Stasimon 4
[Episode]
’Twas sage counsel he gave who taught men to hear the arguments on both sides. I, for instance, though aware of the confusion in this house,
Orestes
the quarrel between thee and Hector’s wife, waited awhile and watched to see whether thou wouldst stay here or from fear of that captive art minded to quit these halls. Now it was not so much regard for thy message that brought me hither,
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as the intention of carrying thee away from this house, if, as now, thou shouldst grant me a chance of saying so. For thou wert mine formerly, but art now living with thy present husband through thy father’s baseness; since he, before invading Troy’s domains, betrothed thee to me, and thenReading ἐμοὶ δοὺς, εἴθ. afterwards promised thee
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to thy present lord, provided he captured the city of Troy.
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So, as soon as Achilles’ son returned hither, I forgave thy father, but entreated the bridegroom to forego his marriage with thee, telling him all I had gone through and my present misfortune; I might get
a wife, I said, from amongst friends, but outside their circle ’twas no easy task for one exiled like myself from home. Thereat he grew abusive, taunting me with my mother’s murder and those blood-boltered fiends.i.e. the avenging fiends that pursued Orestes after his mother’s murder. And I was humbled by the fortunes of my house,
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and though ’tis true, I grieved, yet did I endure my sorrow, and reluctantly departed, robbed of thy promised hand. Now therefore, since thou findest thy fortune so abruptly changed and art fallen thus on evil days and hast no help, I will take thee hence and place thee in thy father’s hands.
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For kinshipHermann reading τοι for γὰρ assigns these two lines with great plausibility to the Chorus; Nauck prints them so. hath strong claims, and in adversity there is naught better than a kinsman’s kindly aid.
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Hermione
As for my marriage, my father must look to it; ’tis not for me to decide that. Yes, take me hence as soon as may be,
lest my husband come back to his house before I am gone, or Peleus hear that I am deserting his son’s abode and pursue me on horse-back.
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Orestes
Rest easy about the old man’s power; and, as for Achilles’ son with all his insolence to me, never fear him;
such a crafty net this hand hath woven and set for his death with knots that none can loose; whereof I will not speak before the time, but, when my plot begins to work, Delphi’s rock will witness it. If but my allies
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in the Pythian land abide by their oaths, this same murderer of his mother will show that no one else shall marry thee my rightful bride.Reading, as Paley suggests, γαμεῖν σε μηδέν᾽, ἣν ἐχρῆν ἐμέ. To his cost will he demand satisfaction of King Phoebus for his father’s blood; nor shall his repentance avail him, though he is now submitting to the god.
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No! he shall perish miserably by Apollo’s hand and my fake accusations; so shall he end out my enmity. For the deity upsets the fortune of them that hate him. and suffers them not to be high-minded. Exeunt Orestes and Hermione.
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[Choral 1]
O Phoebus! who didst fence the hill of Ilium with a fair coronal of towers,
Chorus
and thou, ocean-god! coursing o’er the main with thy dark steeds, wherefore did ye hand over in dishonour
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your own handiwork to the war-god, master of the spear, abandoning Troy to wretchedness?
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Many a well-horsed car ye yoked on the banks of Simois,
and many a bloody tournament did ye ordain with never a prize to win; and Ilium’s princes are dead and gone; no longer in Troy
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is seen the blaze of fire on altars of the gods with the smoke of incense.
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[Choral 2]
The son of Atreus is no more, slain by the hand of his wife, and she herself hath paid the debt of blood by death,
Chorus
and from her children’s hands received her doom. The god’s own bidding from his oracle was levelled against her, in the day that Agamemnon’s son set forth from Argos and visited his shrine;
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so he slewReading Hermann’s emendation κτάνεν for MSS κτεάνων. her, aye, spilt his own mother’s blood. O Phoebus, O thou power divine, how can I believe the story?
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Anon wherever Hellenes gather, was heard the voice of lamentation, mothers weeping o’er their children’s fate,
as they left their homes to mate with strangers. Ah! thou art not the only one, nor thy dear ones either, on whom the cloud of grief hath fallen. Hellas had to bear the visitation, and thence the scourge crossed to Phrygia’s
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fruitful fields, raining the bloody drops the; death-god loves.Reading Hermann’s τὸν Ἅιδα φόνον.
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