and the presence of honest faces. But if there is another matter requiring graver counsel, that is the concern of men, and we will communicate with them.
 Orestes I am a stranger, a Daulian of the Phocians. As I was on my way, carrying my pack on business of my own to Argos , just as I ended my journey here, Literally I have been unyoked, his feet being his horses. a man, a stranger to me as I to him, fell in with me, and inquired about my destination and told me his. He was Strophius, a Phocian (for as we talked I learned his name), and he said to me, Stranger, since in any case you are bound for Argos , keep my message in mind most faithfully and tell his parents Orestes is dead, and by no means let it escape you. Whether his friends decide to bring him home or to bury him in the land of his sojourn, a foreigner utterly forever, convey their wishes back to me. In the meantime a bronze urn contains the ashes of a man rightly lamented. This much I tell you as I heard it. Whether by any chance I am speaking to those with whom the question rests and whose concern it is, I do not know. But his parent should know the truth. Clytaemestra Oh no! Your story spells our utter undoing. O curse that haunts this house, so hard to wrestle down: how far forward you look! Even what was laid well out of harm’s way you bring down with your well-aimed shafts from far off, and you strip me of those I love, utterly wretched as I am. And now Orestes: he was indeed prudent in keeping his foot out of the mire of destruction, but now mark down as having abandoned us what was once the one hope in our house of a cure for its fine revelry. Clytaemestra’s outward meaning is that, with her son alive and far from the blood-stained house, she had hoped that there has been an end of the carousing of the Curses (cp. Agam. 1188 ). That hope is gone—they still hold their fair fine revelry, as she ironically calls it. Her inner emotion is joy that the hope of Electra is crushed—the hope that her brother would return and end the unseemly revelry. Reading παροῦσαν (so M) ἐγγράφῃ the meaning is thou dost inscribe it present in thy list. 
 
 Orestes As for me, I am sure that with hosts so prosperous I would rather have been made known and welcomed for favorable news. For where is goodwill greater than from guest to host? Yet to my mind it would have been irreverent not to fulfill for friends a charge like this when I was bound by promise and hospitality pledged to me. Clytaemestra Rest assured you will receive no less a reward than you deserve nor be the less welcome to this house: someone else might just as well have brought your message. But it is the hour when strangers who have been travelling on a long day’s journey should have their proper entertainment. To an attendant Conduct him to the rooms where the men are hospitably lodged, him and his attendants here and his fellow-traveller, and let them be tended to there as is proper in our house. I command you to do this as you shall be held to strict account. Meantime we will communicate this matter to the master of the house, and since we have no lack of friends we will confer on this occurrence.
 All withdraw except the Chorus Chorus Ah, loyal handmaidens of the house, low long will it be before we display the power that lies in our mouths to do Orestes service?
 O hallowed earth, and hallowed barrow raised high that now lies on the royal form of the commander of the fleet, now hear me, now lend me aid! Now is the hour for Persuasion with her guile to join forces with him, and for Hermes of the nether world, who works in stealth, to direct this encounter of the deadly sword. Enter Orestes’ Nurse 
 
 Our stranger, I think, is working mischief: for over there I see Orestes’ nurse all in tears. Cilissa Slaves were commonly named from their native country ! Where are you going? Why as you set foot in the palace gate do you have a grief as an unhired companion?
 Nurse My mistress commands me to summon Aegisthus for the strangers in all haste, so that he may come and learn more clearly, from man to man, these tidings that have just arrived. Indeed, before the servants, behind eyes that feigned grief she hid her laughter over what has occurred fortunately for her. But the news so plainly told by the strangers means utter ruin for this house. I expect that when he hears it he will rejoice in his heart to know the story. Miserable woman that I am! How the old unbearable troubles of every sort that occurred in this house of Atreus have always made my heart ache within my breast! But never yet have I endured a blow like this. For all the other troubles I bore patiently, but my beloved Orestes, on whom I spent my soul, whom I took from his mother at birth and nursed, and the many and troublesome tasks, fruitless for all my enduring them, when his loud and urgent cries broke my rest.... For one must nurse the senseless thing like a dumb beast, of course one must, by following its humor. For while it is still a baby in swaddling clothes, it has no speech at all, whether hunger moves it, or thirst perhaps, or the call of need: children’s young insides work their own relief. I would anticipate these needs. Yet many a time, I think, having to wash the child’s linen because of my own errors, laundress and nurse had the same function. It was I who, with these two handicrafts, received Orestes for his father. And now, wretch that I am, I hear that he is dead. But I am on my way to fetch the man who wrought destruction on our house, and he will be glad enough to hear this news. Chorus Then arrayed how does she tell him to come?
 Nurse Arrayed how? Say it again so that I may catch your meaning better.
 Chorus With his guards or perhaps unattended?
 Nurse She tells him to come with his retinue of spearmen.
 Chorus Well, do not give this message to our loathed master, but with all haste and with a cheerful heart tell him to come himself, alone, so that he may be told without alarm. For in the mouth of a messenger a crooked message is made straight. A proverbial saying, meant for the Nurse, and not for Aegisthus: In passing through the mouth of its bearer a message may be changed as he pleases.