Sophocles' ELECTRA Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

71 Pages

Page 22

Clytemnestra: At large once more, it seems, thou rangest,- for Aegisthus
is not here, who always kept thee at least from passing the gates,
to shame thy friends. But now, since he is absent, thou takest no
heed of me, though thou hast said of me oft-times, and to many, that
I am a bold and lawless tyrant, who insults thee and thine. I am guilty
of no insolence; I do but return the taunts that I often hear from
thee.

Thy father- this is thy constant pretext- was slain by me. Yes, by
me- I know it well; it admits of no denial; for justice slew him,
and not I alone,- justice, whom it became thee to support, hadst thou
been right-minded; seeing that this father of thine, whom thou art
ever lamenting, was the one man of the Greeks who had the heart to
sacrifice thy sister to the gods- he, the father, who had not shared
the mother's pangs.

Come, tell me now, wherefore, or to please whom, did he sacrifice
her? To please the Argives, thou wilt say? Nay, they had no right
to slay my daughter. Or if, forsooth, it was to screen his brother
Menelaus that he slew my child, was he not to pay me the penalty for
that? Had not Menelaus two children, who should in fairness have been
taken before my daughter, as sprung from the sire and mother who had
caused that voyage? Or had Hades some strange desire to feast on my
offspring, rather than on hers? Or had that accursed father lost all
tenderness for the children of my womb, while he was tender to the
children of Menelaus? Was not that the part of a callous and perverse
parent? I think so, though differ from thy judgment; and so would
say the dead, if she could speak. For myself, then, I view the past
without dismay; but if thou deemest me perverse, see that thine own
judgment is just, before thou blame thy neighbour.

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