Epeisodion 2
Orestes
O father, who perished by a death unbefitting a king,
grant in answer to my prayer the lordship over your halls!
480
Electra
And I too, father, have a like request of you: to escape when I have wrought great destruction on Aegisthus.
Orestes
Yes, for then the customary funeral feasts of men would be established in your honor. But otherwise, at the rich and savory banquet
of burnt offerings made to the earth, you will be without a portion of honor.
485
Electra
And I will likewise at my wedding offer libations to you out of the fullness of my inheritance from my father’s house, and before all else I will hold this tomb of yours in the highest honor.
Orestes
O Earth, send up my father to watch my battle!
Electra
O Persephone, grant us indeed a glorious victory!
490
Orestes
Father, remember the bath where you were robbed of life.
Electra
And remember how they devised a strange net to cast about you.
Orestes
You were caught, my father, in fetters forged by no smith’s hand.
Electra
And in a fabric shamefully devised.
Orestes
Father, are you not roused by taunts such as these?
495
Electra
Are you not raising that dearest head of yours?
Orestes
Either send Justice to battle for those dear to you, or grant us in turn to get a similar gripOrestes prays that, as Clytaemestra and Aegisthus had got grip of Agamemnon by deception, so he may get like grip of them and kill them. on them, if indeed after defeat you would in turn win victory.
Electra
So listen, father, to this last appeal of mine as you behold these fledglings crouching at your tomb. Have compassion on your offspring, on the woman and on the man as well, and let not this seed of Pelops’ line be blotted out: for then, in spite of death, you are not dead.
500
For children are voices of salvation to a man, though he is dead; like corks, they buoy up the net, saving the flaxen cord from out of the deep. Hear! For your own sake we make this lament. By honoring this plea of ours you save yourself.
505
Chorus
In truth you have drawn out this plea of yours to your own content in showing honor to this unlamented tomb. As for the rest, since your heart is rightly set on action, put your fortune to the test and get to your work at once.
510
Orestes
It will be so. But it is in no way amiss to inquire how, from what motive,
she came to send her libations, seeking too late to make amends for an irremediable deed. They would be a sorry gift to send to the senseless dead: I cannot guess what they mean. The gifts are too paltry for her offence.
515
For though a man may pour out all he has in atonement for one deed of blood, it is wasted effort. So the saying goes. If indeed you know, tell me: I wish to learn.
520
Chorus
I know, my child, for I was there. It was because she was shaken by dreams and wandering terrors of the night
that she sent these offerings, godless woman that she is.
525
Orestes
And have you learned the nature of the dream so as to tell it properly?
Chorus
She dreamed she gave birth to a serpent: that is her own account.
Orestes
And where does the tale end, and what is its consummation?
Chorus
She laid it to rest as if it were a child, in swaddling clothes.
Orestes
What food did it crave, the newborn viper?
530
Chorus
In her dream she offered it her own breast.
Orestes
Surely her nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast?
Chorus
No: it drew in clotted blood with the milk.
Orestes
Truly it is not without meaning: the vision signifies a man!
Chorus
Then from out of her sleep she raised a shriek and awoke appalled, and many lamps that had been blinded in the darkness flared up in the house to cheer our mistress. Then she sent these libations for the dead in the hope that they might be an effective cure for her distress.
535
Orestes
Well then, I pray to this earth and to my father’s grave that this dream may come to its fulfilment in me. As I understand it, it fits at every point. For if the snake left the same place as I; if it was furnished with my swaddling clothes;
540
if it sought to open its mouth to take the breast that nourished me and mixed the sweet milk with clotted blood while she shrieked for terror at this, then surely, as she has nourished a portentous thing of horror, she must die by violence. For I, turned serpent,
545
am her killer, as this dream declares.
550
Chorus
I choose your reading of this portent. Let it be so. As for the rest, give your friends their parts. Tell some what to do, others what to leave undone.
Orestes
It is a simple story. My sister must go inside, and I charge her to keep concealed this pact with me,
so that as by craft they killed a worthy man, so by craft they may likewise be caught and perish in the very same snare, even as Loxias decreed, lord Apollo, the prophet who has never before been false.
555
In the guise of a stranger, one fully equipped,I will come to the outer gate, and with me Pylades, whom you see here, as a guest and ally of the house. Both of us will speak the speech of Parnassus, imitating the accent of a Phocian tongue. And in case none of the keepers of the door will give us a hearty welcome
560
on the plea that the house is afflicted with trouble by the gods, then we will wait so that anyone passing the house will consider and say: Why then does Aegisthus have his door shut on his suppliant, if in fact he is at home and knows?
565
But if I indeed pass the outermost threshold of the gate and find that man sitting on my father’s throne, or if then coming face to face with me he lifts and casts down his eyes, know well:
before he can even say Of what land is this stranger? I will skewer him with my swift sword and lay him dead. The fury that has no fill of slaughter shall for her third and crowning drink drink unmixed blood!
Now you, Electra, keep strict watch over what happens inside the house,
575
so that our plans may fit together well. You addressing the Chorus had best keep a discreet tongue: be silent when there is need and speak only what the occasion demands. As for the rest, I call on himApollo, his champion (lines 269, 558), whose statue stood before the palace (cp.Aesch. Ag. 513). to cast his glance this way and direct the contest of the sword for me. Exeunt Orestes, Pylades, and Electra
580