Stasimon 5
[Episode]
did not keep the death-goddesses away from her house?
1300
Dioskouroi
Necessity’s fate led to what must be, and unwise speech from the mouth of Phoebus.
Electra
But what Apollo, what sort of oracles, ordained for me to be my mother’s murderer?
Dioskouroi
The deeds were shared, the fates were shared; one ancestral curse has ground down both.
1305
Orestes
Ah, my sister, seeing you after a long time, at once I am robbed of your affection,
and I must abandon you, abandoned by you.
1310
Dioskouroi
She has a husband and a home; she does not suffer pitiably, except that she leaves the city of the Argives.
Electra
And what other unhappiness is greater
than to leave the boundary of one’s native land?
1315
Orestes
But I shall leave my father’s house, and at a stranger’s tribunal undergo trial for my mother’s murder.
Dioskouroi
Have courage; you will go
to the holy town of Pallas; only hold out.
1320
Electra
Clasp me to your breast, my dearest brother; for the curse of our mother’s blood is separating us from our father’s home.
Orestes
Throw your arms in close embrace about me. Lament as if I were dead, over my grave.
1325
Dioskouroi
Alas! You have said things terrible even for gods to hear. For in me and in the Olympians there is
pity for much-suffering mortals.
1330
Orestes
I shall no longer see you!
Electra
Nor will I draw near your sight!
Orestes
These are my last words to you.
Electra
Farewell, my city!
