Euripides Electra 1233-1359

Chorus Leader

Divine forms are seen above the house. But see the ones who are appearing over the top of the house—spirits or gods from heaven?

For this path does not belong to men. Why ever do they come into the clear sight of mortals?

1235

Dioskouroi

Son of Agamemnon, listen; the twin sons of Zeus, your mother’s brothers,

Castor and his brother Polydeuces, are calling you. Having just now calmed the swell of the sea, terrible for ships, we have come to Argos when we saw the slaying of our sister, your mother. Now she has her just reward, but you have not acted justly,

1240

and Phoebus, Phoebus—but I am silent, for he is my lord; although he is wise, he gave you oracles that were not. But it is necessary to accept these things. As to what remains, you must do what Fate and Zeus have accomplished for you. Give Electra to Pylades as his wife to take to his home;

1245

but you leave Argos ; for it is not for you, who killed your mother, to set foot in this city. And the dread goddesses of death, the one who glare like hounds, will drive you up and down, a maddened wanderer. Go to Athens and embrace the holy image of Pallas;

1250

for she will prevent them, flickering with dreadful serpents, from touching you, as she stretches over your head her Gorgon-faced shield. There is a hill of Ares, where the gods first sat over their votes to decide on bloodshed,

1255

when savage Ares killed Halirrothius, son of the ocean’s ruler, in anger for the unholy violation of his daughter, so that the tribunal is most sacred and secure in the eyes of the gods.

1260

1264

You also must run your risk here, for murder.

An equal number of votes cast will save you from dying by the verdict; for Loxias will take the blame upon himself, since it was his oracle that advised your mother’s murder. And this law will be set for posterity, that the accused will always win his case if he has equal votes.

1265

Then the dread goddesses, stricken with grief at this, will sink into a cleft of the earth beside this hill, a holy, revered prophetic shrine for mortals. You must found an Arcadian city beside the streams of Alpheus near the sacred enclosure to Lycaean Apollo;

1270

and the city will be called after your name. I say this to you. As for this corpse of Aegisthus, the citizens of Argos will cover it in the earth in burial. But as for your mother, Menelaus, who has arrived at Nauplia only now after capturing Troy ,

1275

will bury her, with Helen helping him; for she has come from Proteus’ house, leaving Egypt , and she never went to Troy ; Zeus, to stir up strife and bloodshed among mortals, sent a phantom of Helen to Ilium . Now let Pylades, having one who is both a virgin and a married woman,

1280

go home from the Achaean land, and let him conduct the one called your brother-in-law to the land of Phocis , and give him a weight of riches. But you set out along the narrow Isthmus, and go to Cecropia’s blessed hill.

1285

For once you have completed your appointed lot of murder, you will be happy, freed from these troubles.

1290

Chorus

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.

Electra

May I too share your conversation, sons of Tyndareus?

1295

Dioskouroi

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

Dioskouroi

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?

Dioskouroi

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

Dioskouroi

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

Orestes

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

Electra

Clasp me to your breast, my dearest brother; for the curse of our mother’s blood is separating us from our father’s home.

Orestes

Throw your arms in close embrace about me. Lament as if I were dead, over my grave.

1325

Dioskouroi

Alas! You have said things terrible even for gods to hear. For in me and in the Olympians there is

pity for much-suffering mortals.

1330

Orestes

I shall no longer see you!

Electra

Nor will I draw near your sight!

Orestes

These are my last words to you.

Electra

Farewell, my city!

And a long farewell to you, my fellow-countrywomen!

1335

Orestes

Are you going already, most faithful one?

Electra

I am going, my young eye wet with tears.

Orestes

Go, Pylades, and be happy; marry Electra.

1340

Dioskouroi

Marriage will be for them to think of. But go towards Athens , seeking to escape these hounds of hell, for they are pursuing you fearfully,

the dark-skinned ones, with snakes for hands, holding a reward of dreadful pains. But we two must go in haste over the Sicilian sea to rescue the seagoing ships. As we go through the plains of the air,

1345

we do not come to the aid of those who are polluted; but we save and release from severe hardships those who love piety and justice in their ways of life. And so, let no one wish to act unjustly,

1350

or set sail with perjurers; as a god, I give this address to mortals.

1355

Chorus

Farewell! Any mortal who is able to fare well, and is not worn down by any misfortune, achieves happiness.