No one is willing to have the poor as friends.ClytemnestraBut I will go to make the tenth-day sacrifice to the gods for the child; and when I have done you this favor, I will go to the field where my husband is sacrificing to theNymphs. Take this team away, my attendants, and bring it to the stalls; and when you think that I have finished this sacrifice to the gods, be ready; for I must also please my husband.ElectraGo into a poor house; but please take carethat my smoke-grimed walls do not smear your robes with soot. For you will make the sacrifice to the gods that you ought to make. Going in to the house. The basket is ready, and the knife sharpened, the same that killed the bull by whose side you will lie, struck down. Even in Hades’ house you will be the bride of the onewhom you slept with in life. This is the favor I will give you, and you will give me retribution for my father. Exit Electra.

ChorusRequital for evils; the breezes of the house shift and blow. At another time my leader, my own, fell murdered in the bath,and the roof and stone walls of the house cried aloud, while he said: O cruelty! My wife, why are you murdering me on my return to my dear country in the tenth year? . . .

ChorusRetribution for straying love has flowed back and brings to judgment the one who killed her wretched husband, when he came at last to his home and to the towering Cyclopean walls; with her own hand she killed him with the sharp-edged weapon,holding the axe in her hands. Unhappy husband! whatever the curse that possessed that wretched woman. Like a lioness of the hills that ranges through the meadowland woods, she accomplished these things.withinClytemnestraO children, by the gods, do not kill your mother.

ChorusDo you hear her cries within the house?

ClytemnestraO God! Ah me!ChorusI also wail for you, overpowered by your children. Truly the god deals out justice, whenever it befalls.You have suffered cruelly, unhappy one, yet you did unholy things to your husband.Chorus LeaderBut here they come from the house, defiled in the newly shed blood of their mother, a triumphal rout, evidence of the pitiable sacrifice.There is no house more pitiable than the race of Tantalus, nor has there ever been.The two corpses are shown.

OrestesO Earth, and Zeus who sees all mortal acts, look at these loathsome bloody deeds, these two bodieslying on the earth at the blow from my hand, atonement for my suffering . . .ElectraToo many tears, my brother, and I am the cause. Unhappy, that I came to fiery rage against this woman, who was my mother!ChorusAlas for your fate; you gave birth to unbearable pain, and you suffered it, miserably and beyond, from your children. Yet you have rightly paid for their father’s murder.

OrestesAh, Phoebus! you proclaimed in song unclear justice, but you have brought about clear woes, and granted me a bloody destiny far from the land of Hellas. To what other city can I go?What host, what pious man will look at me, who killed my mother?ElectraAh me! Where can I go, to what dance, to what marriage? What husband will receive meinto the bridal bed?ChorusAgain, again your thought changes with the breeze; for now you think piously, though you did not before, and you did dreadful things,my dear, to your unwilling brother.

OrestesDid you see how the unhappy one threw off her robe and showed her bosom in the slaughter, alas, hurling to the ground the limbs that gave me birth? And her hair, I—ChorusI know it well; you passed through agony, hearing the mournful wail of the mother that bore you.

OrestesShe uttered this cry, putting her hand to my chin: