Euripides Orestes 385

Chorus Leader

And see, a king draws near, lord Menelaus; from his magnificence it is plain to see

that he belongs to the blood of the Tantalids.

350

All hail! you that set out with a thousand ships to Asia ’s land; good fortune is your friend,

for you have accomplished, with divine aid, all that you prayed for.

355

Menelaus

O my home, some joy I feel to see you again on my return from Troy , but I also grieve at the sight; for never have I seen another house more closely encircled by dire affliction.

For I learned Agamemnon’s fate and the death he died at his wife’s hands, as I was trying to put in at Malea; when the sailors’ prophet, the truthful god Glaucus, Nereus’ seer, brought the news to me from the waves;

360

he stationed himself in full view and told me this: Menelaus, your brother lies dead, plunged in a fatal bath, the last his wife will ever give him. My sailors and I wept greatly at his words. When I arrived at Nauplia ,

365

my wife already on the point of starting here, I was expecting to give a fond embrace to Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, and his mother, thinking that they were doing well, when I heard from a sailor the unholy murder of Tyndareus’ child.

370

And now tell me, young ladies, where to find the son of Agamemnon, who dared such evil. For he was a baby in Clytemnestra’s arms when I left my home to go to Troy , so that I would not recognize him if I saw him.

375

Orestes

Staggering towards him from the couch.

Menelaus, I am Orestes, whom you are asking about. I will of my own accord inform you of my sufferings. But as my first portion, I clasp your knees as a suppliant, giving you prayers from the mouth of one without the suppliant’s bough; save me, for you have come at the crisis of my troubles.

380

Menelaus

O gods, what do I see? What living corpse greets my sight?

385

Orestes

You are right; I am dead through misery, though I still gaze upon the light.

Menelaus

How savage the look your unkempt hair gives you, poor wretch!

Orestes

It is not my looks, but my deeds that torture me.

Menelaus

Your tearless eyes glare dreadfully!

Orestes

My body is gone, though my name has not deserted me.

390

Menelaus

Unsightly apparition, so different from what I expected!

Orestes

Here I am, the murderer of my wretched mother.

Menelaus

I have heard, spare your words; evils should be seldom spoken.

Orestes

I will be sparing; but the deity is lavish of woe in my case.

Menelaus

What ails you? what is your deadly sickness?

395

Orestes

My conscience; I know that I am guilty of a dreadful crime.

Menelaus

What do you mean? Wisdom is shown in clarity, not in obscurity.

Orestes

Grief especially has ruined me—

Menelaus

Yes, she is a dreadful goddess, yet are there cures for her.

Orestes

And fits of madness, the vengeance of a mother’s blood.

400

Menelaus

When did your madness begin? Which day was it?

Orestes

On the day I was heaping the mound over my poor mother’s grave.

Menelaus

When you were in the house, or watching by the pyre?

Orestes

As I was waiting by night to gather up her bones.

Menelaus

Was any one else there, to help you rise?

405

Orestes

Pylades who shared with me the bloody deed, my mother’s murder.

Menelaus

You are sick from phantom shapes; what sort?

Orestes

I seemed to see three maidens, black as night.

Menelaus

I know whom you mean, but I do not want to name them.

Orestes

Yes, for they are revered; you were well-informed, to avoid naming them.

410

Menelaus

Are these the ones that drive you to frenzy, with the curse of kindred blood?

Orestes

Oh! the torment I endure from their pursuit!

Menelaus

It is not strange, if those who have done dreadful things should suffer them.

Orestes

But I have a way to recover from these troubles.

Menelaus

Do not speak of death; that is not wise.

415

Orestes

It is Phoebus, who commanded me to kill my mother.

Menelaus

Showing a strange ignorance of what is fair and right.

Orestes

We are slaves to the gods, whatever those gods are.

Menelaus

And does Loxias not help your affliction?

Orestes

He will in time; this is the nature of gods.

420

Menelaus

How long is it since your mother breathed her last?

Orestes

This is the sixth day; her funeral pyre is still warm.

Menelaus

How soon the goddesses arrived to avenge your mother’s blood!

Orestes

I am not clever, but I am by nature a true friend to my friends.

Menelaus

Does your father give you any help at all, for your avenging him?

425

Orestes

Not yet; I call delay the equal of inaction.

Menelaus

How do you stand in the city after that deed of yours?

Orestes

I am so hated that no one will speak to me.

Menelaus

Have your hands not even been cleaned of blood, according to custom?

Orestes

No, for wherever I go, the door is shut against me.

430

Menelaus

Which citizens are driving you from the land?

Orestes

Oeax, who refers to my father his reason for hating Troy .

Menelaus

I understand; he is avenging on you the blood of Palamedes.

Orestes

That was nothing to do with me; yet I am destroyed for three reasons.

Menelaus

Who else? Some of the friends of Aegisthus, I suppose?

435

Orestes

They insult me, and the city listens to them now.

Menelaus

Will the city allow you to keep the scepter of Agamemnon?

Orestes

How, seeing that they will not allow me to remain alive?

Menelaus

What is their method? Can you tell me plainly?

Orestes

A vote will be taken against us today.

440

Menelaus

To leave the city? Or to die, or not to die?

Orestes

Death by stoning at the hands of the citizens.

Menelaus

Then why not cross the border and try to escape?

Orestes

Because we are encircled by men fully armed.

Menelaus

Private foes or Argive troops?

445

Orestes

All the citizens, so that I may die; it is shortly told.

Menelaus

Poor wretch! you have arrived at the extremity of woe.

Orestes

In you I have hopes of escape from my troubles. But since you have come with good fortune,

share with your friends, who are wretched, your prosperity; do not hold aside that goodness for yourself alone; but partake of troubles in your turn, and so pay back my father’s kindness to those who have a claim on you. For such friends as desert us in adversity

450

are friends in name but not in deed.

455

Chorus Leader

And here is Tyndareus, the Spartan, struggling with aged step, clad in black robes, with his hair cut short in mourning for his daughter.

Orestes

Menelaus, I am ruined. See, Tyndareus

approaches us, the man of all others I most shrink from facing, because of the deed I have done. For he nursed me when I was small, and lavished on me many a fond caress, carrying me about in his arms as the son of Agamemnon; and so did Leda;

460

for they both honored me no less than the Dioscuri.

465

Ah me! my wretched heart and soul, it was a sorry return I made them! What darkness can I find for my face? What cloud can I spread before me in my efforts to escape the old man’s eye?

Tyndareus

Where, where may I see Menelaus, my daughter’s husband? For as I was pouring libations on Clytemnestra’s grave I heard that he had come to Nauplia with his wife, safe home again after many years. Lead me to him; for I want to approach him

470

and clasp his hand, as a friend whom at last I see again.

475

Menelaus

Hail, old man, rival of Zeus for a bride!

Tyndareus

All hail to you, Menelaus, my kinsman!

Catching sight of Orestes. Ah! What an evil it is to be ignorant of the future! There is that matricide before the house, a viper darting venomous flashes from his eyes, whom I loathe.

Menelaus, are you speaking to that godless wretch?

480

Menelaus

And why not? He is the son of one whom I loved.

Tyndareus

This is his son, this creature here?

Menelaus

Yes, his son; if he is in misfortune, he ought to be honored.

Tyndareus

You have been so long among barbarians that you have become one of them.

485

Menelaus

Always to honor one’s kin is a custom in Hellas .

Tyndareus

And another custom is to yield a willing deference to the laws.

Menelaus

The wise hold that everything which depends on necessity is a slave.

Tyndareus

Keep that wisdom for yourself; I will not have it.

Menelaus

Yes, for you are angry, and also old age is not wise.

490

Tyndareus

What does a dispute about foolishness have to do with him? If right and wrong are clear to all, who was ever more senseless than this man, because he never weighed the justice of the case,

nor appealed to the universal law of Hellas ? For instance, when Agamemnon breathed his last struck on his head by my daughter a most foul deed, which I will never defend,

495

he should have brought a charge against his mother and inflicted a holy penalty for bloodshed, banishing her from his house; thus he would have gained moderation instead of calamity, keeping strictly to the law and showing his piety as well. As it is, he has come into the same fate as his mother.

500

for though he had just cause for thinking her a wicked woman, he has become more wicked by murdering her.

505

507

I will ask you, Menelaus, just one question. If a man’s wedded wife should kill him, and his son in turn will kill his mother in revenge;

next the avenger’s son to expiate this murder will commit another: where will the chain of horrors end?

510

Our forefathers settled these matters the right way. They forbade any one with blood upon his hands to appear in their sight or cross their path;

but they purified him by exile, they did not kill him in revenge. Otherwise someone, by taking the pollution last upon his hands, is always going to be liable to have his own blood shed.

515

Now I hate wicked women, especially my daughter who killed her husband;

Helen, too, your own wife, I will never commend, nor would I even speak to her; and I do not envy you a voyage to Troy for a worthless woman. But the law I will defend with all my might, to put an end to this brutal spirit of murder,

520

which is always the ruin of countries and cities alike. Turning to Orestes Wretch! Had you no heart when your mother was baring her breast in her appeal to you? I, who did not see that awful deed, weep unhappy tears from my old eyes.

525

One thing at least agrees with what I say: you are hated by the gods, and you pay atonement for your mother by your fits of madness and terror. Why do I need to hear from other witnesses what I can see for myself? Therefore, Menelaus, take heed;

530

do not oppose the gods in your wish to help this man; but leave him to be stoned to death by the citizens, or do not set foot on Spartan land. My daughter is dead, and rightly; but it should not have been his hand that slew her.

535

In all except my daughters I have been a happy man; there I am not blessed.

540

Chorus Leader

He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and does not bring hazardous notoriety on himself.

Orestes

Old man, I am afraid to speak before you,

in a matter where I am sure to grieve you to the heart. I am unholy because I killed my mother, I know it, yet holy on another count, because I avenged my father. Only let your years, which frighten me from speaking, set no barrier in the path of my words,

545

and I will go forward; but now I fear your gray hairs.

550

What ought I to have done? Set one thing against another. My father begot me; your daughter gave me birth, being the field that received the seed from another; for without a father no child would ever be born.

So I reasoned that I ought to stand by the author of my being rather than the woman who undertook to rear me. Now your daughter—I am ashamed to call her mother—came to a man’s bed in a private and unchaste wedding; I speak against myself when I speak

555

badly of her, yet I will speak. Aegisthus was her secret husband in the home; I killed him, and I sacrificed my mother, an unholy crime, no doubt, but done to avenge my father.

560

Now, as regards the matters for which I deserve to be stoned as you threatened,

hear the service I am conferring on all Hellas . For if women become so bold as to murder their husbands, taking refuge in their children, with the mother’s breast to catch the pity, they would think nothing of destroying their husbands

565

on any charge whatsoever. But I, by a horrible crime, as you boast it to be, have put an end to this custom. I hated my mother and killed her justly. She was false to her husband when he was gone from his home to fight for all Hellas at the head of its armies,

570

and she did not keep his bed undefiled; and when her sin had found her out, she did not impose punishment on herself, but, to avoid paying the penalty to her husband, punished my father by death. By the gods! it is not a good time for me to mention the gods,

575

when defending the charge of murder; but if I consented by my silence to my mother’s conduct, what would the murdered man have done to me? Would he not now in hatred be tormenting me with the Furies? Or does my mother have goddesses as allies, but he does not, in his deeper wrong?

580

You, yes! you, old man, have been my ruin by begetting a wicked daughter; for it was owing to her audacious deed that I lost my father and became my mother’s murderer.

585

You see, Telemachus did not kill the wife of Odysseus, because she did not marry husband upon husband,

but the marriage-bed remained untainted in her home.

590

591

And you see Apollo, who makes the navel of the earth his home, dispensing to mortals unerring prophecies, whom we obey in all he says; I killed my mother in obedience to him.

Find him guilty of the crime, slay him; his was the sin, not mine. What ought I to have done? or is the god not competent to expiate the pollution when I refer it to him? Where then should anyone flee, if he will not rescue me from death after giving his commands?

595

Do not say that the deed was done badly, but unfortunately for the ones who did it.

600

A blessed life those mortals lead who make wise marriages; but those for whom it does not fall out well are unfortunate in their public and private concerns.

Chorus Leader

Women by nature always meddle in the doings of men, with unfortunate results.

605

Tyndareus

Since you are so bold and suppress nothing, but answer me back in such a way as to vex my heart, you will lead me to go to greater lengths in procuring your execution;

and I shall regard this as a fine addition to my labors in coming here to adorn my daughter’s grave. Yes, I will go to the chosen band of Argives and set the city, willing or not, on you and your sister, to pay the penalty of stoning.

610

She deserves to die even more than you, for it was she who embittered you against your mother, always carrying tales to your ear to increase your hate the more, announcing dreams from Agamemnon, and Aegisthus’ bed,

615

may the gods in Hades loathe it! for even here on earth it was bitter; till she set the house ablaze with fires never kindled by Hephaestus.

620

Menelaus, I tell you this, and I will do it, too: if you then consider my hatred or our marriage connection of any account, do not ward off this man’s doom in defiance of the gods,

but leave him to be stoned to death by the citizens, or do not set foot on Spartan land. Remember you have been told all this, and do not choose the ungodly as friends, pushing aside the more righteous. Servants, lead me from this house. Exit Tyndareus.

625

Orestes

Go, so that the remainder of my speech may come to this man without interruption, free from your old age.

630

Menelaus, why are you pacing round and round in thought, going back and forth, in a dilemma?

Menelaus

Let me alone! When I think it over,

I am perplexed to know where to turn in these events.

635

Orestes

Do not come to a final decision now, but after first hearing what I have to say, then make up your mind.

Menelaus

Good advice! Speak. There are times when silence would be better than speech, and the reverse also.

Orestes

I will speak now. A long statement has advantages over a short one and is more intelligible to listen to. Give me nothing of your own, Menelaus, but repay what you received from my father. As Menelaus makes a deprecating gesture. I am not speaking of possessions; if you save my life,

640

you will save my dearest possession.

645

I have done wrong; I ought to have a little wrong-doing from you to requite that evil, for my father Agamemnon also did wrong in gathering the Hellenes and going to Ilium , not that he had sinned himself,

but he was trying to find a cure for the sin and wrong-doing of your wife. So this is one thing you are bound to pay me back. For he really gave his life, as friends should, toiling hard in battle with you, so that you might have your wife again.

650

Pay back to me the same thing you got there. For one day exert yourself, on my behalf standing up in my defense, not ten full years.

655

As for what Aulis took, the sacrifice of my sister, I let you have that; do not kill Hermione.

For in my present plight, you must have an advantage over me and I must pardon it. But give to my miserable father my life and the life of my sister, a maiden so long; for by my death I shall leave my father’s house without an heir.

660

You will say it is impossible. That’s the point; friends are bound to help friends in trouble. But when fortune gives of its best, what need of friends? For the god’s help is enough of itself when he is willing to give it.

665

All Hellas believes that you love your wife,

and I am not saying this to flatter or wheedle you; by her I implore you.

670

As Menelaus turns away. Ah me, my misery! to what have I come! Well? (preparing to make a final appeal) I must suffer, for I am making this appeal on behalf of my whole family. O my uncle, my father’s own brother! Imagine that the dead man in his grave

is listening, that his spirit is hovering over you and saying what I say, this much for tears and groans and misfortunes. I have spoken and I have begged for my safety, hunting what all seek, not myself alone.

675

Chorus Leader

I, too, though I am only a woman, beseech you to help those who need it; for you have the power.

680

Menelaus

Orestes, you are a man for whom I have a deep regard, and I want to take part in your troubles; it is a duty, too, to help relatives bear their ills,

by dying or killing enemies, if god gives the power to do so. I wish I had that power granted me by the gods. For I have come quite destitute of allies, after my long weary wanderings,

685

with the small strength of my surviving friends. We should never get the better of Pelasgian Argos by fighting; if we should prevail by soothing speeches, we will come to some hope there. For how can you win a great cause by small

690

efforts? It is foolish even to wish it.

695

For when the people fall into a vigorous fury, they are as hard to quench as a raging fire; but if you gently slacken your hold and yield a little to their tension, cautiously watching your opportunity,

they may possibly calm down; if their gusts abate, you may obtain whatever you want from them easily. They have pity, and a hot temper too, an invaluable quality if you watch it closely. So for you I will go and try to persuade Tyndareus

700

and the city to moderation. A ship also dips if its sheet is hauled too taut, but rights itself again if it is let go.

705

The god hates excessive eagerness, and the citizens do also; I must save you, I don’t deny it,

by cleverness, not by violence against those who are stronger. I could not do it by strength, as you perhaps imagine; for it is not easy to triumph single-handed over the troubles that beset you. I would never have tried to bring the Argive land over to softness;

710

but it is necessary. for the wise to be slaves to fortune. Exit Menelaus.

715

Orestes

O you that have no use, except to lead an army in a woman’s cause! O worst of men in your friends’ defense,

do you turn your back on me and flee, the deeds of Agamemnon lost and gone?

720

After all, father, you had no friends in adversity. Alas! I am betrayed; no longer do I have any hope of finding a refuge where I may escape the death-sentence of Argos ; for this man was my haven of safety.

But I see Pylades, the best of friends, coming at a run from Phocis—a pleasant sight! A man who can be trusted in troubles is a better sight than a calm to sailors.

725

Pylades

I have come through the city quickly, as I should,

having heard and myself clearly seen the citizens assembling, against you and your sister, to kill you at once. What is happening? How is it with you? How are you doing, my best of comrades, friends and kin? For you are all these to me.

730

Orestes

I am ruined, to make plain to you my troubles in brief.

Pylades

You must destroy me also; for friends have all in common.

735

Orestes

Menelaus is the worst of men to me and my sister.

Pylades

It is natural for the husband of an evil woman to become evil.

Orestes

He no more repaid me by coming here, than if he had never come.

Pylades

Oh, has he really arrived in this land?

Orestes

He took a long time, but he was very soon detected as evil to his friends.

740

Pylades

And did he bring his wife, the worst of women, with him on his ship?

Orestes

It was not he who brought her here, but she who brought him.

Pylades

Where is she, the one woman who proved the ruin of so many Achaeans?

Orestes

In my house; if, that is, I ought to call it mine.

Pylades

And what did you say to your father’s brother?

745

Orestes

Not to see me and my sister killed by the citizens.

Pylades

By the gods! What did he say to that? I would like know this.

Orestes

He was cautious, the usual policy of ignoble friends.

Pylades

What excuse did he advance? When I have learned that, I know everything.

Orestes

There was a new arrival, the father who begot those noble daughters.

750

Pylades

You mean Tyndareus; he was angry with you, perhaps, for his daughter’s sake?

Orestes

You understand. And Menelaus preferred the family relationship with him to that with my father.

Pylades

He did not have the courage to share your troubles, when he was here?

Orestes

No, for he was not born a warrior, though strong among women!

Pylades

Your case is desperate, it seems, and you must die.

755

Orestes

The citizens must give their vote about us on the murder.

Pylades

And what is that to decide? Tell me, for I am alarmed.

Orestes

Our life or death; a brief speech on a large subject.

Pylades

Leave the palace with your sister now and try to escape.

Orestes

Don’t you see? We are being watched by guards on every side.

760

Pylades

I saw that the streets of the city were secured with armed men.

Orestes

We are as closely beleaguered as a city by its foes.

Pylades

Ask me now of my state; for I too am ruined.

Orestes

By whom? This would be a further trouble to add to mine.

Pylades

Strophius, my father, in a fit of anger, has banished me from his house.

765

Orestes

Bringing against you a private charge, or one in which the citizens share?

Pylades

He says it is an unholy crime to have helped you slay your mother.

Orestes

Alas! It seems my troubles will cause you grief as well.

Pylades

I am not like Menelaus in character; this must be endured.

Orestes

Are you not afraid that Argos will desire your death as well as mine?

770

Pylades

I am not theirs to punish; I belong to Phocis .

Orestes

A terrible thing is the mob, whenever it has villains to lead it.

Pylades

But with honest leaders its counsels are always honest.

Orestes

Very well; we must consult together.

Pylades

About what necessity?

Orestes

Suppose I go and tell the citizens—

775

Pylades

That your action was just?

Orestes

In avenging my father?

Pylades

I am afraid they would be glad to catch you.

Orestes

Well, am I to crouch in fear and die without a word?

Pylades

That is cowardly.

Orestes

How then should I act?

Pylades

Suppose you stay here, what means of safety do you have?

Orestes

I have none.

Pylades

And if you go, is there any hope of escaping your troubles?

Orestes

There might be, possibly.

780

Pylades

Then that is better than staying.

Orestes

Then I will go.

Pylades

At least you die in this way, you will die more honorably.

Orestes

You are right; in this way I escape cowardice.

Pylades

Better than by staying.

Orestes

After all, my action was just.

Pylades

Pray that this may be the only view they take.

Orestes

Some one or two might pity me—

Pylades

Yes, your noble birth is a great point.

Orestes

Resenting my father’s death.

785

Pylades

That is all quite clear.

Orestes

I must go, for to die ignobly is a coward’s part.

Pylades

Well said.

Orestes

Shall we tell my sister?

Pylades

God forbid!

Orestes

True, there might be tears.

Pylades

That would be a grave omen.

Orestes

Yes, silence is clearly better.

Pylades

And you will gain time.

Orestes

There is only one obstacle in my way.

790

Pylades

What fresh objection now?

Orestes

I am afraid the goddesses will prevent me by madness.

Pylades

But I will take care of you.

Orestes

It is annoying to have to touch a sick man.

Pylades

Not to me, when it is you.

Orestes

Beware of becoming a partner in my madness.

Pylades

Let that pass.

Orestes

You will not hesitate?

Pylades

No, for hesitation is a grave mischief among friends.

Orestes

On then, pilot of my course!

795

Pylades

A service I am glad to render.

Orestes

And guide me to my father’s tomb.

Pylades

For what purpose?

Orestes

That I may appeal to him to save me.

Pylades

Yes, that is the proper way.

Orestes

May I not see my mother’s grave!

Pylades

No; she was an enemy. But hasten, so that the vote of Argos may not catch you first,

supporting those limbs, slow from sickness, on mine; for I will carry you through the town, thinking little of the mob and unashamed. For how shall I prove my friendship, if not by helping you in sore distress?

800

Orestes

Ah! the old saying again, get friends, not relations only.

For a man who fuses into your ways, though he is an outsider, is better for a man to possess as a friend than a whole host of relations. Exeunt Orestes and Pylades.

805