Stasimon 6
[Episode]
With a loud cry from the house we battered down with bars the doors and doorposts where we had been,
Phrygian
and ran to her assistance from every direction, one with stones, another with javelins, a third with a drawn sword; but Pylades came to meet us, undaunted, like
1475
Hector of Troy or Ajax triple-plumed, as I saw him, saw him, in Priam’s gateway; and we met at sword’s point. But then it was very clear how the Phrygians were,
1480
how much less we were in battle strength to the Hellene might. There was one man gone in flight, another slain, another wounded, yet another pleading to stave off death; but we escaped under cover of the darkness; while some were falling, some were about to fall, and others were lying dead.
1485
And just as her unhappy mother sank to the ground to die, the luckless Hermione came in. Those two, like Bacchantes when they drop the thyrsus for a mountain cub, rushed and seized her; then turned again to the daughter of Zeus to slay her; but she had vanished from the room,
1490
passing right through the house, O Zeus and Earth and light and night! whether by magic spells or wizards’ arts or heavenly theft.
1495
What happened afterwards I do not know; for I stole out of the palace, a runaway.
So Menelaus endured his painful, painful suffering to recover his wife Helen from Troy to no purpose.
1500
Chorus Leader
And look, here is a strange sight succeeding others; for I see Orestes sword in hand before the palace,
advancing with excited steps.
1505
Orestes
Where is the one who fled from the palace to escape my sword?
Phrygian
Before you I prostrate myself, lord, and supplicate you in my foreign way.
Orestes
We are not in Ilium, but the land of Argos.
Phrygian
Everywhere, the wise find life sweeter than death.
Orestes
I suppose that shouting of yours was not for Menelaus to come to the rescue?
1510
Phrygian
Oh no! it was to help you I called out, for you are more deserving.
Orestes
Did the daughter of Tyndareus die justly, then?
Phrygian
Most justly, even if she had three throats to die with.
Orestes
Your cowardice makes you glib; this is not what you really think.
Phrygian
Why, surely she deserved it, the one who destroyed Hellas and the Phrygians too?
1515
Orestes
Swear you are not saying this to humor me, or I will kill you.
Phrygian
I swear by my life, an oath I would keep!
Orestes
Did every Phrygian in Troy show the same terror of steel as you do?
Phrygian
Take your sword away! Held so near it flashes a dreadful gleam of blood.
Orestes
Are you afraid of being turned to a stone, as if you had seen a Gorgon?
1520
Phrygian
To a stone, no! but to a corpse; I don’t know this Gorgon’s head.
Orestes
A slave, and yet you fear death, which will release you from trouble?
Phrygian
Slave or free, every one is glad to gaze upon the light.
Orestes
Well said! Your shrewdness saves you; go inside.
Phrygian
You will not kill me after all?
1525
