Ah, me, ah, me! Chorus My child, why do you weep? Electra Oh! Chorus Give no cry of bad omen! Electra You will break my heart! Chorus How do you mean? Electra If you suggest that I keep hope for those who have surely passed to Hades, you will trample even harder upon me as I waste away. Chorus No, for I know that the prince Amphiaraus was ensnared by a woman’s chain of gold and
 swallowed up. And now beneath the earth— Electra ah, me, ah, me! Chorus —He reigns supreme with the wits of the living. Electra ah, me! Chorus ah, me, indeed! For the murderess— Electra Was slain. Chorus Yes. Electra I know it; I know it. For a champion arose to avenge the grieving dead. But for me no champion remains: he who yet remained has been snatched clean away. Chorus Unhappy are you, unhappy your destiny! Electra How well I know that, all too well, with my life swept through all the months by abundant terrors and horrors! Chorus We have witnessed the events for which you mourn. Electra Cease, then, to divert me from it, since no longer— Chorus What do you say? Electra —Since I no longer have hope in my brother, the seed of our shared noble line, to aid me. Chorus Nature ordains death as the destiny of all mortals. Electra What, a death like the one which that ill-fated one died beneath a race of swift hooves, entangled in the cutting, dragging reins? Chorus The mutilation is beyond thought! Electra Yes, so it is, when in foreign soil, without being tended by my hands— Chorus Ah, no! Electra —he has been buried not receiving from me either burial or lamentation. Enter Chrysothemis, from the right. Chrysothemis I am pursued by joy, dear sister, and I disregard seemliness in order to come with speed. I bring joyful news to relieve your former troubles and grief.