Epeisodion 4
Orestes
Ladies, have we been directed aright, and are we on the right path to our goal?
Chorus
What do you seek? What desire brings you here?
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Orestes
I have long been searching for the home of Aegisthus.
Chorus
Well, you have found it, and your guide is blameless.
Orestes
Which of you, then, would tell those inside of the long-desired presence of us travelers?
Chorus
She will, if the nearest in kin should announce it.
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Orestes
Go, lady, enter and make it known that certain men of Phocis seek Aegisthus.
Electra
Ah, miserable me! Surely you do not bring proof positive of that rumor which we heard?
Orestes
I know nothing of your rumor; but the aged Strophius ordered me to give report of Orestes.
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Electra
What is it, sir? Ah, how fear creeps over me!
Orestes
We come bearing his scanty remains in a small urn, as you see.
Electra
Oh, the misery! Here, at last, my eyes look for certain, it seems, upon that grievous burden in your hand.
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Orestes
If your tears are for any of Orestes’ tribulations, know that this vessel is
his body’s home.
Electra
Ah, sir, if this urn indeed contains him, then allow me,
by the gods, to take it in my hands, so that I may weep and wail, not for these ashes alone, but for myself and for all our house with them!
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Orestes
Take it and give it to her, whoever she may be. For she asks this for herself not as if with hostile intent,
but like one who is his friend, or a kinswoman by blood. The urn is placed in
Electra’s hands.
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Electra
Memorial of him whom I loved best on earth, sole remnant of Orestes’
vitality! How contrary to the hopes with which I sent you away do I receive you
back! Now I raise your nothingness in my hands;
but then, my child, you were radiant, when I sent you away from home! Would that I had first abandoned life, before, stealing you away with these hands, I sent you to a strange land and rescued you from death, in order that you might have lain dead on that same day
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and had your share in the tomb of our father!But now, an exile from home and fatherland, you have perished miserably, far from your sister. Ah, me, these loving hands have not washed or decked your corpse, nor taken up
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their sad burden from the all-consuming pyre, as was proper. No! At the hands of strangers, poor Orestes, you have been tended, and so have come to us, a small bulk in a small urn.Ah, I grieve at the uselessness of my nursing long ago, the service that I often bestowed
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on you in sweet labor! For you were never your mother’s darling so much as mine, nor was
any in the house your nurse but I, and by you I was ever called sister. But now all this has vanished in a day
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with your death. Like a whirlwind you have swept everything away with you. Our father is gone; I am dead because of you; you yourself are dead and gone; our enemies laugh at us; and our mother, who is no mother, raves with joy. Unknown to her, you often
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sent me messages about her, saying that you yourself would appear for vengeance. But our evil fortune, yours and mine, has torn all that away, and has sent you back to me in this state, ash and a useless shade in place of your beloved form.
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ah, me, ah, me! O pitiable body! Alas, dear one sent on a most dire journey, how you have destroyed me, destroyed me indeed, my brother!
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Therefore accept me into this abode of yours—me, a nothing, into your nothingness,—so that I may dwell with you hereafter below. For when you were on earth, we shared equally, and now I wish to die and not to be left out of your grave,
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since I see that the dead are relieved of pain.
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Chorus
Remember, Electra, you are the child of a mortal father, and Orestes was mortal. Therefore do not grieve too much. Death is a debt which all of us must pay.
Orestes
Ah, what shall I say? I am at a loss. To what words
can I turn? I no longer have the strength to master my tongue!
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