Euripides' ORESTES Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

42 pages - You are on Page 18

Electra: I leave thee! never! With thee I am resolved to live and
die; for 'tis the same; if thou diest, what can I, a woman, do? How
shall I escape alone, reft of brother, sire, and friends?

Still if it be thy pleasure, I must do thy bidding. But lay thee down
upon thy couch, and pay not too great heed to the terrors and alarms
that scare thee from thy rest; lie still upon thy pallet bed; for
e'en though one be not sick but only fancy it, this is a source of
weariness and perplexity to mortals. (Electra enters the palace,
as Orestes lies back upon his couch.)

Chorus: (singing, strophe)

Ah! ye goddesses terrific, swiftly careering on outspread pinions,
whose lot it is 'mid tears and groans to hold revel not with Bacchic
rites; ye avenging spirits swarthy-hued, that dart along the spacious
firmament, exacting a penalty for blood, a penalty for murder, to
you I make my suppliant prayer: suffer the son of Agamemnon to forget
his wild whirling frenzy!

Ah, woe for the troublous task! which thou, poor wretch, didst strive
to compass to thy ruin, listening to the voice prophetic, proclaimed
aloud by Phoebus from the tripod throughout his sanctuary, where is
a secret spot they call "the navel of the earth."

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Orestes

Euripides Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Sophocles

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/euripides/orestes.asp?pg=18