Epeisodion 2
Clytaemnestra
You run loose again, it seems, since Aegisthus is not here, who used always to keep you at least from coming out to the gates and shaming your family. But now, since he is absent, you pay
me no mind. And yet you have said of me often and to many listeners that I am a rash and unjust tyrant, who violently abuse you and yours. But it is not I who do violence; I only return the insults that I so often hear from you.
520
Your father—this and nothing else is your constant pretext—was slain by me. Yes, by me. I know it well. I make no denial. Justice took hold of him, not I alone—Justice, whom you ought to have supported, if you had been in your right mind.
525
For this father of yours whom you constantly bewail alone of all the Greeks had the heart to sacrifice your own blood, your sister, to the gods—he, who, when sowing his seed, felt none of the pains I did when I gave birth.Come, tell me now, why, or to please whom,
530
did he sacrifice her? To please the Argives, you will say? No, they had no right to kill my daughter. Or, if indeed it was for the sake of his brother Menelaus that he killed my child, was he not to pay me the penalty for that? Did Menelaus not have two children,
535
who should in fairness have died instead of my daughter, since the father and mother from whom they were sprung had caused that voyage? Did Hades have some greater desire to feast on my offspring than on hers? Or had all love of the children of my womb been
540
abandoned by their accursed father, while love for the children of Menelaus filled him? Were these not the marks of a thoughtless and malicious parent? I think so, even if I differ from your judgment. So, too, would the dead girl speak, if she could find a voice. For myself, then, I view the past without
545
dismay; but if you think my attitude criminal, see that your own judgment is just before you blame your neighbor.
550
Electra
This time, at least, you cannot say that I first gave you cause for upset and thereby provoked such words from you. But, if you will permit me,
I would gladly declare the truth, on behalf of my dead father and my sister alike.
555
Clytaemnestra
Certainly I permit you; and if you always addressed me in such a tone, you would not be difficult to listen to.
Electra
Then I will speak. You admit that you killed my father. What statement could be more shameful still than that,
whether you did it justly or not? But I will demonstrate to you that you did not justly kill him. No, the persuasion of that wicked man with whom you now sleep dragged you to it.Ask the huntress Artemis what wrong she punished when she stayed the frequent winds at Aulis;
560
or I will tell you, since we may not learn from her. My father, as I have heard, was once hunting in the grove of the goddess, when his footfall flushed a dappled and antlered stag; he shot it, and chanced to make a certain boast concerning its slaughter.
565
Angered by this, Leto’s daughter detained the Greeks so that in requital for the beast’s
life my father should sacrifice his own daughter. So it was that she was
sacrificed, since the fleet had no other release, neither homeward nor to
Troy.
570
For that reason, under fierce constraint and with much resistance, at last he sacrificed her—but it was not for the sake of Menelaus.But suppose—for I will make your own plea—suppose that the motive of his deed was to benefit his brother. Should you have killed him because of that? Under what sort of law?
575
See that by laying down such a law for men, you do not lay down trouble and remorse for yourself. For, if we are to take blood for blood, you surely would be the first to die, if you were to meet with justice.But consider whether this pretext is any excuse at all.
580
For tell me, if you please, what crime it is that you requite by doing the most shameless deeds of all: sharing your bed with that blood-guilty one, with whom you first destroyed my father and now bear his children
585
while you have cast out the earlier born, the pious offspring of a pious marriage? How
can I commend these deeds? Or will you claim that this, too, is recompense for
your daughter? No, it is a shameful plea, if you so plead, for there is nothing
noble in marrying an enemy for a daughter’s sake.
590
But no, I can hardly even admonish you, when your every cry is that I slander my mother. I think, rather, that you are no less a mistress to me than a mother; so lowly is the life that I live,
595
ever beset with miseries come from you and your consort. And your other child, the exile who scarcely escaped your hand, poor Orestes, wastes away his unhappy life. You have often accused me of rearing him to punish your crime,
600
and I would have done so, if I could, you may be sure. As far as he is concerned, you can denounce me to all as disloyal, if you like, or loud-mouthed, or impudent. For if my nature is familiar with such wrongdoings, I hardly bring disgrace upon your nature.
605
Chorus
I see her breathing fury; but whether justice is with her, her concern for this I see no longer.
610
Clytaemnestra
And what manner of concern should I use against her, who has abused her mother like this at her mature age? Do you not think
that she would go forward to any deed without shame?
615
Electra
Now be assured that I do feel shame for it, though I seem not to you. I know that my behavior is unsuited to my age and inappropriate. But then the enmity I get from you and your
behavior compel me with harsh necessity to do this; for reprehensible deeds are learned from reprehensible examples.
620
Clytaemnestra
You shameless creature! Truly I and my speech and my deeds give you too much to talk about.
Electra
The words are yours, not mine; for yours
are the deeds, and they find their own expression.
625
