Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (22 page)

CHORUS
[523]
I know, my
child, for I was there. It was because she was shaken by dreams and wandering
terrors of the night that she sent these offerings, godless woman that she is.

ORESTES
[526]
And have
you learned the nature of the dream so as to tell it properly?

CHORUS
[527]
She
dreamed she gave birth to a serpent: that is her own account.

ORESTES
[528]
And where
does the tale end, and what is its consummation?

CHORUS
[529]
She laid
it to rest as if it were a child, in swaddling clothes.

ORESTES
[530]
What food
did it crave, the newborn viper?

CHORUS
[531]
In her
dream she offered it her own breast.

ORESTES
[532]
Surely her
nipple was not unwounded by the loathsome beast?

CHORUS
[533]
No: it
drew in clotted blood with the milk.

ORESTES
[534]
Truly it
is not without meaning: the vision signifies a man!

CHORUS
[535]
Then from
out of her sleep she raised a shriek and awoke appalled, and many lamps that
had been blinded in the darkness flared up in the house to cheer our mistress.
Then she sent these libations for the dead in the hope that they might be an
effective cure for her distress.

ORESTES
[540]
Well then,
I pray to this earth and to my father’s grave that this dream may come to its
fulfilment in me. As I understand it, it fits at every point. For if the snake
left the same place as I; if it was furnished with my swaddling clothes; if it
sought to open its mouth to take the breast that nourished me and mixed the
sweet milk with clotted blood while she shrieked for terror at this, then
surely, as she has nourished a portentous thing of horror, she must die by
violence. For I, turned serpent, am her killer, as this dream declares.

CHORUS
[551]
I choose
your reading of this portent. Let it be so. As for the rest, give your friends
their parts. Tell some what to do, others what to leave undone.

ORESTES
[554]
It is a
simple story. My sister must go inside, and I charge her to keep concealed this
pact with me, so that as by craft they killed a worthy man, so by craft they
may likewise be caught and perish in the very same snare, even as Loxias
decreed, lord Apollo, the prophet who has never before been false.

[560]
In the guise of
a stranger, one fully equipped, I will come to the outer gate, and with me
Pylades, whom you see here, as a guest and ally of the house. Both of us will
speak the speech of Parnassus, imitating the accent of a Phocian tongue. And in
case none of the keepers of the door will give us a hearty welcome on the plea
that the house is afflicted with trouble by the gods, then we will wait so that
anyone passing the house will consider and say: “Why then does Aegisthus have
his door shut on his suppliant, if in fact he is at home and knows?”

[571]
But if I indeed
pass the outermost threshold of the gate and find that man sitting on my father’s
throne, or if then coming face to face with me he lifts and casts down his
eyes, know well: before he can even say “Of what land is this stranger?” I will
skewer him with my swift sword and lay him dead. The fury that has no fill of
slaughter shall for her third and crowning drink drink unmixed blood!

[579]
Now you,
Electra, keep strict watch over what happens inside the house, so that our
plans may fit together well. You [
addressing the Chorus
] had best keep a
discreet tongue: be silent when there is need and speak only what the occasion
demands. As for the rest, I call on him to cast his glance this way and direct
the contest of the sword for me.

[
Exeunt Orestes,
Pylades, and Electra.
]

CHORUS
[585]
Many are
the horrors, dread and appalling, bred of earth, and the arms of the deep teem
with hateful monsters. Likewise between heaven and earth lights hung high in
the air draw near; and winged things and things that walk the earth can also
tell of the stormy wrath of whirlwinds.

[594]
But who can tell
of man’s overweening spirit, and of the reckless passions of women hardened of
soul, partners of the woes of mortals? Inordinate passion, overmastering the
female, gains a fatal victory over the wedded unions of beasts and humans
alike.

[602]
Let whoever is
not flighty in his wits know this, when he has learned of the device of a lit
brand contrived by Thestius’ heartless daughter: she destroyed her own child by
burning the charred brand of the same age as he when, coming from his mother’s
womb, he cried out, and it aged in pace with him through his life to the day
decreed by fate.

[612]
And there is in
legend another murderous virgin to be loathed, who ruined a loved one at the
bidding of his foes, when, lured by Minos’ gift, the Cretan necklace forged of
gold, she with her dog’s heart despoiled Nisus of his immortal lock as he drew
breath in unsuspecting sleep. And Hermes overtook him.

[623]
But since I have
recalled tales of pitiless afflictions, it is the right time to tell of a
marriage void of love, an abomination to the house, and the plots devised by a
wife’s cunning against her warrior lord, against her lord revered with reason
by his foes. But I honor the hearths of homes not heated by passion’s fires,
and in woman a spirit that shrinks from audacious deeds.

[631]
Indeed the
Lemnian holds first place among evils in story: it has long been told with
groans as an abominable calamity. Men compare each new horror to Lemnian
troubles; and because of a woeful deed abhorred by the gods a race has
disappeared, cast out in infamy from among mortals. For no man reveres what is
hated by the gods. Is there one of these tales I have gathered that I do not
justly cite?

[639]
But the keen and
bitter sword is near the breast and drives home its blow at the bidding of
Justice. For truly the injustice of him who has unjustly transgressed the
sovereign majesty of Zeus lies on the ground trampled under foot.

[646]
The anvil of
Justice is planted firm. Destiny fashions her arms and forges her sword
quickly, and the famed and deeply brooding Fury is bringing the son into our
house, to requite at last the pollution of blood shed long ago.

[
Enter, with
attendants, Orestes and Pylades before the palace.
]

ORESTES
[653]
Boy! Boy!
Hear my knocking at the outer door! Who is inside? Boy! Boy! I say again, who
is at home? Again for the third time I call for some one to come out of the
house, if by Aegisthus’ will it offers welcome to strangers.

SERVANT
[657]
Yes, yes,
I hear. Of what land is the stranger, and whence?

ORESTES
[658]
Announce
me to the masters of the house, for it is in fact to them that I come bearing
news. And hurry, since the chariot of night is speeding on with darkness, and
it is time for wayfarers to drop anchor in some house friendly to all guests.
Tell some one to come forth who has authority over the house, the mistress in
charge. But the master would be more fitting, for then no delicacy in speaking
makes words obscure: man speaks boldly to man and reveals his meaning without
reserve.

[
The Servant
withdraws. Clytaemestra appears at the door with a maid-servant in attendance.
]

CLYTAEMESTRA
[668]
Strangers,
you have only to declare your need, for we have everything that suits this
house: warm baths, beds to charm away fatigue, and the presence of honest
faces. But if there is another matter requiring graver counsel, that is the
concern of men, and we will communicate with them.

ORESTES
[674]
I am a
stranger, a Daulian of the Phocians. As I was on my way, carrying my pack on
business of my own to Argos, just as I ended my journey here, a man, a stranger
to me as I to him, fell in with me, and inquired about my destination and told
me his. He was Strophius, a Phocian (for as we talked I learned his name), and
he said to me, “Stranger, since in any case you are bound for Argos, keep my
message in mind most faithfully and tell his parents Orestes is dead, and by no
means let it escape you. Whether his friends decide to bring him home or to
bury him in the land of his sojourn, a foreigner utterly forever, convey their
wishes back to me. In the meantime a bronze urn contains the ashes of a man
rightly lamented.” This much I tell you as I heard it. Whether by any chance I
am speaking to those with whom the question rests and whose concern it is, I do
not know. But his parent should know the truth.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[691]
Oh no!
Your story spells our utter undoing. O curse that haunts this house, so hard to
wrestle down: how far forward you look! Even what was laid well out of harm’s
way you bring down with your well-aimed shafts from far off, and you strip me
of those I love, utterly wretched as I am. And now Orestes: he was indeed
prudent in keeping his foot out of the mire of destruction, but now mark down
as having abandoned us what was once the one hope in our house of a cure for
its fine revelry.

ORESTES
[700]
As for me,
I am sure that with hosts so prosperous I would rather have been made known and
welcomed for favorable news. For where is goodwill greater than from guest to
host? Yet to my mind it would have been irreverent not to fulfill for friends a
charge like this when I was bound by promise and hospitality pledged to me.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[707]
Rest
assured you will receive no less a reward than you deserve nor be the less
welcome to this house: someone else might just as well have brought your
message. But it is the hour when strangers who have been travelling on a long
day’s journey should have their proper entertainment. [
To an attendant.
]
Conduct him to the rooms where the men are hospitably lodged, him and his
attendants here and his fellow-traveller, and let them be tended to there as is
proper in our house. I command you to do this as you shall be held to strict
account. Meantime we will communicate this matter to the master of the house,
and since we have no lack of friends we will confer on this occurrence.

[
All withdraw
except the Chorus.
]

CHORUS
[719]
Ah, loyal
handmaidens of the house, low long will it be before we display the power that
lies in our mouths to do Orestes service?

[721]
O hallowed
earth, and hallowed barrow raised high that now lies on the royal form of the
commander of the fleet, now hear me, now lend me aid! Now is the hour for
Persuasion with her guile to join forces with him, and for Hermes of the nether
world, who works in stealth, to direct this encounter of the deadly sword.

[
Enter Orestes’ Nurse.
]
[729]
Our
stranger, I think, is working mischief: for over there I see Orestes’ nurse all
in tears. Cilissa! Where are you going? Why as you set foot in the palace gate
do you have a grief as an unhired companion?

NURSE
[734]
My
mistress commands me to summon Aegisthus for the strangers in all haste, so
that he may come and learn more clearly, from man to man, these tidings that
have just arrived. Indeed, before the servants, behind eyes that feigned grief
she hid her laughter over what has occurred fortunately for her. But the news
so plainly told by the strangers means utter ruin for this house. I expect that
when he hears it he will rejoice in his heart to know the story. Miserable
woman that I am! How the old unbearable troubles of every sort that occurred in
this house of Atreus have always made my heart ache within my breast! But never
yet have I endured a blow like this. For all the other troubles I bore
patiently, but my beloved Orestes, on whom I spent my soul, whom I took from
his mother at birth and nursed, and the many and troublesome tasks, fruitless
for all my enduring them, when his loud and urgent cries broke my rest . . .
For one must nurse the senseless thing like a dumb beast, of course one must,
by following its humor. For while it is still a baby in swaddling clothes, it
has no speech at all, whether hunger moves it, or thirst perhaps, or the call
of need: children’s young insides work their own relief. I would anticipate
these needs. Yet many a time, I think, having to wash the child’s linen because
of my own errors, laundress and nurse had the same function. It was I who, with
these two handicrafts, received Orestes for his father. And now, wretch that I
am, I hear that he is dead. But I am on my way to fetch the man who wrought
destruction on our house, and he will be glad enough to hear this news.

CHORUS
[766]
Then
arrayed how does she tell him to come?

NURSE
[767]
Arrayed
how? Say it again so that I may catch your meaning better.

CHORUS
[768]
With his
guards or perhaps unattended?

NURSE
[769]
She tells
him to come with his retinue of spearmen.

CHORUS
[770]
Well, do
not give this message to our loathed master, but with all haste and with a
cheerful heart tell him to come himself, alone, so that he may be told without
alarm. For in the mouth of a messenger a crooked message is made straight.

NURSE
[775]
What! Are
you gladdened at heart by the present news?

CHORUS
[775]
Why not,
if Zeus at last may cause our ill wind to change?

NURSE
[776]
But how
can that be? Orestes, the hope of our house, is gone.