Euripides' ELECTRA Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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66 pages - You are on Page 21

Leader: Electra, I feel a warmer glow of joy suffuse my heart than
ever heretofore; perchance our fortune, moving on at last, will find
a happy resting-place.

Electra: O reckless man, why didst thou welcome strangers like these,
so far beyond thy station, knowing the poverty of thy house?

Peasant: Why? if they are really as noble as they seem, surely they
will be equally content with rich or humble fare.

Electra: Well. since thou hast made this error, poor man as thou art,
go to my father's kind old foster-sire; on the bank of the river Tanaus,
the boundary 'twixt Argos and the land of Sparta, he tends his flocks,
an outcast from the city; bid him come hither to our house and some
provision for the strangers' entertainment. Glad will he be, and will
offer thanks to heaven to hear that the child, whom once he saved,
is yet alive. I shall get nothing from my mother from my ancestral
halls; for we should rue our message, were she to learn, unnatural
wretch! that Orestes liveth.

Peasant: I will take this message to the old man, if it seem good
to thee; but get thee in at once and there make ready. A woman, when
she chooses, can find dainties in plenty to garnish a feast. Besides,
there is quite enough in the house to satisfy them with food for one
day at least. 'Tis in such cases, when I come to muse thereon, that
I discern the mighty power of wealth, whether to give to strangers,
or to expend in curing the body when it falls sick; but our daily
food is a small matter; for all of us, rich as well as poor, are in
like case, as soon as we are satisfied. (The Peasant departs as Electra
enters the hut.)

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