| Euripidis Index |
ORESTES
Ah, sister mine! at last I see thee again only to be robbed in
moment of thy dear love; I must leave thee, and by thee be left.
DIOSCURI
Hers are a husband and a home; her only suffering this, that she
is quitting Argos.
ORESTES
Yet what could call forth deeper grief than exile from one's
fatherland? I must leave my father's house, and at a stranger's bar he
sentenced for my mother's blood.
DIOSCURI
Be of good cheer; go to the holy town of Pallas; keep a stout
heart only.
ELECTRA
O my brother, best and dearest! clasp me to thy breast; for now is
the curse of our mother's blood cutting us off from the home of our
fathers.
ORESTES
Throw thy arms in close embrace about me. Oh! weep as o'er my
grave when I am dead.
DIOSCURI
Ah me, that bitter cry makes even gods shudder to hear. Yea, for
in my breast and in every heavenly being's dwells pity for the sorrows
of mankind.
ORESTES
Never to see thee more!
ELECTRA
Never again to stand within thy sight!
ORESTES
This is my last good-bye to thee.
ELECTRA
Farewell, farewell, my city! and ye my fellow-countrywomen, long
farewell to you!
ORESTES
Art thou going already, truest of thy sex?
ELECTRA
I go, the tear-drop dimming my tender eyes.
ORESTES
Go, Pylades, and be happy; take and wed Electra.
DIOSCURI
Their only thoughts will be their marriage; but haste thee to
Athens, seeking to escape these hounds of hell, for they are on thy
track in fearful wise, swart monsters, with snakes for hands, who reap
a harvest of man's agony. But we twain must haste away o'er the
Sicilian main to save the seaman's ship. Yet as we fly through
heaven's expanse we help not the wicked; but whoso in his life loves
piety and justice, all such we free from troublous toils and save.
Wherefore let no man be minded to act unjustly, or with men
foresworn set sail; such the warning I, a god, to mortals give.
(THE DIOSCURI vanish.)
CHORUS
Farewell! truly that mortal's is a happy lot, who can thus fare,
unafflicted by any woe.
-THE END-
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