For all Mycenae, Argos all, to see.
If any heretofore was puffed with hopes
Of this pretender, now he sees him dead,
Let him in time accept my yoke, nor wait
Wisdom by chastisement to learn too late.
My lesson’s learnt already; time hath taught me
The wisdom of consenting with the strong.
O Zeus, I look upon this form laid low
By jealousy of Heaven, but if my words
Seem to thee overbold, be they unsaid.
Take from the face the face-cloth; I, as kin,
I too would pay my tribute of lament.
Lift it thyself; ’tis not for me but thee
To see and kindly greet what lieth here.
Well said, so will I. To Electra. If she be within
Go call me Clytemnestra, I would see her—
She is beside thee; look not otherwhere.
O horror!
Why dost start? is the face strange?
Who spread the net wherein, O woe is me,
I lie enmeshed?
Hast thou not learnt ere this
The dead of whom thou spakest are alive?
Alas! I read thy riddle; ’tis none else
Than thou, Orestes, whom I now address.
A seer so wise, and yet befooled so long!
O I am spoiled, undone! yet suffer me,
One little word.
Brother, in heaven’s name
Let him not speak a word or plead his cause.
When a poor wretch is in the toils of fate
What can a brief reprieve avail him? No,
Slay him outright and having slain him give
His corse to such grave-makers as is meet,
Far from our sight; for me no otherwise
Can he wipe out the memory of past wrongs.
To Aegisthus.
Quick, get thee in; the issue lies not now
In words; the case is tried and thou must die.
Why hale me indoors? if my doom be just,
What need of darkness? Why not slay me here?
“Tis not for thee to order; go within;
Where thou didst slay my father thou must die.
Ah! is there need this palace should behold
All woes of Pelops’ line, now and to come?
Thine own they shall; thus much I can predict.
Thy skill as seer derives not from thy sire.
Thou bandiest words; our going is delayed.
Go.
Lead the way.
No, thou must go the first.
Lest I escape?
Nay, not to let thee choose
The manner of thy death; thou must be spared
No bitterness of death, and well it were
If on transgressors swift this sentence fall,
Slay him; so wickedness should less abound.
House of Atreus! thou hast passed
Through the fire and won at last
Freedom, perfected to-day
By this glorious essay.
Endnotes
-
Inachus, the river god, was the legendary founder of Argos, whither his daughter Io, changed by the jealous Hera into a cow, was driven in her wanderings. ↩
-
Apollo Lukeios, the god of light, but by folk-etymology connected with λύκος, wolf. ↩
-
The full meaning is “to cut off the hands and feet and suspend them to the armpits.” This was done to prevent the victim from taking vengeance. ↩
-
The charioteer of Oenomaus. In the race for the hand of Hippodameia, the king’s daughter, he betrayed his master by removing a linchpin. Pelops won the race, but afterwards for an insult offered to his wife, he hurled into the sea Myrtilus, who invoked a dying curse on the house. ↩
-
Amphiaraus. Induced by his wife Eriphyle to join the expedition of Polyneices against Argos, he was swallowed up by an earthquake. His son (like Orestes) avenged his father and Amphiaraus was honoured as an earth-god. ↩
Colophon
Electra
was written between 420 and 410 BCE by
Sophocles.
It was translated from Ancient Greek in 1913 by
Francis Storr.
This ebook was transcribed and produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
Lachrymae,
a painting completed circa 1895 by
Frederick Leighton.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
January 21, 2025, 7:07 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
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