CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.

ELEC. Phœbus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.

CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.

ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
drag out my existence forever!

CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.

ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.

ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how pleasant
didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of my
sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in
distress!--whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how brought? for I
remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my senses.

ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst fall
asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?

ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
wretched mouth, and from my eyes.

ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
brother's limbs with a sister's hand.

ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my face,
for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.

ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered from
long want of the bath!

ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a respite,
I am feeble and weak in my limbs.

ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing to
keep, but still a necessary one.

ORES. Again raise me upright--turn my body.

CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.

ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
long-discontinued[5] step? In all things change is sweet.

ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.

ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer thee to
have thy right faculties.

ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief--I have enough distress.

ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships are
moored in the Nauplian bay.

ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a man of
kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our father?

ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with him
Helen from the walls of Troy.

ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he brings his
wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.

ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
blame, and infamous throughout Greece.

ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not only
say, but also hold these sentiments.

ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed to
madness, so late in thy senses.

ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing blood,
horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.

ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none of
those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.

ORES. O Phœbus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will kill me,
these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.

ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will stop
thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.

ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the middle,
that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.

ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on us
the vengeful wrath of heaven!

ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Phœbus, with which Apollo said I
should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their maddened raging.

ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note [B].)

ORES. _Yes. She shall,_ if she will not depart from my sight... Hear ye
not--see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the distant-wounding bow?
Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with your wings, and impeach
the oracles of Phœbus.--Ah! why am I thus disquieted, heaving my panting
breath from my lungs? Whither, whither have I wandered from my couch? For
from the waves again I see a calm.--Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes
beneath thy vests, I am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings,
and to give a virgin trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of
my miseries: for thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my
mother's blood was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after
having instigated me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me,
but not with deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked
him if it were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each other.
But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched at full
length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take refreshment, and
pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest me, or gettest any
illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for thee I have my only
succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.

ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to live;
for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a woman? how
shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother, without a
father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these things it
is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not to such a
degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee from the
couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though thou be not
ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and a distress to
mortals. (Note [C].)

CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving[6] Goddesses, who keep up the
dance, not that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides,
you, that fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having received
from the tripod the oracle which Phœbus spake, on that pavement, where are
said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O Jupiter, what pity is
there? what is this contention of slaughter that comes persecuting thee
wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon tear, transporting to
thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee frenzied! Thus I
bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among mortals; but, as
the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken him, hath sunk him in
the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous evils, as in the waves of
the ocean. For what other[6a] family ought I to reverence yet before that
sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from Tantalus?--But lo! the king! the
prince Menelaus, is coming! but he is very easily discernible from the
elegance of his person, as king of the house of the Tantalidæ.

O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's land,
hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the object
of thy wishes from the Gods.

MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.

MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure, coming
from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never yet saw
I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable woes. For
I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell Agamemnon, [and his
death, by what death he perished at the hands of his wife,][6b] when I was
landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of the mariners
declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus, an unerring
God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me. "Menelaus, thy
brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which his wife
prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears; but when I
come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed there, expecting
to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and his
mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some fisherman[7] the
unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil? for
he was an infant in Clytæmnestra's arms at that time when I left the palace
on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see him.

ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord will
declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication, putting up
prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:[8] save me. But thou
art come in the very season of my sufferings.

MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!

ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I live
not; but see the light.

MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid hair!

ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.

MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.

ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.

MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
conception!

ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.

MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.

ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.

MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?

ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated dreadful
deeds.

MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.

ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,--

MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.

ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.

MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?

ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.

MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?

ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her bones.[9]

MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?

ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
mother.

MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?

ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.

MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.

ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high polished
words.[10]

MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred murder?

ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am driven!

MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer them.

ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality[11] of the
mischance.

MEN. Say not the death _of thy father;_ for this is not wise.

ORES. Phœbus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our mother.

MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.

ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.

MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?

ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by nature.

MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?

ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.

MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy mother's
blood!

ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.

MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?

ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same light as
a thing not done.

MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these things?

ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.

MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the laws?

ORES. _How can I?_ for I am shut out from the houses, whithersoever I go.

MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?

ORES. Œax,[12] imputing to my father the hatred which arose on account of
Troy.

MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on thee.

ORES. In which at least I had no share--but I perish by the three.

MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of Ægisthus?

ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.

MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?

ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.

MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?

ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.

MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?

ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.

MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
country?

ORES. _How can we?_ for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.

MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?

ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die--the word is brief.

MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.

ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy,
coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be
not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also
services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou
oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not
friends in adversity.

CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in
a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.

ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come
before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of
what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and
satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and
Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O
my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can
I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may
avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?

TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.

TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was
pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was come
to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I
long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long
lapse of time.

MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.

TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,--ah! what an evil is it
not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother,
glares before the house his pestilential gleams--the object of my
detestation--Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?

MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.

TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?

MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.

TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
barbarian.

MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.

TYND. _Yes_, and also not to wish to be above the laws.

MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to
her[13] among the wise.

TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.

MEN. _No_, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.

TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what
things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man
was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice,
nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that
Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a
most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed
to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the
accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have
taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would
have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For
with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying
his mother.

But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed
were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that
is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the
extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these
things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to
their converse, who was under an attainder[14] of blood; but they made him
atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For
always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last
into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my
daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife,
nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend[15] thee for going to the
plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law,
as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous
practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state.--For
what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her
breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that
scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One
thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the
Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness
and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my
power to see? That thou mayest know then _once for all_, Menelaus, do not
things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But
suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
fitting that she should die by him.[16] In other respects indeed have I
been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.

CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him
some notorious calamities.

ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve
thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at
least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine
age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way
of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray
hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father
indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the
seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I
reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my
birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter
(I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had
approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall
I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. Ægisthus was her secret husband in
her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed
unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for
which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all
Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to
murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children,
seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing
with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but
I having done dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this
law, but hating my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband
absent from home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece,
and kept not her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done
amiss, she inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not
suffer vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the
Gods, (in no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present as
allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the greater
injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the Furies? Thou
then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for
through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide. Dost see?
Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a husband on a
husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the palace. Dost see?
Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of the earth, gives
the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are entirely guided, whatever
he may say, on him relying slew I my mother. 'Twas he who erred, not I:
what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for me, who transfer _the deed_
to him, to do away with the pollution? Whither then can any fly for succor,
unless he that commanded me shall deliver me from death? But say not these
things have been done "not well;" but _say_ "not fortunately" for us who
did them. But to whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there
is a happy life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard
to their affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.

CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to men, to
the making of things unfortunate.

TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
for which I came, _namely_, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to the
multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not
unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy
sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated thee
against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase thy
hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
infernal Gods detested the bed of Ægisthus; for even here _on earth_ it
were hard _to be endured_; until she set the house in flames with fire more
strong than Vulcan's.--Menelaus, but to thee I speak this, and will
moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance, ward not off
death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer him to be slain
by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. Thus
much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious for thy friends, passing
over the pious.--But O attendants, conduct us from this house.

ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
in thought, entering on a double path of double care?

MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to which
side of fortune to turn me.

ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words, then
deliberate.

MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking may
be better than silence.

ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference before
short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of what
thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father, return;
I mean not riches--yet riches, which are the most dear of what I possess,
if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought to receive from
thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what justice demands; for
Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms, in a way justice did
not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself, but in order to set
right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one thing indeed thou
oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends should for friends,
of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the shield, that thou
mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this kindness for that which
thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in standing as my succor, not
completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my sister, which Aulis received,
this I suffer thee to have; do not kill Hermione, _I ask it not_. For, I
being in the state in which I now am, thou must of necessity have the
advantage, and I must suffer it to be so. But grant my life to my wretched
father, and my sister's, who has been a virgin a long time. For dying I
shall leave my father's house destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this
is the very thing _I have been urging_, it behooves friends to help their
friends in misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is
there of friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist.
Thou appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say,
not stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore
thee; O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what I
speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and miseries,[17]
and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
only, seek.

CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee to
succor those in need, but thou art able.

MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor with
thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me. In
battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but if we
can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any one
achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in full
force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as a
fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and gives
in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its rage, but
when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty have it
your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in them pity,
but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who carefully watches
his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will go and endeavor to
persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great power in a becoming
manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a violent degree, is
wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you slacken the main sheet. For
the God hates too great vehemence, and the citizens hate it; but I must (I
speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not by opposing my superiors. But I
can not by force, as perchance thou thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no
easy matter to erect from one single spear trophies from the evils, which
are about thee. For never have we approached the land of Argos by way of
supplication; but now there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves
of fortune.

ORESTES, CHORUS.

ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the sake
of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert then
without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am betrayed,
and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape death from
the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see this most dear
of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians, a pleasing
sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold than the calm
to the mariners.

PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.

PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having heard
of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself, against
thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.--What is this? how art
thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions and kindred? for
all these things art thou to me.

ORES. We are gone--briefly to show thee my calamities.

PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are common.

ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.

PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.

ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not come.

PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?

ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon discovered to
be too base to his friends.

PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous wife?

ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.

PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,[18] destroyed most of the
Grecians?

ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.

PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?

ORES. _I requested him_ not to suffer me and my sister to be slain by the
citizens.

PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to know.

ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
their friends.

PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
possession of every thing.

ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent daughters.

PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
daughter.

ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than to
his ties with my father.

PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?

ORES. _No_: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.

PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee
to die.

ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder _we have
committed_.[19]