The Electra of Euripides | Page 9

Not his serfs alone?
OLD MAN.
No Argive lord was there; none but his own?Household.
ORESTES.
Not any that aught know my face,?Or guess?
OLD MAN.
Thralls, thralls; who ne'er have seen thy face.
ORESTES.
Once I prevail, the thralls will welcome me!
OLD MAN.
The slaves' way, that; and no ill thing for thee!
ORESTES.
How can I once come near him?
OLD MAN.
Walk thy ways?Hard by, where he may see thee, ere he slays?His sacrifice.
ORESTES.
How? Is the road so nigh?
OLD MAN.
He cannot choose but see thee, passing by,?And bid thee stay to share the beast they kill.
ORESTES.
A bitter fellow-feaster, if God will!
OLD MAN.
And then ... then swift be heart and brain, to see?God's chances!
ORESTES.
Aye. Well hast thou counselled me.?But ... where is she?
OLD MAN.
In Argos now, I guess;?But goes to join her husband, ere the press?Of the feast.
ORESTES.
Why goeth not my mother straight?Forth at her husband's side?
OLD MAN.
She fain will wait?Until the gathered country-folk be gone.
ORESTES.
Enough! She knows what eyes are turned upon?Her passings in the land!
OLD MAN.
Aye, all men hate?The unholy woman.
ORESTES.
How then can I set?My snare for wife and husband in one breath?
ELECTRA (_coming forward_).
Hold! It is I must work our mother's death.
ORESTES.
If that be done, I think the other deed?Fortune will guide.
ELECTRA.
This man must help our need,?One friend alone for both.
OLD MAN.
He will, he will!?Speak on. What cunning hast thou found to fill?Thy purpose?
ELECTRA.
Get thee forth, Old Man, and quick?Tell Clytemnestra ... tell her I lie sick,?New-mothered of a man-child.
OLD MAN.
Thou hast borne?A son! But when?
ELECTRA.
Let this be the tenth morn.?Till then a mother stays in sanctity,?Unseen.
OLD MAN.
And if I tell her, where shall be?The death in this?
ELECTRA.
That word let her but hear,?Straight she will seek me out!
OLD MAN.
The queen! What care?Hath she for thee, or pain of thine?
ELECTRA.
She will;?And weep my babe's low station!
OLD MAN.
Thou hast skill?To know her, child; say on.
ELECTRA.
But bring her here,?Here to my hand; the rest will come.
OLD MAN.
I swear,?Here at the gate she shall stand palpable!
ELECTRA.
The gate: the gate that leads to me and Hell.
OLD MAN.
Let me but see it, and I die content.
ELECTRA.
First, then, my brother: see his steps be bent...
OLD MAN.
Straight yonder, where Aegisthus makes his prayer!
ELECTRA.
Then seek my mother's presence, and declare?My news.
OLD MAN.
Thy very words, child, as tho' spoke?From thine own lips!
ELECTRA.
Brother, thine hour is struck.?Thou standest in the van of war this day.
ORESTES (_rousing himself_).
Aye, I am ready.... I will go my way,?If but some man will guide me.
OLD MAN.
Here am I,?To speed thee to the end, right thankfully.
ORESTES (_turning as he goes and raising his hands to heaven_).
Zeus of my sires, Zeus of the lost battle,
ELECTRA.
Have pity; have pity; we have earned it well!
OLD MAN.
Pity these twain, of thine own body sprung!
ELECTRA.
O Queen o'er Argive altars, Hera high,
ORESTES.
Grant us thy strength, if for the right we cry.
OLD MAN.
Strength to these twain, to right their father's wrong!
ELECTRA.
O Earth, deep Earth, to whom I yearn in vain,
ORESTES.
And deeper thou, O father darkly slain,
OLD MAN.
Thy children call, who love thee: hearken thou!
ORESTES.
Girt with thine own dead armies, wake, O wake!
ELECTRA.
With all that died at Ilion for thy sake ...
OLD MAN.
And hate earth's dark defilers; help us now!
ELECTRA.
Dost hear us yet, O thou in deadly wrong,?Wronged by my mother?
OLD MAN.
Child, we stay too long.?He hears; be sure he hears!
ELECTRA.
And while he hears,?I speak this word for omen in his ears:?"Aegisthus dies, Aegisthus dies."... Ah me,?My brother, should it strike not him, but thee,?This wrestling with dark death, behold, I too?Am dead that hour. Think of me as one true,?Not one that lives. I have a sword made keen?For this, and shall strike deep.
I will go in?And make all ready. If there come from thee?Good tidings, all my house for ecstasy?Shall cry; and if we hear that thou art dead,?Then comes the other end!--Lo, I have said.
ORESTES.
I know all, all.
ELECTRA.
Then be a man to-day!
[ORESTES _and the_ OLD MAN _depart_.
O Women, let your voices from this fray?Flash me a fiery signal, where I sit,?The sword across my knees, expecting it.?For never, though they kill me, shall they touch?My living limbs!--I know my way thus much.
[_She goes into the house_.

CHORUS.
When white-haired folk are met [_Strophe_. In Argos about the fold,?A story lingereth yet,?A voice of the mountains old,?That tells of the Lamb of Gold:?A lamb from a mother mild,?But the gold of it curled and beat;?And Pan, who holdeth the keys of the wild,?Bore it to Atreus' feet:?His wild reed pipes he blew,?And the reeds were filled with peace,?And a joy of singing before him flew,?Over the fiery fleece:?And up on the bas��d rock,?As a herald cries, cried he:?"Gather ye, gather, O Argive folk,?The King's Sign to see,?The sign of the blest of God,?For he that hath this, hath all!"?Therefore the dance of praise they trod?In the Atre?d brethren's hall.
They opened before men's eyes [_Antistrophe_. That which was hid before,?The chambers of sacrifice,?The dark of the golden door,?And fires on the altar floor.?And