Parodos
[Choral 3]
so long as life is in me. Who indeed, my noble friends, who that keeps what is appropriate in mind, would think any word of comfort right for my ears? Let me be, let me be, my comforters!
225
Electra
For these ills will be reckoned with those which have no cure; I will never know a respite from my pains, or the sum of this wailing.
230
[Choral]
It is nevertheless with goodwill, like a true-hearted mother,
Chorus
that I dissuade you from begetting misery upon miseries.
235
Electra
But what limit has nature begot for my affliction? Tell me, how can it be right to
neglect the dead? Has such a seed been sown in any mortal? May I never have
such men’s esteem;
never, when I am close to prosperity, may I dwell in ease, hindering the wings of shrill lamentation so as to deprive my begetter of his honors!For if the dead is to lie a wretch, merely dust and nothingness,
240
while his slayers do not pay back to him blood for blood in penalty,
245
then shame and reverence will vanish from all humanity.
250
