Epeisodion 1
Apollo
Out, I order you! Go away from this house at once,
leave my prophetic sanctuary, so that you may not be struck by a winged glistening snakeThe arrow sped from Apollo’s gold-wrought string is called a winged glistening snake because it stings like a serpent’s bite. There is also a latent word-play: ὄφις snake suggests ἰός snake’s poison which also means arrow. shot forth from a golden bow-string, and painfully release black foam, vomiting the clots of blood you have drained from mortals.
180
It is not right for you to approach this house; no, your place is where the punishments are beheading, gouging out of eyes, cutting of throats, and where young men’s virility is ruined by destruction of seed; where there is mutilation and stoning, and where those who are impaled beneath their spine moan long and piteously.
185
Do you hear what sort of feast is your delight? You are detested by the gods for it. The whole fashion of your form sets it forth. Creatures like you should live in the den of a blood-drinking lion, and not inflict pollution
190
on all near you in this oracular shrine. Be gone, you goats without a herdsman! No god loves such a flock.
195
Chorus
Lord Apollo, hear our reply in turn. You yourself are not partially guilty of this deed;
you alone have done it all, and are wholly guilty.
200
Apollo
What do you mean? Draw out the length of your speech this much.
Chorus
Through your oracle, you directed the stranger to kill his mother.
Apollo
Through my oracle, I directed him to exact vengeance for his father. What of it?
Chorus
And then you agreed to take the fresh blood on yourself.
Apollo
And I ordered him to turn for expiation to this house.
205
Chorus
And do you then rebuke us, the ones who escorted him here?
Apollo
Yes, for you are not fit to approach this house.
Chorus
But this has been assigned to us—
Apollo
What is this office of yours? Boast of your fine privilege!
Chorus
We drive matricides from their homes.
210
Apollo
But what about a wife who kills her husband?
Chorus
That would not be murder of a relative by blood.
Apollo
Then truly you dishonor and bring to nothing the pledges of Hera, the Fulfiller, and Zeus.In connection with marriage, Hera was τελεία, as Zeus was τέλειος; and the adjective applies also to him here. The ancients derived τέλειος (of marriage) from τέλος meaning rite, consummation. Inasmuch as τέλος often has the sense supreme authority, full power, some modern scholars hold that Hera τελεία is Hera the Queen, Hera the Wife.
Cypris too is cast aside, dishonored by this argument, and from her come the dearest things for mortals. For marriage ordained by fate for a man and a woman is greater than an oath and guarded by Justice. If, then, one should kill the other and you are so lenient
215
as not to punish or visit them with anger, I claim that you unjustly banish Orestes from his home. For I see you taking the one cause very much to heart, but clearly acting more leniently about the other. But the goddess Pallas will oversee the pleadings in this case.
220
Chorus
I will never, never leave that man!
225
Apollo
Pursue him then and get more trouble for yourself.
Chorus
Do not cut short my privileges by your words.
Apollo
I would not take your privileges as a gift.
Chorus
No, for in any case you are called great at the throne of Zeus.
But as for me—since a mother’s blood leads me, I will pursue my case against this man and I will hunt him down. Exeunt.
230
Apollo
And I will aid my suppliant and rescue him! For the wrath of the one who seeks purification is terrible among mortals and gods, if I intentionally abandon him. Enters the Sanctuary.
Orestes
Lady Athena, at Loxias’ command I have come. Receive kindly an accursed wretch, not one who seeks purification, or with unclean hand, but with my guilt’s edge already blunted and worn away at other homes and in the travelled paths of men.
235
Going over land and sea alike, keeping the commands of Loxias’ oracle, I now approach your house and image, goddess. Here I will keep watch and await the result of my trial.
240
Chorus
Aha! This is a clear sign of the man. Follow the hints of a voiceless informer. For as a hound tracks a wounded fawn, so we track him by the drops of blood. My lungs pant from many tiring struggles, for I have roamed over the whole earth,
245
and I have come over the sea in wingless flight, pursuing him, no slower than a ship. And now he is here somewhere, cowering. The smell of human blood gives me a smiling welcome.
250
Look everywhere, so that the matricide will not escape by secret flight, with his debt unpaid!
Yes, here he is again with a defense; his arms twisted around the image of the immortal goddess,
255
he wishes to be tried for his debt.The reading χερῶν seems to mean deed of violence.
But that is not possible; a mother’s blood upon the earth is hard to recover—alas, the liquid poured on the ground is gone.
But you must allow me in return to suck
260
the red blood from your living limbs. May I feed on you—a gruesome drink!
I will wither you alive and drag you down, so that you pay atonement for your murdered mother’s agony.
And you will see any other mortal who has sinned by not honoring
265
a god or a stranger or dear parents, each having a just punishment.
For Hades is mighty in holding mortals to account under the earth,
270
and he observes all things and within his mind inscribes them.
275
Orestes
Taught by misery, I know many purification rituals, and I know where it is right to speak and equally to be silent; and in this case, I have been ordered to speak by a wise teacher.
For the blood is slumbering and fading from my hand, the pollution of matricide is washed away; while it was still fresh, it was driven away at the hearth of the god Phoebus by purifying sacrifices of swine. It would be a long story to tell from the beginning,
280
how many people I have visited, with no harm from association with me. Time purges all things, aging with them.
So now with a pure mouth I piously invoke Athena, lady of this land, to come to my aid. Without the spear,
285
she will win me and my land and the Argive people as faithful and true allies for all time. But whether in some region of the Libyan land, near the waters of Triton, her native stream, she is in action or at rest,Literally, she places her foot upright or covered over. The poet may have in mind statues of the goddess: ὀρθόν referring to upright posture, κατηρεφῆ to her long garment falling over her foot when she was represented as sitting.
290
aiding those whom she loves, or whether, like a bold marshal, she is surveying the Phlegraean The scene of the battle of the Gods and Giants, in which Athena slew Enceladus. plain, oh, let her come—as a goddess, she hears even from far away—to be my deliverer from distress!
295