Epeisodion 1
Chorus Leader
Helen, your mother’s sister, is the cause of many evils to the Hellenes and to your house.
Electra
Ah! Women, I have broken off my lament; strangers, who had their lair at the altar, are rising from ambush towards the household. Let us escape the villains by flight, you along the path and I to the house.
215
Orestes
Stay, poor girl; do not fear my hand.
220
Electra
O Phoebus Apollo! I beseech you to spare my life.
Orestes
May I kill others more hated than you!
Electra
Go away! Do not touch one whom you must not touch.
Orestes
There is no one I have a better right to touch.
Electra
Then why are you in ambush, with drawn sword, near my house?
225
Orestes
Wait and hear, and you will soon say the same.
Electra
I am still; in any case, I am yours, since you are the stronger.
Orestes
I have come to bring you word from your brother.
Electra
Oh best of friends! Is he alive or dead?
Orestes
Alive; for I want to tell you the good news first.
230
Electra
May you be happy, as a reward for your most welcome tidings.
Orestes
I give that blessing for us two to have in common.
Electra
Where does the unhappy one live, in his unhappy exile?
Orestes
He goes miserably about, not following the customs of any one city.
Electra
Surely he does not want for a living, day by day?
235
Orestes
He has that, but an exile is a helpless man at best.
Electra
What is this message you have come bringing from him?
Orestes
If you are alive, and if so, how you are.
Electra
Well then, you see first of all how withered my body is.
Orestes
Yes, so wasted with sorrow that I sigh for it.
240
Electra
And my head and hair, close shaven as if by a Scythian’s razor.
Orestes
Your brother and your dead father perhaps gnaw at your heart.
Electra
Alas! For what is dearer to me than they?
Orestes
Ah! What are you to your brother, do you think?
Electra
He is far away, not here to be my friend.
245
Orestes
Why are you living here, far from the city?
Electra
I am married, stranger; a deadly match.
