Stasimon 2
[Episode]
You have come, you have come, oh, long-delayed day, you have lighted up, you have made visible a beacon to the city, who in long ago exile went forth from his father’s house, unhappily wandering.
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Chorus
A god, now, a god brings our victory, my dear. Lift up your hands, lift up your words, send prayers to the gods for your brother with fortune, with fortune,
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Orestes
Well; I have the loving pleasures of your greeting and later I will give them back in turn. You, old man, for you have come at the right time, tell me, what should I do to avenge myself on my father’s murderer
and on my mother,the partner in his unholy marriage? Do I still have any well-disposed friends in Argos? Or am I wholly bankrupt, just as my fortunes are? With whom shall I ally myself? By night or day? What course shall I take against my enemies?
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Old man
Child, you have no friend in your misfortune. For this thing is a godsend indeed, to share in common, both good and bad. But you—for you have been destroyed from the foundations, in the eyes of your friends, and you have left them no hope—hear it from me and know:
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all that you have is in your own arm and fortune, to win your father’s home and your city.
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Orestes
What must I do then to accomplish this?
Old man
Kill Thyestes’ son and your mother.
Orestes
I have come for that victor’s crown; but how shall I grasp it?
Old man
Not by going within the walls, even if you wanted to.
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Orestes
Is he well furnished with garrisons and body-guards?
Old man
You have understood; for, clearly, he is afraid of you, and does not sleep.
Orestes
Well; it is for you to plan the next step, old man.
Old man
Hear me then; for something has just come to me.
Orestes
May you reveal something good, and may I understand it.
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Old man
I saw Aegisthus, when I was on my way here.
Orestes
I approve what you have said. Where was he?
Old man
Near these fields, at his stables.
Orestes
What was he doing? I see some hope, out of difficulties.
Old man
He was preparing a feast for the Nymphs, I thought.
625
Orestes
In return for the bringing up of children or for a coming birth?
Old man
I only know this: he was preparing to sacrifice an ox.
Orestes
With how many men? Or alone with his slaves?
Old man
No Argive was there, but a band of his own servants.
Orestes
Surely there isn’t anyone who will know me if he sees me, old man?
630
Old man
There are slaves, who have never even seen you.
Orestes
Would they be well disposed to me, if I should prevail?
Old man
Yes, for that is the way of slaves, luckily for you.
Orestes
However might I approach him then?
Old man
By going where he will see you as he sacrifices.
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Orestes
He has fields by the road, it seems?
Old man
Yes, and when he sees you there, he will invite you to the feast.
Orestes
I shall be a bitter companion in the feast, if the god wishes it.
Old man
After that, you yourself invent something, as it falls out.
Orestes
Well said. But my mother, where is she?
640
Old man
At Argos; but she will join her husband for the feast.
Orestes
Why didn’t my mother set out with her husband?
Old man
From fear of the citizens’ reproach she stayed behind.
Orestes
I understand; she knows that the city suspects her.
Old man
Something like that; for an unholy woman is an object of hatred.
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Orestes
How then shall I kill her and him at once?
Electra
I shall prepare my mother’s slaughter!
Orestes
And as for the other matter, fortune will ordain well.
Electra
Let this man here help us with both.
Old man
I will; but how will you find a way to kill your mother?
650
Electra
Go to Clytemnestra, old man, and say this: report that I have given birth to a male child.
Old man
That you have given birth some time ago, or quite recently?
Electra
Ten days ago, in which a woman who has given birth stays pure.
Old man
And how does this grant us the slaughter of your mother?
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Electra
She will come, when she hears of my childbirth pangs.
Old man
How is that? Do you think she cares for you, child?
Electra
Yes; and she will weep, surely, over my child’s low rank.
Old man
Perhaps; bring your story back again to the turning-point.
Electra
Well then, if she comes, it is clear that she will die.
660
Old man
Yes, she will come right up to the door of your house.
Electra
Won’t it then be a little thing for her to turn aside to Hades?
Old man
May I die, once I have seen this!
Electra
First of all, old man, guide my brother—
Old man
To the place where Aegisthus is now sacrificing to the gods?
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Electra
Then, going to meet my mother, give her my message.
Old man
So that the very words will seem to have been said by you.
Electra
Your work begins at once; you have drawn the first lot in the slaughter.
Orestes
I would go, if some one would show me the way.
Old man
Yes, I can escort you myself, not against my will.
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Orestes
O Zeus, god of my fathers, be also the vanquisher of my enemies—
Electra
And have pity on us; for we have suffered pitiably—
Old man
Yes, indeed, have pity on your own descendants.
Electra
And Hera, you who rule Mycenae’s altars—
Orestes
Give us victory, if we are asking for what is right.
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Old man
Yes, indeed, give them the right of vengeance for their father.
Orestes
You too, father, living below the earth through an unholy deed—
Electra
And Lady Earth, to whom I give my hands—
Old man
Defend, defend these, your dearest children.
Orestes
Now come and bring with you all the dead as allies.
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Electra
Those who destroyed the Trojans in war with you—
Old man
And all who hate the unholy and polluted.
Electra
Do you hear me, you who suffered dreadful things from my mother?
Old man
Your father hears everything, I know; but it is time to be on our way.
Electra
And I tell you therefore that Aegisthus is to die; if you fall dead in the struggle, I am also dead, do not count me as alive; for I will strike my heart with a two-edged sword. I will go indoors and make things ready there.
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So that if a good report comes from you, the whole house will cry aloud in triumph; but, if you die, it will be the opposite of that. These are my words to you.
690
Electra
Therefore you must be a man. Exeunt Orestes, Pylades, and Old Man. And you, women, please take care to give
a shout in signal of this contest. I will keep a sword ready, holding it in my hand, for I will not ever, if defeated, submit to my enemies the right to insult my body.
Exit Electra.
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[Choral 1]
The story remains in old legends
Chorus
that Pan, the keeper of wild beasts, breathing sweet-voiced music on his well-joined pipes, once brought from its tender mother on Argive hills
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a lamb with beautiful golden fleece. A herald stood on the stone platform and cried aloud, To assembly, Mycenaeans, go to assembly
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to see the omens given to our blessed rulers. . . . and they honored the house of Atreus.
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The altars of beaten gold were set out; and through the town the
altar fires of the Argives blazed; the flute, handmaid of the Muse’s song, sounded its note sweetly, and lovely songs of the golden lamb swelled forth, saying that Thyestes had the luck; for he
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persuaded Atreus’ own wife to secret love, and carried off to his house the portent; coming before the assembly he declared that he had in his
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house the horned sheep with fleece of gold.
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[Choral 2]
Then, it was then that Zeus changed the radiant paths of the stars, and the light of the sun, and the
Chorus
bright face of dawn; and the sun drove across the western back of the sky with hot flame from heaven’s fires, while the rain-clouds went northward and Ammon’s
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lands grew parched and faint, not knowing moisture, robbed of heaven’s fairest showers of rain.
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It is said, but I have small belief in it, that the sun turned round his glowing
throne of gold, changing it to the misfortune of mankind, for the punishment of mortals. But tales that frighten men are profitable for service to the gods; of whom you had no thought, when you
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killed your husband, you who are the relative of famous brothers.
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