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Electra
558
Then I will speak. My father by thy hand
Was slain: thou freely dost avow the deed.
And can there be a deed of blacker stain,
E'en though he justly died? But I will say
That not with justice didst thou strike the blow.
No: the persuasions of that wicked man,
Thy base compeer in guilt, allured thee. Ask
The huntress queen Diana, why so long
At Aulis vengeful she restrain'd the winds;
Or I will tell thee; her thou may'st not ask!
My father, sporting in her sacred grove,
Once roused a dappled Hart, that bore aloft.
His branching horns; and glorying in the prize
Utter'd some vaunting words: at these incensed
The daughter of Latona in that port
Detain'd the fleet of Greece, that for her Hart,
A recompense my father might present...
His daughter: to the goddess thus she fell
A victim; else the fleet had been detain'd
560
Moor'd in that bay, and not a gale had 'swell'd
560
Their sails for Troy, or to the ports of Greece.
560
For this, reluctant and by sad constraint,
560
He sacrificed his daughter, just to Greece,
560
Not for his brother's sake. But (to allow
560
Thy plea) to grace the Spartan had his wille
560
Been to the deed assenting, for that cause
560
Behoved it thee to slay him? By what fight?
Take heed thou givest not sanction to a law
'Mongst mortals, which with vengeance will recoil
On thine own head. If blood must be repaid
With blood, if justice doth her office, thou: A
The first must die. Take heed, nor urge a plea
Of no avail. But tell me, if thy will
Assents to tell me, why dost thou persist
In actions most disgraceful to thy fame?
Why with a blood-stain'd murderer share thy couch,
Thy vile associate in my father's death?
How canst thou bear him children, and expose .TYD
As outcasts those, who from an hallow'd bed
Sprung hallow'd? How can I approve these things?
Or wilt thou say that for thy daughter's death/
These deeds are done to satiate thy revenge?
Shame on thee if thou say'st so; for to wedi
An hostile ruffian for a daughter's sake, d
Throws a foul stain on honour. But thy soul
Rejects monition: ever on thy tongue
Is this complaint, that we with rudé reproach({
Insult our mother: Am I then thy child?
Rather thy slave, and lead a servile life, fina
Ever beneath the yoke of ills oppress'd TI
By thee and thy compeer. Thy other child,
The poor Orestes, scarce escaped thy handjofT TVD
With misery, exiled from his country, lives
Oft dost thou taunt me that I train the Youth
To vengeance on thee: be thou well assured
This I had done, had I the pow'r. Now go,
Proclaim me to the world as base of soul, O
As insolent of tongue, as lost to shamed wo
If in these arts I am expert, they showlon is
That nor thy nature I disgrace, nor thee.
Then I will speak. My father by thy hand
Was slain: thou freely dost avow the deed.
And can there be a deed of blacker stain,
E'en though he justly died? But I will say
That not with justice didst thou strike the blow.
No: the persuasions of that wicked man,
Thy base compeer in guilt, allured thee. Ask
The huntress queen Diana, why so long
At Aulis vengeful she restrain'd the winds;
Or I will tell thee; her thou may'st not ask!
My father, sporting in her sacred grove,
Once roused a dappled Hart, that bore aloft.
His branching horns; and glorying in the prize
Utter'd some vaunting words: at these incensed
The daughter of Latona in that port
Detain'd the fleet of Greece, that for her Hart,
A recompense my father might present...
His daughter: to the goddess thus she fell
A victim; else the fleet had been detain'd
560
Moor'd in that bay, and not a gale had 'swell'd
560
Their sails for Troy, or to the ports of Greece.
560
For this, reluctant and by sad constraint,
560
He sacrificed his daughter, just to Greece,
560
Not for his brother's sake. But (to allow
560
Thy plea) to grace the Spartan had his wille
560
Been to the deed assenting, for that cause
560
Behoved it thee to slay him? By what fight?
Take heed thou givest not sanction to a law
'Mongst mortals, which with vengeance will recoil
On thine own head. If blood must be repaid
With blood, if justice doth her office, thou: A
The first must die. Take heed, nor urge a plea
Of no avail. But tell me, if thy will
Assents to tell me, why dost thou persist
In actions most disgraceful to thy fame?
Why with a blood-stain'd murderer share thy couch,
Thy vile associate in my father's death?
How canst thou bear him children, and expose .TYD
As outcasts those, who from an hallow'd bed
Sprung hallow'd? How can I approve these things?
Or wilt thou say that for thy daughter's death/
These deeds are done to satiate thy revenge?
Shame on thee if thou say'st so; for to wedi
An hostile ruffian for a daughter's sake, d
Throws a foul stain on honour. But thy soul
Rejects monition: ever on thy tongue
Is this complaint, that we with rudé reproach({
Insult our mother: Am I then thy child?
Rather thy slave, and lead a servile life, fina
Ever beneath the yoke of ills oppress'd TI
By thee and thy compeer. Thy other child,
The poor Orestes, scarce escaped thy handjofT TVD
With misery, exiled from his country, lives
Oft dost thou taunt me that I train the Youth
To vengeance on thee: be thou well assured
This I had done, had I the pow'r. Now go,
Proclaim me to the world as base of soul, O
As insolent of tongue, as lost to shamed wo
If in these arts I am expert, they showlon is
That nor thy nature I disgrace, nor thee.
Electra. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.