Sophocles' ELECTRA Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

71 Pages

Page 5

Paedagogus: Hark, my son,- from the doors, methought, came the sound
of some handmaid moaning within.

Orestes: Can it be the hapless Electra? Shall we stay here, and listen
to her laments?

Paedagogus: No, no: before all else, let us seek to obey the command
of Loxias, and thence make a fair beginning, by pouring libations
to thy sire; that brings victory within our grasp, and gives us the
mastery in all that we do. (Exeunt Paedagogus on the spectators'
left, Orestes and Pylades the right.- Enter Electra, from the house.
She is meanly clad.)

Electra: (chanting, systema)

O thou pure sunlight, and thou air, earth's canopy, how often have
ye heard the strains of my lament, the wild blows dealt against this
bleeding breast, when dark night fails! And my wretched couch in yonder
house of woe knows well, ere now, how I keep the watches of the night,-
how often I bewail my hapless sire; to whom deadly Ares gave not of
his gifts in a strange land, but my mother, and her mate Aegisthus,
cleft his head with murderous axe, as woodmen fell an oak. And for
this no plaint bursts from any lip save mine, when thou, my father,
hath died a death so cruel and so piteous!

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