Stasimon 4
[Episode]
O Zeus, O Zeus, what should I say? Where shall I begin this prayer of mine, this appeal to the gods? How in my loyal zeal can I succeed in finding words to match need? Now is the moment when the blood-stained edges of the blades that lay men low
855
Chorus
are utterly forever to destroy the house of Agamemnon. Or else, kindling a flaming light in the cause of freedom, Orestes will win both the rule over his realm and the rich possessions of his fathers.
860
Our gallant Orestes, with no one to assist him, is now to meet with two in such a contest. And may it be to triumph!
865
Aegisthus
within Oh! Oh! O woe!
Chorus
Ah! Ah! Alas! What is happening? What is being accomplished for our house? Let us stand apart while the matter is still unsettled so that we may be considered blameless in these ills. For the issue of the fighting has now been decided. The Chorus withdraws to the side of the scene; then a servant of Aegisthus rushes in
870
Servant
O woe, oh utter woe! My master is slain! O woe! I cry yet again, for the third time. Aegisthus is no more! Come, with all speed! Unbar and open the women’s door! And a strong arm indeed is needed, but not to help him who is already slain: what good is there in that?
875
Help! Help! Am I shouting to the deaf and fruitlessly wasting my voice on people who are asleep? Where has Clytaemestra gone? What is she doing? Her own neck, near the razor’s edge, is now ready to fall beneath the stroke.
880
Clytaemestra
What is this? What cry for help are you raising in our house?
885
Servant
I tell you the dead are killing the living.The Greek admits either meaning: the dead are killing the living man or the living man is killing the dead.
Clytaemestra
Ah! Indeed I grasp the meaning of the riddle. We are to perish by treachery, just as we committed murder. Someone give me a battle-axe, and quickly! Let us know if we are victors or vanquished:
for I have even come to this in this wretched business. Exit Servant. The door is opened and the corpse of Aegisthus is discovered. Nearby stands Orestes, and at a distance Pylades
890
Orestes
It is you I seek. He over there has had enough.
Clytaemestra
Oh no! My beloved, valiant Aegisthus! You are dead!
Orestes
You love this man? Then you will lie in the same grave,
and you will never abandon him in death.
895
Clytaemestra
Wait, my son! Have pity, child, upon this breast at which many times while you slept you sucked with toothless gums the milk that nourished you.
Orestes
Pylades, what shall I do? Shall I spare my mother out of pity?
Pylades
What then will become in the future of Loxias’ oracles declared at Pytho, and of our sworn pact? Count all men your enemies rather than the gods.
900
Orestes
I judge you victor: you advise me well. To Clytaemestra Come, this way! I mean to kill you by his very side. For while he lived, you thought him better than my father.
Sleep with him in death, since you love him but hate the man you were bound to love.
905
Clytaemestra
It was I who nourished you, and with you I would grow old.
Orestes
What! Murder my father and then make your home with me?
Clytaemestra
Fate, my child, must share the blame for this.
910
Orestes
And fate now brings this destiny to pass.
Clytaemestra
Have you no regard for a parent’s curse, my son?
Orestes
You brought me to birth and yet you cast me out to misery.
Clytaemestra
No, surely I did not cast you out in sending you to the house of an ally.
Orestes
I was sold in disgrace, though I was born of a free father.
915
Clytaemestra
Then where is the price I got for you?
Orestes
I am ashamed to reproach you with that outright.
Clytaemestra
But do not fail to proclaim the follies of that father of yours as well.
Orestes
Do not accuse him who suffered while you sat idle at home.
Clytaemestra
It is a grief for women to be deprived of a husband, my child.
920
Orestes
Yes, but it is the husband’s toil that supports them while they sit at home.
Clytaemestra
You seem resolved, my child, to kill your mother.
Orestes
You will kill yourself, not I.
Clytaemestra
Take care: beware the hounds of wrath that avenge a mother.
Orestes
And how shall I escape my father’s if I leave this undone?
925
Clytaemestra
I see that though living I mourn in vain before a tomb.To wail to a tomb was a proverbial expression according to the Scholiast, who cites the saying, ’tis the same thing to cry to a tomb as to a fool. Here, though in strictness ζῶσα is added only to point the contrast with τύμβον —the sentient being with the senseless thing—it also defines the application of τύμβον to Orestes; and its insertion serves to suggest that Clytaemestra means that, though living, she is bewailing her own death.
Orestes
Yes, for my father’s fate has marked out this destiny for you.
Clytaemestra
Oh no! I myself bore and nourished this serpent!
Orestes
Yes, the terror from your dream was indeed a prophet. You killed him whom you should not; so suffer what should not be.
He forces Clytaemestra within; Pylades follows
930
Chorus
Truly I grieve even for these in their twofold downfall. Yet since long-suffering Orestes has reached the peak of many deeds of blood, we would rather have it so, that the eye of the house should not be utterly lost.
[Choral 1]
As to Priam and his sons justice came at last in crushing retribution, so to Agamemnon’s house came a twofold lion, twofold slaughter.As a twofold lion (Clytaemestra and Aegisthus) has ravaged the house, so there has been a twofold slaughter by its defenders. There is no reference to Orestes and Pylades or to Agamemnon and Cassandra.
935
Chorus
The exile, the suppliant of Pytho, has fulfilled his course to the utmost, justly urged on by counsels from the gods.
940
Oh raise a shout of triumph over the escape of our master’s house from its misery and the wasting of its wealth by two who were unclean,
its grievous fortune!
945
And he has come whose part is the crafty vengeance of stealthy attack, and in the battle his hand was guided by her who is in very truth daughter of Zeus, breathing murderous wrath on her foes.
We mortals aim true to the mark when we call her Justice.
Δί-κα is here derived from Δι(ὸς) κ(όρ)α, daughter of Zeus.
950
Oh raise a shout of triumph over the escape of our master’s house from its misery and the wasting of its wealth by two who were unclean,
its grievous fortune!
945
[Choral 2]
The commands proclaimed loudly by Loxias, tenant of the mighty cavern shrine of Parnassus, assail with guileless guile
Chorus
the mischief now become inveterate. May the divine word prevail that so I may not serve the wicked!The translation is based of Hermann’s text: κρατείτω δ’ ἔπος τὸ θεῖον τὸ μή μ’ | ὑπουργεῖν κακοῖς.
955
It is right to revere the rule of heaven.
960
Look, the light has come, and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our household. House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground.
But soon time that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. The dice of fortune will turn as they fall and lie
965
with faces all lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house.
970
Look, the light has come,
and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our household. House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground.