Libation Bearers (170-223)

That is open to conjecture—anyone may guess.

How then? Let my age be taught by your youth.

There is no one who could have cut it but myself.

Yes, for those who ought to have mourned with a lock of hair are enemies.

And further, in appearance it is very much like—

Whose lock? This is what I would like to know.

It is very much like my own in appearance.

Then can this be a secret offering from Orestes?

It is his curling locks that it most resembles.

But how did he dare to come here?

He has merely sent this cut lock to honor his father.

What you say is no less a cause of tears for me, if he will never again set foot on this land.

Over my heart, too, there sweeps a surge of bitterness, and I am struck as if a sword had run me through.

From my eyes thirsty drops of a stormy flood fall unchecked at the sight of this tress. For how can I expect to find that someone else, some townsman, owns this lock? Nor yet in truth did she clip it from her head, the murderess,

my own mother, who has assumed a godless spirit regarding her children that ill accords with the name of mother. But as for me, how am I to assent to this outright, that it adorned the head of Orestes, the dearest to me of all mortals? No, hope is merely flattering me.

Ah, woe! If only, like a messenger, it had a kind voice, so that I would not be tossed by my distracted thoughts. Rather it would plainly bid me to spurn this tress, if it was severed from a hated head. Or if it were a kinsman’s, he would share my grief

as an adornment to this tomb and a tribute to my father. But I invoke the gods, who know by what storms we are tossed like seafarers. Yet if I am fated to reach safety, a great stock may come from a little seed.

And look! Another proof! Footprintsmatching each other—and like my own! Yes, here are the outlines of two sets of feet, his own and some companion’s. The heels and the imprints of the tendons agree

in proportion with my own tracks. I am in torment, my brain is in a whirl!

Give recognition to the gods that your prayers have been fulfilled, and pray that success may attend you in the future.

What? Have I succeeded now by the will of the gods?

You have come to the sight of what you have long prayed for.

And do you know whom among mortals I was invoking?

I know that you are pining for Orestes.

Then how have I found an answer to my prayers?

Here I am. Search for no other friend than me.

But surely, stranger, you are weaving some snare about me?

Then I am devising plots against myself.

No, you wish to mock my distress.

Then my own also, if yours.