and the rags of my dress, will be fit for a princess, a daughter of Agamemnon, or for Troy, once taken, which remembers my father.

ChorusMighty is the goddess; come then, and borrow from me thick-woven clothes to wear, and gold—as a favor to me—accessories to adornment. Do you think to rule over your enemies by tears, if you do not revere the gods?Honoring the gods not by lamentation but by prayers, you will have good fortune, child.ElectraNo god attends to the voice of the ill-fated one,or to the slaying of my father long ago. Alas for the dead, and for the living vagabond, who dwells in another land somewhere,miserably wandering to a slave’s hearth, yet born of that renowned father. I myself live in a poor man’s house, wasting my life away, an exile from my father’s house,on the mountain crags. But my mother, with a new husband, makes her home in a bed stained by blood.

Chorus LeaderHelen, your mother’s sister, is the cause of many evils to the Hellenes and to your house.ElectraCatching sight of Orestes and PyladesAh! Women, I have broken off my lament; strangers, who had their lair at the altar, are rising from ambush towards the household. Let us escape the villains by flight, you along the path and I to the house.OrestesStay, poor girl; do not fear my hand.ElectraO Phoebus Apollo! I beseech you to spare my life.OrestesMay I kill others more hated than you!ElectraGo away! Do not touch one whom you must not touch.OrestesThere is no one I have a better right to touch.ElectraThen why are you in ambush, with drawn sword, near my house?OrestesWait and hear, and you will soon say the same.ElectraI am still; in any case, I am yours, since you are the stronger.OrestesI have come to bring you word from your brother.ElectraOh best of friends! Is he alive or dead?OrestesAlive; for I want to tell you the good news first.ElectraMay you be happy, as a reward for your most welcome tidings.OrestesI give that blessing for us two to have in common.ElectraWhere does the unhappy one live, in his unhappy exile?OrestesHe goes miserably about, not following the customs of any one city.ElectraSurely he does not want for a living, day by day?OrestesHe has that, but an exile is a helpless man at best.ElectraWhat is this message you have come bringing from him?OrestesIf you are alive, and if so, how you are.ElectraWell then, you see first of all how withered my body is.