| Sophocles Index |
ELECTRA
Woe, woe, ah me, ah me!
CHORUS
O daughter, why weepest thou?
ELECTRA with hands outstretched to heaven
Alas!
CHORUS
Utter no rash cry!
ELECTRA
Thou wilt break my heart!
CHORUS
How meanest thou?
ELECTRA
If thou suggest a hope concerning those who have surely passed to the realm below, thou wilt trample yet more upon my misery.
CHORUS
antistrophe 1
Nay, I know how, ensnared by a woman for a chain of gold, the prince Amphiaraus found a grave; and now beneath the earth-
ELECTRA
Ah me, ah me!
CHORUS
-he reigns in fulness of force.
ELECTRA
Alas!
CHORUS
Alas indeed! for the murderess-
ELECTRA
Was slain.
CHORUS
Yea.
ELECTRA
I know it, I know it; for a champion arose to avenge the mourning dead; but to me no champion remains; for he who yet was left hath been snatched away.
CHORUS
strophe 2
Hapless art thou, and hapless is thy lot!
ELECTRA
Well know I that, too well,- I, whose life is a torrent of woes dread and dark, a torrent that surges through all the months!
CHORUS
We have seen the course of thy sorrow.
ELECTRA
Cease, then, to divert me from it, when no more-
CHORUS
How sayest thou?
ELECTRA
-when no more can I have the comfort of hope from a brother, the seed of the same noble sire.
CHORUS
antistrophe 2
For all men it is appointed to die.
ELECTRA
What, to die as that ill-starred one died, amid the tramp of racing steeds, entangled in the reins that dragged him?
CHORUS
Cruel was his doom, beyond thought!
ELECTRA
Yea, surely; when in foreign soil, without ministry of my hands,-
CHORUS
Alas!
ELECTRA
-he is buried, ungraced by me with sepulture or with tears.
CHRYSOTHEMIS enters in excitement.
CHRYSOTHEMIS
Joy wings my feet, dear sister, not careful of seemliness, if I come with speed; for I bring joyful news, to relieve thy long sufferings and sorrows.
ELECTRA
And whence couldst thou find help for my woes, whereof no cure can be imagined?
CHRYSOTHEMIS
Orestes is with us,- know this from my lips, in living presence, as surely as thou seest me here.
ELECTRA
What, art thou mad, poor girl? Art thou laughing at my sorrows, and thine own?
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