Euripides, Orestes, Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator), 960

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Weh, laute Klagen heb' ich, mein Pelasgerland,

Die weißen Någel leg' ich an die Wange mir,

Blutig sie zu schånden,

Mein Haupt zerschlag' ich; Königinn der Todtenwelt,
950

Dir gebührt, Schone, dieser Zou!

Mit mir stimm' an das Lied, Kyklopenstadt,

Vom Haupt die Locken trennend, und beseufze des¹

Hauses Unglück.

Die Klage tont den Sterbenden,
955

Tint den Sprossen jener, die²

Einst Hellas Heer angeführt im Kampfe.

Gegenstrophe.

Orestes. Euripides. Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator). . .

Current edition Experimental

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1841; OCR review) (OCR draft) (German) (Euripides. Deutsch in den Versmaßen der Urschrift. Volume 1, Heidelberg: C. F. Winter, 1841. Harvard OCR compared with an independent BSB copy. Native Donner verse citations, Murray reference cards, explicitly located notes and page facsimiles. Unresolved OCR, verse divisions, unlocated notes and printed errata are documented in the source review.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ὀρέστης Perseus (Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. III. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1920-1978)) — 960-1012 focus

Ἠλέκτρα

κατάρχομαι στεναγμόν, ὦ Πελασγία,
960

τιθεῖσα λευκὸν ὄνυχα διὰ παρηίδων,

αἱματηρὸν ἄταν,

κτύπον τε κρατός, ὃν ἔλαχʼ ἁ κατὰ χθονὸς

νερτέρων Περσέφασσα καλλίπαις θεά.

ἰαχείτω δὲ γᾶ Κυκλωπία,
965

σίδαρον ἐπὶ κάρα τιθεῖσα κούριμον,

πήματʼ οἴκων.

ἔλεος ἔλεος ὅδʼ ἔρχεται

τῶν θανουμένων ὕπερ,

στρατηλατᾶν Ἑλλάδος ποτʼ ὄντων.
970

971

Ἠλέκτρα

βέβακε γὰρ βέβακεν, οἴχεται τέκνων

πρόπασα γέννα Πέλοπος ὅ τʼ ἐπὶ μακαρίοις

ζῆλος ὤν ποτʼ οἴκοις·

φθόνος νιν εἷλε θεόθεν, ἅ τε δυσμενὴς

φοινία ψῆφος ἐν πολίταις.
975

ἰὼ ἰώ, πανδάκρυτʼ ἐφαμέρων

ἔθνη πολύπονα, λεύσσεθʼ, ὡς παρʼ ἐλπίδας

μοῖρα βαίνει.

ἕτερα δʼ ἕτερος ἀμείβεται

πήματʼ ἐν χρόνῳ μακρῷ·
980

βροτῶν δʼ ὁ πᾶς ἀστάθμητος αἰών.

982

Ἠλέκτρα

μόλοιμι τὰν οὐρανοῦ

μέσον χθονός τε τεταμέναν

αἰωρήμασι πέτραν,

ἁλύσεσιν χρυσέαισι φερομέναν δίναισι,

βῶλον ἐξ Ὀλύμπου,

ἵνʼ ἐν θρήνοισιν ἀναβοάσω

γέροντι πατρὶ Ταντάλῳ
985

ὃς ἔτεκεν ἔτεκε γενέτορας ἐμέθεν δόμων,

οἳ κατεῖδον ἄτας,

ποτανὸν μὲν δίωγμα πώλων

τεθριπποβάμονι στόλῳ Πέλοψ ὅτε

πελάγεσι διεδίφρευσε, Μυρτίλου φόνον
990

δικὼν ἐς οἶδμα πόντου,

λευκοκύμοσιν

πρὸς Γεραιστίαις

ποντίων σάλων

ᾐόσιν ἁρματεύσας.

ὅθεν δόμοισι τοῖς ἐμοῖς
995

ἦλθʼ ἀρὰ πολύστονος,

λόχευμα ποιμνίοισι Μαιάδος τόκου,

τὸ χρυσόμαλλον ἀρνὸς ὁπότʼ

ἐγένετο τέρας ὀλοὸν ὀλοὸν

Ἀτρέος ἱπποβώτα·
1000

ὅθεν Ἔρις τό τε πτερωτὸν

ἁλίου μετέβαλεν ἅρμα,

τὰν πρὸς ἑσπέραν κέλευθον

οὐρανοῦ προσαρμόσα-

σα μονόπωλον ἐς Ἀῶ,

ἑπταπόρου τε δράμημα Πελειάδος
1005

εἰς ὁδὸν ἄλλαν Ζεὺς μεταβάλλει,

τῶνδέ τʼ ἀμείβει θανάτους θανά-

των τά τʼ ἐπώνυμα δεῖπνα Θυέστου

λέκτρα τε Κρήσσας Ἀερόπας δολί-

ας δολίοισι γάμοις· τὰ πανύστατα δʼ
1010

εἰς ἐμὲ καὶ γενέταν ἐμὸν ἤλυθε

δόμων πολυπόνοις ἀνάγκαις.

Translations (2)

Orestes Perseus (Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 960-1010 focus

Electra

O Pelasgia, I take up the dirge, doing bloody outrage on my cheeks with white nail, and beating on my head; these are the portion of Persephone, fair young goddess of the nether world.
960

Let the Cyclopian land break forth into wailing for the sorrows of our house, laying the steel upon the head to crop it close. This is the piteous, piteous strain that goes up for those who are about to die,
965

once the battle-leaders of Hellas .
970

971

Electra

It has gone, it has gone, and is lost, all the race of Pelops, and the glory that crowned their happy home once; the envy of heaven seized them and that cruel

murdering vote among the citizens.
975

Oh, oh! you tribes of short-lived men, full of tears, full of suffering, see how fate runs counter to your hopes! All receive in turn their different

troubles in length of time; and the whole of mortal life is uncertain.
980

982

Electra

Oh! to reach that rock which hangs suspended midway between earth and heaven, that fragment from Olympus , which swings on chains of gold, so that I may utter my lament

to Tantalus, my forefather, who begot the ancestors of my house. They saw infatuate ruin, the chase of winged steeds, when Pelops in four-horse chariot
985

drove over the sea, hurling the body of murdered Myrtilus into the ocean swell, after his race near Geraestus’ strand, foam-flecked from the tossing sea.
990

From this came a woeful curse upon my house, brought to birth among the sheep by the son of Maia , when there appeared a baleful, baleful portent of a lamb with golden fleece,
995

for Atreus, breeder of horses; from which Strife changed the course of the sun’s winged chariot, fitting the westward path of the sky towards the single horse of Dawn;
1000

and Zeus diverted the career of the seven Pleiads into a new track and exchanged . . . death for death: both the banquet to which Thyestes gave his name, and the treacherous love of Cretan Aerope,
1005

in her treacherous marriage; but the crowning woe has come on me and on my father by the bitter constraints of our house.
1010

Orestes (OCR draft) Experimental (Orestes. Robert Potter's English verse translation, first published in 1781–1783; text from the 1808 Oxford printing.)

No corresponding passage available

Notes on the current edition

Orestes

1. [OCR note; compare the printed page.] Wörtlich: Ein Messer sezend an das Haupt, bejammre des.

2. [OCR note; compare the printed page.] Die Wortfolge im Griechischen ist: ὑπὲρ τῶν θανουμένων (παίδων) ὄντων (τῶν) ποτὲ στρατηλατῶν (τῆς) Ἑλλάδος.

Euripides Orestes 960

Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator)

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