tAlOf 
 
 sh Sch- 
 
 1 Mi a 1t 
 
 Vii CtUC 

 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Wallace High School. 
 
 Dir Shelf. 
 
 No..
 
 Pocket Literal 
 Translations of the Classics* 
 
 CLOTH BINDING. EACH, 50 CENTS. 
 
 These translations have been prepared with great care. They 
 follow the original text literally, thus forming a valuable help 
 to the student in his efforts to master the difficulties which beset 
 him. Pleasing sketches of the authors appear in the form of an 
 introduction to each of the volumes. 
 
 The books are in a convenient form, being exceptionally 
 handy for the pocket. They are printed from clear type, and 
 are attractively and durably bound. 
 
 Caesar's Commentaries. Six 
 Books. 
 
 Cicero's Defence of Roscius. 
 Cicero on Old Age and Friend- 
 ship. 
 
 Cicero on Oratory. 
 Cicero's Select Orations. 
 Cicero's Select Letters. 
 Cornelius Nepos, complete. 
 Horace, complete. 
 Juvenal's Satires, complete. 
 Livy. Books I and 2. 
 Livy. Books 21 and 22. 
 
 Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 Books 1-7. 
 
 Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 Books 8-15. 
 
 Plautus* Captivi and Mostel- 
 
 laria, 
 Sallust's Catiline and The 
 
 Jugurthine War. 
 Tacitus' Annals. The First 
 
 Six Books. 
 Tacitus' Germany and Agric- 
 
 ola. 
 
 Virgil's Aeneid. Six Books. 
 Virgil's Eclogues and Geor- 
 
 gics. 
 Viri Romae. 
 
 Aeschylus'Prometheus Bound 
 
 and Seven Against Thebes. 
 Aristophanes' Clouds, Birds, 
 
 and Frogs. In one Vol. 
 Demosthenes' On the Crown. 
 Demosthenes' Olynthiacs and 
 
 Philippics. 
 
 Euripides' Alcestis andElectra. 
 Euripides' Medea. 
 Herodotus. Books 6 and 7. 
 Homer's Iliad, Nine Books. 
 Homer's Odyssey. Thirteen 
 
 Books. 
 
 alias' Select Orations, 
 to's Apology, Crito and 
 Phaedo. 
 
 Plato's Gorgias. 
 
 Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, 
 Electra, and Antigone. 
 
 Xenophon's Anabasis. rive 
 Books. 
 
 Xenophon's Memorabilia, 
 complete. 
 
 Goethe's Egmont. 
 
 Goethe's Faust. 
 
 Goethe's Hermann and Doro- 
 thea. 
 
 Less ing's Minna von Barn- 
 helm. 
 
 Lessing's Nathan the Wise. 
 
 Schiller's Maid of Orleans. 
 
 Schiller's Maria Stuart. 
 
 Schiller's William Tell. 
 
 Others will be added at short intervals. 
 DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa.
 
 EURIPIDES' 
 ALCESTIS AND ELECTRA 
 
 LITERALLY TRANSLATED WITH CRITICAL AND 
 EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 
 THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, B.A. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 EDWARD BROOKS, JR. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER 
 
 1022 MARKET STREET
 
 Copyright, 1900, by DAVID McKAY.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Euripides, the author of Alcestis and Electra, 
 translations of which will be found in the follow- 
 ing pages, was one of the three greatest writers of 
 Greek tragedy. Though by many considered to be 
 inferior to ^Eschylus and Sophocles he neverthe- 
 less was a writer of great prominence and the 
 winner of several tragic prize contests. 
 
 Not a great deal is known of his parentage and 
 early life. He was born in the year 480 B. c.,on 
 the very day that the battle of Salamis took place. 
 His father was Mnesarchus, a man of some promi- 
 nence and considerable wealth, while his mother 
 was named Clito and was one of the Athenian 
 women who had been sent away to Salamis when 
 the Athenians abandoned Attica and took refuge 
 in their ships. 
 
 Among his early instructors were Anaxagoras, 
 Prodicus and Protagoras, and they probably took 
 great pride in their pupil, for he was a hard stu- 
 dent and a brilliant scholar. Euripides is a splen- 
 did example to be pointed to by those who advo- 
 cate the promotion of athletics at institutions for 
 1* 5 
 
 2056197
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the education of young men, for he was an excel- 
 lent athlete and twice won the prize in the gym- 
 nastic contests of his day. At the early age of 
 twenty-five he succeeded in winning third prize in 
 one of the great tragic competitions. 
 
 He had a strong political enemy in Aristophanes, 
 and, partly on this account and partly because of 
 domestic unhappiness, he is said to have left Athens 
 and taken up his abode with King Archelaus in 
 Macedonia. 
 
 A tragic story of his death is to the effect that 
 he was torn to pieces by dogs, but it is probable 
 that this is only a story and that he ended his days 
 in a natural way. 
 
 By many Euripides is thought not to be a true 
 tragedian, inasmuch as his compositions contain 
 much that suggests rather the melodrama. It is 
 urged that his plays might have a happy ending 
 equally as well as a tragic one, and that the element 
 of tragedy is usually introduced by some unex- 
 pected catastrophe which seems to be out of place. 
 However this may be, the Alcestis at any rate, can 
 hardly be called a true tragedy, inasmuch as it has 
 a happy ending. 
 
 The story of this play is an interesting one and 
 portrays wifely love and devotion in its most at- 
 tractive form a rather singular circumstance, 
 when it is remembered that both of the author's 
 wives had been far from models in this respect. 
 
 Admetus, who has about reached the end of his
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 life, is greatly beloved by Apollo. The latter per- 
 suades the Fates to accept a substitute for Adme- 
 tus. The Fates agree but the substitute is not easy 
 to find. Finally Alcestis offers to die in place of 
 her husband, both of whose parents have been un- 
 willing to make this sacrifice for their son. The 
 play opens with Death appearing to carry off Al- 
 cestis as his prize and the chorus give themselves 
 up to great lamentations and shed many tears. 
 Exactly why Admetus consents to this sacrifice 
 does not appear. It may be that he can't help 
 himself. At any rate Alcestis dies after receiving 
 from her husband the promise that he will not 
 marry again. Not long after her death Hercules 
 arrives upon the scene and learns of what has 
 taken place. He then determines to rescue Alces- 
 tis from the arms of Death, and having done so 
 brings her to her husband covered with a mantle. 
 He represents her to be a prize he has won in a 
 wrestling match, and begs of Admetus that he 
 will keep her in his palace until he shall have re- 
 turned from an adventure he is about to under- 
 take. Admetus refuses, because she reminds him 
 of his wife and thus makes his grief the more diffi- 
 cult to bear. Finally he discovers that she is Al- 
 cestis and Admetus is overjoyed at his good for- 
 tune, and thus this ' ' Tragedy " has a happy termi- 
 nation. 
 
 In the "Electra " Euripides has chosen the same 
 theme as Sophocles in his tragedy of the same
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 name, namely, the return of Orestes from exile and 
 his revenge upon the guilty pair, Clytemnestra and 
 ^Egisthus. The development is somewhat different, 
 however, and by some thought to be less interest- 
 ing and somewhat inartistic.
 
 ALCESTIS. 
 
 PERSONS REPRESENTED. 
 
 APOLLO. ADMETUS. 
 
 DEATH. EUMELUS. 
 
 CHORUS OP PHERCEANS. HERCULES. 
 
 ATTENDANTS. PHERES. 
 ALCESTIS. 
 
 THE AEGUMEKT. 
 
 APOLLO desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, 
 might give a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for 
 a term equal to his former life ; and Alcestis, his wife, gave her- 
 self up, while neither of his parents were willing to die instead of 
 their son. But not long after the time when this calamity hap- 
 pened, Hercules having arrived, and having learned from a serv- 
 ant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her tomb, and having 
 made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe ; and requested 
 Admetus to receive her and keep her for him ; and said he had 
 borne her off as a prize in wrestling ; but when he would not, he 
 unveiled her, and discovered her whom he was lamenting. 
 
 APOLLO. 
 
 MANSIONS of Admetus, wherein I endured to ac- 
 quiesce in the slave's table, 1 though a God ; for Jove 
 was the cause, by slaying my son ^sculapius, hurling 
 the lightning against his breast : whereat enraged, I 
 slay the Cyclops, forgers of Jove's fire ; and me my 
 father compelled to serve for hire with a mortal, as a 
 punishment for these things. But having come to this 
 
 1 Lactant. i. 10 "Quid Apollo? Nonne .... turpissime gregem 
 pavit alienum ? " B. 
 
 9
 
 io ALCESTIS. [837. 
 
 land, I tended the herds of him who received me, and 
 have preserved this house until this day : for being 
 pious I met with a pious man, 2 the son of Pheres, whom 
 I delivered from dying by deluding the Fates : but 
 those Goddesses granted me that Admetus should es- 
 cape the impending death, could he furnish in his 
 place another dead for the powers below. But having 
 tried and gone through all his friends, his father and 
 h'is aged mother who bore him, he found not, save his 
 wife, one who was willing to die for him, and view no 
 more the light : who now within the house is borne in 
 their hands, breathing her last ; for on this day is it 
 destined for her to die, and to depart from life. But I, 
 lest the pollution 3 come upon me in the house, leave 
 this palace's most dear abode. But already I behold 
 Deatii near, pi-iest of the dead, who is about to bear her 
 down to the mansions of Pluto ; but he comes at the 
 right time, observing this day, in the which it was des- 
 tined for her to die. 
 
 DEATH,* APOLLO. 
 
 DEA. Ah ! Ah ! Ah ! Ah ! What dost thouat the pal- 
 ace? why tarriest here, Phoebus? Art thou again at 
 thy deeds of injustice, taking away and putting an end 
 to the honors of the powers beneath ? Did it not suffice 
 thee to stay the death of Admetus, when thou didst 
 delude the Fates by fraudful artifice? 6 But now too 
 dost thou keep guard for her, having armed thine 
 hand with thy bow, who then promised, in order to 
 redeem her husband, herself, the daughter of Pelias, 
 to die for him ? 
 
 AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest argu- 
 ments. 
 
 2 Hygin. Fab. li. " Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter accep- 
 tus." B. 
 
 3 Cf. Hippol. 1437. B. 
 
 4 No one will, I believe, object to this translation of ANATO2 ; 
 it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin 
 ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to ANATO2 of 
 the masculine gender. 
 
 B Cf. .Esch. Eum. T23 sqq. B.
 
 3 8 6i.] ALCESTIS. II 
 
 DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave 
 to justice ? 
 
 AP. It is my habit ever to bear it. 
 
 DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this 
 house. 
 
 AP. Ay, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a 
 man that is dear to me. 
 
 DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead ? 
 
 AP. But neither took I him from thee by force. 
 
 DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath 
 the ground ? 
 
 AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after 
 whom thou art now come. 
 
 DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath. 
 
 AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can 
 persuade thee. 
 
 DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this 
 was I commanded. 
 
 AP. Xo : but to cast death upon those about to die. 
 
 DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou 
 aim'st at. 
 
 AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old 
 age? 
 
 DEA. It is not : consider that I too am delighted with 
 my due honors. 
 
 AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one 
 life. 
 
 DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory. 
 
 AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously en- 
 tombed. 6 
 
 DEA. Thou layest down the law, Phoebus, in favor of 
 the rich. 
 
 AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever 
 without my perceiving it ? 
 
 DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die 
 old. 
 
 AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me 
 this favor ? 
 
 DEA. No in truth ; and thou knowest my ways. 
 
 a It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, 
 with greater magnificence than young persons.
 
 12 ALCESTIS. [6290. 
 
 AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the 
 Gods. 
 
 DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou 
 oughtest not. 
 
 AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art 
 over-fierce ; such a man will come to the house of Pheres, 
 whom Eurystheus hath sent after the chariot and its 
 horses, 7 to bring them from the wintry regions of 
 Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions 
 of Adrnetus, shall take away by force this woman from 
 thee ; and there will be no obligation to thee at my 
 hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by 
 me. 
 
 DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain noth- 
 ing. This woman then shall descend to the house of 
 Pluto ; and I am advancing upon her, that I may be- 
 gin the rites on her with my sword ; for sacred is he 
 to the Gods beneath the earth, the hair of whose head 
 this sword hath consecrated. 8 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness 
 before the palace ? why is the house of Admetus hushed 
 in silence ? 
 
 SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends 
 near, who can tell us whether we have to deplore the de- 
 parted queen, or whether Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, 
 yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and 
 to all to have been the best wife toward her husband. 
 
 CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beat- 
 ing of hands within the house, or a lamentation, as 
 though the thing had taken place? 9 There is not how- 
 ever any one of the servants standing before the gates. 
 Oh would that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst 
 the waves of this calamity ! 
 
 7 The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The ^construction is, 
 
 EupvcrOtcos TTfuifravTOS [avrov] fieTa iTrjreiov o\ifft.a. [a^ovTa] ex romav 
 Stxrxei/iiepiov prJitT)?. MONK. 
 
 8 On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus, 
 xxviii. B. 
 
 9 Perhaps , " as though all were over." B.
 
 91136.] ALCESTIS. 13 
 
 SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she 
 dead. 
 
 SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the 
 house. 
 
 SEMICH. Whence this conjecture ? I do not presume 
 this. What is it gives you confidence ? 
 
 SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private 
 funeral of his so excellent wife ? 
 
 CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of 
 water from the fountain, 10 as is the custom at the gates 
 of the dead : and in the vestibule is no shorn hair, which 
 is wont to fall in grief for the dead ; the youthful u 
 hand of women for the youthful wife sound not. 
 
 SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day, 
 
 SEMICH. What is this thou sayest ? 
 
 SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth. 
 
 SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched 
 my heart. 
 
 SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, 
 who from the beginning has been accounted good. 
 
 CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one 
 having sent naval equipment, or to Lycia, or to the 
 thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can redeem the un- 
 happy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I 
 know not to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths 
 of the Gods I can go. But only if the son of Phoebus 
 were viewing with his eyes this light, could she come, 
 having left the darksome habitations and the gates of 
 Pluto ; for he raised up the dead, before that the stroke 
 of the lightning's fire hurled by Jove destroyed him. 
 But now what hope of life can I any longer entertain ? 
 For all things have already been done by the king, and 
 at the altars of all the Gods abound the victims drop- 
 ping with blood, and no cure is there of these evils. 
 
 10 Casaubon on Theophr. 16, observes that it was customary to 
 place a large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a 
 house during the time the corpse was lying out, with which every 
 one who came out sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirch- 
 mann de Funeribus, iii. 9. The same custom was observed on re- 
 turning from the funeral. See Pollux, viii. 7. p. 391. ed. Seber. B. 
 
 11 See Dindorf. B.
 
 14 ALCESTIS. [137156. 
 
 CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT. 
 
 CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants 
 from the house, in tears ; what shall I hear has hap- 
 pened ? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to our 
 lords, is pardonable : but whether the lady be still alive, 
 or whether she be dead, we would wish to know. 
 
 ATT. You may call her both alive and dead. 
 
 CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive 
 and dead ? 
 
 ATT. Already she is on the verge of death, 12 and 
 breathing her life away. 
 
 CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what 
 a wife art thou bereft ! 
 
 ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer. 
 
 CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her 
 life? 
 
 ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon 
 her. 
 
 CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for 
 these events ? 
 
 ATT. Yes, the adornments 13 are ready, wherewith 
 her husband will bury her. 
 
 CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, 
 and by far the best of women under the sun. 
 
 ATT. And how not the best ? who will contest it ? 
 What must the woman be, who has surpassed her? 
 and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her 
 husband, than by being willing to die for him ? And 
 
 12 Potterus, Arch. Gr. mortuos a Grsecis -n-poviuirels vocari tradit, 
 quod solebant ex penitiore sediuni parte produci, ac in vestibulo, 
 i. e. irpoviairua collocari : atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut 
 opinor. Non enim mortua jam erat, nee producta, sed, ut recte 
 hanc vocem inlerpretatur sehol. ei? 6a.va.Tov npovevevicvla., i. e. morti 
 propinqua. Proprie irpovtow^s is dicitur, qui corpore prono ad ter- 
 ram fertur ut, ^Eschyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium 
 defectu terrain petere solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. 
 KUINOEL. 
 
 13 The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal transla- 
 tion of KOO-JU.OS, which, ho\yever, here means the whole preparations 
 for the funeral. Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1. 
 
 .... her virgin rites, 
 
 Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home 
 Of bell and burial. B.
 
 157 i 96-] ALCESTIS. 15 
 
 these things indeed the whole city knoweth. But what 
 she did in the house you will marvel when you hear. 
 For, when she perceived that the destined day was 
 corne, she washed her fair skin with water from the 
 river ; and having taken from her closets of cedar ves- 
 ture and ornaments, she attired herself becomingly ; 
 and standing before the altar she prayed : " O mistress, 
 since I go beneath the earth, adoring thee for the last 
 time, I will beseech thee to protect my orphan children, 
 and to the one join a loving wife, and to the other a 
 noble husband : nor, as their mother perishes, let my 
 children untimely die, but happy in their paternal 
 
 country let them complete a joyous life." But all 
 
 the altars, which are in the house of Admetus, she went 
 to, and crowned, and prayed, tearing the leaves from 
 off the myrtle boughs, tearless, without a groan, nor 
 did the approaching evil change the natural beauty of 
 her skin. And then rushing to her chamber, and her 
 bed, there indeed she wept and spoke thus : " O bridal 
 bed, whereon I loosed my virgin zone with this man, 
 for whom I die, farewell ! for I hate thee not ; but me 
 alone hast thou lost ; for dreading to betray thee, and 
 my husband, I die ; but thee some other woman will 
 possess, more chaste there cannot, but perchance more 
 
 fortunate." 14 And falling on it she kissed it; but 
 
 all the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from 
 her eyes. But when she had satiety of much weeping, 
 she goes hastily forward, 15 rushing from the bed. And 
 ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, 
 and threw herself upon the bed again. And her chil- 
 dren, hanging to the garments of their mother, wpt ; 
 but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them, 
 first one and then the other, as about to die. But all 
 the domestics wept throughout the house, bewailing 
 their mistress, but she stretched out her right hand to 
 each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed 
 
 14 Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. <re 
 
 ' dAAos rts \a.ft<av KfKTr;<reTai, (cA7TTT)s fitv ov< av naAAop, evrvxrjs &' 
 low. B. 
 
 15 Some would translate TTPOI/IOTTTJS in the same manner as in verse 
 144.
 
 1 6 ALCESTIS. [197234. 
 
 not, and was answered in return. Such are the woes 
 in the house of Admetus. And had he died indeed, he 
 would have perished ; but now that he has escaped 
 death, he has grief to that degree which he will never 
 forget. 
 
 CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he 
 must be deprived of so excellent a wife. 
 
 ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, 
 and prays her not to leave him, asking impossibilities ; 
 for she wastes away, and is consumed by sickness, but 
 fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet still though 
 but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the 
 rays of the sun; as though never again, but now for 
 the last time she is to view the sun's beam and his orb. 
 But I will go and announce your presence, for it is by 
 no means all that are well-wishers to their lords, so as 
 to come kindly to them in their misfortunes ; but you 
 of old are friendly to my master. 
 
 SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in 
 any way be, and what method to rid us of the fortune 
 which attends my master ? 
 
 SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, 
 and clothe me even now in black array of garments ? 
 
 SEMICH. Tis plain, my friends, too plain ; but still 
 let us pray to the Gods, for the power of the Gods is 
 mightiest. 
 
 SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some 
 remedy for the evils of Admetus, procure it, O ! procure 
 it. For before this also thou didst find remedy, and 
 now become our deliverer from death, and stop the 
 murderous Pluto. 
 
 SEMICH. Alas ! alas ! woe ! woe ! O son of Pheres, 
 how didst thou fare when thou wert deprived of thy 
 wife? 
 
 SEMICH. Alas ! alas ! these things would even justify 
 self-slaughter, and there is more, than whereat one 
 might thrust one's neck in the suspending noose. 16 
 
 SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt 
 thou see dead this day. 
 
 10 Conf . Ten. : Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad restim mihi quidem 
 res rediit planissume.
 
 235263.] ALCESTIS. 17 
 
 SEMICH. Behold, behold ; lo ! she doth come from the 
 house, and her husband with her. Cry out, O groan, 
 O land of Pheres. for the most excellent woman, wast- 
 ing with sickness, departing beneath the earth to the 
 infernal Pluto. Never will I aver that marriage brings 
 more joy than grief, forming my conjectures both from 
 former things, and beholding this fortune of the- king ; 
 who, when he has lost this most excellent wife, will 
 thenceforward pass a life not worthy to be called life. 17 
 
 ALCESTIS, ADMETTJS, EUMELUS, CHORUS. 
 
 ALC. Thou Sun, and. thou light of day, and ye heav- 
 enly eddies of the fleeting clouds 
 
 ADM. He beholds 18 thee and me, two unhappy crea- 
 tures, having done nothing to the Gods, for which thou 
 shouldst die. 
 
 ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou 
 bridal bed of my native lolcos. 
 
 ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not ; 
 but entreat the powerful Gods to pity. 
 
 ALC. I see I see the two-oared boat and the ferry- 
 man of the dead, holding his hand on the pole Charon 
 even now calls me '' Why dost thou delay ? haste, thou 
 stoppest us here " with such words vehement lie 
 hastens me. 
 
 ADM. Ah me ! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of ! 
 Oh ! unhappy one, how do we suffer ! 
 
 ALC. He pulls me. some one pulls me do you not 
 see? to the hall of the dead, the winged Pluto, staring 
 from beneath his black eyebrows What wilt thou do? 
 let me go what a journey am I most wretched go- 
 ing ! 
 
 ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially 
 to me and to thy children, who have this grief in com- 
 mon. 
 
 ALC. Leave off 19 supporting me. leave off now, lay 
 me down, I have no strength in my feet. Death is near, 
 
 17 Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that afHarov agrees with 
 
 fiiov implied in fiioreva-ft. 
 
 18 ipa scilicet ijAios. MONK 18 Cf. Hippol. 1372. B. 
 
 o*
 
 i8 ALCESTIS. [263306 
 
 and darkling night creeps upon mine eyes my children, 
 my children, no more your mother is no more. Fare- 
 well, my children, long may you view this light ! 
 
 ADM. Ah me ! I hear this sad word, and more than 
 any death to me. Do not by the Gods have the heart 
 to leave me : do not by those children, whom thou wilt 
 make orphans : but rise, be of good courage : for, thee 
 dead, I should no longer be : for on thee we depend 
 both to live, and not to live : for thy love we adore. 
 
 ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, 
 in what state they are, I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what 
 I would have done. I, honoring thee, and causing thee 
 at the price of my life to view this light, die, it being 
 in my power not to die, for thee : but though I might 
 have married a husband from among the Thessalians 
 whom I would, and have lived in a palace blessed with 
 regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of thee, with 
 my children orphans ; nor did I spare myself, though 
 possessing the gifts of bloomy youth, wherein I delighted. 
 And yet thy father and thy mother forsook thee, though 
 they bad well arrived at a point of life, in which they 
 might have died, and nobly delivered their son, and died 
 with glory : for thou wert their only one, and there was 
 no hope, when thou wert dead, that they could have other 
 children. 20 And I should have lived, and thou, the rest 
 of our time. And thou wouldst not be groaning de- 
 prived of thy wife, and wouldst not have to bring up 
 thy children orphans. But these things indeed, some 
 one of the Gods hath brought to pass, that they should 
 be thus. Be it so but do thou remember to give me a 
 return for this ; for never shall I ask thee for an equal one, 
 (for nothing is more precious than life,) but just, as 
 thou wilt say : for thou lovest not these children less 
 than I do, if thou art right-minded : them bring up 
 lords over my house, and bring not in second marriage 
 a stepmother over these children, who, being a worse 
 woman than me, through envy will stretch out her 
 
 * It must be remembered that to survive one's children was con- 
 sidered the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. 1. 1 " Ita 
 ut tuum vis unicum gnatum tuae Superesse vitse, sospitem et 
 superstitem." B.
 
 306342.] ALCESTIS. ig 
 
 hand against thine and my children. Do not this then, 
 I beseech thee ; for a stepmother that is in second 
 marriage is enemy to the children of the former mar- 
 riage, no milder than a viper. And my boy indeed has his 
 father, a great tower of defense ; but thou, Oh my child, 
 how wilt thou be brought up during thy virgin years ? 
 Having what consort of thy father's ? I fear, lest casting 
 some evil obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in 
 the bloom of youth. 21 For neither will tin* mother ever 
 preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee being 
 present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is 
 more kind than a mother. For I needs must die, and 
 this evil conies upon me not to-morrow, nor on the 
 third day of the month, but immediately shall I be 
 numbered among those that are no more. Farewell, 
 and may you be happy ; and thou indeed, my husband, 
 mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent wife, and 
 you my children, that you were born of a most excellent 
 mother. 
 
 CHOR. Be of good cheer ; for I fear not to answer 
 for him : he will do this, if he be not bereft of his 
 senses. 
 
 ADM. These things shall be so. they shall be, fear not : 
 since I, when alive also, possessed thee alone, and when 
 thou art dead, thou shalt be my only wife, and no Thes- 
 salian bride shall address me in the place of thee : there 
 is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire, nor 
 otherwise most exquisite in beauty. But my children 
 are enough ; of these I pray the Gods that I may have 
 the enjoyment ; for thee we do not enjoy. But I shall 
 not have this grief for thee for a year, but as long as my 
 life endures. O lady, abhorring her indeed that brought 
 me forth, and hating my father ; for they were in word, 
 not in deed, my friends. But thou, giving what was 
 dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have I 
 not then reason to groan deprived of such a wife ? But 
 I will put an end to the feasts, and the meetings of those 
 that drink together, and garland and song, which wont 
 
 11 Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to YO/U.OU? and Buchanan 
 has translated it according 1 to this punctuation. Monk compares 
 
 Iliad, p. 95 ; /U.TJITWS /ie TreoioTeAuKr' eva. iroAAoi.
 
 20 ALCESTIS. [343380. 
 
 to dwell in my house. For neither can I any more 
 touch the lyre, nor lift up my heart to sing to the Liby- 
 an flute ; for thou hast taken away my joy of life. But 
 by the cunning hand of artists imaged thy figure shall 
 be lain on my bridal bed, on which I will fall, and clasp- 
 ing my hands around, calling on thy name, shall fancy 
 that I hold my dear wife in mine arms, though holding 
 her not : 2 ' 2 a cold delight, I ween ; but still I may draw 
 off the weight, that sits upon my soul : and in my dreams 
 visiting me, thou mayst delight me, fora friend is sweet 
 even to behold at night, for whatever time he may come. 
 But if the tongue of Orpheus and his strain were mine, 
 so that invoking with hymns the daughter of Ceres or 
 her husband, I could receive thee from the shades be- 
 low, I would descend, and neither the dog of Pluto, nor 
 Charon at his oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, 
 should stay me before I brought thy life to the light. 
 But there expect me when I die and prepare a mansion 
 for me. as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin 
 these 23 to place me in the same cedar with thee, and 
 to lay my side near thy side : for not even when dead 
 may I be separated from thee, the only faithful one to 
 me ! 
 
 CHOK. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a 
 friend, will bear this painful grief for her, for she is 
 worthy. 
 
 ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying 
 that he will never marry another wife to be over you, 
 nor dishonor me. 
 
 ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it. 
 
 ALC. For this receive these children from my hand. 
 
 ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand. 
 
 ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my 
 stead. 
 
 ADM. There is much need that I should, when they 
 are deprived of thee. 
 
 ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I 
 depart beneath. 
 
 ADM. Ah me ; what shall I do of thee bereaved ! 
 
 22 Compare my note on j32sch. Ag. 414 sqq. B 
 
 23 These, my children.
 
 381420.] ALCESTIS. 21 
 
 ALC. Time will soften thy grief : he that is dead is 
 nothing. 
 
 ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me be- 
 neath. 
 
 ALC. Enough are we to go, who die for thee. 
 
 ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me ! 
 
 ALC. And lo ! my darkening eye is weighed down. 
 
 ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my 
 wife. 
 
 ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as noth- 
 ing. 
 
 ADM. Lift up thy face ; do not leave thy children. 
 
 ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but farewell, my chil- 
 dren. 
 
 ADM. Look on them, O ! look. 
 
 ALC. I am no more. 
 
 ADM. What dost thou ? dost thou leave us ? 
 
 ALC. Farewell! 
 
 ADM. I am an undone wretch ! 
 
 CHOR. She is gone, Adnietus' wife is no more. 
 
 EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone in- 
 deed below ; she is no longer, my father, under the sun ; 
 but unhappy leaving me has made my life an orphan's. 
 For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. 
 Hear, hear, O mother, I beseech thee ; I, I now call 
 thee, mother, thy young one falling on thy mouth 
 
 ADM. Who hears not, neither sees : so that I and you 
 are struck with a heavy calamity. 
 
 EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by 
 my dear mother : O ! I that have suffered indeed dread- 
 ful deeds ! and thou hast suffered with me, my sister. 
 O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with 
 her didst thou arrive at the end of old age, for she per- 
 ished before, but thou being gone, mother, the house is 
 undone. 
 
 CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity ; for in 
 no wise the first, nor the last of mortals hast thou lost 
 thy dear wife : but learn, that to die is a debt we must 
 all of us discharge. 
 
 ADM. I know it. and this evil hath not come suddenly 
 on me ; but knowing it long ago I was afflicted. But
 
 22 ALCESTIS. [421462. 
 
 be present, for I will have the corse borne forth, and 
 while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that ac- 
 cepteth not libations. And all the Thessalians, over 
 whom I reign, I enjoin to share in the grief for this 
 lady, by shearing their locks with steel, and by array- 
 ing themselves in sable garb. And harness >24 your teams 
 of horses to your chariots, and cut from your single 
 steeds the manes that fall upon their necks. And let 
 there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre thoughout the 
 city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse 
 more dear shall I inter, nor one more kind toward me. 
 But she deserves to receive honor from me, seeing that 
 she alone hath died forme. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in 
 sunless dwelling within the mansions of Pluto. And let 
 Pluto know, the God with ebon locks, and the old man, 
 the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar 
 and his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most 
 excellent of women in his two-oared boat over the lake 
 of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the Muses sing of 
 thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute 
 on the mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the 
 lyre : in Sparta, when returns the annual circle in the 
 season of the Carnean month, 25 when the moon is up 
 the whole night long ; and in splendid 26 and happy 
 Athens. Such a song hast thou left by thy death to the 
 minstrels of melodies. Would that it rested with me, 
 and that I could waft thee to the light from the man- 
 sions of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of 
 that infernal river. For thou, O unexampled, O dear 
 among women, thou didst dare to receive thy husband 
 from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. 
 
 14 Reisk proposes to read TeflptTTTra Se (vyi> re <cai. And both 
 
 from your chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the 
 man ex. 
 
 JB This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from 
 the seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See 
 Monk. B. 
 
 ' On Ain-apdts 'AOovais, see Monk. B.
 
 4 6 3 492.] ALCESTIS. 23 
 
 Light may the earth from above fall upon thee, lady ! 
 and if thy husband chooses any other alliance, surely 
 he will be much detested lay me and by thy children. 
 When his mother was not willing for him to hide her 
 body in the ground, nor his aged father, but these two 
 wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to rescue him 
 they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst 
 depart, having died for thy husband. May it be mine 
 to meet with another 2? such a dear wife ; for rare in 
 life is such a portion, for surely she would live with me 
 forever without once causing pain. 
 
 HERCULES, CHORUS. 
 
 HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can 
 I find Admetus within the palace ? 
 
 CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O 
 Hercules. But tell me, what purpose sends thee to the 
 land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to this city 
 of Pheres ? 
 
 HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tiryn- 
 thian Eurystheus. 
 
 CHOR. And whither goest thou ? on what wandering 
 expedition art bound ? 
 
 HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the 
 Thracian. 
 
 CHOR. How wilt thou be able ? Art thou ignorant of 
 this host ? 
 
 HER. I am ignorant ; I have not yet been to the land 
 of the Bistonians. 
 
 CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without 
 battle. 
 
 HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the 
 labors stt me. 
 
 CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being 
 slain wilt remain there. 
 
 HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run. 
 
 CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when 
 you have overcome their master ? 
 
 HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus. 
 
 Literally, the duplicate of such a wife.
 
 24 ALCESTIS. t493Si8. 
 
 CHOR. Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their 
 jaws. 
 
 HER. 'Tis, except they breathe fire from their nostrils. 
 
 CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devour- 
 ing jaws. 
 
 HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, 
 you are speaking of. 
 
 CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood be- 
 stained. 
 
 HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be ? 
 
 CHOR. Of Mars, prince 28 of the Thracian target, rich 
 with gold. 
 
 HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate 
 compels me to (for it is ever hard and tends to steeps) ; 
 if I must join in battle with the children "whom Mars 
 begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus, 
 and I come to this third combat, about to engage with 
 the horses and their master. But none there is, who 
 shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing the hand of 
 his enemies. 
 
 CHOR. And lo ! hither comes the very man Admetus, 
 lord of this land, from out of the palace. 
 
 ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS. 
 
 ADM. Hail ! O son of Jove, and of the blood of 
 Perseus. 
 
 HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thes- 
 salians ! 
 
 ADM. I would I could receive this salutation ; but I 
 know that thou art well disposed toward me. 
 
 HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks 
 shorn for grief ? 
 
 ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day. 
 
 HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children ! 
 
 ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house. 
 
 HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone. 
 
 ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules. 
 
 58 ai/af ireATT)?, so aval; KIOTTJ)? in JEsch. Pers. 384, ofarower. "\Vake- 
 field compares Ovid's Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajux. MONK.
 
 519 544-1 ALCESTIS. 25 
 
 HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead ? 
 
 ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her. 
 
 HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive ? 
 
 ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me. 
 
 HER. I know nothing more ; for thou speakest things 
 obscure. 
 
 ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed 
 for her to meet with ? 
 
 HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for 
 thee. 
 
 ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised 
 this ? 
 
 HER. Ah ! do not weep for thy wife before the time ; 
 wait till this happens. 
 
 ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is 
 dead is no more. 
 
 HER. The being and the not being is considered a 
 different thing. 
 
 ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that. 
 
 HER. Why then dost weep ? Who is he of thy friends 
 that is dead ? 
 
 ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning. 
 
 HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to 
 thee? 
 
 ADM. A stranger ; but on other account dear to this 
 house. 
 
 HER. How then died she in thine house ? 
 
 ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here. 
 
 HER. Alas ! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, 
 not mourning ! 
 
 ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use 
 of these words ? 
 
 HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will 
 receive a guest. 
 
 ADM. It must not be, O king : let not so great an 
 evil happen ! 
 
 HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners. 
 
 ADM. The dead are dead but go into the house. 
 
 HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends. 
 
 ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee 
 is apart. 
 3
 
 26 ALCESTIS. [544581. 
 
 HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand 
 thanks. 
 
 ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of 
 another man. Lead on thou, having thrown open the 
 guest-chamber that is separate from the house : and 
 tell them that have the management, that there be 
 plenty of meats ; and shut the gates in the middle of 
 the hall : it is not meet that feasting guests should 
 hear groans, nor should they be made sad. 
 
 CHOR. What are you doing ? when so great a calamity 
 is before you, Admetus, hast thou the heart to receive 
 guests ? wherefore art thou foolish ? 
 
 ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest 
 from my house, and from the city, would you have 
 praised me rather ? No in sooth, "since my calamity 
 had been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable : 
 and in addition to my evils, there had been this other 
 evil, that mine should be called the stranger-hating 
 house. But I myself find this man a most excellent 
 host, whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos. 
 
 CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, 
 when a friend, as thou thyself sayest, came? 
 
 ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the 
 house if he had known aught of my sufferings. And to 
 him 29 indeed, I ween, acting thus, I appear not to be 
 wise, nor will he praise me ; but my house knows not 
 to drive away, nor to dishonor guests. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this 
 man, thee even the Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, 
 deigned to inhabit, and endured to become a shepherd 
 in thine abodes, through the sloping hills piping to thy 
 flocks his pastoral nuptial hymns. And there were 
 wont to feed with them, through delight of his lays, 
 both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody troop of lions 30 
 
 29 Heath and Markland take TC? for >i. 
 
 30 Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, T^VOV nev flues, rrjvov \VKOI 
 
 a>pu<Tai/TO, Tiji'oi' \oJ 'K fipu^ioio Aecof ape/cAaixre QCLVOVTO. . . . TroAAal fJitv 
 Trap TTOcrai /3de?, iroAAoi Se re Tavpoi, TroAAal 6' au <5a/j.aAai xal irdprie? 
 (aSvpavro. Virg. Eel. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Eel. li. 18. Nemesianus, 
 Eel. i. 74 sqq. ; ii. 32. B.
 
 581614.] ALCESTIS. 27 
 
 came having left the forest of Othrys ; disported too 
 around thy cithern, Phcebus, the dappled fawn, advanc- 
 ing with light pastern beyond the lofty-feathered pines, 
 joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he dwelleth 
 in a home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of 
 Boebe ; and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of 
 his plains, toward that dusky part of the heavens, where 
 the sun stays his horses, makes the clime of the Molos- 
 sians the limit, and holds dominion as far as the port- 
 less shore of the ^Egeau Sea at Pelion. And now hav- 
 ing thrown open his house he hath received his guest 
 with moistened eyelid, weeping over the corse of his 
 clear wife, who but now died in the palace : for a noble 
 disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest] . But 
 in the good there is all manner of wisdom. And con- 
 fidence is seated on my soul that the man who reveres 
 the Gods will fare prosperously. 
 
 ADMETUS, CHORUS. 
 
 ADM. Ye men of Pherae that are kindly present, my 
 servants indeed bear aloft 31 the corse, having every- 
 thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre. But do you, 
 as is the custom, salute 32 the dead going forth on her 
 last journey. 
 
 CHOR. And lo ! I see thy father advancing with his 
 aged foot, and attendants bearing in their hands adorn- 
 ment for thy wife, due honors of those beneath. 
 
 PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS. 
 PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfor- 
 
 31 apSrfv yivcrai arrb TOV alpfiv, fijjAot fie TO <t>opaSr]v. Schol. 
 
 32 Cf . Suppl. 773 ."AiSou re /uoAird? eic^e(a Saicpuppoovs, <i.Aovs irpo<ra.vStav, 
 u>v AeAetji^vos raAos epij^ia icAaiw. See Gorius Monum. sive Colum- 
 bar._ Libert. Florent. cic.ic. cc. xxvii. p. 186, who observes, 
 " x a 'P was the acustomed salutation addressed to the dead. 
 Catullus, Carm. xcvii. Accipe frnterno multum manantia fletu 
 atque in perpetuum f rater HAVE, atque VALE." The same, 
 scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v. p. 392, n. 265, 
 
 D . M 
 
 AVE SALVISIA 
 
 OMNUM . AMAN 
 
 TISSIMA . ET 
 
 VALE. 
 
 which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
 
 28 ALCESTIS. [614649. 
 
 tunes, my son : for thou hast lost (no one will deny) a 
 good and a chaste wife ; but these things indeed thou 
 must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this 
 adornment, and let it go with her beneath the earth : 
 Her body 'tis right to honor, who in sooth died to save 
 thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor 
 suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old 
 age of misery. But she has made most illustrious the 
 life of all women, having dared this noble action. O 
 thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised 
 us up who were falling, farewell, 33 and may it be well 
 with thee even in the mansions of Pluto ! I affirm 
 that such marriages are profitable to men, or that it is 
 not meet to many. 
 
 ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this 
 funeral, nor do I count thy presence among things ac- 
 ceptable. But she here never shall put on thy decora- 
 tions ; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to 
 what thou hast. Then oughtest thou to have grieved 
 with me, when I was in danger of perishing. 34 But dost 
 thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another, a 
 young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this 
 dead body? Thou wert not then really the father of 
 me, nor did she, who says she bore me, and is called 
 my mother, bear me ; but born of slavish blood I was 
 secretly put under the breast of thy wife. Thou show- 
 edst when thou earnest to the test, who thou art ; and 
 I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou 
 exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the 
 age thou art, and having come to the goal of life, neither 
 hadst the will nor the courage to die for thy son ; but 
 sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might justly 
 have considered both mother and father. And yet thou 
 mightst have run this race for glory, hadst thou died for 
 thy son. But at any rate the remainder of the time 
 thou hadst to live was short : and I should have lived 
 and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of 
 
 33 Wakefleld reads \alpe Kav Aifiov 5d/uois; having in his mind 
 
 probably Horn. II. *. 19. Xaipe noi <I> IlaTpo/cAe, icai fiv 'A'iSao 8o/u.oi<ri. 
 
 34 I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense 
 of the imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
 
 650686.] ALCESTIS. 29 
 
 her, be groaning at my miseries. And in sooth thou 
 didst receive as many things as a happy man should 
 receive ; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed 
 in sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee 
 in this palace, so that thou wert not about to die child- 
 less and leave a desolate house for others to plunder. 
 Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee 
 up to die, dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was 
 particularly respectful toward thee ; and for this be- 
 havior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me 
 such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose te 
 in getting children, who will succor thee in thine old 
 age, and deck thee when dead, and lay out thy corse ; 
 for I will not bury thee with this mine hand ; for I 
 in sooth died, as far as in thee lay ; but if, having met 
 with another deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am 
 both his child, and the friendly comforter of his old 
 age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead, com- 
 plaining of age, and the long time of life : but if death 
 come near, not one is willing to die, and old age is no 
 longer burdensome to them. 86 
 
 CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient ; 
 and do not, O son, provoke thy father's mind. 
 
 PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing 
 with thy reproaches, a Lydian or a Phrygian bought 
 with thy money ? 3T Knowest thou not that I am a Thes- 
 salian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free ? 
 Thou art too insolent, and casting the impetuous words 
 of youth against us, shalt not having cast them thus de- 
 part. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and 
 brought thee up, but lam not thy debtor to die for thee ; 
 for I received no paternal law like this, nor Grecian 
 law, that fathers should die for their children ; for for 
 thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or for- 
 tunate, but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou 
 hast. Thou rulest indeed over many, and I will leave 
 
 86 Cf . Iph. Taur. 244. \epviftay Se KO.I Ka.Ta.pyfia.Ta oir? av <j>6dvois av 
 fVTpeirff iroiovfj.fvri, B. 
 
 36 An apparent allusion to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B. 
 
 37 Aristophanes' version of this line is, o> irat, riv <xvxi?. n-orepa 
 AvSbv T; topvya MopfioAOTTeerflai <5ois. B. 
 
 3*
 
 30 ALCESTIS. [687718. 
 
 thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received from 
 my father. In what then have I injured thee ? Of 
 what do I deprive thee? Thou joyest to see the light, 
 and dost think thy father does nofc joy ? 38 Surely I 
 count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is 
 short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly 
 fight off from dying, and livest, having passed over thy 
 destined fate, by slaying her ; then dost thou talk of my 
 nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art 
 surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the hand- 
 some youth ? But thou hast made a clever discovery, 
 so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt persuade the 
 wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee : 
 and then reproachest thou thy friends who are not 
 willing to do this, thyself being a coward ? Hold thy 
 peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all love 
 theirs ; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou 
 shalt hear many reproaches and not false ones. 
 
 CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both 
 now and before, but cease, old man, from reviling thy 
 son. 
 
 ADM. Speak, for I have spoken ; but if thou art 
 grieved at hearing the truth, thou shouldst not err 
 against me. 
 
 PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more. 
 
 ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his 
 prime, and for an old man to die ? 
 
 PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two. 
 
 ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove ! 
 
 PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no in- 
 justice ? 
 
 ADM. I said it, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life. 
 
 PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead 
 of thyself ? 
 
 ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothing- 
 ness of soul. 
 
 PHE. She died not by us at least ; thou wilt not say 
 this. 
 
 38 Turned by Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's 
 father, Nub. 1415. KAaov<ri TraiSes, irarepa &' oil K\deiv 6o(ceis. See 
 Thesmoph. 194. B.
 
 719 749-1 ALCESTIS. 31 
 
 ADM. Alas ! Oh that you may ever come to need my 
 aid! 
 
 PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die. 
 
 ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not 
 willing to die. 
 
 PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it. 
 
 ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men. 
 
 PHE. Thou doest not laugh as carrying an aged corse. 
 
 ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when 
 thou diest. 
 
 PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when 
 dead. 
 
 ADM. Alas ! alas ! how full of shanielessness is old 
 age ! 
 
 PHE. She was not shameless : her you found mad. 
 
 ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead. 
 
 PHE. I will depart ; but you will bury her, yourself 
 being her murderer. But you will render satisfaction 
 to your wife's relatives yet : or surely Acastus no longer 
 ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of 
 his sister. 
 
 ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife ; child- 
 less, thy child yet living, as ye deserve, grow old ; for 
 ye no more come into the same house with me : and if 
 it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy 
 paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for 
 the evil before us must be borne) proceed, that we 
 may place the corse upon the funeral pyre. 
 
 C'HOR. O ! O ! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O 
 noble, and by far most excellent, farewell ! may both 
 Mercury & that dwells beneath, and Pluto, kindly re- 
 ceive thee ; but if there too any distinction is shown to 
 the good, partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride 
 of Pluto. 
 
 SERVANT. 
 
 I have now known many guests, and from all parts 
 of the earth that have come to the house of Admetus, 
 to whom I have spread the feast, but never yet did I 
 
 89 Cf. JEsch. Choepb. sub init. and Gorius. Monum. Libert, p. 
 SA. ad Tab. x, lit. A.
 
 32 ALCESTIS. [750782. 
 
 receive into this house a worse one than this stranger. 
 Who, in the first place, indeed, though he saw my 
 master in affliction, came in, and prevailed upon him- 
 self to pass the gates. And then not at all in a modest 
 manner received he the entertainment that there hap- 
 pened to be, when he heard of the calamity : but if we 
 did not bring any thing, he hurried us to bring it. 
 And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed with 
 ivy, 40 he quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, 
 until the fumes of the liquor coming upon him inflamed 
 him ; and he crowns his head with branches of myrtles 
 howling discordantly ; and there were two strains to 
 hear ; for he was singing, not caring at all for the 
 afflictions of Admetus, but we the domestics, were be- 
 wailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were 
 weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. 
 And now indeed I am performing the offices of hos- 
 pitality to the stranger in the house, some deceitful 
 thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor 
 did I follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation 
 for my mistress, who was a mother to me, and to all 
 the domestics, for she saved us from ten thousand ills, 
 softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then 
 justly hate this stranger, who is come in our miseries ? 
 
 HERCULES, SERVANT. 
 
 HER. Ho there ! why dost thou look so grave and 
 thoughtful? The servant ought not to be of woeful 
 countenance before guests, but should receive them 
 with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a 
 companion of thy lord present, receivest him with a 
 morose and clouded countenance, fixing thy attention 
 on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. 
 Come hither, that thou mayst become more wise. 
 Knowest thou mortal affairs, of what nature they are ? 
 I think not ; from whence should you ? but hear me. 
 Death is a debt that all mortals must pay ; and there 
 
 40 Theocrit. i. 27. Hal fiaQv Kiaavfiiov iceie\v<rn.evov ofie't (copo), Tw jrepi 
 rai ixftoBi Ktacros. B.
 
 783816-] ALCESTIS. 33 
 
 is not of them one, who knows whether he shall live 
 the coming morrow : for what depends on fortune is 
 uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned, 
 neither is it detected by art. Having heard these 
 tilings then, and learned them from me, make thyself 
 merry, drink, and think the life allowed from day to 
 day thine own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor 
 also Venus, the most sweet of deities to mortals, for 
 she is a kind deity. But let go these other things, and 
 obey my words, if I appear to speak rightly : I think 
 so indeed. Wilt thou not then leave off thy excessive 
 grief, and drink with me, crowned with garlands, hav- 
 ing thrown open these gates ? And well know I that 
 the trickling of the cup falling down thy throat will 
 change thee from thy present cloudy and pent state of 
 mind. But we who are mortals should think as mor- 
 tals. Since to all the morose, indeed, and to those of 
 sad countenance, if they take me as judge at least, life 
 is not truly life, but misery. 
 
 SERV. I know this ; but now we are in circumstances 
 not such as are fit for revel and mirth. 
 
 HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger ; grieve not 
 too much, for the lords of this house live. 
 
 SERV. What live ! knowest thou not the misery 
 within the house ? 
 
 HER. Unless tliy lord hath told me anything falsely. 
 
 SERV. He is too, too hospitable. 
 
 HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, be~ 
 cause a stranger is dead ? 
 
 SERV. Surely however she was very near. 
 
 HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that 
 there is ? 
 
 SERV. Depart and farewell ; we have a care for the 
 evils of our lords. 
 
 HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign 
 loss. 
 
 SERV. For I should not, had it been foreign, have 
 been grieved at seeing thee revelling. 
 
 HER. What ! have I received so great an injury 
 from mine host ? 
 
 SERV. Thou earnest not in a fit time for the house to
 
 34 ALCESTIS. [817849. 
 
 receive thee, for there is grief to us, and thou seest 
 that we are shorn, and our black garments. 
 
 HER. But who is it that is dead ? Has either any of 
 his children died, or his aged father? 
 
 SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O 
 stranger. 
 
 HER. What sayest thou ? and yet did ye receive me ? 
 
 SERV. Yes, for he had too much respect to turn thee 
 from his house. 
 
 HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost ! 
 
 SERV. We all are lost, not she alone. 
 
 HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his 
 eye streaming with tears, and his shorn hair, and 
 his countenance ; but he persuaded me, saying, that 
 he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the 
 tomb : but spite of my inclination having passed over 
 these gates, I drank in the house of the hospitable man, 
 while he was in this case, and revelled, crowned as to 
 my head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me 
 not to do it, when such an evil was upon the house. 
 Where is he burying her ? whither going can I find 
 her? 
 
 SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, 
 thou wilt see the polished tomb beyond the suburbs. 
 
 HERCULES. 
 
 O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show 
 what manner of son the Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter 
 Of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must rescue 
 the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again 
 in this house, and perform this service for Admetus. 
 And going I will lay wait for the sable-vested king of 
 the departed, Death, and I think that I shall find him 
 drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if hav- 
 ing taken him by lying in wait, rushing from my am- 
 bush, I shall seize hold of him, and make a circle 
 around him with mine arms, there is not who shall 
 take him away panting as to his sides, until he re- 
 lease me the woman. But if however I fail of this 
 capture, and he oome not to the clottered mass of
 
 850884.] ALCESTIS. 35 
 
 blood, I will go a journey beneath to the sunless man- 
 sions of Cora and her king, and will prefer my request ; 
 and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis, so as to place 
 her in the hands of that host, who received me into his 
 house, nor drove me away, although struck with a 
 heavy calamity, but concealed it, noble as he was, hav- 
 ing respect unto me. Who of the Thessalians is more 
 hospitable than he ? Who that dwelleth in Greece ? 
 Wherefore he shall not say, that he did a service to a 
 worthless man, himself being noble. 
 
 ADMETUS, CHORUS. 
 
 ADM. Alas ! alas ! O hateful approach, and hateful 
 prospect of this widowed house. Oh me ! Alas ! alas ! 
 whither can I go ! where rest ! what can I say ! and 
 what not ! would that I could perish ! Surely my 
 mother brought me forth to heavy fortune. I count 
 the dead happy, them I long for ! those houses I desire 
 to dwell in : for neither delight I in viewing the sun- 
 beams, nor treading with my foot upon the earth ; of 
 such a hostage has death robbed me, and delivered up 
 to Pluto. 
 
 CHOE. Advance, advance ; go into the recesses of the 
 house. 
 
 (ADM. Oh! Oh!) 
 Thou hast suffered things that demand groans. 
 
 (ADM. Alas! alas!) 
 Thou hast gone through grief, I well know. 
 
 (ADM. Woe ! Woe !) 
 Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath. 
 
 (ADM. Ah me ! me !) 
 
 Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is 
 severe. 
 
 ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcer- 
 ated my soul ; for what can be greater ill to man than 
 to lose his faithful wife ? Would that I never had 
 married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge 
 happy those, who are unmarried and childless ; for 
 theirs is one only life, for this to grieve is a moderate 
 burden : but to behold the diseases of children, and the
 
 36 ALCESTIS. [885918. 
 
 bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when 
 it were in one's power to be without children and un- 
 married the whole of life. 
 
 CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath 
 come. 
 
 (ADM. Oh ! Oh !) 
 But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows ? 
 
 (ADM. Alas ! alas !) 
 Heavy are they to bear, but still 
 
 (ADM. Woe ! woe!) 
 endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost 
 
 (ADM. Ah me ! me !) 
 
 thy wife ; but calamity appearing afflicts different 
 men in different shapes. 
 
 ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends 
 
 beneath the earth ! Why did you hinder me from 
 
 throwing myself 41 into her hallowed grave, and from 
 lying dead with her, by far the most excellent woman ? 
 And Pluto would have retained instead of one, two 
 most faithful souls having together passed over the 
 infernal lake. 
 
 CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy 
 to be lamented, an only child, died in his house ; but 
 nevertheless he bore his calamity with moderation, 
 being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray 
 hairs, and advanced in life. 
 
 ADM. O house, how can I enter in ? and how dwell in 
 thee now my fortune has undergone this change ? Ah 
 me ! for there is great difference between : then indeed 
 with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in, 
 bearing the hand of my dear wife, and there followed 
 a loud-shouting revelry hailing happy both her that is 
 dead and me, inasmuch as being noble, and born of 
 illustrious parents both, we were united together : but 
 now the groan instead of hymeneals, and black array 
 instead of white robes, usher me in to my deserted couch. 
 
 Hamlet, v. 1. 
 
 Hold off the earth awhile, 
 
 Till I have caught her once more in mine arms : 
 
 [leaps into the grave.} 
 Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead. B.
 
 ALCESTIS. 37 
 
 CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to the 
 unschooled in evil : but thou hast saved thy life. Thy 
 wife is dead, she left her love behind : what new thing 
 this ? Death has ere this destroyed many wives. 
 
 ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more 
 happy than mine own, even although these things ap- 
 pear not so. For her indeed no grief shall ever touch, 
 and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But 
 I, who ought not to have lived, though I have scaped 
 destiny, shall pass a bitter life ; I but now perceive. 
 For how can I bear the entering into this house ? Whom 
 speaking to, or by whom addressed,* 2 can I have joy in 
 entering ? Whither shall I turn me ? For the solitude 
 within will drive me forth, when I see the place where 
 my wife used to lie, empty, and the seat whereon she 
 used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all dirty, 
 and when my children falling about my knees weep 
 their mother, and they lament their mistress, thinking 
 what a lady they have lost from out of the house. Such 
 things within the house ; but abroad the nuptials of the 
 Thessalians and the assemblies full of women will tor- 
 ture me : for I shall not be able to look on the companions 
 of my wife. But whoever is mine enemy will say thus 
 of me : " See that man, who basely lives, who dared not 
 to die, but giving in his stead her, whom he married, 
 escaped Hades (and then does he seem to be a man ?) 
 
 and hates his parents, himself not willing to die." 
 
 Such report shall I have in addition to my woes ; why 
 then is it the more honorable course for me to live, my 
 friends, having an evil character and an evil fortune ? 
 
 CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, 
 and having very much handled arguments have found 
 nothing more powerful than Necessity : nor is there any 
 cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus * 3 wrote, 
 nor among those medicines, which Phoebus gave the 
 sons of Jilsculapius, dispensing ** them to wretched 
 mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of 
 
 42 Cf. VS. 195. ov oil rrpo<rei7re tcai irpO(7epp)j07) iroAiv. B. 
 
 43 Op<?>eia yapvs. a paraphrasis for 'Op<j>fi>?. 
 
 44 afTiTe/iivo), fi.eTa<l>opi.K<as airb riav Tas pias TffJiVOVTiav KO.I (.vpuTKQVTuv. 
 
 SCHOL. TB. Cf. on JEsch. Agam. 17. B.
 
 38 ALCESTIS. [9871016. 
 
 this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears 
 not victims. Do not, O revered one, come on me more 
 severe, than hitherto in my life. For Jove, whatever 
 lie have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. 
 Thou too perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi ; 
 nor has thy rugged spirit any remorse. 
 
 And thee, Admetus, the Goddess hath seized in the 
 inevitable grasp of her hand ; but bear it, for thou wilt 
 never by weeping bring back on earth the dead from 
 beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth begotten 
 perish in death. Dear she was while she was with us, 
 and dear even now when dead. But thou didst join to 
 thy bed the noblest wife of all women. Nor let the 
 tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the 
 dead that perish, but let it be honored equally with the 
 Gods, a thing for travellers to adore : * 6 and some one, 
 going out of his direct road, shall say thus: "She in 
 olden time died for her husband, but now she is a blest 
 divinity : Hail, O adored one, and be propitious ! " Such 
 words will be addressed to her. And lo ! here comes, 
 as it seems, the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus. 
 
 HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS. 
 
 HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, 
 and not in silence keep within our bosoms what we 
 blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a friend to 
 stand near thy calamities, and to search them out ; 47 
 but thou didst not tell me that it was thy wife's corse 
 that demanded thy attention ; but didst receive me in 
 thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not thine. 
 And I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods 
 
 46 In Phavorinus, among the senses of xAio-io, is /cAiVij xal K\IVTI- 
 
 TJJplOI'. 
 
 46 It will be remembered that the tombs were built near the high- 
 ways, with great magnificence, and sometimes very lofty, especi- 
 ally when near the sea-coast (cf. ^Esch. Choeph. 351. D'Orville on 
 Charit. lib. i. sub. fin. Eurip. Hecub. 1273). They are often used as 
 landmarks or milestones, as in Theocr. vi. 10, and as oratories or 
 chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p. 340, ed. Elm. B. 
 
 47 This appears the most obvious sense, as connected with what 
 follows. All the interpreters, however, translate it, Ithour/ht my- 
 self 'worthy ', standing, as I did. near thy calamities, (i. e. near thee 
 in thy calamities,) to be proved thy friend.
 
 1017-1055-] ALCESTIS. 29 
 
 libations in thy house which had suffered this calamity. 
 And I do blame thee, I blame thee, having met with 
 this treatment ! not that I wish to grieve thee in thy 
 miseries. But wherefore I am come, having turned 
 back again, I will tell thee. Receive and take care of 
 this woman for me, until I come hither driving the 
 Tliracian mares, having slain the king of the Bistonians. 
 But if I meet with what I pray I may not meet with, (for 
 may I return !) I give thee her as an attendant of thy 
 palace. But with much toil came she into my hands ; 
 for I find some who had pi-oposed a public contest for 
 wrestlers, worthy of my labors, from whence 1 bear off 
 her, having received her as the prize of my victoiy ; for 
 those who conquered in the lighter exercises had to re- 
 ceive horses, but those again who conquered in the 
 greater, the boxing and the wrestling, cattle, and a 
 woman was added to these ; but in me, who happened 
 to be there, it had been base to neglect this glorious 
 gain. But, as I said, the woman ought to be a care to 
 you, for I am come not having obtained her by stealth, 
 but with labor ; but at some time or other thou too wilb 
 perhaps commend me for it. 
 
 ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee 
 among mine enemies, did I conceal from thee the un- 
 happy fate of my wife ; but this had been a grief added 
 to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of another host : 
 but it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. 
 But the woman, if it is in any way possible, I beseech 
 thee, O king, bid some one of the Thessalians, who has 
 not suffered what I have, to take care of (but thou hast 
 many friends among the Pheraeans) lest thou remind 
 me of my misfortunes. I cannot, beholding her in the 
 house, refrain from weeping ; add not a sickness to me 
 already sick ; for I am enough weighed down with 
 misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful 
 woman be maintained ? for she is youthful, as she 
 evinces by her garb and her attire ; shall she then live 
 in the men's apartment ? And how will she be unde- 
 filed. living among young men ? A man in his vigor, 
 Hercules, it is no easy thing to restrain ; but I have a 
 care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made her
 
 40 ALCESTIS. [1056-1085. 
 
 enter the chamber of her that is dead ? And how can 
 I introduce her into her bed ? I fear a double accusa- 
 tion, both from the citizens, lest any should convict me 
 of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in the 
 bed of another girl ; and I ought to have much regard 
 toward the dead (and she deserves my respect). But 
 thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know that thou hast the 
 same size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in 
 figure. Ah me ! take by the Gods this woman from 
 mine eyes, lest you destroy me already destroyed. For 
 I think, when I look upon her, that I behold my wife ; 
 and it agitates my heart, and from mine eyes the streams 
 break forth ; O unhappy I, how lately did I begin to 
 taste this bitter grief ! 
 
 CHOR. I cannot indeed speak well of thy fortune ; 
 but it behooves thee, whatever thou art, to bear with 
 firmness the dispensation of the Gods. 
 
 HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy 
 wife to the light from the infernal mansions, and to do 
 this service for thee ! 
 
 ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will : but how 
 can this be ? It is not possible for the dead to come into 
 the light. 
 
 HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear 
 it decently. 
 
 ADM. 'Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure. 
 
 HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish 
 to groan forever ? 
 
 ADM. I know that too myself ; but a certain love im- 
 pels me. 
 
 HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear. 
 
 ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my 
 words express. 
 
 HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife ; who will 
 deny it ? 
 
 ADM. Ay, so that I am no longer delighted with 
 life. 
 
 HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in 
 its vigor 48 on thee. 
 
 48 In the same manner yfiif is used in Orestes, 687, orav yap rifia 
 
 8r//uos~ fil upyrjv irecriof.
 
 io86-uoS.] ALCESTIS. 41 
 
 ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time. 
 
 HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new 
 marriage. 
 
 ADM. Hold thy peace What saidst thou ? I could 
 not have supposed it. 
 
 HER. But why ? what, wilt not marry, but pass a 
 widowed life alone ? 
 
 ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me. 
 
 HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefit- 
 ing her that is dead ? 
 
 ADM. Her. wherever she is, I am bound to honor. 
 
 HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you ; but you in- 
 cur the charge of folly. 
 
 ADM. Praise me, or praise me not ; for you shall 
 never call me bridegroom. 
 
 HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful 
 friend to thy wife. 
 
 ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is 
 not! 
 
 HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine 
 house. 
 
 ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove. 
 
 HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do 
 not this. 
 
 ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart 
 gnawed with sorrow. 
 
 HER. Be prevailed upon : perhaps this favor may be 
 proved a duty. 
 
 ADM. Ah ! would that you had never borne her off 
 from the contest ! 
 
 HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too. 
 
 ADM. Thou hast well spoken ; but let the woman de- 
 part. 
 
 HER. She shall depart, if it is needful ; but first see 
 whether it be needful. 
 
 ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to 
 make me angry. 
 
 HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat. 
 
 ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do 
 things pleasing to me. 
 4*
 
 42 ALCESTIS. [1109-1131. 
 
 HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me ; 
 only be persuaded. 
 
 ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house. 
 
 HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge 
 of the servants. 
 
 ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if 
 it seems fit. 
 
 HER. I then will give her into thine hands. 
 
 ADM. I will not touch her ; but she is at liberty to 
 enter the house. 
 
 HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone. 
 
 ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against 
 my will. 
 
 HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the 
 stranger. 
 
 ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the 
 Gorgon with her severed head. 49 
 
 HER. Have you her ? 
 
 ADM. I have. 
 
 HER. Then keep her fast ; and some time or other 
 thou wilt say that the son of Jove is a generous guest. 
 But look on her, whether she seems aught to resemble 
 thy wife ; and being blest leave off from thy grief. 
 
 ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected 
 wonder this ! Do I truly see here my wife, or does the 
 mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my senses? 
 
 HER. It is not so ; but thou beholdest here thy wife. 
 
 ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from 
 the realms beneath. 
 
 HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invokerof. 
 spirits. 
 
 ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried ? 
 
 HER. Be well assured thou dost ; but I wonder not 
 at thy disbelief of thy fortune. 
 
 ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my liv- 
 ing wife ? 50 
 
 49 i. e. the severed head of the Gorgon. Valckenaer observes, 
 that this is an expression meaning facie aversa, and compares 1. 
 465 of the Phcenissse. 
 
 50 Start not : her actions shall be holy, as, 
 You hear, my spell is lawful : do not shun her, 
 Until you see her die again ; for then
 
 ALCESTIS. 43 
 
 HER. Speak to her ; for thou hast all that thou de- 
 sirest. 
 
 ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I 
 thee beyond my hopes, when I thought never to see 
 thee more ? 
 
 HER. Thou hast : but take care there be no envy of 
 the Gods. 
 
 ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst 
 thou be blest, and may thy father, who begot thee, 
 protect thee, for thou alone hast restored me I How 
 didst thou bring her from beneath into this light ? 
 
 HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those 
 beneath. 
 
 ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this con- 
 flict with Death? 
 
 HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from am- 
 bush with my hands. 
 
 ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here 
 speechless ? 
 
 HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address 
 thee, before she is unbound from her consecrations 5I 
 to the Gods beneath, and the third day come. But 
 lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Ad- 
 metus, continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. 
 And farewell ! But I will go and perform the task 
 that is before me for the imperial son of Sthenelus. 
 
 ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth. 
 
 HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must 
 haste. 
 
 ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous and return on 
 thy journey back. But to the citizens, and to all the 
 tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they institute 
 dances in honor of these happy events, and make the 
 
 You kill her double : Nay, present your hand : 
 When she was young you woo'd her ; now, in age, 
 Is she become the suitor ? 
 
 Winter's Tale, v. 3. Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4, 
 B. 
 
 51 att>ayvift.v h. 1. non puriflcare sed desecrare. Orcus enim, 
 quando gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, earn diis manibus 
 sacram dicaverat, quod diserte fiyvi.ua>. appellat noster, vide 75 
 77. Contraria igritur aliqua ceremonia desecranda erat, antequam 
 Admeto ejus consuetudine et colloquio frui liceret. HEATH.
 
 44 
 
 ALCESTIS. 
 
 [1156-1163. 
 
 altars odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that ac- 
 company their vows. For now are we placed in a bet- 
 ter state of life than the former one : for I will not 
 deny that I am happy. 
 
 CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities 
 direct, and many things the Gods perform contrary to 
 our expectations. And those things which we looked 
 for are not accomplished ; but the God hath brought ,.- 
 to pass things not looked for. Such hath been the L 
 event of this affair. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Wallace High School 
 
 Div... ...... Shelf. 
 
 No..
 
 ELECTRA. 1 
 
 PERSONS REPRESENTED. 
 
 PEASANT. CLYT^EMNESTRA. 
 
 ELECTRA. OLD MAN. 
 
 ORESTES. MESSENGER. 
 
 PYLADES (A DUMB PERSONAGE). CASTOR AND POLLUX. 
 CHORUS. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE return of Orestes from exile, and his revenge upon Clytaem- 
 nestra and JEgisthus for the murder of Agamemnon. The sub- 
 ject is the same as that of the " Choephorae " of jEschylus, and 
 the " Electra " of Sophocles, but is handled with much less dra- 
 matic skill, while the development is tedious and inartistic. 
 
 PEASANT. 
 
 O ANCIENT Argos of the land, 2 [and] ye streams of 
 Inachus, whence once on a time king Agamemnon, 
 conducting the war, in a thousand ships sailed to the 
 Trojan land. And having slain Priam, the ruler over 
 the Trojan land, and taken the renowned city of Darda- 
 nus, he came back to this Argos, and in the lofty tem- 
 ples placed very many spoils of the barbarians ; and 
 
 1 1 can promise the student but little satisfaction, the general 
 reader still less, from the perusal of this very poor play. An able 
 comparison of its merits with the plays of ^Eschylus and Sophocles 
 on the same subject will be found in Schlegel's ninth lecture. 
 
 * yrjs is redundant. See MATTHI^:. 
 
 45
 
 46 ELECTRA. [9-43. 
 
 there indeed he was prosperous ; but at home he perishes 
 by stratagem at the hands of his wife Clytsemnestra, 
 and by the hand of ^Egisthus, son of Thyestes. And 
 he indeed, having left the ancient sceptre of Tantalus, 
 is no more ; but ^Egisthus reigns over the land, having 
 his wife, the daughter of Tyndarus. But they whom 
 he left in his dwelling when he sailed to Troy, the male 
 Orestes, and the female blossom of Electra, the former 
 the old guardian of his father stole away, when, [by 
 name] Orestes, he was about to perish by the hand of 
 ^gisthus, and gave him to Strophius to train up in the 
 land of the Phocians. 8 But the latter [Electra] remained 
 in the house of her father. Her, as soon as the blooming 
 season of youth arrived, the first men of the land of 
 Greece wooed as suitors. But fearing lest she should 
 bring forth to any of the chieftains a son, who might 
 take vengeance for Agamemnon, u3gisthus kept her in 
 his house, nor united her to any bridegroom. But since 
 this matter also was fraught with much dread, lest she 
 should privily bear children to any noble man, when he 
 wished to slay her, her mother, though cruel-minded, 
 yet saved her from the hand of .^Egisthus. For in re- 
 gard to her husband's death she had a pretence ; 4 but 
 she feared that by the death of her children she herself 
 might die. Upon this, then, ^Egisthus devised such a 
 contrivance. He mentioned a sum of gold for him who 
 should slay Orestes ; who indeed was away from the 
 land in exile ; but to me he gives Electra to have as a 
 wife, I being born of Mycenian sires ; (and on this ac- 
 count, indeed. I am not liable to reproach, for I am 
 noble at least in race, but yet poor in means, from 
 whence a noble descent is lost ;) that giving her to a 
 humble person, he might have little fear. For if a man 
 possessing dignity had obtained her, he would have 
 roused up the death of Agamemnon, that now sleeps, 
 and justice would then have come upon ^Egisthus. 
 But never did this man (Venus is my witness !) dis- 
 honor her in his bed, but she is still a virgin. For I 
 
 8 A mixture of the expressions eScoxe, iio-re rpefaiv ev rij yr/, and 
 7rfAi|(v eis V?v. 
 
 Viz. the sacrifice of Iphigenia.
 
 44-83-] ELECTRA. 47 
 
 am ashamed at having received the child of a pros- 
 perous family, to do her an insult, not being by birth 
 worthy [of her] . But I bewail the wretched Orestes, 
 who is nominally related to me, if ever, returning to 
 Argos, he shall behold the unhappy nuptials of his 
 sister. But whoever says that I am foolish, because, 
 having received a young virgin into my house, I touch 
 her not, let him know that he measui-es continence by 
 a bad rule of sentiment, and that he himself is such 
 an one. 
 
 ELEC. O sable night, nurse 6f golden stars, during 
 which, bearing this vessel placed on my head, I go in 
 quest of river water ; not indeed because I am reduced 
 to so great necessity, but that I may show to the Gods 
 the insult of JEgisthus, and may utter lamentations to 
 the mighty ether for my sire. For the all-destructive 
 daughter of Tyndarus, my mother, has cast me out of 
 her house, doing a favor to her husband ; and having 
 borne other children to ^Egisthus, she accounts Orestes 
 and me as things unimportant in her house. 
 
 PEA. But why, O hapless one, dost thou labor thus 
 for my sake, submitting to toils, when thou before wast 
 well brought up, nor ceasest this, when I entreat you ? 
 
 ELEC. 1 deem thee a friend equal to the Gods, for in 
 mine ills thou hast not behaved insolently. But it is a 
 great good fortune for mortals to find a physician in an 
 evil calamity, as I obtain thee. It behooves me then, 
 even unbidden, lightening thy toil to the utmost of my 
 power, that thou mayest more easily bear it, to partake 
 in thy labors. And thou hast work enough without ; 
 but matters within doors it behoves me to make ready. 
 For it is sweet for a laborer entering from without, to 
 find things within [his house] aright. 
 
 PEA. If indeed it seems fit to thee, go, for the streams 
 are not far from this house. But I at dawn of day will 
 drive my steers into the corn-lands, and sow the fields. 
 For no slothful man, having the Gods continually in 
 his mouth, will be able to obtain a livelihood without 
 labor. 
 
 ORESTES. Pylades, for thee indeed I above all men ac- 
 count a faithful friend and guest to me ; and thou alone
 
 48 ELECTRA. [84-116. 
 
 of my friends hast respected me, Orestes, faring as I 
 fare, having suffered terribly at the hands of ^gisthus, 
 who, with my all-abandoned mother, destroyed my 
 sire. But I have come from the oracles of the God to 
 the Argive threshold, no one being conscious, in order 
 to punish the slaughter of my father by slaughter. 
 But during this night having gone to the tomb of my 
 sire, I both gave tears, and made offerings of my hair, 
 and sacrificed at the tomb the blood of a slain sheep, 
 unknown to the tyrants who sway this land. And 
 within the walls, indeed, I advance not my foot ; but I 
 came to the boundaries of this land framing two proj- 
 ects, 5 that I may turn away with my foot to another 
 land, should any one of the watch recognize me while 
 seeking my sister, for they say that she living is united 
 in nuptials and does not remain a virgin, in order that 
 I may converse with her, and, obtaining her for an 
 assistant in the slaughter, may learn clearly the mat- 
 ters within the house. Now therefore, for morn is 
 raising her shining face, we will turn our footsteps out 
 of this track. For either some ploughman or some do- 
 mestic woman will appear to us, of whom we may in- 
 quire whether my sister dwells in this place. But 
 (for I see some servant coming hither, with shorn hair, 
 bearing a burden of water) let us sit down, and learn 
 from this female slave, if we can receive any intelli- 
 gence as to the matters for which, O Py lades, we are 
 come to this land. 
 
 ELEC. Hasten on the course of my foot, 6 O hour ; O, 
 go thou on, go on, weeping. Alas ! for me, for me. I 
 was born of Agamemnon, and Clytaemnestra, the hateful 
 daughter of Tyndarus, gave me birth, and the citizens 
 call unhappy me Electra. Alas ! alas ! for my hapless 
 toils and hateful life. O father, but thou indeed art 
 
 B I have taken Woodhull's translation in preference to transcrib- 
 ing the tedious notes of Matthise and Seidler, which the student 
 will find in Dindorf 's collection. 
 
 8 Eleetra addresses herself. Possibly n-oSbs bpiiav may mean 
 " the course of thy foot," i. e. of time. Xpdvou noSa. was one of 
 the yovifia pijjiiaTa of Euripides, according to Aristoph. Ban. 100. 
 Such appeals to time are common, as in Juliet's soliloquy, Act iii. 
 Sc. 2. Perhaps wpa KaraicAot'ovo-a " thou time of woe."
 
 1 1 7-1 7 1 .] ELECTRA. 49 
 
 lying in Hades, murdered by thy wife, and by j9gisthus, 
 6 Agamemnon. Come ! raise the same lamentation, 
 lead off the delight of many tears. Haste on the course 
 of my foot, O hour ; O go thou on, go on, weeping. 
 Alas ! for me, for me. What city, 7 what house, O un- 
 happy brother, dost thou serve, leaving thy poor sister 
 in her chambers amid saddest calamities resulting from 
 her sire ? O, mayest thou come as a releaser to wretched 
 me from these toils, O Jove, Jove, and as an avenger 
 to thy father of blood most hateful, having neared thy 
 wandering foot to Argos. Let me put down this vessel, 
 taking it off my head, that I maj r loudly utter gloomy 
 mournings to my sire, a sounding song of Hades, for 
 Hades. O father, to thee beneath the earth I utter 
 lamentations, which ever day by day 8 I ply, gashing 
 my loved neck with my nails, and striking my hand 
 upon my shorn head, on account of thy death. Woe ! 
 woe ! tear the head, and like some tuneful swan by the 
 river stream calls upon her dearest sire, who has 
 perished in the crafty meshes of a net, so do I mourn 
 thee, my hapless sire, having been washed as to thy 
 flesh with a last bath, in the most piteous bed of death. 
 Alas ! for me, for me, for the bitter cutting by an axe, 
 O sire, and the bitter plot on thy return from Troy ! 
 Not with mitres nor with garlands did thy wife receive 
 thee ; but having made thee 9 the scoff of ^gisthus 
 with the two-edged sword, she obtained her cunning 
 paramour. 
 
 CHORUS. O Electra, daughter of Agamemnon, I have 
 come to thy rustic home. A certain milk-drinking 
 Mycenian herdsman treading the mountain has come, 
 has come ; and he brings word that the Argives are 
 proclaiming the third day of the feast, and all the vir- 
 gins are about to make procession to Juno. 
 
 7 Aarpevai is found with an accusative in Iph. Taur. 1115, and 
 Suidas gives the same construction, but with reference to eccles- 
 iastical writers. I do not feel satisfied with Dobree's riv' av olxov 
 and think that the accusative is used, as if riva. iro\iv oi/eets had 
 been in the mind of the poet. Such would be the natural question, 
 but Electra, considering: the probably dependent state of her 
 brother, uses a more emphatic word. 
 
 8 Cf. JEsch. Choeph. 24 sqq. 9 Understand <re 
 
 5
 
 50 ELECTRA. , [172-220. 
 
 ELEC. Not for splendid doings, O friends, nor for 
 golden necklaces, am wretched I elate in mind, nor 
 forming dances together with Argive nymphs shall I 
 beat my foot whirled round. With tears I dance, and 
 tears are the daily care for wretched me. Look at my 
 matted locks, and these rags of my garments, 10 whether 
 they become the royal daughter of Agamemnon, and 
 Troy, which remembers once being taken by my sire. 
 
 CHOR. Great is the Goddess ; n but come, and from 
 me receive 12 richly-woven robes to wear, and golden 
 additions of ornament for thy beauty. Dost thou think, 
 that, not honoring the Gods, thou wilt overcome thine 
 enemies by thy tears? Not with groans, but with 
 prayers, worshipping the Gods, wilt thou obtain a happy 
 day, O daughter. 
 
 ELEC. No one of the Gods hears the voice of [ the J 
 wretched, nor the sacrifices offered of old 13 by my sire. 
 Alas! both for the dead, and for the living wanderer, 
 who, I ween, dwells in some other land, wandering 
 wretched to the slaves' hearth, 14 being sprung from a 
 renowned sire. But I myself in a poverty-stricken 
 abode am dwelling, pining away at heart, a fugitive 
 from my ancestral halls, dwelling 15 on the mountain 
 rocks. And my mother dwells wedded in bloody 
 nuptials to another. 
 
 CHOR. Helen, thy mother's sister, has the blame of 
 many ills upon the Greeks and thine house. 
 
 ELEC. Alas ! O women, I cease from my lamenta- 
 tions. Some strangers having a station close by 16 the 
 house rise up from their ambush. Let us escape with 
 flight of foot from the evil-doing men, you indeed by 
 the road-way, but I into the house. 
 
 OR. Remain, O wretched one ; fear not my hand. 
 
 10 Cf.-v<J>a<77xaTO)i> AaKi'Se?. JEsch. Choeph. 34. 
 
 11 i. e. Juno. This is a common formula. See Comm. on Acts xix. 
 
 34, jufyaAT) J)*ApT6jiiis. 
 
 12 xprj(rov da mutuOi xpijcrai mutup accipe. SEIDLER. 
 
 13 Observe the double construction of K\vfiv. 
 
 14 The apparent custom with wanderers, who probably gave their 
 services as menials, as an equivalent for their temporary support 
 and protection. Cf. Alcest. 2. 
 
 15 But read ovpei'as av epijrvas, with Musgr. Dind. 
 
 18 This seems the best way of rendering tyea-riow; in this passage.
 
 221-242.] ELECTRA. 51 
 
 ELEC. O Phoebus Apollo ! I fall on thy knees that I 
 may not die. 
 
 OR. I would fain slay others more hateful than thou. 
 
 ELEC. Away ! touch not what thou shouldst not 
 touch. 
 
 OR. There is not one whom I could more rightly touch. 
 
 ELEC. And wherefore, sword in hand, dost thou lie 
 in ambush for me ? 
 
 OR. Tarry and listen, and perhaps thou wilt not say 
 otherwise. 17 
 
 ELEC. I stand, and am altogether thine, for thou art 
 the more powerful. 
 
 OR. I am come, bearing thee words from thy brother. 
 
 ELEC. O dearest one, is it of him living or dead ? 
 
 OR. He lives ; I fain would first tell thee the good 
 news. 
 
 ELEC. Mayest thou be blest, as a reward for most 
 pleasant words. 
 
 OR. I give this in common for both of us to possess. 
 
 ELEC. Where on earth is the wretched one enduring 
 a wretched banishment ? 
 
 OR. He 18 is wandering, not respecting the law of one 
 city. 19 
 
 ELEC. Ay. perhaps in want of daily sustenance. 
 
 OR. He possesses it indeed, but is weak as an exiled 
 man. 
 
 ELEC. But what message comest thou bearing from 
 him ? 
 
 OR. Whether thou art alive, and, living, what for- 
 tunes thou hast. 
 
 ELEC. Dost thou not first see how dried up is my 
 frame? 
 
 OR. Ay, wasted away with grief, so that I utter 
 a groan. 
 
 ELEC. And my head, and locks savage with being 
 shorn. 
 
 OR. Thy brother, and thy father's death, I suppose, 
 gnaws thee equally ? 
 
 17 Understand iy yw, after rax OVK dAAco? epets. 
 
 18 On <t>9(pfl<T9ai, to wander, see Helen, 780, and Seidler. 
 13 i. e. not having a fixed abode in any city.
 
 52 ELECTRA. [243-266. 
 
 ELEC. Alas ! for what is dearer to me than these ? 
 
 OR. Alas ! alas ! how indeed art thou thought of by 
 thy brother ! 
 
 ELEC. He being absent, not present, is dear to me. 
 
 OR. But through what dost thou dwell here, far away 
 from the city ? 
 
 ELEC. I have wedded, O stranger, a deadly wedding. 
 
 OR. I grieve for your brother. [ Was it ] to one of 
 the Mycenians ? 
 
 ELEC. Not in such wise as my father at some time 
 expected to bestow me. 
 
 OR. Tell me, that having heard I may tell your 
 brother. 
 
 ELEC. Far off from him, I dwell in this abode. 
 
 OR. Some husbandman or neatherd is worthy of such 
 a dwelling. 
 
 ELEC. A man poor, noble, and pious toward me. 
 
 OR. But what piety is present to thine husband ? 
 
 ELEC. He has never ventured to approach my bed. 
 
 OR. Having some divine feeling of chastity, or dis- 
 daining thee ? 
 
 ELEC. He did not think himself worthy to disgrace 
 my parents. 
 
 OR. And how was he not delighted on receiving such 
 a match ? 
 
 ELEC. He thinks, O stranger, that he who gave me 
 had no right [ to do so J. 20 
 
 OR. I understand, lest he should at some time pay 
 the penalty to Orestes. 
 
 ELEC. Fearing this very thing. Besides, he is by na- 
 ture chaste. 
 
 OR. Alas ! thou speakest of a noble fellow, and one 
 that must be well treated. 
 
 ELEC. Ay, if he who now is absent shall ever return 
 to his home. 
 
 OR. But did the mother, who bore thee, suffer this ? 
 
 ELEC. Women, O stranger, are friends to men, not to 
 children. 
 
 OR. But on what account did JEgisthus offer thee 
 this insult ? 
 
 20 Cf. Iph. Aul. 703, Zeus rjyyvriae, KO.I Si&iay' 6 icvpios. SEIDLER.
 
 267-289.] ELECTRA. 53 
 
 ELEC. He wished me to bring forth a weak race, hav- 
 ing given me to such a man. 
 
 OR. That, forsooth, you might not bring forth chil- 
 dren as avengers ? 
 
 ELEC. Sucli things he planned, for which may he pay 
 me the penalty. 
 
 OR. But does thy mother's husband know thou art 
 [ still ] a virgin ? 
 
 ELEC. He does not know ; we have kept this from 
 him in silence. 
 
 OR. Are these who overhear our words friends to thee? 
 
 ELEC. Ay, so as to well conceal my words and thine. 
 
 OR. What could Orestes do, if he should come to this 
 Argos ? 
 
 ELEC. Dost thou ask this ? A foul thing thou sayest, 
 for is it not now the crisis ? 
 
 OR. But on his arrival how might he slay the mur- 
 derers of his father ? 
 
 ELEC. By daring such things as were dared against 
 his father by his enemies. 
 
 OR. And wouldst thou endure to slay thy mother 
 with him ? 
 
 ELEC. Ay, with the same axe by which my father 
 perished. 
 
 OR. Shall tell I these things to him, and is thy resolu- 
 tion firm ? 
 
 ELEC. Oh might I die, having shed the blood of my 
 mother. 
 
 OR. Alas ! would that Orestes were near to hear this. 
 
 ELEC. But, O stranger, I should not know him, if I 
 saw him. 
 
 OR. It is no wonder ; for being young, thou wast 
 separated from him while young. 
 
 ELEC. One only of my friends would know him. 
 
 OR. What, he who they say stole him away from 
 death ? 
 
 ELEC. Ay, the old man, the former psedagogue of my 
 father. 
 
 OR. And has thy dead father obtained a tomb ? 
 
 ELEC. Cast out of the house, he has obtained what 
 he has obtained. 
 5*
 
 54 ELECTRA. [290-333. 
 
 OR. Alas ! What is this thou sayest ? For the per- 
 ception even of out-door evils pains mortals. But speak, 
 that knowing, I may bear to thy brother unpleasant 
 words indeed, but needful to hear. For there is a feel- 
 ing of pity, not at all in the untaught, but in the wise 
 of mankind ; for it is not even free from harm that a 
 too wise cleverness is in the wise. 
 
 CHOR. And I have the same longing at heart as this 
 man. For being far from the city, I know not the ills 
 in the city ; but now I also wish to learn. 
 
 ELEC. I will speak, if it behooves me. And it be- 
 hooves me to tell to a friend the heavy fortunes of me 
 and my father. But since thou hast stirred the subject, 
 I beseech thee, O stranger, to tell Orestes my ills and 
 his. First, indeed, in what garments I live, and with 
 what filth I am weighed down, and under what a roof 
 I dwell, after a royal house ; I myself laboring mine 
 own garments with the shuttle, or I should have my 
 body naked and be destitute ; and myself bearing the 
 river stream, without a feast at holy rites, and deprived 
 of the dance ; and being a virgin, I am denied the 
 rights of women, denied [the bed of] Castor, to whom, 
 being of my family, they affianced me, before he went 
 among the Gods. But my mother sits on a throne, 
 amid Phrygian spoils, and by her seat the Asiatic cap- 
 tives, whom my father took, are standing with their 
 Idsean robes bound with golden clasps. And my father's 
 black blood still putrifies in the house ; but he that 
 slew him, mounting the same chariot as my sire, goes 
 forth, and is puffed up, holding in his blood-stained 
 hands the sceptre, with which he ruled the Greeks. 
 But the dishonored tomb of Agamemnon has never re- 
 ceived libations nor a bough of myrtle ; but the funeral 
 pile is barren 21 of adornments. And the famous spouse 
 (as they call him) of my mother, steeped in drunken- 
 ness, leaps on the tomb, and with stones defaces the 
 stone monument of my sire, and dares to utter this 
 saying against us : " Where is the boy Orestes? Will 
 he, being present, honorably defend thy tomb ? " Thus 
 
 21 x*P' s is here an adjective eprj/nos, x Y IP e ^ v<ra - So \ep<rov<; iral&as 
 for virgins in Soph. CEd. Tyr. 1501. BARNES.
 
 334-360-] ELECTRA. 55 
 
 is he mocked in his absence. But, O stranger, I beseech 
 thee, tell this news. For many things are they, that 
 lay this charge upon me, but I [ am ] their interpreter, 
 my hands, my tongue, and wretched mind, and my 
 shorn hair, and his father. For base is it, if my father 
 indeed captured Troy, but he, being one, is unable to 
 slay one man, being a youth, and of a better sire. 
 
 CHOU. And truly I perceive this person (I mean your 
 husband) approaching the house, having ceased from 
 labor. 
 
 PEA. Hah ! who are these strangers I see at the gate ? 
 And for what reason have they come near this rustic 
 door ? Is it in want of myself ? surely it is unseemly 
 for a woman to be standing with young men. 
 
 ELEC. O dearest one, do not fall into a suspicion of 
 me. But thou shalt know the real story : for these 
 strangers are come to me as heralds of the \vords of 
 Orestes. And do ye, O strangers, excuse what has been 
 said. 
 
 PEA. What say they ? Is the man alive, and does he 
 behold the light ? 
 
 ELEC. He is, at least by report. And they say things 
 not discredited by me. 
 
 PEA. Does he at all remember the ills of thy father 
 and of thee ? 
 
 ELEC. These matters are in [my hopes] . Weak is an 
 exiled man. 
 
 PEA. But what words did they come telling from 
 Orestes ? 
 
 ELEC. He has sent these men as spectators of my 
 woes. 
 
 PEA. Some then they see, and others I suppose thou 
 tellest. 
 
 ELEC. They know [all] ; they have no deficiency of 
 these. 
 
 PEA. Long ago then should the doors have been 
 opened to them. Go into the house ; for ye shall ob- 
 tain in return for your good news a hospitable recep- 
 tion in such things as my house contains. Take the 
 baggage within the house, ye followers, and make no 
 denial, having come as friends from a friend. For
 
 56 ELECTRA. [361-399. 
 
 though I am born poor, I will never show a base-born 
 disposition. 
 
 OR. By the Gods, is this the man, who joins in con- 
 cealing your nuptials, not desiring to disgrace Orestes ? 
 
 ELEC. This man is called the husband of wretched me. 
 
 OR. Alas ! there is no certain mark of manliness ; for 
 the natures of mortals exhibit a confusion. For al- 
 ready have I seen a man who was naught sprung from 
 a noble sire, and good children [sprung] from bad 
 [fathers], and hunger in the spirit of a rich man, and 
 a great mind in a poor body. How then will any one, 
 distinguishing, judge aright ? By wealth ? Tlien he 
 will make use of an unjust judge. Or by those who 
 have nothing ? But poverty possesses [this] disease ; 
 through want it teaches a man evil. But shall I turn 
 to [the consideration of] arms ? But who, looking to the 
 spear, could testify what person is good ? It is best to 
 leave these things to take their own course. For this 
 man being neither great among the Argives, nor, on the 
 other hand puffed up with the reputation of his house, 
 and being among the multitude, has been found most 
 excellent. Will ye not be wise, who wander full of 
 vain opinions ? and by association and manners judge 
 of the well-born among mortals. For such men as 
 these well administer cities and houses ; but flesh, des- 
 titute of sense, are the ornament of the forum. For 
 neither does the stronger arm better abide the spear 
 than the weak ; but this is in nature and in valor. 
 But, whether present or not present, the son of Aga- 
 memnon, for whose sake we are come, is worthy, let 
 us accept the hospitality of this house. We must go 
 within this dwelling, servants. For I would rather 
 have a willing, though poor host, than a rich one [un- 
 willing]. I therefore accept this man's reception into his 
 house. But I would have wished that your brother pros- 
 pering could have led me into prospering abodes. But 
 perchance he may come ; for the oracles of Loxias are 
 firm, but to the divination of men I bid adieu. 
 
 CHOK. Now, more than before, O Electra. we are 
 warmed at heart with joy ; for perhaps, though slowly 
 progressing, fortune may [at length] settle well.
 
 400-436-] ELECTRA. 57 
 
 ELEC. O hapless one, knowing the scantiness of thine 
 house, why hast thou received these strangers superior 
 to thee ? 
 
 PEA. But what? If the}' are, as they seem to be, 
 noble, will they not be equally content with little or 
 not 'i -- 
 
 ELEC. Since then you, being in scant circumstances, 
 have fallen into this mistake, go to the aged guardian 
 of my dear father, who, around the river Tanaus,' 23 that 
 divides the confines of the Argive territory and the 
 Spartan land, tends his flocks, having been cast out 
 from the city. And bid him, having come homeward, 
 to go and furnish something as a banquet for the 
 strangers. He will be delighted, and will offer prayers 
 to the Gods, when he hears that the boy is living whom 
 he once saved. For-we shall not obtain any thing from 
 my mother out of my ancestral house, and we should 
 be telling bitter news, should the wretched woman 
 learn that Orestes is alive. 
 
 PEA. But, if it seems thus to thee, I will bear this 
 message to the old man. But go thou into the house as 
 quickly as possible, and make ready the matters within. 
 A woman indeed, if willing, can find many things to 
 bring for a banquet. And there is even now so much 
 at home, so as to satisfy these men with food for one 
 day at least. But when my mind falls upon this sub- 
 ject, I consider how great a power wealth has, both to 
 bestow on strangers, and by expense to preserve one's 
 body when fallen into sickness ; but for one's daily food 
 it comes to little. For every man once filled, rich or 
 poor, bears an equality. 
 
 CHOR. Ye renowned ships, which once on a time 
 came to Troy with numberless oars, leading the 
 dance with the daughters of Nereus, where the flute- 
 loving dolphin leaped, whirled around the prows 
 with dark blue beaks, escorting the son of Thetis, 
 Achilles, light as to the leaping of his feet, with Aga- 
 
 22 Cf. Virg. JEn. viii. 364, " Aude. hospes, contemnere opes : et te 
 quoque dignum Finge deo : rebusque veni non asper egenis." 
 
 23 Or Tanos. It flows down from the mountain Parnon, through 
 the Argive territory, into the Gulf of Thyrea.
 
 5 ELECTRA. [437-481. 
 
 memnon, to the Trojan shores of Simois. And the 
 daughters of Nereus, quitting the Euboeaii strand, bore 
 the toils of shield [and] arms [forged] on the golden 
 anvils of Vulcan, both over Pehon, and over the sacred 
 groves of Ossa's height, 24 the nymph-dwelt summits f 
 sought the virgins,! 25 where the equestrian sire 2j 
 trained up the marine son of Thetis, a light for Greece, 
 Achilles, swift of foot, for the Atridae. And I have 
 heard from some one, who came from Troy to the 
 Nauplian ports, that in the circle of thy renowned 
 shield, O son of Thetis, such effigies as these, Phrygian 
 terrors, 27 were sculptured. On the circumference, 
 indeed, of the shield, Perseus, [raised] above 28 the sea 
 with winged slippers, was holding the throat-cut terror 
 of the Gorgon, with Hermes, the messenger of Jove, the 
 rustic 29 son of Maia. But in the midst of the shield the 
 radiant circle of the sun shone with his winged steeds, 
 and the ethereal dances of the stars. 30 the Pleiades, 
 Hyades, terrible 31 to the eyes of Hector. But upon 
 the golden-wrought crest Sphinxes were bearing their 
 song-obtained prey in their claws. And on his cuirass 
 the fiery lioness 32 was hastening in course [after] the 
 Pirenian horse ^ with her hoofs having beheld it. But 
 in a bloody fight four horses were rushing along, and 
 round their backs the black dust went forth. The king 
 of such spear-laboring men didst thou slay, thy hus- 
 band, O evil-minded daughter of Tyndarus. Wherefore 
 the powers of heaven will send thee down to death, and 
 yet, yet shall I behold the blood poured out by the 
 sword beneath thy gore-streaming neck. 
 
 24 Seidler quotes Suidas, itpv^vai, al aitpai. 
 
 25 This is thoroughly corrupt. See Seidler's note. 
 
 26 i. e. Peleus. 
 
 17 Although SeifjLOLTa. may with propriety refer to the images of the 
 Gorgon, yet it was not a Phrygian wonder, nor does the term 
 apply to the rest of the description. I think Euripides wrote 
 SeiyndTa. images. 
 
 28 Understand aepOeVra. 
 
 M Because educated in Arcadia. See Seidler. 
 
 30 See my note on JEsch. Ag. 4. The reader may compare II. 2. 
 486 sqq. with Virg. JEn. i. 348 ; iii. 516 ; Georg. i. 138. 
 
 31 Literally, " putting to flight." 
 
 32 The Chimasra. 
 
 33 Pegasus.
 
 482-522.] ELECTRA. 59 
 
 OLD MAN. Where, where is my youthful, honored 
 mistress, the daughter of Agamemnon, whom once I 
 nurtured ? How steep an approach it is to these dwell- 
 ings for me, a wrinkled old man, to draw nigh with 
 my foot ! But nevertheless I must needs drag on my 
 bent spine and crooked knee. O daughter, (for I but 
 just now behold thee near the house,) I am come bear- 
 ing to thee ihis young offspring of my fold, having 
 taken it from the flocks, and garlands, 34 and cheese 
 which I have taken out of the presses, and this old 
 store of Bacchus, redolent of fragrance, little indeed, 
 but still 'tis sweet to pour a cup of this into a weaker 
 draught. Let some one go and bear these into the 
 house for the strangers. But I, having bedewed mine 
 eyes with tears, would fain wipe them away with this 
 my tattered garment. 
 
 ELEC. But wherefore. O aged man, hast thou thine 
 eye thus wet ? Have mine afflictions after a long in- 
 terval awakened thj- remembrance ? Or dost thou be- 
 moan the unhappy exile of Orestes, and my sire, whom 
 once holding in thine arms, thou didst in vain nurture 
 for thee and thy friends ? 
 
 OLD M. In vain. But nevertheless this at least I 
 could not refrain from. 35 For I came to his tomb, 
 aside from the road, and falling down. I wept, having 
 met with solitude, and I poured out libations, having 
 opened the skin which I bear for the strangers, and 
 set myrtle garlands around the tomb. But upon the 
 pile itself I saw the victim, a sable-fleeced sheep, and 
 the blood but lately shed, and shorn locks of auburn 
 hair. And I marvelled, O daughter, whoever of men 
 had dared to come to the tomb ; for it certainly was 
 none of the Argives. But perchance, I think, thy 
 brother has come privily, and on his coming has hon- 
 ored the miserable tomb of his sire. And do thou ex- 
 amine the hair, placing it against thy hair, whether 
 the tint of the shorn tresses is the same. For in those 
 who have the same father's blood, most parts of the 
 body are wont to be naturally alike. 
 
 84 Recall the old reading ore^ai-ous, with Heath, Dind. rreAai-ovs 
 is Jacob's conjecture. 
 
 85 Referring to what immediately follows.
 
 Go ELECTRA, [523-555. 
 
 ELEC. Thou speakest words unworthy of a wise man, 
 O aged one, if thou tliinkest that my very bold brother 
 would come by stealth into this land through fear of 
 ^Egistbus. Then how will the lock of hair 36 agree, 
 the one belonging to a well-born man brought up in 
 wrestling exercises, but the other to a female [brought 
 up] amidst wool-combing '? It is impossible. And thou 
 wilt find similar hair among many persons, though 
 not sprung from the same blood, old man. 
 
 OLD M. But do thou, stepping in his track, 37 consider 
 the print of his slipper, whether it is of the same meas- 
 ure with thy foot, O child. 
 
 ELEC. But how could there be an impression of feet 
 upon the stony surface of the ground ? And if it were 
 so, the foot of a brother and sister would not be equal, 
 of a man and woman ; but the male prevails. 
 
 OLD M. Is there no [evidence] , by which, supposing 
 your brother to have come to the land, you might dis- 
 cern the woof of thy shuttle, 38 in which I once con- 
 cealed him, lest he should die. 
 
 ELEC. Knowest thou not, when Orestes was banished 
 from the land, that I was a mere child ? But if I did 
 weave the vest, how would he, being then a child, be 
 now wearing the same garments, unless the robes grew 
 along with the body ? But either some stranger, pity- 
 ing his [undecked] tomb, or some one of this land, 
 obtaining [the opportunity of] darkness, has shorn his 
 own hair. 
 
 OLD M. But where are the strangers ? for I wish to 
 see, and ask them concerning thy brother. 
 
 ELEC. Hither with quick step they are coming out 
 from the house. 
 
 OLD M. And they are noble indeed, but this is super- 
 ficial ; for many born noble, are base ; but neverthe- 
 less I say to the strangers, hail. 
 
 OR. Hail thou ! O aged man. Of what friend is this 
 man the ancient relic, Electra? 
 
 ELEC. He nurtured my sire, O stranger. 
 
 36 This is a sly hit at ^Eschylus. Cf. Choeph. 187 sqq. 
 57 Cf. Choeph. 205 sqq. Choeph. 233 sqq.
 
 55^577.] ELECTRA. 6l 
 
 OR. What sayest thou ? Was this he who privily 
 removed thy brother ? 
 
 ELEC. This is he who saved him, if he indeed is yet 
 in being. 
 
 OR. Ah ! why has he gazed on me, as though view- 
 ing the clear stamp of silver ? Does he liken me to any 
 one? 
 
 ELEC. Perchance he is pleased at looking on thee, a 
 compeer of Orestes. 
 
 OR. Ay, of a well-loved man ; but wherefore does he 
 turn his step around me ? 
 
 ELEC. I too marvel as I behold this, O stranger. 
 
 OLD M. O revered daughter Electra, adore the 
 deities. 
 
 ELEC. In respect of what things absent or present ? 
 
 OLD M. For holding the cherished treasure, which a 
 God shows thee. 
 
 ELEC. Lo ! I call upon the Gods. Or what dost thou 
 mean indeed, old man ? 
 
 OLD M. Look then upon this most beloved one, O 
 child. 
 
 ELEC. Long since I fear lest thou art no longei in 
 thy right senses. 
 
 OLD M. Am I not in my right senses, beholding thy 
 brother ? 
 
 ELEC. How sayest thou this incredible saying, O 
 aged man ? 
 
 OLD M. That in this man I see Orestes, the son of 
 Agamemnon. 
 
 ELEC. Perceiving what indication, by which I may 
 be persuaded? 
 
 OLD M. A scar near upon his forehead, by which 
 once in his father's house he, falling, was stained with 
 blood, pursuing with thee a hind. 
 
 ELEC. How sayest thou ? I see indeed the evidence 
 of the fall. 
 
 OLD M. And then dost thou delay to fall upon those 
 most dear ? 
 
 ELEC. But no longer so, O aged man ; for in mind I 
 am persuaded by thy proofs. O thou who appearest 
 after a long season, unexpectedly I hold thee. 
 6
 
 62 ELECTRA. [578-615. 
 
 On. Ay, and by me thou art held after a long season. 
 
 ELEC. Never did I expect it. 
 
 OR. Nor did I hope it. 
 
 ELEC. Art thou he ? 
 
 OR. Ay, thine only ally, if indeed I can but draw up 
 [successfully] the net after which I am going. But I 
 have a good trust ; or it behooves one no longer to 
 think that there are Gods, if unjust deeds get the ad- 
 vantage of justice. 
 
 CHOR. Thou hast come, thou hast come, O day, after 
 a long time ; thou hast shone out, thou hast shone forth 
 a clear torch to the city, which wretched during along 
 exile from an ancestral home has come wandering. 
 Some God, some God again brings on our victory. 
 Uplift your hands, uplift your voice, s.end forth pray- 
 ers to the Gods, that thy brother may enter the city 
 with good fortune, with good fortune. 
 
 OR. Be it so. I indeed have the sweet pleasure of 
 embraces, but in time again we shall bestow them. 
 But do thou say, O aged man, (for thou hast come in 
 season.) by what doing shall I punish the murderer of 
 my father, and my mother, partaker of an unholy mar- 
 riage. Is there aught of friends well-disposed toward 
 me ? Or have I prepared all things, according to for- 
 tunes? With whom shall I confederate? By night. 
 or by day? By what road shall I turn against mine 
 enemies ? 
 
 OLD M. O son, to thee unhappy no one is a friend. 
 For this thing is [indeed] a discovery, to share good 
 and evil in common. But do thou (for thou art ut- 
 terly undone from the very foundations, in respect to 
 thy friends, nor hast thou left any hope) know this, 
 hearing from me. In thy hand and fortune thou hast all 
 the chance of recovering thy ancestral house and city. 
 
 OR. By doing then what, shall we reach this end ? 
 
 OLD M. By slaying the son of Thyestes and thy 
 mother. 
 
 OR. I am come for this crown [of success] , and how 
 shall I obtain it ? 
 
 OLD M. Not by going indeed within the walls, even 
 if you wished.
 
 616-638.] ELECTRA. 63 
 
 OR. Is he protected by the guards and their right 
 hands ? 
 
 OLD M. Thou hast hit it ; for he fears you, and sleeps 
 not in certainty. 
 
 OR. Well ! do thou then henceforward advise, old 
 man. 
 
 OLD M. And do thou hear me ; for something has 
 just come into my thoughts. 
 
 OR. Mayest thou give some good advice, and I hear 
 it. 
 
 OLD M. I saw ^Egisthus as I was coming slowly 
 hither 
 
 OR. I attend to what you have said. In what place ? 
 
 OLD M. Near upon these horse-pasturing meadows. 
 
 OR. Doing what ? For I see help out of things inex- 
 tricable. 
 
 OLD M. He was preparing a banquet for the nymphs, 
 as it seemed to me. 
 
 OR. As a pavement for his son's nurturing, or for 
 future offspring ? 
 
 OLD M. I know but one thing ; he had armed himself 
 for the slaughter of a bull. 
 
 OR. With how many companions ? Or was he alone 
 with his domestics? 
 
 OLD M. No Argive was present, but his own band [of 
 servants]. 
 
 OR. Is there anyone who will know me, when he sees 
 me, old man ? 
 
 OLD M. His servants only are present, who have never 
 seen thee. 
 
 OR. But would they be friendly to us, if we prevailed ? 
 
 OLD M. Ay, for this is peculiar to slaves, and useful 
 to thee. 
 
 OR. How. then, should I even approach him? 
 
 OLD M. Going [to a place] where he will see thee, as 
 lie is saci'ificing. 
 
 OR. He is in the fields by the way itself, as it seems. 
 
 OLD M. Ay, from whence espying thee, he will invite 
 you to share his banquet. 
 
 OR. In truth a bitter fellow-banqueter, if God be 
 willing.
 
 64 ELECTRA. [639-659. 
 
 OLD M. Observe henceforward according to the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 OR. Well hast thou spoken. But where is my mother? 
 
 OLD M. At Argos ; but she will come to the drinking 
 and banquet. 39 
 
 OR. But wherefore did not my mother set out at once 
 with her husband ? 
 
 OLD M. She was left, dreading the reproach of the 
 citizens. 
 
 OR. I understand. She knows that she is suspected 
 by the city. 
 
 OLD M. So it is ; for an impious woman is hated. 
 
 OR. How then shall I slay at once both her and this 
 fellow ? 
 
 ELEC. I indeed will contrive the death of my mother. 
 
 OR. And truly fortune shall set that matter right. 
 
 ELEC. Let then this man help us, being two. 
 
 OLD M. This shall be. But how wilt thou devise death 
 for thy mother? 
 
 ELEC. [Go and say thus, old man, to Clytsemnestra.] 
 Bear word that I am brought to bed in labor of a male. 
 
 OLD M. Whether having brought forth some time 
 since, or lately? 
 
 ELEC. Ten suns ; during which the woman in labor 
 is purified. 
 
 OLD M. But what in truth does this tend to thy 
 mother's death ? 
 
 ELEC. She will come, when she has heard of my child- 
 birth sickness. 
 
 OLD M. Whence ? What dost thou think she cares, 
 O child ? 
 
 ELEC. Yea, and she will bemoan the dignity 40 of my 
 offspring. 
 
 OLD M. Perhaps so ; I lead thy discourse back to the 
 point of turning. 
 
 39 But we must evidently correct ev raxei, with Reiske. n-oo-et 
 caine from the following line. If correct, wdo-ei is here " drink- 
 ing," as Barnes observes. 
 
 40 i. e. their fallen condition. But I think Woodhull is nearer the 
 sense : 
 
 " Yes, and weep 
 To learn I am become a happy mother."
 
 660-692.] ELECTRA. 65 
 
 ELEC. It is plain that she will perish when she has 
 come. 
 
 OLD M. And truly let her come to the very gates of 
 the dwelling. 
 
 ELEC. Is it not a little thing to turn to Hades ? 41 
 
 OLD M. "Would that I might die, having sometime 
 beheld this. 
 
 ELEC. Then first of all lead the way for this person, 
 old man. 
 
 OLD M. [What to] where .^Egisthus is now sacrificing 
 to the Gods ? 
 
 ELEC. Then meeting my mother, deliver my message. 
 
 OLD M. Ay, so that it shall seem to be spoken by thy 
 own mouth. 
 
 ELEC. Tis thy task now. Thou are allotted first to 
 begin the slaughter. 
 
 OR. I will go, if any one will be leader of the way. 
 
 OLD M. And in truth I will escort thee not unwill- 
 ingly. 
 
 OR. O thou ancestral Jove, putter to flight of mine 
 enemies, pity us, for we have suffered pitiable things. 
 
 ELEC. Ay, pity those who are born thy descendants. 
 
 OR. And thou, Juno, who rulest over the Mycenian 
 altars, grant us the victory, if we crave just things. 
 
 ELEC. Give indeed to us an avenging power for our 
 sire. 
 
 OR. And thou who impiously dost dwell below the 
 earth, O father, [and thou queen Earth, to whom I 
 stretch forth my hands,] aid, aid these thy dearest 
 children. Now come, taking all the dead as allies, as 
 many as with thee destroj'ed the Phrygians with the 
 spear and as many as hate impious assassins. Hast thou 
 heard, O thou that hast suffered dreadful things from 
 my mother ? 
 
 ELEC. Father hears all, I know ; but it is time to go. 
 And to thee I proclaim moreover that ^gisthus must 
 die. So that, if in contest thou shalt fall a deadly fall, 
 I also am dead ; nor speak of me as living ; for I will 
 smite my head with a two-edged sword. But going 
 
 41 Seidler : '' OVKOVV tTfiiicpbv (cori") Tpa.TTf<r0a.t roSe (SijA.o>OTi o Ae'ycis 
 EI2 AOMQN irvAaf, utrre clvai) EI2 'AIAOY. 1 am but half satisfied. 
 
 6*
 
 66 ELECTRA. [693-716. 
 
 within the dwelling, I will make ready, so that, should 
 prosperous tidings of thee arrive, the whole house shall 
 shout aloud ; but if thou diest, the contrary of these 
 things will be. I tell thee this. 
 
 OR. I know all. 
 
 ELEC. Therefore it behooves thee to be a man. But do 
 you, O women, well light up the shout of this contest. 42 
 But I will keep guard, carrying in my hand a ready 
 spear. For never, overcome by my enemies, will I pay 
 the penalty for my body to be abused. 
 
 CHOR. A report remains in the ancient traditions of 
 the Argive mountains, 43 that once on a time Pan, the 
 guardian of the fields, breathing forth a sweet-sounding 
 song on the well-compacted reeds, conducted from its 
 tender mother a ram with beauteous fleece of gold. 
 And standing on a rocky bench, a herald exclaimed, 
 " To the forum, to the forum come, O Mycenians, about 
 to behold prodigies, [and] fearful visions of happy 
 rulers." And choirs of the sons of Atreus adorned the 
 dwelling, and the gold-decked temples 44 were opened, 
 and on the altars through the city the fire offered by 
 the Argives blazed. And the pipe, the minister of the 
 Muses, sent forth a most beauteous sound, and delight- 
 ful songs increased concerning the golden lamb, as 
 praises of Thyestes. 45 For having seduced the dear 
 wife 46 of Atreus to clandestine nuptials, he bears off 
 
 " Ilvpo-euVre, i. q. a^atVeTe, quasi hodie diceres, send me intelli- 
 gence by telegraph. DOBREE. 
 
 13 Matthiae would join aToAas vn-b jUaTe'pos, with XP- "P I/a wopeOo-at, 
 
 making vno = tnrAc, as vnb irrepuv o-Trao-o?. Andr. 442. Regarding the 
 legend of the golden fleece, see Orest. 812 sqq. " Iph. Taur. 196. 
 The following passages are important : Senec. Thyest. 284 sqq., 
 ' Est Pelopis altis nobile in stabulis pecus, Arcanus aries, ductor 
 opulenti gregis ; Hujus per omne curpus effuso coma Dependet 
 auro ; cujus e tergo, novi Aurata reges sceptra Tantalici gerunt ; 
 Possessor hujus regnat : hunc tantse domus Fortuna sequitur." 
 A poet in Cicer. de N. D. iii.. " Addo hue, quodmihi portento coeles- 
 tum pater Prodigium misit, regni stabilimen mei ; Agnum inter 
 pecudes aurea clarum coma. Quondam Thyestem clepere ausum 
 esse e regia : Qua in re adjutricem conjugem cepit sibi." 
 
 44 I see little difficulty in understanding Svfj.e\ai as put for the 
 temples themselves, a part, for the whole. 
 
 45 But read w? <f<rri Ao-yo?, Ove'o-Tou, with Seidl. Dind. 
 
 46 Aerope. Cf. Serv. on ^n. xi. 202. Hygin. Fab. 86. Columna 
 on Enuius, Fragm. p. 2~2 sq. ed. Hessel.
 
 7 1 7-7 5 s -] ELECTRA. 67 
 
 the prodigy to his home, and returning to the assembly, 
 he proclaims that he possessed the golden-fleeced horned 
 flock in his dwelling. Then indeed, then Jove changed 
 the shining paths of the stars, and the light of the Sun, 
 and the white face of Morn, and to the western side he 
 drives [them] with warm flames glittering from heaven 
 and the damp clouds [go] toward the north, and the 
 diy seats of Hammon are parched for lack of moisture, 
 deprived of the fairest showers from Jove. 47 It is said 
 (but with me, at least, it has little credit) that the 
 golden-visaged sun turned away, having changed his 
 warm station through a mortal misfortune, on account 
 of mortal justice. 48 But stories terrible to mortals are 
 a gain for the worship of the Gods ; of which thou being 
 unmindful, hast slain thy husband, thou joint mother 49 
 of noble children. 50 Hold, hold, my friends, heard ye a 
 noise ? or has a vain opinion possessed me, like as the 
 nether thundering of Jove ? Behold ! these sounds are 
 wafted not indistinct. My mistress Electra, pass out of 
 this dwelling. 
 
 ELEC. My friends, what is the matter ? To what 
 peril are we come ? 
 
 CHOR. I know but one thing, I hear a shriek of death. 
 
 ELEC. I also heard it, far off indeed, but yet [I heard 
 it]. 
 
 CHOR. Ay, for the sound comes a long distance, and 
 still clear. 
 
 ELEC. Is it the groan of an Argive, or of my friends ? 
 
 CHOR. I know not ; for all the tone of the cry is 
 confused. 
 
 ELEC. Thou enjoinest this as a death to me ; why do 
 we hesitate? 
 
 CIIOR. Stop ! that thou mayest clearly learn thy 
 fortunes. 
 
 AtdOcc = '< Aib?, (Cf. Hel. 2, Aia? ^cucaSos. Alcaeus, Fragm. 1,) 
 from the supposition that rain was sent by Jove. 
 
 48 i. e. the Thyestean banquet, in revenge for the seduction of 
 Aerope. 
 
 49 Merely equivalent to yevereipa, unless we understand, with Mus- 
 grave, " quce simul procreavit, i. e. simul cum marito." 
 
 50 Electra and Orestes.
 
 68 ELECTRA. [769-790. 
 
 ELEC. It cannot be. We are vanquished ; for where 
 are the messengers ? 
 
 CHOR. They will come ; it is no easy task to kill a 
 king. 
 
 MESSENGER. O ye victorious Mycenian virgins, I pro- 
 nounce to all his friends that Orestes is victorious, and 
 that the murderer of Agamemnon, ^gisthus, lies on the 
 ground ; and it is meet to adore the Gods. 
 
 ELEC. And who art thou? How dost thou signify 
 to me things certain ? 
 
 MESS. Knowest thou not that thou beholdest in me 
 an attendant on thy brother. 
 
 ELEC. O dearest one, through fear indeed I had a 
 difficulty in recognizing thy face ; but now indeed I 
 know thee. What sayest thou ? Is my father's hated 
 murderer dead ? 
 
 MESS. He is dead ; I tell thee twice, what thou in- 
 deed wishest. 
 
 CHOR. O Gods, and Justice, that beholdest all things, 
 thou hast come at last. 
 
 ELEC. But in what manner and by what system of 
 slaughter he slew the son of Thyestes I desire to learn. 
 
 MESS. After we had withdrawn our footsteps from 
 these dwellings, we entered upon a dividing wagon-road, 
 where was the renowned king of the Mycenians. And 
 he chanced to be walking in his well-watered gardens, 
 cropping for his head branches of tender myrtle. And 
 on seeing us, he cries out : O strangers, who are ye ? 
 Whence come ye, and of what land are ye?" And 
 Orestes replied : " We are Thessalians, and are come to 
 Alpheus in order to sacrifice to Olympian Jove." And 
 ^Egisthus, hearing this, speaks thus : " Now indeed 
 ye must be as my hearth-sharers in the feast ; for 1 hap- 
 pen to be sacrificing a bull to the Nymphs ; but having 
 risen in the morning from bed ye will go the same 
 way. 51 But let us go within the house." And. thus 
 saying, he took us by the hand, and led us on ; nor was 
 it right to refuse. But when we were within the house, 
 he speaks thus : "Let some one with all speed bring 
 
 01 The sense is, " you will come to the same thing," i. e. you will 
 not be hindered on your way.
 
 791-826.] ELECTRA. 69 
 
 lavers for the guests, that they may stand round the 
 altar near the lustral vessels." But Orestes answered : 
 " We are but lately purified in pure baths from river 
 streams. But if it befit strangers to join with the citi- 
 zens in sacrifice we are ready, king ^gisthus, and re- 
 fuse not." This conference then they both broke off 
 in the middle ; and the servants, having laid down the 
 spears, the protection of their master, all set their hands 
 to work. Some bore a vessel to catch the blood ; others 
 uplifted the canisters ; others kindled the fire, and 
 placed the caldrons round the hearth ; and the whole 
 roof echoed. But the partner of thy mother's bed, tak- 
 ing the salted cakes, cast them on the altar, speaking 
 such words as these : " Ye Nymphs of the rock, [grant] 
 that I may often sacrifice a bull, as also my wife within 
 the house, the daughter of Tyndarus, faring as we do 
 now ; but that my enemies [may fare] ill "- meaning 
 Orestes and thee. But my master prayed the opposite 
 not speaking aloud that he might recover his ancestral 
 home. And ^Egistluis, taking a straight knife out of 
 the canister, cut off [some of] the bullock's hair, and 
 placed it on the pure flame with his right hand ; then 
 he slew the bullock 011 the shoulders of the servants, 
 as they lifted it with their hands, and speaks thus to 
 thy brother: "They boast that this is among the 
 noble deeds of the Thessalians, to dissect a bull skilfully, 
 and to rein in horses. Take the steel, O stranger, and 
 prove that the report concerning the Thessalians is 
 true." But he having seized in his hands the well- 
 wrought Doric blade, stripping off the well-fastened 
 robe from his shoulders, took Pylades, indeed, as an 
 assistant in the toil, and pushed away the domestics. 
 Then seizing the foot of the bullock, he laid bare the 
 white flesh, stretching out his hand, and more quickly 
 stripped off the skin than a horse courser could finish 
 twice twelve hundi-ed paces. 52 and he opened the flank. 
 And ^Egisthus, taking the entrails in his hands, exam- 
 ined them. But the lobe was not in the entrails ; 
 and the entrance [of the liver] and the receptacle of the 
 
 bile denoted evil attacks upon the searcher. And he 
 
 / 
 "See Barnes.
 
 70 ELECTRA. [827-866. 
 
 indeed knit his brow ; but my master asked, " Where- 
 fore art thou sad, O stranger ? " [He replied] : "I fear 
 some foreign plot ; for the son of Agamemnon is most 
 detested, and is hostile to mine house." But he replied : 
 " Dost thou dread the stratagem of a wanderer, being 
 ruler over the city? Will not some one exchange for 
 us a Phthian chopper ^ instead of a Dorian, that we 
 may celebrate the banquet of inspection 'i 54 I will 
 cleave open the breast." 56 Then holding he cleaves it ; 
 and ^gisthus, taking the entrails, 56 contemplated them, 
 having separated them. But as he stooped down, thy 
 brother, standing on tip-toe, smote him on the spine, 
 and broke the joints of his back. And all his body was 
 convulsed up and down, and he howled, dying with dif- 
 ficulty from the death-blow. But when the servants 
 beheld it, they forthwith rushed to arms, being many 
 to fight against two ; but through their valor Pylades 
 and Orestes stood brandishing their weapons before their 
 faces. And he (Orestes) said : " I am not come as 
 an enemy to this city, nor to my subjects, but I. the 
 hapless Orestes, have avenged myself on the murderer 
 of my sire. Slay me not then, ye ancient domestics of 
 my sire." But they, after they heard his words, re- 
 strained their spears ; he was recognized by some aged 
 veteran in the house. And straightway they crown the 
 head of thy brother, rejoicing, shouting. And he comes 
 to thee to show the head, not bearing that of the Gor- 
 gon, but of him thou hatest, ^Egisthus. But blood 
 for blood has come upon him, who now dies, as the 
 bitter payment for a debt. 
 
 CHOR. Place thy step for a dance, O dear one. like a 
 fawn, with delight liglitly moving its bounding aloft. 
 Thy brother conquers. 57 having accomplished a garland- 
 bearing better than by the streams of Alpheus. But 
 chant a strain of victory for mv dance. 
 
 ELEC. O light, O splendor of the four-horsed sun, O 
 
 M Because Orestes pretended to be a Thessalian. 
 54 With irevarepiav understand Ooivyv or OvaCav. 
 65 Called a tortoise from its similar shape. REISKE. 
 60 i. e. of the breast, the heart, lunes. etc. 
 87 T read VIK with Canter, Musgr., Dind.
 
 857-902.] ELECTRA. 71 
 
 earth, and night, 58 which I before beheld, now mine eye 
 and ye folds [of heaven] 59 now free since ^Egisthus, my 
 father's murderer, has fallen. Come, I must bring out 
 whatever ornaments for the hair I [possess] 6 and my 
 dwellings conceal, O friends, and I will crown the head 
 of my victorious brother. 
 
 CHOR. Do you then bring forth ornaments for the 
 head : but on our part the dance loved by the Muses 
 shall proceed. Now our former well-beloved kings rule 
 our land, having justly put down the unjust ; and let a 
 shout go forth, attuned to joy. 
 
 ELEC. O thou with a glorious victory, born of a sire vic- 
 torious in the war under Troy, Orestes, receive fillets for 
 the locks of thine hair. For thou art come to thy home, 
 not as having run an useless contest of six plethra. 61 but 
 having slain the enemy ^Egisthus, who destroyed thine 
 and my sire. And do thou, Pylades, a shield compan- 
 ion, [and] nursling of a most pious man, 62 receive a 
 garland from my hand ; for thou too bearest an equal 
 share of the contest with this man ; and may ye ever 
 appear to me fortunate. 
 
 OR. Think in the first place, Electra, that the Gods 
 are the leaders of this fortune, and then commend me, 
 the minister of the Gods and of fortune. For I am come, 
 having slain ^Egisthus not in word, but in deed ; and 
 to give any one the power of knowing this clearly, I 
 bring the dead himself to thee ; whom, if thou wilt, 
 expose as a prey to wild beasts, or, fixing to a stake, stick 
 him down, a booty for birds, the children of the sky. 
 For he is now thy slave, having before been called thy 
 master. 
 
 ELEC. I am ashamed, yet wish to speak. 
 
 OR. What is it, speak ; since thou art far off from 
 fear. 
 
 ELEC. [I fear] to insult the dead, lest some one smite 
 me with invidiousness. 
 
 58 i. e. her former misery. 
 
 59 This is but harsh, and" Reiske's anirvoai is very elegant. How- 
 ever, Euripides is very fond of the other expression. 
 
 60 Read x<" for lay with Canter, Dindorf . 
 81 i. e. a stadium = a furlong:. 
 
 62 Strophius, the Phocian. jrat'Sev/u.a = TTCUS.
 
 72 ELECTRA. [903-942. 
 
 OR. There is no one who could blame thee. 
 
 ELEC. Our city is hard to please, and fond of slander. 
 
 OR. Speak, if thou desirest, sister ; for we have en- 
 tered upon enmity with this person upon terms that 
 admit of no treaty. 
 
 ELEC. (to the corpse of ^Egisthus) Well then, what 
 beginning of reproaches shall I address to thee ? What 
 end? what middle discourse shall I draw put? And 
 truly from the dawn I never ceased muttering what I 
 wished to say to thy face, had I indeed been free from 
 my former fears. No\v then I am so ; and I will repay 
 thee those words of ill which I would have said to thee 
 living. Thou didst destroy me, and, naught injured, 
 didst make me and this man bereft of a dear father, 
 and didst shamefully marry my mother, and murder 
 her husband, the leader of the Grecian army, not hav- 
 ing [thyself] gone against the Phrygians. And to 
 such an extent of folly didst thou come, that thou didst 
 hope to find my mother not wicked toward thee, but 
 thou didst injure my father's bed. But let a man know, 
 when after having corrupted a man's wife with secret 
 nuptials, he is subsequently compelled to take her, that 
 he is a wretched being, if he thinks that she in the one 
 case will be unmindful of chastity, but will be mindful 
 of it with him. And most misei'ably didst thou live, 
 not thinking to live ill ; for thou knewest indeed that 
 thou hadst made an unholy marriage, and my mother 
 [ knew] that she in thee possessed an impious husband. 
 But being an evil pair, ye obtained your fortune, she 
 thine evil one, and thou hers. And among all the Ar- 
 gives thou didst hear such %vords as these: "See that 
 woman's slave," not " the husband's wife. ' Butsurely 
 this is base, for the woman, not the man, to rule the 
 household ; and I loathe those children, who are named 
 in the city not from the male sire, but from the mother. 
 For when a man marries a conspicuous and superior 
 match, of the man there is no account, but of the wo- 
 man. Which thing has most deceived thee, not know- 
 ing it. Thou didst boast to be somebody, relying on 
 thy wealth ; but wealth is naught, except to tarry with 
 us for a little time. But nature is stable ; not money :
 
 943-97I-] ELECTRA. 73 
 
 since the one ever remaining uplifts her head ; but 
 wealth unjust, and dwelling with the foolish, is wont 
 to flit from the house, having flourished for a short sea- 
 son. But for the matters regarding women I am silent ; 
 for it is not seemly for a virgin to speak [ of them ], and 
 knowingly I will but hint. Thou didst wanton, as pos- 
 sessing, forsooth, a regal palace, and as being firm in 
 beauty. But may my husband be he, who has not the 
 face of a virgin, but of manly manner. For their chil- 
 dren depend on Mars ; but mere prettiness is an orna- 
 ment only in the dance. Perdition seize thee, ignorant 
 of all ; for which, in time detected, thou hast paid the 
 penalty, being thus an evil-doer. Let not a man, if he 
 run the first course well, think he will win the victory, 
 before he comes nigh the line, and turns the end of 
 life. 
 
 CHOR. He has done dreadful deeds, and a dreadful 
 retribution has he paid to thee and this man. For a 
 mighty strength does justice possess. 
 
 OR. Be it so. It behooves you, servants, to bear the 
 body of this man within, and to give it to darkness, 
 that when my mother comes, she may not see the corse 
 before [ her own ] death. 
 
 ELEC. Stop ! Let us throw ourselves upon another 
 topic. 
 
 OR. What ? dost thou see auxiliary troops from My- 
 cenaa ? 
 
 ELEC. No, but the mother, who gave me birth. 
 
 OR. Opportunely indeed, she comes into the midst of 
 the snare. 
 
 ELEC. And truly she is brilliant in her chariot and 
 robes. 
 
 OR. What then shall we do? shall we murder our 
 mother ? 
 
 ELEC. Does pity possess thee, as soon as thou seest 
 thy mother's person ? 
 
 OR. Alas ! for how shall I slay her, who bore and 
 nourished me ? 
 
 ELEC. Like as she destroyed thy sire and mine. 
 
 OR. O Phoebus, much folly indeed hast thou prophe- 
 sied
 
 74 ELECTRA. [972-1003. 
 
 ELEC. But where Apollo is foolish, who are wise ? 
 
 OR. Who hast bidden me to slay my mother, whom 
 it is not fitting. 
 
 ELEC. But in what art thou harmed, avenging thy 
 father ? 
 
 OR. Having been then 63 pure, I shall now be accused 
 of my mother's murder. 
 
 ELEC. Ay, and not avenging thy father, thou wilt be 
 impious. 
 
 OR. But I shall pay to my mother the penalty of 
 death. 
 
 ELEC. But to whom, on the other hand, shouldst thou 
 abandon the avenging of thy sire ? 
 
 OR. Did not some demon, likened to the God, enjoin 
 that ? 
 
 ELEC. What, sitting on the sacred tripod? I opine not. 
 
 OR. I can not be persuaded that this was a genuine 
 response. 
 
 ELEC. Thou shalt not through cowardice fall into un- 
 manliness. 
 
 OR. Shall I then contrive the same artifice against 
 her? 
 
 ELEC. Ay, by which thou also didst destroy her hus- 
 band ^Egisthus, having slain him. 
 
 OR. I will enter in ; but I am beginning a dreadful at- 
 tempt. Ay, and I shall do dreadful things ; but if this 
 seems fit to the Gods, let it be ; but the contest is for 
 me [at once] bitter and sweet. 
 
 CHOR. Ho ! thou royal lady of the land of Argos, 
 daughter of Tyndarus, and sister of the twin noble sons 
 of Jove, who inhabit the flaming ether, amid the stars, 
 having honors from mortals as protectors amidst the 
 waves of the sea. Hail ! I reverence you equally with 
 the Gods, because of your wealth and great happiness. 
 And it is now the season for thy fortunes, O queen, to 
 be respected by all. 
 
 CLY. Descend from the chariot, ye Trojan damsels, 
 and lay hold of my hand, that I may place my foot out- 
 side this car. For the houses indeed of the Gods are 
 adorned with Phrygian spoils ; but I possess in my 
 * Viz. when I was ordered to slay her.
 
 I004-I037-] ELECTRA. 75 
 
 house these, chosen from the Trojan land, in place of 
 the daughter whom I lost, a small but honorable gift. 
 
 ELEC. Shall I not then, O mother, (for I am a slave 
 cast out of my ancestral home and inhabit an unhappy 
 dwelling.) take hold of thy happy hand? 
 
 CLY. These slaves are present. Do not thou labor for 
 me? 
 
 ELEC. What, hast thou not dislodged me, in truth, as 
 a slave from the house ? for when mine house was 
 taken, I was taken, like as these women, being left des- 
 titute of a father. 
 
 CLY. Such plans indeed did thy sire devise against 
 those friends against whom it least behooved him. 
 But I will speak, although, when a wrong opinion pos- 
 sesses a woman, there is a certain bitterness upon her 
 tongue, (as indeed is the case with us,) not fitly indeed ; 
 but it is just that we hate, when we have learned the 
 matter, if indeed one has right grounds for hating. 
 But if not, why should one hate ? Now Tyndarus be- 
 stowed me on thy sire, not that I nor my children should 
 perish. But that man, having persuaded my daughter 
 by the [pretended] nuptials of Achilles, went from 
 home leading her from the ship-receiving Aulis, where 
 stretching her above the pile, he cut through the fair 
 cheek of Iphigenia. Now if, to prevent the capture of 
 a city, or to benefit his house, and save his other chil- 
 dren, he had slain one on behalf of many, it would have 
 been pardonable ; but now because Helen was a wanton, 
 and lie who had recovered her knew not how to chastise 
 a traitorous wife, on this account he (Agamemnon) de- 
 stroyed my child. At this, then, although injured, I 
 was not rendered savage, nor would I have slain my 
 husband. But he came to me bringing a raving God- 
 possessed girl, and introduced her to his bed, and would 
 have had two wives at once in the same dwelling. 
 Now women are foolish, I will not deny it ; but when 
 this being the case, a husband errs, by neglecting the 
 bed in his home, a wife is wont to imitate her husband, 
 and possess another love. And then the blame shines 
 forth upon us ; but the men, who are the cause of this, 
 are in no bad repute. But if Menelaus had been privily
 
 76 ELECTRA. [1038-1076. 
 
 carried off from home, must I needs have slain Orestes, 
 that I might preserve Menelaus my sister's husband? 
 And how would thy sire have tolerated this ? Was it 
 then right that he indeed should not die, having slain 
 my [children] , but that I should suffer at his hands ? 
 I slew him ; I turned myself the way that lay open to 
 his enemies. For who of you father's friends would 
 have shared the deed with me ? Say, if thou desirest 
 aught, and lay down with freedom, on the other side, 
 that thy father died not justly. 
 
 ELEC. Thou hast spoken justly ; but even justice has 
 something of disgrace ; for it behooves a woman who 
 is in her senses to yield to her husband in all things. 
 But if this seems not so, neither does it come into the 
 account of my words. Remember, mother, the last 
 words thou didst say, in permitting me to speak to thee 
 with freedom. 
 
 CLY. Ay, and I say so now, and deny not, child. 
 
 ELEC. But wilt thou, O mother, treat me ill, when 
 thou hast heard ? 
 
 CLY. Not so ; but I will add what is pleasant to thy 
 feelings. 
 
 ELEC. I will speak then ; and this is the beginning of 
 my prelude. Would that, O mother, thou hadst pos- 
 sessed a wiser mind. For the form indeed both of Helen 
 and thee is worthy to bear commendation ; but ye were 
 born twin sisters, both wanton, and not worthy of Cas- 
 tor. For she indeed being carried off, willingly wa8 
 lost ; but thou hast destroyed the best man of Greece, 
 alleging a pretence, that thou didst slay thy husband on 
 thy child's account (for they know not well the facts, 
 as I do) ; thou who, before the sacrifice of thy daughter 
 was completed, and when thy husband had but lately 
 set out from home, didst adorn the auburn tresses of 
 thine hair before a mirror. But a woman who, while 
 her husband is absent from home, decks herself out for 
 beauty, writes herself down as evil. For it behooves her 
 to show not at all her fair face out of doors, unless she 
 is seeking some wickedness. But I know that thou alone 
 of all the Grecian women didst rejoice, if the Trojan 
 affairs prospered ; but, if they had the wor^t, that thou
 
 io77-i"5-] ELECTRA. 77 
 
 didst wear a clouded look, not wishing Agamemnon to 
 return from Troy. And yet there were good reasons 
 for thee to be chaste. Thou hast a husband not worse 
 than ^Egisthus, whom Greece chose for her general ; 
 and when thy sister Helen had done such deeds, it was 
 in thy power to obtain great renown ; for evil deeds 
 furnish an example and contemplation to the good. 
 But if. as thou sayest, my father slew thy daughter, how 
 have I and my brother injured thee? Why then didst 
 thou not, having slain thy husband, unite to us ances- 
 tral houses? but thou carried off stranger nuptials, pur- 
 chasing a husband for hire. And neither is thy hus- 
 band (^Egisthus) banished on account of thy son 
 (Orestes), nor is he dead on my account, twice having 
 slain me on account of my sister (Iphigenia)? But if 
 slaughter shall requite slaughter, I and thy son Orestes 
 must slay thee, avenging our father. For if those deeds 
 were just, these are just likewise. But whosoever, look- 
 ing to wealth or nobility, marries a wicked woman, is a 
 fool ; fur an humble, yet modest partner is better in 
 one's house, than a powerful one. 
 
 CHOR. There is a fatality in the nuptials of women ; 
 for I perceive that among mortals some marriages fall 
 out well, some not well. 
 
 CLY. O daughter, thou wert born to love ever thy sire. 
 And this is the case ; some side with the males ; but 
 others love their mother rather than their father. I 
 will pardon thee for in truth, my child, I do not so very 
 much rejoice in what I have done. But thus unwashed, 
 and with thy form thus badly clothed, hast thou just 
 ceased from thy throes in childbirth ? Alas ! wretched 
 me for my devices ; ho\v have I stirred my husband to 
 w.ath more than was fitting ! 
 
 ELEC. Thou mournest late, when thou hast no remedy. 
 My father is dead ; but why dost thou not recall thy 
 son who is wandering out of this land ? 
 
 CLY. I have a fear, and consider my own interests, 
 not his. For he is angered, as they say, at the death of 
 his father. 
 
 ELEC. Why then dost thou keep thy husband furious 
 against us ? 
 
 T*
 
 78 ELECTRA. [1116-1140. 
 
 CLY. Such are his manners ; and thou also art self- 
 willed. 
 
 ELEC. For I am pained ; but I will cease being wroth. 
 
 CLY. And truly he shall no longer be harsh to thee. 
 
 ELEC. He is very proud, for he dwells in my house. 
 
 CLY. Dost thou see? Thou art again fanning new 
 quarrels. 
 
 ELEC. I will be silent, for I fear him, as I fear him. 64 
 
 CLY. Cease from these words. But wherefore didst 
 thou call me, child ? 
 
 ELEC. Thou hast heard, I suppose, of my being brought 
 to bed. On this account do thou offer sacrifice for me, 
 (for I know not how,) on the tenth day of the month 
 from the child's birth, 65 as is the custom. For I am not 
 experienced, being hitherto childless. 
 
 CLY. This is the task of another, who has acted as 
 midwife. 
 
 ELEC. I myself was my midwife, and alone brought 
 forth an infant. 
 
 CLY. Dost thou inhabit a home so neighborless of 
 friends ? 
 
 ELEC. No one desires to possess the poor as friends. 
 
 CLY. But I will go, that I may sacrifice for the ac- 
 complished number of the child's [days] ; but after I 
 have done this favor for thee, I will go to the field where 
 my husband is offering sacrifices to the Nymphs. But, 
 ye, attendants, leading these harnessed steeds, place 
 them in the stalls ; but when ye think that I am re- 
 leased from this sacrifice to the Gods, be at hand ; for it 
 behooves me also to do favor to my husband. 
 
 ELEC. Enter into our poor abode ; but take care lest 
 the smoky roof discolor thy robes, for thou shalt make 
 sucli a sacrifice to the Gods as behooves thee. (Clytcem- 
 
 * Alluding to his death. Woodhull : 
 
 " For I dread him, as far as there is cause 
 
 To dread .^Egisthus." 
 65 Cf. Aristoph. Av. 494, e? Sexanjc yap TTOT TraiSapiov (cArjOeis viriirivov 
 
 fv atrrei, where the Scholiast remarks that the birthday festival 
 and the naming of the child was celebrated on the tenth, by others, 
 on the seventh day after birth. Among the Romans the lustration- 
 day was the eighth for girls, the ninth for boys. LOMEI-BR de 
 Lustrat. 27.
 
 1141-1184.] ELECTRA. 79 
 
 nestra goes in. ) For the canister is ready, and the knife 
 whetted, which has already destroyed the bull, near 
 whom thou stricken shalt fall. And even in the house 
 of Hades thou shalt be united to him with whom thou 
 didst sleep during life. So great a favor will I bestow 
 on thee ; and thou 011 me an atonement for my father. 
 
 CHOR. A requital for evils, changed gales for the house 
 are blowing. Then indeed in the bath my lord, my lord 
 fell, and the house shrieked, and the stone-pinnacles of 
 the house, as he spake thus : " O wretched woman, why 
 dost thou slay me returning to my dear country after 
 ten corn-seasons ? " But a changing tide of justice se- 
 cretly leads on this woman, wretched on account of her 
 changed bed ; who having taken an axe in her hands, 
 slew with the sharp-whetted blade by her own hand her 
 wretched husband, returning after a long season to 
 his house and the Cyclopeian sky-capping walls. A 
 wretched husband, in that he had a wretched woman 
 for a bane ! Like as a mountain lioness, pasturing 
 amidst the oak-thickets of the woods, she wrought these 
 deeds. 
 
 CLY. O children, by the Gods, slay not your mother. 
 
 CHOR. Dost thou hear the noise beneath the roof? 
 
 CLY. Alas ! for me, for me ! 
 
 CHOR. I also bewail her murdered by her children. 
 In truth the deity regulates justice, when there is a 
 chance. Wretchedly hast thou suffered ; but impious 
 deeds hast thou done to thy husband, unhappy one. 
 But hither these direct their foot from the house, defiled 
 with the new-shed blood of their mother, terrible evi- 
 dences of her hapless addresses [to them]. There is 
 not, nor ever was a house more wretched than that of 
 the descendants of Tantalus. 
 
 OR. O earth and Jove, that surveyest all mortal things, 
 behold these bloody, horrid deeds, two bodies prostrate 
 on the ground, by a blow from my hand, a requital of 
 mine ills. 
 
 ELEC. Mournful matters indeed, O brother, but I am 
 the cause. Through fire I have wretched gone against 
 this my mother, who gave me, her daughter, birth. 
 Alas '. for thy fortune, thy fortune, O mother that didst
 
 8o ELECTRA. 
 
 give me birth ; thou that hast suffered accursed things, 
 wretched and more than [wretched], at the hands of 
 thy children. But justly hast thou atoned for my 
 father's murder. 
 
 OR. Alas ! Phoebus, thou didst enjoin justice ; thou 
 hast wrought publicly griefs not to be told, and hast 
 given bloody nuptials from Greece. But to what other 
 city can I go ? What host, what pious friend will look 
 upon the face of me a matricide ? 
 
 ELEC. Alas ! alas for me ! And whither shall I ? to 
 what dance, to what nuptials, shall I go ? What hus- 
 band will receive me to a bridal bed ? 
 
 OB. Again, again has thy disposition changed [with 
 the gale] ; ^ for thou now hast pious thoughts, not hav- 
 ing them then ; but thou, O dear one, hast done dread- 
 ful things toward thy unwilling brother. Didst thou 
 see how the wretched woman threw aside her robes, 
 and showed her bosom during the slaughter, alas ! for 
 me, bending her knees to the earth? But I was like to 
 faint. 67 
 
 ELEC. I well know thou wast in grief, hearing the 
 piteous groan of the mother who bore thee. 
 
 OR. And she uttered such a cry as this, placing her 
 hand on my beard, " My child, I beseech thee ; " and 
 she hung upon my cheeks, so that the sword fell from 
 my hands. 
 
 CHOR. Oh ! wretched one, how hast thou had the heart 
 to behold in thy sight the slaughter of thy mother 
 breathing her last ? 
 
 OR. I indeed casting my robes upon mine eyes, began 
 [the slaughter] with my sword, driving it into my 
 mother's neck. 
 
 ELEC. And I indeed encouraged thee ; and at the 
 same time laid hands on the sword. You have done M 
 the most dreadful of deeds. 
 
 OR. Take hold, take hold, cover the limbs of my 
 mother with garments, close up her wounds. Murderers 
 in truth didst thou give birth to for thyself. 
 
 86 Dindorf would omit wpos avpav. 
 
 67 TOLKOfiav for TO.V KOIIO.V. SEIDL. DIND. 
 
 M But Seidler reads pefo.
 
 1233-1272.] ELECTRA. 8 1 
 
 ELEC. See, thee a friend, yet not a friend, we cover 
 with garments, a finish of the great ills in the house. 
 
 CHOR. But hither above the summit of the house ap- 
 pear some demons, or of the heavenly Gods ; for this is 
 no path for mortals. Why come they into the clear 
 sight of mortals ? 
 
 CASTOR AND POLLUX, (appearing) O son of Aga- 
 memnon, listen ; for the twin brothers of thy mother, 
 the sons of Jove, call upon thee, Castor, and this his 
 brother Pollux. But having lately appeased a terrible 
 storm of the ocean, we have come to Argos, "when we 
 saw the slaughter of this our sister, thy mother. She 
 then has what was just, but thou dost not so ; and 
 Phoebus, Phoebus but I will be silent, for he is my 
 king but being wise, he prophesied to thee things not 
 wise. But we must needs acquiesce in this. But 
 henceforth it behooves thee to perform what Fate and 
 Jove have decreed concerning thee. On Pylades, in- 
 deed, bestow Electra as a wife for his house ; but do 
 thou leave Argos, for it is not for thee to tread this 
 land, having slain thy mother. But the dreadful 
 Furies, the dog-visaged Goddesses, will drive thee 
 maddened to roam astray. And when thou shalt 
 arrive at Athens, embrace the hallowed image of 
 Minerva ; for she will drive them off, terrified by her 
 terrible dragons, so as not to touch thee, stretching 
 forth the Gorgon-faced circle over thine head. Now 
 there is a certain hill of Mars, where the Gods first sate 
 in vote concerning blood, when savage Mars, in wrath 
 for the impious nuptials of his daughter, 69 slew Halir- 
 rothius, the son of the ruler of the ocean, where from 
 that [time] there is a most pious and firm judgment for 
 the Gods. Here it behooves thee also to run the 
 gauntlet concerning murder. But votes being placed 
 equal will preserve thee from dying by justice ; for 
 Loxias will take the blame upon himself, having com- 
 manded the murder of your mother. And to those 
 hereafter this law shall be fixed, that the defendant 
 shall always escape by equal votes. The fearful 
 
 69 Alcippe, the daughter of Mars, was violated by Halirrothius. 
 Cf . Apollod. iii. 13. See Meurs. Areop. 10, p. 85 sq. 
 
 6
 
 82 ELECTRA. [1273-1311. 
 
 Goddesses indeed, stricken with this vexation, will sink 
 into a chasm of the earth near the hill itself, a sacred 
 pious oracle [hereafter] for mortals. But thee it be- 
 hoves to dwell in a city 70 on the streams of Alpheus, 
 near the Lycaean inclosure ; and the city shall be 
 called after thy name. To thee indeed I have thus 
 spoken ; but this corse of ^Egisthus the citizens of 
 Argos shall conceal in a tomb of earth. But Menelaus, 
 who has just arrived at Nauplia, since he has conquered 
 the Trojan land, and Helen, will bury thy mother. 
 For [Helen] is come from the house of Proteus, having 
 left Egypt ; nor did she go to the Phrygians. But Jove, 
 in order that strife and slaughter of mortals might 
 arise, sent an image of Helen to Troy. Let Pylades 
 then, having this damsel as his wife, return to his home 
 in the Achaian land, and bear him who is nominally 
 thy brother-in-law 71 into the land of the Phocians, and 
 give him weight of wealth. But do thou, passing with 
 thy foot over the neck of the Isthmian land, go toward 
 the prosperous house of Cecropia ; for having fulfilled 
 thy destined fate [resulting] from this murder, thou 
 wilt be happy, being freed from these ills. 
 
 CHOR. O sons of Jove, is it lawful for us to approach 
 thy converse ? 
 
 CAS. AND POL. It is lawful, for those not polluted by 
 these murders. 
 
 OR. And may I share in speech, sons of Tyndarus ? 
 
 CAS. AND POL. Thou mayest. I will lay this deed of 
 blood upon Phcebus. 
 
 CHOR. How, being Gods and brothers of this woman 
 who hath perished, did ye not avert the calamities from 
 these houses ? 
 
 CAS. AND POL. Destiny of necessity led on her fate, 
 and the unwise words of the tongue of Phoebus. 
 
 ELEC. But what Apollo [compelled] me? What 
 oracles pronounced that I should be the murderess of 
 my mother ? _ 
 
 CAS. AND POL. Common was the deed, and common 
 
 70 Of. Orest. 1645 sqq. It was before called 'Afavia, and formed a 
 district of Arcadia, Pausan. viii. 4. Steph. Byz. s.v. 
 
 71 Meaning the old peasant
 
 1312-1354-] ELECTRA. 83 
 
 the fate ; and one curse of your sires has harassed both. 
 
 OR. O sister mine, seeing thee after a long time, I am 
 inmediately deprived of thine endearments, and, left 
 by thee, I leave thee. 
 
 CAS. AND POL. She has a husband and home. She 
 has not suffered things to be pitied, save that she 
 leaves her Argive city. 
 
 OR. And what other greater cause is there for groan- 
 ing, than to leave the boundaries of one's country ? But 
 I shall go out from my father's house, and undergo the 
 charge of murder of my mother at the votes of others. 
 
 CAS. AND POL. Be of good cheer. Thou wilt come to 
 the holy city of Pallas. But bear up. 
 
 ELEC. Join thy breast to my breast, O dearest 
 brother ; for the bloody curses of our mother disjoin 
 us from our ancestral home. 
 
 OR. Throw thy body closely, hug me ; and weep, as 
 on the tomb of me dead. 
 
 CAS. AND POL. Alas! alas! thou hast uttered this a 
 terrible thing even for Gods to hear. For in me and in 
 the inhabitants of heaven there is pity for much-toiling 
 mortals. 
 
 OR. No more shall I behold thee. 
 
 ELEC. Nor shall I approach thine eye. 
 
 OR. This is my last address to thee. 
 
 ELEC. O fare thee well, city, and fare ye well, and 
 greatly well, my female citizens. 
 
 OR. O most faithful sister, art thou now on thy way ? 
 
 ELEC. I am on my way, bedewing my tender cheek. 
 
 OR. Pylades. go rejoicing, wed the form of Electra. 
 
 CAS. AND POL. The marriage shall be their care ; but 
 do thou. fleeing from these dogs, 72 wend thy way to 
 Athens, for with their snaky hands, these black-skinned 
 [Furies] , fraught with the fruit of dreadful woes, cast 
 their dread footstep upon thee. But we [hie] to the 
 Sicilian Sea in haste, to save the marine prows of ships. 
 And passing through the ethereal plain, the wicked 
 indeed we aid not ; but to whom holiness and justice is 
 
 n The Furies appear.
 
 84 ELECTRA. [i355'i359- 
 
 dear in their life, these we preserve, releasing them 
 from heavy toils. Thus let no one be willing to act un- 
 justly, not let him sail together with the perjured. I. 
 a God, proclaim this to mortals. 
 
 CHOR. Farewell ; but whosoever of mortals is able to 
 fare well, and bends not under some misfortune, fares 
 happily.
 
 The Hamilton, Locke ^ Clark 
 
 SERIES OF 
 
 Interlinear Translations 
 
 Have long been the Standard and are now the Best 
 Translated and Most Complete Series of Interlinears 
 published. 
 
 i2mo., well bound in Half Leather. 
 Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address. 
 
 Latin Interlinear Translations : 
 VIRGIL By HART AND OSBORNE. 
 C^fESAR By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 HORACE By STIRLING, NUTTALL AND CLARK. 
 CICERO By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 SALLUST By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 OVID By GEORGE W. HEILIG. 
 JUVENAL By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 LIVY By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 CORNELIUS NEPOS 
 
 By HAMILTON AND UNDERWOOD. 
 
 Greek Interlinear Translations : 
 HOMER'S ILIAD By THOMAS CLARK. 
 XENOPHON'S ANABASIS By HAMILTON AND CLARK. 
 GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN By GEORGE W. HEILIG. 
 
 S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes : 
 " There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, 
 of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student to 
 the acquisition of the dead languages : and therefore nothing will tend so 
 effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars as their 
 judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with the Interlinear 
 Classics." 
 
 DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia. 
 
 Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons.
 
 
 HUIMMUlIiil 
 
 * . A 000 034 759 , 
 
 -^^^^^^^^