Daughter, cover up thy bosom, fasten thy robe.

HermioneWhy should I cover it? My crimes against my lord are manifest and clear, they cannot be hidden.NurseArt so grieved at having devised thy rival’s death?

HermioneIndeed I am; I deeply mourn my fatal deeds of daring; alas! I am now accursed in all men’s eyes!NurseThy husband will pardon thee this error.

HermioneOh! why didst thou hunt me to snatch away my sword? Give, oh! give it back, dear nurse, that I may thrust it through my heart. Why dost thou prevent me hanging myself?NurseWhat! was I to let thy madness lead thee on to death?

HermioneAh me, my destiny! Where can I find some friendly fire? To what rocky height can I climb above the sea or ’mid some wooded mountain glen, there to die and trouble but the dead?NurseWhy vex thyself thus? on all of us sooner or later heaven’s visitation comes.

HermioneThou hast left me, O my father, left me like a stranded bark, all alone, without an oar. My lord will surely slay me; no home is mine henceforth beneath my husband’s roof. What god is there to whose statue I can as a suppliant haste? or shall I throw myself in slavish wise at slavish knees? Would I could speedReading ἀερθείην with Seidler. away from Phthia’s land on bird’s dark pinion, or like that pine-built ship,Argo, in quest of the Golden Fleece.the first that ever sailed betwixt the rocks Cyanean!NurseMy child, I can as little praise thy previous sinful excesses, committed against the Trojan captive, as thy present exaggerated terror. Thy husband will never listen to a barbarian’s weak pleading and reject his marriage with thee for this. For thou wast no captive from Troy whom he wedded, but the daughter of a gallant sire, with a rich dower, from a city too of no mean prosperity. Nor will thy father forsake thee, as thou dreadest, and allow thee to be cast out from this house. Nay, enter now, nor show thyself before the palace, lest the sightNauck regards line 878 as spurious. of thee there bring reproach upon thee, my daughter. Exit Nurse. ChorusLo! a stranger of foreign appearance from some other land comes hurrying towards us.OrestesLadies of this foreign land! is this the home, the palace of Achilles’ son?ChorusThou hast it; but who art thou to ask such a question?OrestesThe son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, by name Orestes, on my way to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. But now that I am come to Phthia, I am resolved to inquire about my kinswoman, Hermione of Sparta; is she alive and well? for though she dwells in a land far from my own, I love her none the less.HermioneSon of Agamemnon, thy appearing is as a haven from the storm to sailors; by thy knees I pray, have pity on me in my distress, on me of whose fortunes thou art inquiring. About thy knees I twine my arms with all the force of sacred fillets.OrestesHa! what is this? Am I mistaken or do I really see before me the queen of this palace, the daughter of Menelaus?HermioneThe same, that only child whom Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, bore my father in his halls; never doubt that.OrestesO saviour Phoebus, grant us respite from our woe! But what is the matter? art thou afflicted by gods or men?