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Clytemnestra
Come out of the wagon, Trojan maids, and take my hand, that I may step down from the chariot.
The homes of the gods are adorned with Phrygian spoils, but I have obtained these women, choice objects from the land of
Troy
, in return for the daughter whom I lost, a slight reward but an ornament to my house.
1000
Come out of the wagon, Trojan maids, and take my hand, that I may step down from the chariot.
The homes of the gods are adorned with Phrygian spoils, but I have obtained these women, choice objects from the land of
Troy
, in return for the daughter whom I lost, a slight reward but an ornament to my house.
1000
Electra
And, mother—for I live as a slave
in this miserable house, cast out from my father’s home—may I not take that blessed hand of yours?
1005
And, mother—for I live as a slave
in this miserable house, cast out from my father’s home—may I not take that blessed hand of yours?
1005
Clytemnestra
These slaves are here; take no trouble on my account.
These slaves are here; take no trouble on my account.
Electra
What? You sent me away from home, a captive; I was taken when my home was taken, like these,
all of us orphaned of a father.
1010
What? You sent me away from home, a captive; I was taken when my home was taken, like these,
all of us orphaned of a father.
1010
Clytemnestra
Well, your father laid such plots against those whom least of all he should have, his own family. I will tell you; although when a woman gets an evil reputation, her tongue is bitter.
In my opinion, not rightly; but it is correct for those who learn about the matter to hate, if it deserves hatred; if not, why hate at all? Now Tyndareus gave me to your father not so that I or any children I might bear should die.
1015
But that man went from the house, taking my child, with the persuasion of a marriage with Achilles, to
Aulis
which held the fleet; and there he stretched Iphigenia over the pyre, and cut her white cheek. And if, as a cure for the capture of the city,
1020
or as a benefit to his house, or to save his other children, he had killed one on behalf of many, I would have pardoned him. But, because Helen was lustful and the one who had her as a wife did not know how to punish the betrayer—for these reasons he destroyed my child.
1025
Well, although I was wronged, I would not have been angry at this, nor would I have killed my husband. But he came back to me with a girl, raving and possessed, and put her in his bed, and had two brides at once in the same house.
1030
Well, your father laid such plots against those whom least of all he should have, his own family. I will tell you; although when a woman gets an evil reputation, her tongue is bitter.
In my opinion, not rightly; but it is correct for those who learn about the matter to hate, if it deserves hatred; if not, why hate at all? Now Tyndareus gave me to your father not so that I or any children I might bear should die.
1015
But that man went from the house, taking my child, with the persuasion of a marriage with Achilles, to
Aulis
which held the fleet; and there he stretched Iphigenia over the pyre, and cut her white cheek. And if, as a cure for the capture of the city,
1020
or as a benefit to his house, or to save his other children, he had killed one on behalf of many, I would have pardoned him. But, because Helen was lustful and the one who had her as a wife did not know how to punish the betrayer—for these reasons he destroyed my child.
1025
Well, although I was wronged, I would not have been angry at this, nor would I have killed my husband. But he came back to me with a girl, raving and possessed, and put her in his bed, and had two brides at once in the same house.
1030
Electra. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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