Euripides' ELECTRA Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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Electra: (chanting, strophe 1)

Bestir thy lagging feet, 'tis high time; on, on o'er thy path of
tears! ah misery! I am Agamemnon's daughter, she whom Clytemnestra,
hateful child of Tyndareus, bare; hapless Electra is the name my countrymen
call me. Ah me! for my cruel lot, my hateful existence! O my father
Agamemnon! in Hades art thou laid, butchered by thy wife and Aegisthus.
Come, raise with me that dirge once more; uplift the woful strain
that brings relief.

(antistrophe 1)

On, on o'er thy path of tears! ah misery! And thou, poor brother,
in what city and house art thou a slave, leaving thy suffering sister
behind in the halls of our fathers to drain the cup of bitterness?
Oh! come, great Zeus, to set me free from this life of sorrow, and
to avenge my sire in the blood of his foes, bringing the wanderer
home to Argos.

(strophe 2)

Take this pitcher from my head, put it down, that I may wake betimes,
while it is yet night, my lamentation for my sire, my doleful chant,
my dirge of death, for thee, my father in thy grave, which day by
day I do rehearse, rending my skin with my nails, and smiting on my
shaven head in mourning for thy death. Woe, woe! rend the cheek; like
a swan with clear loud note beside the brimming river calling to its
parent dear that lies a-dying in the meshes of the crafty net, so
I bewail thee, my hapless sire,

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