Epeisodion 2
Clytaemnestra
Now by our mistress Artemis, you shall not escape the consequences of this audacity once Aegisthus returns.
Electra
You see? You are driven to rage and, even though you grant me free speech, you have no patience to listen.
Clytaemnestra
Will you not allow me to sacrifice without ominous shouting, when I have permitted you to say anything and everything you wished?
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Electra
I allow it; I exhort you to it: sacrifice! But do not blame my voice, for I would not say another word.
Clytaemnestra
Raise then, my attendant, the offerings
of many fruits, so that I may uplift my prayers for release from my present fears to this image of our King. Please, O Phoebus our defender, may you now listen to my prayer, though it is muffled; for I do not make my plea among friends, nor does it suit me to unfold it all
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to the light while she stands near me, lest by her malice and a cry of her clamorous tongue she sow reckless rumors through the whole city. Nevertheless, hear me thus, since in this way I will speak. That vision which I saw last night
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in ambiguous dreams—if its appearance was to my good, grant, Lycean king, that it be fulfilled; but if to my harm, then hurl it back upon those who would harm me. And if any are plotting to eject me by treachery from my present prosperity, do not permit them.
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Rather grant that living forever unharmed as I am I may govern the house of the sons of Atreus and their throne, sharing prosperous days with the friends who share them now, and with those of my children who feel no enmity or bitterness towards me.
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O Lycean Apollo, hear these prayers with favor, and grant them to us all just as we ask!
As for all my other prayers, though I am silent, I judge that you, a god, must
know them, since it is appropriate that Zeus’s children see all.
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Paedagogus
Foreign ladies, how might I know for certain if this be the palace of the king Aegisthus?
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Chorus
This is the palace, stranger; you yourself have guessed correctly.
Paedagogus
And am I on target when I surmise that this lady is his wife? She is indeed regal to look upon.
Chorus
Exactly right; this is she before you.
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Paedagogus
Greetings, royal lady! I bring happy news to you and to Aegisthus from a friend.
Clytaemnestra
I welcome your greeting; but I would like first to know who may have sent you.
Paedagogus
Phanoteus the Phocian provided me the weighty task.
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Clytaemnestra
And what is it, sir? Tell me. Coming from a friend you will bring, I know, a kindly message.
Paedagogus
Orestes is dead, to put it briefly.
Electra
Oh, miserable me! My ruin comes today!
Clytaemnestra
What, friend? What did you say? Do not listen to her!
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Paedagogus
I said, and say again, Orestes is dead.
Electra
This is my wretched end! I am no more!
Clytaemnestra
You, go about your business! But you, sir, tell me exactly in what manner he was destroyed.
Paedagogus
I was sent for that purpose, and will tell you all. Having gone to the shrine which is
Greece’s common glory in order to
compete for Delphi’s prizes and
having heard the herald’s loud summons to the foot-race, the first contest,
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he entered the lists, a brilliant form, a wonder in the eyes of all there. When he had finished the race at the point where it began, he went out with the glorious honor of victory. To say the most with the least words, I do not know the man whose deeds and triumphs have matched his.
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But this one thing you must know: in all the contests that the judges announced, he carried away the prize, and men deemed him happy as often as the herald proclaimed him an Argive, by name Orestes, son of
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Agamemnon, who once marshalled Greece’s famous
expedition.So far Orestes fared as I described. But
when a god sends harm, not even the strong man can escape. For on another day,
when with the rising sun there was held the race of the swift-footed
horses,
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he entered it along with many charioteers. One was an Achaean, one from Sparta; two masters of yoked cars were Libyans; Orestes, driving Thessalian mares, came fifth among them; the sixth was from Aetolia,
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with chestnut colts; a Magnesian was the seventh; the eighth, with white horses, was of Aenian stock; the ninth hailed from Athens, built of gods; there was a Boeotian too, making the tenth chariot. They took their stations where the appointed umpires
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