What! Are you gladdened at heart by the present news? Chorus Why not, if Zeus at last may cause our ill wind to change?NurseBut how can that be? Orestes, the hope of our house, is gone. ChorusNot yet; he would be a poor prophet who would so interpret. NurseWhat are you saying? Do you know something beyond what has been told? ChorusGo, deliver your message! Do what you are asked to do!The gods take care of what they take care of.NurseWell, I will go and do your bidding. With the gods’ blessing may everything turn out for the best! Exit

ChorusNow at my supplication, O Zeus, father of the Olympian gods, grant that the fortunes of our house be firmly established,so that those who rightly desire the rule of order may behold it. Every word of mine has been uttered in justice. O Zeus, may you safeguard it!

ChorusO Zeus, set him who is within the palace before his foes;since, if you exalt him, he will gladly pay you with double and triple recompense.

ChorusKnow that the orphaned colt of a loved one is harnessed to the chariot of distress.And by setting bounds to his course may you grant that we see him keep a steady pace through this race and win the goal in the straining stride of a gallop.That is, let him bide his time by guarding against haste.

ChorusAnd you who within the house inhabit the inner chamber that exults in its wealth, hear me, you gods, that feel with us! By a fresh award redeem the blood of deeds done long ago.May aged Murder cease begetting offspring in our house!

ChorusAnd you who occupy the mighty, gorgeously built cavern,The inner sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi was a narrow cave or vault in which, over a cleft, stood a tripod covered by a slab on which the prophetess sat (Athenaeus , 701c, Strabo, ix. 641). grant that the man’s house may lift up its eyes again in joy, and that with gladeyes it may behold from under its veil of gloom the radiant light of freedom.

ChorusMay Maia’s son,Hermes, the patron of guile and god of eloquence. as he rightfully should, lend his aid, for no one can better sail a deed on a favoring course, when he would do so.The bracketed line 815 reads And many another hidden thing he will make plain, if he desires. But by his mysterious utterance he brings darkness over men’s eyes by night, and by day he is no more clear at all.

ChorusAnd then at last with a loud voice we shall sing a song of the deliverance of our house,the song that women raise when the wind sits fair, and not the shrill strain of those who mourn: The ship goes well. This grows to profit for me, for me, and calamity holds off from those I love.

ChorusBut may you with good courage, when the part of action comes, cry out loud the name Father when she exclaims Son, and accomplish the baneful but irreproachable deed.

ChorusRaise up Perseus’ spirit within my breast. And for those dear to you below the earth, and for those above, exact satisfaction for their dire wrathby working bloody ruin in our house and obliterating the guilt of murder.Of verses 819-837 only the general sense is clear.

Enter AegisthusAegisthusI have come not unasked but summoned by a messenger. I heard startling news told by some strangers who have arrived, tidings far from welcome:—that Orestes is dead. To lay this too upon our house would be a fearful burden when it is still festering and galled by the wound inflicted by an earlier murder. How can I believe this tale is the living truth? Or is it merely a panic-stricken report spread by womenwhich leaps up to die away in nothingness? What can you tell me of this to make it plain to my mind? ChorusWe heard the tale, it is true. But go inside and inquire of the strangers. The certainty of a messenger’s report