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Chorus
Sons of Zeus, is it right for us to draw near to speak with you?
Sons of Zeus, is it right for us to draw near to speak with you?
Dioskouroi
It is right, for those not polluted by this murder.
It is right, for those not polluted by this murder.
Electra
May I too share your conversation, sons of Tyndareus?
1295
May I too share your conversation, sons of Tyndareus?
1295
Dioskouroi
You too; to Phoebus I will attribute this bloody deed.
You too; to Phoebus I will attribute this bloody deed.
Chorus
How was it that you, being gods and the brothers of this murdered woman,
did not keep the death-goddesses away from her house?
1300
How was it that you, being gods and the brothers of this murdered woman,
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.
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?
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
Have courage; you will go
to the holy town of Pallas; only hold out.
1320
Electra. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.