Epeisodion 2
Paedagogus
Foreign ladies, how might I know for certain if this be the palace of the king Aegisthus?
660
Chorus
This is the palace, stranger; you yourself have guessed correctly.
Paedagogus
And am I on target when I surmise that this lady is his wife? She is indeed regal to look upon.
Chorus
Exactly right; this is she before you.
665
Paedagogus
Greetings, royal lady! I bring happy news to you and to Aegisthus from a friend.
Clytaemnestra
I welcome your greeting; but I would like first to know who may have sent you.
Paedagogus
Phanoteus the Phocian provided me the weighty task.
670
Clytaemnestra
And what is it, sir? Tell me. Coming from a friend you will bring, I know, a kindly message.
Paedagogus
Orestes is dead, to put it briefly.
Electra
Oh, miserable me! My ruin comes today!
Clytaemnestra
What, friend? What did you say? Do not listen to her!
675
Paedagogus
I said, and say again, Orestes is dead.
Electra
This is my wretched end! I am no more!
Clytaemnestra
You, go about your business! But you, sir, tell me exactly in what manner he was destroyed.
Paedagogus
I was sent for that purpose, and will tell you all. Having gone to the shrine which is
Greece’s common glory in order to
compete for Delphi’s prizes and
having heard the herald’s loud summons to the foot-race, the first contest,
680
he entered the lists, a brilliant form, a wonder in the eyes of all there. When he had finished the race at the point where it began, he went out with the glorious honor of victory. To say the most with the least words, I do not know the man whose deeds and triumphs have matched his.
685
But this one thing you must know: in all the contests that the judges announced, he carried away the prize, and men deemed him happy as often as the herald proclaimed him an Argive, by name Orestes, son of
690
Agamemnon, who once marshalled Greece’s famous
expedition.So far Orestes fared as I described. But
when a god sends harm, not even the strong man can escape. For on another day,
when with the rising sun there was held the race of the swift-footed
horses,
695
he entered it along with many charioteers. One was an Achaean, one from Sparta; two masters of yoked cars were Libyans; Orestes, driving Thessalian mares, came fifth among them; the sixth was from Aetolia,
700
with chestnut colts; a Magnesian was the seventh; the eighth, with white horses, was of Aenian stock; the ninth hailed from Athens, built of gods; there was a Boeotian too, making the tenth chariot. They took their stations where the appointed umpires
705
