Yes, silence is clearly better.PyladesAnd you will gain time.OrestesThere is only one obstacle in my way.PyladesWhat fresh objection now?OrestesI am afraid the goddesses will prevent me by madness.PyladesBut I will take care of you.OrestesIt is annoying to have to touch a sick man.PyladesNot to me, when it is you.OrestesBeware of becoming a partner in my madness.PyladesLet that pass.OrestesYou will not hesitate?PyladesNo, for hesitation is a grave mischief among friends.OrestesOn then, pilot of my course!PyladesA service I am glad to render.OrestesAnd guide me to my father’s tomb.PyladesFor what purpose?OrestesThat I may appeal to him to save me.PyladesYes, that is the proper way.OrestesMay I not see my mother’s grave!PyladesNo; she was an enemy. But hasten, so that the vote of Argos may not catch you first, supporting those limbs, slow from sickness, on mine; for I will carry you through the town, thinking little of the mob and unashamed. For how shall I prove my friendship, if not by helping you in sore distress?OrestesAh! the old saying again, get friends, not relations only. For a man who fuses into your ways, though he is an outsider, is better for a man to possess as a friend than a whole host of relations. Exeunt Orestes and Pylades.

ChorusThe great prosperity and the prowess, proudly boasted throughout Hellas and by the streams of Simois, went back again from good fortune for the Atreidae long ago, from an old misfortune to their house, when strife came to the sons of Tantalus over a golden ram, to end in most pitiable banqueting and the slaughter of high-born children; and this is why murder exchanges for murder, through blood, and does not leave the two Atreidae.

ChorusWhat seemed good was not good, to cut a mother’s flesh with ruthless hand and show the sword stained black with blood to the sun’s bright beams; to commit a noble crime is an impious, subtle, malignant madness! The wretched daughter of Tyndareus in terror of death screamed to him: My son, this is unholy, your bold attempt upon your mother’s life; do not, while honoring your father, fasten on yourself an eternity of shame.