our house, and he will be glad enough to hear this news.
765
Chorus
Then arrayed how does she tell him to come?
Nurse
Arrayed how? Say it again so that I may catch your meaning better.
Chorus
With his guards or perhaps unattended?
Nurse
She tells him to come with his retinue of spearmen.
Chorus
Well, do not give this message to our loathed master, but with all haste and with a cheerful heart tell him to come himself, alone, so that he may be told without alarm. For in the mouth of a messenger a crooked message is made straight.A proverbial saying, meant for the Nurse, and not for Aegisthus: In passing through the mouth of its bearer a message may be changed as he pleases.
770
Nurse
What! Are you gladdened at heart by the present news?
Chorus
Why not, if Zeus at last may cause our ill wind to change?
775
Nurse
But how can that be? Orestes, the hope of our house, is gone.
Chorus
Not yet; he would be a poor prophet who would so interpret.
Nurse
What are you saying? Do you know something beyond what has been told?
Chorus
Go, deliver your message! Do what you are asked to do!
The gods take care of what they take care of.
780
Nurse
Well, I will go and do your bidding. With the gods’ blessing may everything turn out for the best! Exit
[Choral 1]
Now at my supplication, O Zeus, father of the Olympian gods, grant that the fortunes of our house be firmly established,
Chorus
so that those who rightly desire the rule of order may behold it. Every word of mine has been uttered in justice. O Zeus, may you safeguard it!
785
O Zeus, set him who is within the palace before his foes;
since, if you exalt him, he will gladly pay you with double and triple recompense.
790
Know that the orphaned colt of a loved one is harnessed to the chariot of distress.
And by setting bounds to his course may you grant that we see him keep a steady pace through this race and win the goal in the straining stride of a gallop.That is, let him bide his time by guarding against haste.
795
[Choral 2]
And you who within the house inhabit the inner chamber that exults in its wealth, hear me, you gods, that feel with us! By a fresh award redeem the blood of deeds done long ago.
800
Chorus
May aged Murder cease begetting offspring in our house!
805
And you who occupy the mighty, gorgeously built cavern,The inner sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi was a narrow cave or vault in which, over a cleft, stood a tripod covered by a slab on which the prophetess sat (Athenaeus , 701c, Strabo, ix. 641). grant that the man’s house may lift up its eyes again in joy, and that with glad
eyes it may behold from under its veil of gloom the radiant light of freedom.
810
May Maia’s son,Hermes, the patron of guile and god of eloquence. as he rightfully should, lend his aid, for no one can better sail a deed on a favoring course, when he would do so.The bracketed line 815 reads And many another hidden thing he will make plain, if he desires.
But by his mysterious utterance he brings darkness over men’s eyes by night, and by day he is no more clear at all.
815
[Choral 3]
And then at last with a loud voice we shall sing a song of the deliverance of our house,
Chorus
the song that women raise when the wind sits fair, and not the shrill strain of those who mourn: The ship goes well. This grows to profit for me, for me, and calamity holds off from those I love.
820
But may you with good courage, when the part of action comes, cry out loud the name Father when she exclaims Son,
and accomplish the baneful but irreproachable deed.
830
Raise up Perseus’ spirit within my breast. And for those dear to you below the earth, and for those above, exact satisfaction for their dire wrath
by working bloody ruin in our house and obliterating the guilt of murder.Of verses 819-837 only the general sense is clear.
835