Orestes

O father, who perished by a death unbefitting a king,

grant in answer to my prayer the lordship over your halls!

480

Electra

And I too, father, have a like request of you: to escape when I have wrought great destruction on Aegisthus.

Orestes

Yes, for then the customary funeral feasts of men would be established in your honor. But otherwise, at the rich and savory banquet

of burnt offerings made to the earth, you will be without a portion of honor.

485

Electra

And I will likewise at my wedding offer libations to you out of the fullness of my inheritance from my father’s house, and before all else I will hold this tomb of yours in the highest honor.

Orestes

O Earth, send up my father to watch my battle!

Electra

O Persephone, grant us indeed a glorious victory!

490

Orestes

Father, remember the bath where you were robbed of life.

Electra

And remember how they devised a strange net to cast about you.

Orestes

You were caught, my father, in fetters forged by no smith’s hand.

Electra

And in a fabric shamefully devised.

Orestes

Father, are you not roused by taunts such as these?

495

Electra

Are you not raising that dearest head of yours?

Orestes

Either send Justice to battle for those dear to you, or grant us in turn to get a similar grip ¹ on them, if indeed after defeat you would in turn win victory.

Electra

So listen, father, to this last appeal of mine as you behold these fledglings crouching at your tomb. Have compassion on your offspring, on the woman and on the man as well, and let not this seed of Pelops’ line be blotted out: for then, in spite of death, you are not dead.

500

For children are voices of salvation to a man, though he is dead; like corks, they buoy up the net, saving the flaxen cord from out of the deep. Hear! For your own sake we make this lament. By honoring this plea of ours you save yourself.

505

Chorus

In truth you have drawn out this plea of yours to your own content in showing honor to this unlamented tomb. As for the rest, since your heart is rightly set on action, put your fortune to the test and get to your work at once.

510

Orestes

It will be so. But it is in no way amiss to inquire how, from what motive,

she came to send her libations, seeking too late to make amends for an irremediable deed. They would be a sorry gift to send to the senseless dead: I cannot guess what they mean. The gifts are too paltry for her offence.

515

For though a man may pour out all he has in atonement for one deed of blood, it is wasted effort. So the saying goes. If indeed you know, tell me: I wish to learn.

520

Chorus

I know, my child, for I was there. It was because she was shaken by dreams and wandering terrors of the night

that she sent these offerings, godless woman that she is.

525

Orestes

And have you learned the nature of the dream so as to tell it properly?

Chorus

She dreamed she gave birth to a serpent: that is her own account.

Orestes

And where does the tale end, and what is its consummation?

Chorus

She laid it to rest as if it were a child, in swaddling clothes.

Orestes

What food did it crave, the newborn viper?

530

Chorus

In her dream she offered it her own breast.

Orestes

Surely her nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast?

Chorus

No: it drew in clotted blood with the milk.

Orestes

Truly it is not without meaning: the vision signifies a man!

Chorus

Then from out of her sleep she raised a shriek and awoke appalled, and many lamps that had been blinded in the darkness flared up in the house to cheer our mistress. Then she sent these libations for the dead in the hope that they might be an effective cure for her distress.

535

Orestes

Well then, I pray to this earth and to my father’s grave that this dream may come to its fulfilment in me. As I understand it, it fits at every point. For if the snake left the same place as I; if it was furnished with my swaddling clothes;

540

if it sought to open its mouth to take the breast that nourished me and mixed the sweet milk with clotted blood while she shrieked for terror at this, then surely, as she has nourished a portentous thing of horror, she must die by violence. For I, turned serpent,

545

am her killer, as this dream declares.

550

Chorus

I choose your reading of this portent. Let it be so. As for the rest, give your friends their parts. Tell some what to do, others what to leave undone.

Orestes

It is a simple story. My sister must go inside, and I charge her to keep concealed this pact with me,

so that as by craft they killed a worthy man, so by craft they may likewise be caught and perish in the very same snare, even as Loxias decreed, lord Apollo, the prophet who has never before been false.

555

 

In the guise of a stranger, one fully equipped,I will come to the outer gate, and with me Pylades, whom you see here, as a guest and ally of the house. Both of us will speak the speech of Parnassus , imitating the accent of a Phocian tongue. And in case none of the keepers of the door will give us a hearty welcome

560

on the plea that the house is afflicted with trouble by the gods, then we will wait so that anyone passing the house will consider and say: Why then does Aegisthus have his door shut on his suppliant, if in fact he is at home and knows?

565

 

But if I indeed pass the outermost threshold of the gate and find that man sitting on my father’s throne, or if then coming face to face with me he lifts and casts down his eyes, know well:

before he can even say Of what land is this stranger? I will skewer him with my swift sword and lay him dead. The fury that has no fill of slaughter shall for her third and crowning drink drink unmixed blood!
  Now you, Electra, keep strict watch over what happens inside the house,

575

so that our plans may fit together well. You addressing the Chorus had best keep a discreet tongue: be silent when there is need and speak only what the occasion demands. As for the rest, I call on him ² to cast his glance this way and direct the contest of the sword for me. Exeunt Orestes, Pylades, and Electra

580

ELECTRA

I too, father, stand in the like need of thine aid, that I may escape after having brought a signal [doom] upon Ægisthus.

ORESTES

For thus should the banquets that are established among mortals be dedicated to thee: but if not, at the funeral feasts 3

thou wiit be unhonoured by savoury burnt-offerings from the earth.

ELECTRA

I too, from my entire substance, will bring to thee my nuptial offerings from the paternal dwelling; for beyond all things I will reverence this thy tomb.

ORESTES

O earth, send up my father to overlook the conflict.

ELECTRA

O Proserpine, vouchsafe to us also victory of beauteous aspect.

ORESTES

Remember the bath in which thou wast bereaved of life, my father.

ELECTRA

Remember too how strangely they enclosed thee in the net 4

.

ORESTES

Thou wast ensnared in fetters not wrought of brass, my father.

ELECTRA

Ay, and in folds of vestments foully planned.

ORESTES

Art thou not roused by these reproaches, father?

ELECTRA

Dost thou not then rear erect thy dearest head?

ORESTES

Either despatch justice, an ally to thy friends, or grant [foesj to receive in recompense like injuries, if indeed after having been mastered thou wishest to triumph in thy turn.

ELECTRA

And give ear, my father, to this final ery of mine to thee. Beholding thy young ones here sitting on thy sepul-

CHORUS

ORESTE

Père, père mort d'une mort indigne d'un
roi, je t'implore, fais-moi régner en ta maison.

ÉLECTRE

Et voici ce que, moi, j'attends de toi, père : échapper à ma dure peine pour l'infliger à Égisthe ¹ .

ORESTE

Alors, en ton honneur, s'établiront les festins consacrés. Sinon, tu seras oublié, au jour des gras
banquets offerts par ce pays sur des autels fumants.

ÉLECTRE

Et, sur ma part d'hoirie intacte, je t'apporterai, moi, mes libations de jeune épousée, lorsque je quitterai la maison paternelle. Et par-dessus tout ta tombe me sera sacrée.

ORESTE

Terre, ouvre-toi : mon père veut veiller au combat.

ÉLECTRE

Perséphone, envoie-nous la brillante victoire.

ORESTE

Souviens-toi du bain, père, où tu fus
immolé.

ÉLECTRE

Souviens-toi du filet de leurs ruses nouvelles.

ORESTE

Des chaînes sans airain où tu fus prisonnier.

ÉLECTRE

Et des voiles perfides de l'infâme complot.

ORESTE

Père, t'éveilles-tu enfin à ces outrages ?

ÉLECTRE

Soulèves-tu enfin ta tête bien-aimée ?

ORESTE

Envoie donc la Justice combattre avec les tiens ; ou, plutôt, laisse-les user des mêmes prises, si, naguère vaincu, tu veux vaincre à ton tour.

ÉLECTRE

Écoute, enfin, père, mon suprême appel.
Vois ta couvée blottie sur ce tombeau : prends pitié de ta fille ainsi que de ton fils ; n'efface pas du sol les derniers Pélopides : par eux tu te survis jusque dans la mort.

ORESTE

Les enfants d'un héros sauvent son nom de la mort,

ELECTRA.

Hear me, my father, for I want thy aid;

Grant me to ſhare his vengeance on Ægisthus,

And then eſcape; ſo may the ſolemn feaſt

Be ſpread to thee; elſe when the grateful odors

Are wafted from the feſtive board, to grace

550

The mighty dead, thy ſhade muſt want its honours.

To thee this hand ſhall bring the coſtlieſt off'rings,

To

ELECTRA.

To thee ſhall conſecrate whate'er of wealth

Ought, from thy treaſures, to adorn my nuptials p

;

555

And with the holiest reverence grace thy tomb.

ORESTES.

Earth, ſend my father to behold the combat!

ELECTRA.

Inſpire him, Proferpine, with glorious force!

ORESTES.

Think on the bath where thou waſt murder'd, father!

ELECTRA.

Think on the net in which they murder'd thee!

560

ORESTES.

Toils, other than of braſs, entangle thee.

ELECTRA.

Th' inexplicable robe's accurs'd contrivance.

ORESTES.

My father, cannot these diſhonours raiſe thee?

Doſt thou not raiſe thy honour'd head?

ELECTRA.

O send

565

Juſtice to aid thy friends: or if thy ſoul

Sinks with its wrongs, nor riſes to revenge them,

Be the like ſufferings ours!

But, O my father,

Hear our laſt cries, and fitting on thy tomb

570

Behold thy children: pity my weak ſex,

Pity his manly ſorrow, nor extinguiſh

Th' illustrious line of Pelops:

ſo in death

Thou doſt not die; for children, when the tomb

575

Demands the parent, with ſurviving glory

Preſerve his fame; the corks that buoy the line,

And save the net from sinking to the bottom.

O hear us; for thy ſake we pour these plaints.

Thou shalt preſerve thy glory, if with honour

580

Thou hear our words, our blameless words, that honour

The fortune of thy tomb, elſe unlamented!—

ELETTRA

Simile prece esaudisci a me,

350

padre: ch'io scampi, e morte a Egisto dia!

ORESTE

E sante epule avrai. Ché s'altro pensi,

andrai privo d'onor, mentre banchettano

gli altri defunti, tra flagrar d'incensi!

ELETTRA

Dai patrî lari anch'io, dal mio retaggio,

355

le nuziali offerte a te vo' porgere,

alla tua fossa il mio primiero omaggio.

ORESTE

Terra, a veder la pugna il padre rendici!

ELETTRA

Concedi il bel trionfo a me, Persèfone!

ORESTE

Ricorda il bagno in cui, padre, t'uccisero!

360

ELETTRA

Ricorda i lacci in cui t'avvilupparono!

ORESTE

Non di ferree catene essi t'avvinsero!

ELETTRA

Ma nelle reti de la turpe insidia!

ORESTE

Queste ingiurie pativi: e non ti desti?

ELETTRA

Alta non levi la diletta fronte?

365

ORESTE

Manda Giustizia accanto ai fidi tuoi,

a darci in mano l'armi onde ti uccisero,

se, già sconfitto, vincere or tu vuoi!

ELETTRA

Ascolta, o padre, questo ultimo grido:

mira prostrati al tumulo, e commisera

370

il maschio e il femminil germe del nido.

ORESTE

Né mai si sperda il seme dei Pelòpidi:

cosí, pur morto, morto non sei tutto.

ELETTRA

No: ché dei padri il nome i figli serbano,

alto lo tengon, come rete i sugheri,

375

salvando i fili dal profondo flutto.

ORESTE

Odi: son questi lagni a te diretti:

la tua salute, se li ascolti, affretti.

CORIFEA

Ele.

Et ego pater te opus habeo.

Fugere magnam propoſitam Aegiſtho cædem.

Sic enim tibi ſacrificia legitima mortalium erunt,

Structuræ, alioquin apud conuiuas eris

455

Dedecori in igneis fuffumigationibus terræ.

Et ego tibi inſerias meæ hæreditatis

Feram nuptiales ex paternis ædibus.

Omnium primum hoc honorabo sepulchrum.

Ore.

O terra, quiesce pater conſiderare pugnam.

460

Ele.

O Proserpina, da pulchrum imperium.

Ore.

Memor ſis lauacroru quibus fraudatus est pater.

Ele.

Recordare retis quo te innouarunt.

Ore.

Pedicis non aeneis captus es pater.

Ele.

Turpe in uelaminibus conſultatorijs.

465

Ore.

Excitatus eris his probris.

Ele.

Rectum fanè tolles carum tuum caput.

Ore.

Aut iuſtitiam mitte ſociam amicis,

Aut ſimilia redde detrimenta accipere.

Si superatus rursus uincere uis,

470

Hunc quoq; audi ultimum clamorem pater,

Videns hos pullos aſſidentes sepulchro,

Miserere fœmineæ & masculæ prolis,

Et ne extingas hoc ſemen Pelopidarum.

Sic enim neq; mortuus es, neq; occubuisti.

475

Liberos enim uiri, oracula salutaria

Mortuo agunt, ut ſuber retia

Ex fundo nexum feruans linum.

Audi, pro te funt he lamentationes.

Elektra.

Auch ich hab' eine Bitte. Vater, gönne mir

Gemahl und Hausstand, wenn Aigisthos mir erliegt.

Orestes.

Dann wird das Volk ein feierliches Totenmahl

dir rüsten: sonst entbehrest du der Ehren Zoll

485 am Fest, da allen Seelen duft'ges Opfer raucht.

Elektra.

An meinem Hochzeitstage trag' ich dir hinaus

des Vatererbes reichste Spenden, und zuerst

von des Geschlechtes Gräbern allen schmück' ich deins.

Orestes.

Den Kampf zu schauen, Erde, gieb den Vater los.

Elektra.

490 Verklär' ihn, Totenkön'gin, in Heroenglanz.

Orestes.

Gedenke, Vater, an das mörderische Bad.

Elektra.

Gedenk' auch an des Netzes unerhörten Trug.

Orestes.

Das Netz, das fest wie Eisenschellen dich umstrickt.

Elektra.

Das Truggespinnst, das dir die Arglist überwarf.

Orestes.

495 Hörst du nicht deine Schande? Weckt sie dich nicht

auf?

Elektra.

Hebst du zu deinen Kindern nicht das Haupt empor?

Orestes.

Die Rache selbst schick' hilfeleistend unserm Kampf.

Wo nicht, so mach' in diesem Gang die Waffen gleich,

wenn aus dem Fall du siegreich dich erheben willst.

Elektra.

500 Vernimm auch, Vater, diesen meinen letzten Ruf.

An deinem Grabe suchen deine Kinder Schutz:

erbarme dich der Tochter und des Mannesstamms,

lass' nicht den Pelopidensamen ganz verdorr'n,

504 auf dafs du weiter lebest selbst nach deinem Tod.

Orestes.

508 Erhör' uns; dir zu Liebe tönt der Klageschrei.

Dir selber hilfst du, wenn du unsern Wunsch gewährst.

505 Denn das Gedächtnis des Verstorb'nen lebet fort

in seinen Kindern. Auf der Welle schwimmt der Kork

und zeigt das Netz, das in des Meeres Tiefen treibt.

Chorführerin.

510

Electra.

To me, too, grant this boon—dark death to deal

Unto Ægisthus, and to 'scape my doom.

Orestes.

So shall the rightful feasts that mortals pay

560

Be set for thee; else, not for thee shall rise

The scented reek of altars fed with flesh,

But thou shalt lie dishonoured: hear thou me!

Electra.

I too, from my full heritage restored,

Will pour the lustral streams, what time I pass

565

Forth as a bride from these paternal halls,

And honour first, beyond all graves, thy tomb.

Orestes.

Earth, send my sire to fend me in the fight!

Electra.

Give fair-faced fortune, O Persephone!

Orestes.

Bethink thee, father, in the laver slain——

570

Electra.

Bethink thee of the net they handselled for thee!

Orestes.

Bonds not of brass ensnared thee, father mine.

Electra.

Yea, the ill craft of an enfolding robe.

Orestes.

By this our bitter speech arise, O sire!

Electra.

Raise thou thine head at love's last, dearest call!

575

Orestes.

Yea, speed forth Right to aid thy kinsmen's cause;

Grip for grip, let them grasp the foe, if thou

Willest in triumph to forget thy fall.

Electra.

Hear me, father, once again hear me.

Lo! on thy tomb, two fledglings of thy brood—

580

A man-child and a maid; hold them in ruth,

Nor wipe them out, the last of Pelops' line.

For while they live, thou livest from the dead—

Children are memory's voices, and preserve

The dead from wholly dying: as a net

585

Is ever by the buoyant corks upheld,

Which save the flax-mesh, in the depth submerged.

Listen, this wail of ours doth rise for thee,

And as thou heedest it thyself art saved.

Chorus.

Elektra.

Auch ich, o Vater, flehe dir: laß mich entflieh'n,

Nachdem Aegisthos grausen Tod durch mich empfing!

Orestes.

Dann werden Feiermahle dir nach frommem Brauch

Geheiligt; säumst du, feiert dich kein Opfermahl,

485

Wovon des Landes Herde glüh'n am Todtenfest.

Elektra.

Und ich, - von meinem Erbe will ich Spenden dir

An meinem Brautsest aus dem Vaterhause weih'n,

Will hier vor Allem deine Gruft verherrlichen.

Orestes.

Den Vater, Erde, sende mir, den Kampf zu schau'n!

490

Elektra.

O Persephassa, leihe du glorreichen Sieg!

Orestes.

Des Bades denke, Vater, das dich mordete!

Elektra.

Des Neßes denke, das dich eingeweiht zum Tod!

Orestes.

In Bande, nicht aus Erze, schlug man, Vater, dich.

Elektra.

Im Schlinggewebe, das sie schmachvoll ausgedacht!

495

Orestes.

Erwachst du nicht, o Vater, über diese Schmach?

Elektra.

Hebst nicht vom Schlummer dein geliebtes Haupt empor?

Orestes.

Send' uns, den Deinen, Dike, zur Mitstreiterin,

Vergeltend sende gleiches Loos den Mördern zu,

Wenn du, der Ueberwundne, wieder stegen willst!

500

Elektra.

Vernimm, o Vater, diesen legten Hülferuf,

Sieh deine Kinder sigen hier an deinem Grab!

Des Sohns, der Tochter Klage nimm erbarmend auf,

Vertilge nicht der Pelopiden edles Haus!

Orestes.

Dann bist du nicht gestorben, ob du starbest auch.

505

Denn Kinder sind dem todten Vater rettender

Nachruhm; dem Kork gleich tragen sie das Nek empor,

Der fern vom Meeresgrunde hält des Leins Gespinnst.

Elektra.

Vernimm; um deinetwillen tönt der Klageruf!

Dein eignes Heil ist's, wenn du dies Gebet erhörst.

510

Die Chorführerin.