Strophius: Although dead Agamemnon bids me fear,
I'll brave the danger and thy brother save.
Good fortune asks for faith; adversity
Compels us to be true.
[Takes Orestes into the chariot.]
My lad, attend:
Wear this wild-olive wreath upon thy brow, 935
The noble prize I won on Pisa's plain;
And hold above thy head this leafy branch,
The palm of victory, that it may be
A shield and omen of success to thee.
And do thou too, O Pylades, my son, 940
Who dost as comrade guide thy father's car,
From my example faith in friendship learn.
Do you, swift steeds, before the eyes of Greece
Speed on in flight, and leave this faithless land.
[Exeunt at great speed.]
Electra [looking after them]: So is he gone. His car at reckless pace
Fast vanishes from sight. And now my foes, 945
With heart released from care, will I await,
And willingly submit my head to death.
Here comes the bloody conqueror of her lord,
And bears upon her robes the stains of blood.
Her hands still reek with gore, and in her face
She bears the witness of her impious crime.950
I'll hie me to the shrine; and, kneeling here,
I'll join Cassandra in our common fear.
[Enter Clytemnestra, fresh from the murder of her husband.]
Clytemnestra [to Electra]: Thou base, unfilial, and froward girl,
Thy mother's foe, by what authority
Dost thou, a virgin, seek the public gaze?
Electra: Because I am a virgin have I left 955
The tainted home of vile adulterers.
Clytemnestra: Who would believe thee chaste?
Electra: I am thy child.
Clytemnestra: Thou shouldst thy mother speak with gentler tongue.
Electra: Shall I learn filial piety of thee?
Clytemnestra: Thou hast a mannish soul, too puffed with pride;
But tamed by suffering thou soon shalt learn
