Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (23 page)

CHORUS
[777]
Not yet;
he would be a poor prophet who would so interpret.

NURSE
[778]
What are
you saying? Do you know something beyond what has been told?

CHORUS
[779]
Go,
deliver your message! Do what you are asked to do! The gods take care of what
they take care of.

NURSE
[781]
Well, I
will go and do your bidding. With the gods’ blessing may everything turn out
for the best!
[
Exit Nurse.
]

CHORUS
[783]
Now at my
supplication, O Zeus, father of the Olympian gods, grant that the fortunes of
our house be firmly established, so that those who rightly desire the rule of
order may behold it. Every word of mine has been uttered in justice. O Zeus,
may you safeguard it!

[789]
O Zeus, set him
who is within the palace before his foes; since, if you exalt him, he will
gladly pay you with double and triple recompense. Know that the orphaned colt
of a loved one is harnessed to the chariot of distress. And by setting bounds
to his course may you grant that we see him keep a steady pace through this race
and win the goal in the straining stride of a gallop.

[800]
And you who
within the house inhabit the inner chamber that exults in its wealth, hear me,
you gods, that feel with us! By a fresh award redeem the blood of deeds done
long ago. May aged Murder cease begetting offspring in our house!

[806]
And you who
occupy the mighty, gorgeously built cavern, grant that the man’s house may lift
up its eyes again in joy, and that with glad eyes it may behold from under its
veil of gloom the radiant light of freedom.

[811]
May Maia’s son,
as he rightfully should, lend his aid, for no one can better sail a deed on a
favoring course, when he would do so. But by his mysterious utterance he brings
darkness over men’s eyes by night, and by day he is no more clear at all.

[819]
And then at last
with a loud voice we shall sing a song of the deliverance of our house, the
song that women raise when the wind sits fair, and not the shrill strain of
those who mourn: “The ship goes well. This grows to profit for me, for me, and
calamity holds off from those I love.”

[827]
But may you with
good courage, when the part of action comes, cry out loud the name “Father”
when she exclaims “Son,” and accomplish the baneful but irreproachable deed.

[831]
Raise up Perseus’
spirit within my breast. And for those dear to you below the earth, and for
those above, exact satisfaction for their dire wrath by working bloody ruin in
our house and obliterating the guilt of murder.

[
Enter
Aegisthus.
]

AEGISTHUS
[838]
I have
come not unasked but summoned by a messenger. I heard startling news told by
some strangers who have arrived, tidings far from welcome: — that Orestes is
dead. To lay this too upon our house would be a fearful burden when it is still
festering and galled by the wound inflicted by an earlier murder. How can I
believe this tale is the living truth? Or is it merely a panic-stricken report
spread by women which leaps up to die away in nothingness? What can you tell me
of this to make it plain to my mind?

CHORUS
[848]
We heard
the tale, it is true. But go inside and inquire of the strangers. The certainty
of a messenger’s report is nothing compared with one’s own interrogation of the
man himself.

AEGISTHUS
[851]
I wish to
see the messenger and put him to the test again — whether he himself was
present at the death or merely repeats from vague reports what he has heard.
No! Be sure he cannot deceive a mind with eyes open.
[
Exit Aegisthus.
]

CHORUS
[854]
O Zeus, O
Zeus, what should I say? Where shall I begin this prayer of mine, this appeal
to the gods? How in my loyal zeal can I succeed in finding words to match need?
Now is the moment when the blood-stained edges of the blades that lay men low
are utterly forever to destroy the house of Agamemnon. Or else, kindling a
flaming light in the cause of freedom, Orestes will win both the rule over his
realm and the rich possessions of his fathers. Our gallant Orestes, with no one
to assist him, is now to meet with two in such a contest. And may it be to
triumph!

[
A shriek is
heard from within.
]

AEGISTHUS
[869]
within Oh!
Oh! O woe!

CHORUS
[870]
Ah! Ah!
Alas! What is happening? What is being accomplished for our house? Let us stand
apart while the matter is still unsettled so that we may be considered
blameless in these ills. For the issue of the fighting has now been decided.

[
The Chorus
withdraws to the side of the scene; then a servant of Aegisthus rushes in.
]

SERVANT
[875]
O woe, oh
utter woe! My master is slain! O woe! I cry yet again, for the third time.
Aegisthus is no more! Come, with all speed! Unbar and open the women’s door!
And a strong arm indeed is needed, but not to help him who is already slain:
what good is there in that? Help! Help! Am I shouting to the deaf and
fruitlessly wasting my voice on people who are asleep? Where has Clytaemestra
gone? What is she doing? Her own neck, near the razor’s edge, is now ready to
fall beneath the stroke.

[
Clytaemestra
hurries in unattended.
]

CLYTAEMESTRA
[885]
What is
this? What cry for help are you raising in our house?

SERVANT
[886]
I tell you
the dead are killing the living.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[887]
Ah! Indeed
I grasp the meaning of the riddle. We are to perish by treachery, just as we
committed murder. Someone give me a battle-axe, and quickly! Let us know if we
are victors or vanquished: for I have even come to this in this wretched
business.

[
Exit Servant.
The door is opened and the corpse of Aegisthus is discovered. Nearby stands
Orestes, and at a distance Pylades.
]

ORESTES
[892]
It is you
I seek. He over there has had enough.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[893]
Oh no! My
beloved, valiant Aegisthus! You are dead!

ORESTES
[894]
You love
this man? Then you will lie in the same grave, and you will never abandon him
in death.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[896]
Wait, my
son! Have pity, child, upon this breast at which many times while you slept you
sucked with toothless gums the milk that nourished you.

ORESTES
[899]
Pylades,
what shall I do? Shall I spare my mother out of pity?

PYLADES
[900]
What then
will become in the future of Loxias’ oracles declared at Pytho, and of our
sworn pact? Count all men your enemies rather than the gods.

ORESTES
[903]
I judge
you victor: you advise me well. [
To Clytaemestra.
] Come, this way! I
mean to kill you by his very side. For while he lived, you thought him better
than my father. Sleep with him in death, since you love him but hate the man
you were bound to love.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[908]
It was I
who nourished you, and with you I would grow old.

ORESTES
[909]
What!
Murder my father and then make your home with me?

CLYTAEMESTRA
[910]
Fate, my
child, must share the blame for this.

ORESTES
[911]
And fate
now brings this destiny to pass.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[912]
Have you
no regard for a parent’s curse, my son?

ORESTES
[912]
You
brought me to birth and yet you cast me out to misery.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[914]
No, surely
I did not cast you out in sending you to the house of an ally.

ORESTES
[915]
I was sold
in disgrace, though I was born of a free father.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[916]
Then where
is the price I got for you?

ORESTES
[917]
I am
ashamed to reproach you with that outright.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[918]
But do not
fail to proclaim the follies of that father of yours as well.

ORESTES
[919]
Do not
accuse him who suffered while you sat idle at home.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[920]
It is a
grief for women to be deprived of a husband, my child.

ORESTES
[921]
Yes, but
it is the husband’s toil that supports them while they sit at home.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[922]
You seem
resolved, my child, to kill your mother.

ORESTES
[923]
You will
kill yourself, not I.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[924]
Take care:
beware the hounds of wrath that avenge a mother.

ORESTES
[925]
And how
shall I escape my father’s if I leave this undone?

CLYTAEMESTRA
[926]
I see that
though living I mourn in vain before a tomb.

ORESTES
[927]
Yes, for
my father’s fate has marked out this destiny for you.

CLYTAEMESTRA
[928]
Oh no! I
myself bore and nourished this serpent!

ORESTES
[929]
Yes, the
terror from your dream was indeed a prophet. You killed him whom you should
not; so suffer what should not be.

[
He forces
Clytaemestra within; Pylades follows.
]

CHORUS
[931]
Truly I grieve
even for these in their twofold downfall. Yet since long-suffering Orestes has
reached the peak of many deeds of blood, we would rather have it so, that the
eye of the house should not be utterly lost.

[935]
As to Priam and
his sons justice came at last in crushing retribution, so to Agamemnon’s house
came a twofold lion, twofold slaughter. The exile, the suppliant of Pytho, has
fulfilled his course to the utmost, justly urged on by counsels from the gods.

[942]
Oh raise a shout
of triumph over the escape of our master’s house from its misery and the
wasting of its wealth by two who were unclean, its grievous fortune!

[946]
And he has come
whose part is the crafty vengeance of stealthy attack, and in the battle his
hand was guided by her who is in very truth daughter of Zeus, breathing
murderous wrath on her foes. We mortals aim true to the mark when we call her
Justice.

[942]
shout of triumph over the escape of our master’s house from its misery and the
wasting of its wealth by two who were unclean, its grievous fortune!> The
commands proclaimed loudly by Loxias, tenant of the mighty cavern shrine of
Parnassus, assail with guileless guile the mischief now become inveterate. May
the divine word prevail that so I may not serve the wicked! It is right to
revere the rule of heaven.

[961]
Look, the light
has come, and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our household.
House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground. But soon time
that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all
pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out
calamity. The dice of fortune will turn as they fall and lie with faces all
lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house. Look, the
light has come, and I am freed from the cruel curb that restrained our
household. House, rise up! You have lain too long prostrate on the ground.

[
Orestes with
the branch and wreath of a suppliant is disclosed standing by the bodies. With
him are Pylades and attendants who display the robe of Agamemnon.
]

ORESTES
[973]
Behold
this pair, oppressors of the land, who murdered my father and ransacked my
house! They were majestic then, when they sat on their thrones, and are lovers
even now, as one may judge by what has happened to them, and their oath holds
true to their pledges. Together they vowed a league of death against my unhappy
father, and together they vowed to die, and they have kept their promise well.

[980]
But now regard
again, you who hear this account of ills, the device for binding my unhappy
father, with which his hands were manacled, his feet fettered. Spread it out!
Stand around in a circle, and display this covering for a man, that the Father
may see — not mine, but he who surveys all this, the Sun — that he may see the
impious work of my own mother, that he may be my witness in court that I justly
pursued this death, my own mother’s. For I do not speak of Aegisthus’ death: he
has suffered the penalty prescribed for adulterers.

[991]
But she who
devised this abhorrent deed against her husband, whose children she bore, a
burden under her belt, a burden once dear, but now a hateful ill, as it seems:
what do you think of her? Had she been born a seasnake or a viper, I think her
very touch without her bite would have caused anyone else to rot, if
shamelessness and an immoral disposition could do so.

[
He again takes up the bloody robe.
]
[997]
What name
shall I give it, however tactful I may be? A trap for a wild beast? Or a shroud
for a corpse in his bier, wrapped around his feet? No, rather it is a net: you
might call it a hunting net, or robes to entangle a man’s feet. This would be
the kind of thing a highwayman might posses, who deceives strangers and earns
his living by robbery, and with this cunning snare he might kill many men and
warm his own heart greatly. May such a woman not live with me in my house!
Before that may the gods grant me to perish childless!