Sophocles Electra 1137

Orestes

Ladies, have we been directed aright, and are we on the right path to our goal?

Chorus

What do you seek? What desire brings you here?

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Orestes

I have long been searching for the home of Aegisthus.

Chorus

Well, you have found it, and your guide is blameless.

Orestes

Which of you, then, would tell those inside of the long-desired presence of us travelers?

Chorus

She will, if the nearest in kin should announce it.

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Orestes

Go, lady, enter and make it known that certain men of Phocis seek Aegisthus.

Electra

Ah, miserable me! Surely you do not bring proof positive of that rumor which we heard?

Orestes

I know nothing of your rumor; but the aged Strophius ordered me to give report of Orestes.

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Electra

What is it, sir? Ah, how fear creeps over me!

Orestes

We come bearing his scanty remains in a small urn, as you see.

Electra

Oh, the misery! Here, at last, my eyes look for certain, it seems, upon that grievous burden in your hand.

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Orestes

If your tears are for any of Orestes’ tribulations, know that this vessel is his body’s home.

Electra

Ah, sir, if this urn indeed contains him, then allow me,

by the gods, to take it in my hands, so that I may weep and wail, not for these ashes alone, but for myself and for all our house with them!

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Orestes

To the attendants.

Take it and give it to her, whoever she may be. For she asks this for herself not as if with hostile intent,

but like one who is his friend, or a kinswoman by blood. The urn is placed in Electra’s hands.

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Electra

Memorial of him whom I loved best on earth, sole remnant of Orestes’ vitality! How contrary to the hopes with which I sent you away do I receive you back! Now I raise your nothingness in my hands;

but then, my child, you were radiant, when I sent you away from home! Would that I had first abandoned life, before, stealing you away with these hands, I sent you to a strange land and rescued you from death, in order that you might have lain dead on that same day

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and had your share in the tomb of our father!
  But now, an exile from home and fatherland, you have perished miserably, far from your sister. Ah, me, these loving hands have not washed or decked your corpse, nor taken up

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their sad burden from the all-consuming pyre, as was proper. No! At the hands of strangers, poor Orestes, you have been tended, and so have come to us, a small bulk in a small urn.
  Ah, I grieve at the uselessness of my nursing long ago, the service that I often bestowed

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on you in sweet labor! For you were never your mother’s darling so much as mine, nor was any in the house your nurse but I, and by you I was ever called sister. But now all this has vanished in a day

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with your death. Like a whirlwind you have swept everything away with you. Our father is gone; I am dead because of you; you yourself are dead and gone; our enemies laugh at us; and our mother, who is no mother, raves with joy. Unknown to her, you often

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sent me messages about her, saying that you yourself would appear for vengeance. But our evil fortune, yours and mine, has torn all that away, and has sent you back to me in this state, ash and a useless shade in place of your beloved form.

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ah, me, ah, me! O pitiable body! Alas, dear one sent on a most dire journey, how you have destroyed me, destroyed me indeed, my brother!

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Therefore accept me into this abode of yours—me, a nothing, into your nothingness,—so that I may dwell with you hereafter below. For when you were on earth, we shared equally, and now I wish to die and not to be left out of your grave,

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since I see that the dead are relieved of pain.

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Chorus

Remember, Electra, you are the child of a mortal father, and Orestes was mortal. Therefore do not grieve too much. Death is a debt which all of us must pay.

Orestes

Ah, what shall I say? I am at a loss. To what words

can I turn? I no longer have the strength to master my tongue!

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Electra

What has troubled you? Why did you say that?

Orestes

Is this the illustrious form of Electra?

Electra

It is, though in a very wretched state.

Orestes

What pity, then, for this miserable fortune!

Electra

Surely, stranger, you are not saddened like this on my account?

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Orestes

O frame dishonorably, godlessly wasted!

Electra

Those ills of which you speak, stranger, are none other’s than mine.

Orestes

Ah, pity for your unwed, ill-fated life!

Electra

Why, stranger, do you stare and grieve in this way?

Orestes

How I knew nothing, it seems, of my own sorrows!

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Electra

What that has been said made you realize this?

Orestes

It was the sight of you conspicuous in your many sufferings.

Electra

And yet you see but a few of my troubles.

Orestes

And how could there be any more odious to look on than these?

Electra

Because I share house and table with the murderers.

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Orestes

Whose murderers? Where lies the guilt at which you point?

Electra

The murderers of my father. And, further, I am forced to slave for them.

Orestes

Who is it that binds you with this compulsion?

Electra

She is called my mother, but in no respect is she like a mother.

Orestes

How does she do it? By violence or by inflicting hardship?

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Electra

By violence and hardships and all manner of evil.

Orestes

And is there no one to help, or to prevent it?

Electra

No one. The one I had, his ashes you have put before me.

Orestes

Unfortunate girl, how seeing you stirs my pity!

Electra

Then know that you are the first who ever pitied me.

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Orestes

Yes, for I alone have come and been pained by your troubles .

Electra

Surely you are not some unknown kinsman?

Orestes

I would tell you, if these women bear you goodwill.

Electra

Indeed they do, so you will speak to trustworthy companions.

Orestes

Give up this urn, then, and you shall know everything.

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Electra

No, by the gods, do not do this to me, stranger!

Orestes

Do as I say, and you will never be mistaken.

Electra

No, I beg you, do not rip from me what I hold most dear!

Orestes

You must not keep it.

Electra

Ah, what misery I will have because of you,

Orestes, if I am robbed of your burial!

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Orestes

Hush! No ill-omened words! You have no right to grieve.

Electra

How is it not right for me to grieve for my dead brother?

Orestes

It is not proper for you to speak of him as you do.

Electra

Am I so without rights in the dead?

Orestes

You are without rights in nothing; but this burial is not your concern.

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Electra

Yes it is, if these are the remains of Orestes that I hold.

Orestes

They are not his, except inasmuch as fiction alone contrives to make them so. He gently takes the urn from her.

Electra

And where is that sufferer’s tomb?

Orestes

There is none; the living have no tomb.

Electra

What are you saying, boy?

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Orestes

Nothing that is untrue.

Electra

The man is alive?

Orestes

If there is life in me.

Electra

What? Are you he?

Orestes

Look at this signet, once our father’s, and know if I speak the truth.

Electra

O blissful day!

Orestes

Blissful, I am your witness!

Electra

Is this your voice?

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Orestes

Hear it from no other.

Electra

Do I hold you in my arms?

Orestes

May you hold me so always hereafter!

Electra

Ah, dear friends and fellow-citizens, see Orestes here, who was dead by design, and now by design has come safely home!

Chorus

We see him, daughter, and for this happy turn of fortune a tear of joy trickles from our eyes.

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