Chapter 2

How well have I my father's fears allayedWith fraudulent words to compass my own will!Lo, he would filch me hence, with shame to me,Loss to my fatherland. An old man's heartDeserves some pity.—What pity can I claimIf I betray the land that gave me birth?Know then that I shall go and save the state,Giving my life and dying for this land.For this is shameful; if beneath no banOf oracles, bound by no force of fate,But standing to their shields, men dare to dieUnder the ramparts of the town they love;While I, untrue to brother and to sire,And to my country, like a felon slinkFar hence in exile! Lo, where'er I roam,All men would call me coward! By great Zeus,Who dwells among the stars, by bloody Ares,Who made the dragon-seed in days of oldLords of the land, I swear this shall not be!But I will go, and on the topmost towersStanding, will dash into the murky denWhere couched the dragon, as the prophet bade.Thus will I free my country. I have spoken.See, then, I leave you: it is no mean giftIn death I give the city; but my landI purge of sickness. If all men were boldOf their good things to work the public weal,I ween our towns had less of ills to bear,And more of blessings for all days to be.

With thePhœnissæin our hands, one other passage may be translated which displays the power possessed by Euripides of composing a dramatic picture, and presenting pathos to the eye. Eteocles and Polyneices have been wounded to the death. Jocasta, their mother, and Antigone, their sister, go forth to the battlefield to find them:

Then rushed their wretched mother on the twain;And seeing them thus wounded unto death,Wailed: "O my sons! too late, too late I comeTo succor you!" Then, clasping them by turns,She wept and mourned the long toil of her breasts,Groaning; and by her side their sister groaned:"O ye who should have been my mother's stayIn age, O, thoughtless of my maiden yearsUnwedded, dearest brothers!" From his chestHeaving a heavy breath, King Eteocles heardHis mother, and stretched forth a cold damp handOn hers, and nothing said, but with his eyesSpake to her by his tears, showing kind thoughtsIn symbols. Then the other, who still breathed,Looked at his sister, and the queen, and said,"We have perished, mother! yea, I pity thee,And this my sister, and my brother dead;For dear he was—my foe—and yet was dear.Bury me, O my mother, and thou, too,Sweet sister, in my father's land, I pray;And close my dying eyelids with thy hand,Mother!"—Upon his eyes he placed her hand—"And fare you well! Now darkness clips me round."Then both breathed out their weary life together.But the queen, when she saw this direful end,Maddened with anguish drew the dead man's sword,And wrought things horrible; for through her throatShe thrust the blade; and on her dearest fallingDies, and lies stretched, clasping both in her arms.

But to return to the virtue of εὐψυχία. The play ofHecubacontains a still more touching picture of heroism in death than that displayed by Menoikeus. Troy has been taken. Ulysses is sent by the Greeks to inform Hecuba that herdaughter Polyxena must be sacrificed. Hecuba reminds him how in former days he had come disguised as a spy to Troy, and how she had recognized him, and, at his strong entreaty, spared him from discovery. In return for this, let him now spare her daughter. Frigidly and politely Ulysses replies, "True, lady, a life for a life. You saved mine, I would do something to save yours; but your daughter is quite another person. I have not the pleasure of having received benefits from her. I must trouble her to follow me." Then Polyxena breaks silence:

I see thee, how beneath thy robe, O king,Thy hand is hidden, thy face turned from mine,Lest I should touch thee by the beard and pray.Fear not: thou hast escaped the god of prayersFor my part. I will rise and follow thee,Driven by strong need; yea, and not loath to die.Lo! if I should not seek death, I were foundA cowardly, life-loving, selfish soul!For why should I live? Was my sire not kingOf all broad Phrygia? Thus my life began;Then was I nurtured on fair bloom of hopeTo be the bride of kings; no small the suit,I ween, of lovers seeking me: thus IWas once—ah, woe is me! of Idan damesMistress and queen, 'mid maidens like a starConspicuous, peer of gods, except for death;And now I am a slave: this name aloneMakes me in love with death—so strange it is.

Sheer contempt of life, when life has to be accepted on dishonorable terms, is the virtue of Polyxena. But, so far, though we may admire her fortitude, we have not been touched by her misfortune. Euripides reserves the pathos, after his own fashion, for a picture. Talthybius, the herald, is telling Hecuba how her daughter died:

The whole vast concourse of the Achaian hostStood round the tomb to see your daughter die.Achilleus' son taking her by the hand,Placed her upon the mound, and I stayed near;And youths, the flower of Greece, a chosen few,With hands to check thy heifer, should she bound,Attended. From a cup of carven gold,Raised full of wine, Achilleus' son poured forthLibation to his sire, and bade me soundSilence throughout the whole Achaian host.I, standing there, cried in the midst these words:"Silence, Achaians! let the host be still!Hush hold your voices!" Breathless stayed the crowd;But he: "O son of Peleus, father mine,Take these libations pleasant to thy soul,Draughts that allure the dead: come, drink the blackPure maiden's blood wherewith the host and ISue thee: be kindly to us; loose our prows,And let our barks go free; give safe returnHomeward from Troy to all, and happy voyage."Such words he spake, and the crowd prayed assent.Then from the scabbard, by its golden hilt,He drew the sword, and to the chosen youthsSignalled that they should bring the maid; but she,Knowing her hour was come, spake thus, and said:"O men of Argus who have sacked my town,Lo, of free will I die! let no man touchMy body: boldly will I stretch my throat.Nay, but I pray you set me free, then slay;That free I thus may perish: 'mong the dead,Being a queen, I blush to be called slave."The people shouted, and King AgamemnonBade the youths loose the maid, and set her free:She, when she heard the order of the chiefs,Seizing her mantle, from the shoulder downTo the soft centre of her snowy waistTore it, and showed her breasts and bosom fairAs in a statue. Bending then with kneeOn earth, she spake a speech most piteous:"See you this breast, oh! youth, if breast you will,Strike it; take heart: or if beneath my neck,Lo! here my throat is ready for your sword!"He willing not, yet willing, pity-stirredIn sorrow for the maiden, with his bladeSevered the channels of her breath: blood flowed;And she, though dying, still had thought to fallIn seemly wise hiding what eyes should see not.But when she breathed her life out from the blow,Then was the Argive host in divers wayOf service parted; for some bringing leaves,Strewed them upon the corpse; some piled a pyre,Dragging pine trunks and boughs; and he who bore none,Heard from the bearers many a bitter word:"Standest thou, villain? Hast thou then no robe,No funeral honors for the maid to bring?Wilt thou not go and get for her who diedMost nobly, bravest-souled, some gift?" Thus theySpake of thy child in death: "O thou most blessedOf women in thy daughter, most undone!"

The quality of εὐψυχία which we have seen in Menoikeus and Polyxena is displayed by Macaria in theHeracleidæand by Iphigenia in the last scene of her tragedy at Aulis. Iphigenia in this play ranks justly as the most beautiful of Euripidean characters, and as the most truly feminine among the heroines of the Greek drama. Her first appearance on the stage enlists our sympathy, when she seems to welcome her father—the father whom we know to be ignobly and deceitfully planning her death—with the tenderest words of girlish greeting. Landor, in his celebrated dialogue between Agamemnon and his daughter, on the shores of Lethe, was mindful of this passage. But in that masterly study of Greek style he added a new element of pathos. Iphigenia has already drunk the waters of oblivion, and all the anguish of the past, her father's treachery, and the bending of his will in base compliance with a barbarous superstition, has been forgotten. Meanwhile Agamemnon has not only his daughter's wrongs upon his conscience, but Clytemnestra's adultery and vengeance, the price he paid for his old crime, are still hot in his memory. Therefore the situation is more complex in the modern poem. At Aulis, Iphigenia is but the loved child of a weak man, who has to return her pretty speeches and caresses with constrained phrases hiding a hideous meaning. When the truth is at last made known to her she pleads passionately for life. "Had I the tongue of Orpheus," she cries in her agony, "I would melt your heart to pity, father, with my words. But now my only eloquence is tears. I was the first who called you father, the first you called your child; the first who sat upon your knees and took and gave a daughter's kisses." She reminds him of his promises, the happy life she was to lead, the comfort she meant to bring to his old age. She asks what Helen and Paris have to do with her, or she with them, that she should perish in their quarrel. She makes the little Orestes kneel and clasp his hands in speechless prayer. At last the whole energy of her grief finds vent in words more thrilling even than Claudio's when he thinks of death: "Of all the joys that men can have, the sweetest is to live and see the light. The dead are nothing; only madmen pray for death; it is better to live miserably than to die gloriously." The effect of these passionate entreaties and of the lyrical outburst of anguish which follows is to make us feel the price of Iphigenia's sacrifice. She is no forlorn captive like Polyxena, but a princess in the very bloom and promise of her prime, affianced to Achilles, just entering upon the sweetness of new life divined "in rich foreshadowings of the world." How can she leave it all and go forth to dust and endless darkness? Yet her father has dropped one word which in her first passion of grief seems to be unheeded. "Hellas requires this of us both, my daughter—of you as far as in you lies, and of me also, in order that she should be free." When we next behold Iphigenia, his words had borne noble fruit. Clytemnestra and Achilles are devising how to save her. She enters, firm and resolute, but with the rapid utterance of exalted enthusiasm. Her determination has been taken. The duty laid upon her, the greatness of the glory, the grandeur of the part she has to play, had reconciled her to death. "Mother, listen to my words! The whole of mighty Hellas looks to me for her salvation and her freedom. How, then, should I be so life-loving as to shrink? And you, you did not bear me for yourself alone, but for all Greece. I give this my body for our land. Slay me; destroy the towers of Ilion. This shall be my everlasting monument, and this my children and my marriage and my fame." What follows in her dialogue with Clytemnestra and Achilles, Clytemnestra vainly seeking to overthrow her resolution, and Achilles blending his admiration of her heroism with regret that he should lose this flower of royalty, raises the unselfish passion of the girl to still sublimer height. She is not only firm, but exquisitely gentle. She thinks of her brother, whom she leaves behind. She entreats her mother to forgive Agamemnon. And even when she breaks into lamentation, her one sustaining thought remains, that she, she only, will overwhelm Troy, and bring the light of safety and of freedom upon Hellas. Here, then, in the εὐψυχία of Iphigenia, the antique thirst for glory is the determining motive; and her final resolution contradicts that first outcry of simple nature uttered to her father. The spiritual element, aflame with hope of everlasting honor, discards the cruder instincts that make men cling to life for life's sake only.

Another shade of the same virtue gives a peculiar attraction to the self-devotion of Alcestis in her death, and of Electra in her attendance on the brain-sick Orestes. Blending with the despair of the captive princess and the frenzy of the inspired Pythia, this sublime unselfishness renders Cassandra's attitude in theTroadesheroically tragic. She goes, a bondwoman, an unwilling concubine, with Agamemnon to Mycenæ. Insult and slavery and a horrible death, clearly discerned by her prophetic vision, are before her. And yet she triumphs gloriously; her voice rings like a clarion when she proclaims that the guerdon of her suffering is the ruin of the house of Atreus. It is noticeable that Euripides, the so-called woman-hater, has alone of the Greek poets subsequent to Homer, with the single exception of Sophocles, devoted his genius to the delineation of female characters. It is impossible to weigh occasional sententious sarcasms against such careful studies of heroic virtue in woman as the Iphigenia, the Electra, the Polyxena, the Alcestis of our poet. Aristophanes, who was himself the worst enemy Athenian ladies ever met with, describes Euripides as a foe to women, apparently because he thought fit to treat them, not as automata, but as active, passionate, and powerful agents in the play of human life.[8]

But to return to our illustrations of εὐψυχία. In theMedeaand theHippolytusEuripides again displays this virtue of stern stoicism in two women. But here the heroines are guilty: their Spartan endurance of anguish to the death is tempered with crime. These tragedies are the masterpieces of the poet; in each of them the single passion of an individual forms the subject of the drama. Separated from all antecedents of ancestral doom, Medea and Phædra work out the dreadful consequences of their own tempestuous will. NotOthello, and notFaust, have a more complete internal unity of motive. No modern play has an equal external harmony of form. Medea was one of the most romantic figures of Greek story. Daughter of the sun-god in the Colchian land of mystery and magic, she unfolded like some poisonous flower, gorgeous to look upon, with flaunting petals and intoxicating scent, but deadly. Terrible indeed in wiles, she learned to love Jason. By a series of crimes, in which the hero participated as her accomplice, and of which he reaped the benefits—by the betrayal of her father's trust, by the murder of her brother, by the butchery of Pelias—she placed her lover on the throne of Thessaly. Then Jason, at the height of his prosperity, forgetting the love, as of some tigress, that the sorceress bore him, forgetting, too, her fatal power of life and death, cast his eyes on Glauke, the king's daughter of Corinth, and bade Medea go forth with her sons, a pariah—a dishonored wife. Whither should she turn? To Colchis, and the father whose son she slew? To Thessaly, where the friends of Pelias still live? Jason does not care. His passion for Medea has vanished like a mist. Their common trials common crimes—trials which should have endeared them to each other; crimes which were as strong as hell to bind them—have melted from his mind like dew. He only wishes to be rid of the fell woman, and to live a peaceful life with innocent home-keeping folk. But on one thing Jason has not reckoned—on the awful fury of his old love; he forgets how she wrought by magic and by poison in his need, and how in her own need she may do things terrible and strange. In the same way we often think that we will lightly leave some ancient, strong, habitual sin, of old time passionately cherished, of late grown burdensome; but not so easily may the new pure life be won. Between our souls and it there stands the fury of the past.

Medea in her house, like a lioness in her den, has crouched sleepless, without food, not to be touched or spoken to, since the first news of Glauke's projected bridal was told. No one knows what she is meditating. Only the nurse of her children mistrusts her fiery eyes and thunderous silence, her viperish loose hair and throbbing skin. The moment is finely prepared. Some Corinthian ladies visit her, and she, though loath to rise, does so at their prayer, excusing her reluctance by illness, and by a foreigner's want of familiarity with their customs. Pale, calm, and terrible, she stands before them. From this first appearance of Medea to the end of the play, her one figure occupies the whole space of the theatre. Her spirit is in the air, and the progress of the action only dilates the impression which she has produced. The altercations with Creon and with Jason are artfully conducted so as to arouse our sympathy and make us feel that such a nature is being driven by the intemperance and selfishness of others into acul-de-sacof crime. The facility with which she disposes inthought of her chief foes, as if they were so many flies that have to be caught and killed, is eminently impressive. "Many are the ways of death: I will stretch three corpses in the palace—Creon's, the bride's, my husband's. My only thought is now of means—whether to burn them or to cut their throats—perchance the old tried way of poison were the best. They are dead." Καὶ δὴ τεθνᾶσι. Medea knowstheycannot escape her. For the rest, she will consider her own plans. In the scene with Jason she rises to an appalling altitude. Her words are winged snakes and the breath of furnaces. There is no querulous recrimination, no impotence of anger; but her spirit glows and flickers dragon-like against him, as she stands above him on the pedestal of his ingratitude. But when he has gone, and she sits down to reconsider her last act of vengeance—the murder of his sons and hers—then begins the tragic agony of her own soul. These lines reveal the contest between a mother's love and the pride of an injured woman, the εὐψυχία of one who must steel her heart in order to preserve her fame for fortitude and power:

O Zeus, and justice of high Jove, and lightOf Sun, all seeing! Now victoriousOver my foes shall I pace forth, sweet friends,To triumph!I shudder at the deed that will be doneHereafter: for my children I shall slay—Mine; there is none shall snatch them from me now.Let no one deem me timid, weak of hand,Placidly tame; but of the other temper,Harsh to my foes and kindly to my friends.

Then when Glauke, arrayed in the robe Medea sent her, is smouldering to ashes with her father in slow phosphorescent flame, Medea sends for her childrenand makes that last speech which is the very triumph of Euripidean rhetoric:

O children, children! you have still a city,A home, where, lost to me and all my woe,You will live out your lives without a mother!But I—lo! I am for another land,Leaving the joy of you:—to see you happy,To deck your marriage-bed, to greet your bride,To light your wedding-torch shall not be mine!O me, thrice wretched in my own self-will!In vain, then, dear my children! did I rear you;In vain I travailed, and with wearing sorrowBore bitter anguish in the hour of childbirth!Yea, of a sooth, I had great hope of you,That you should cherish my old age, and deckMy corpse with loving hands, and make me blessed'Mid women in my death. But now, ah me!Hath perished that sweet dream. For long without youI shall drag out a dreary doleful age.And you shall never see your mother moreWith your dear eyes: for all your life is changed.Woe, woe!Why gaze you at me with your eyes, my children?Why smile your last sweet smile? Ah! me; ah! me!What shall I do? My heart dissolves within me,Friends, when I see the glad eyes of my sons!I cannot. No: my will that was so steady,Farewell to it. They too shall go with me:Why should I wound their sire with what wounds them,Heaping tenfold his woes on my own head?No, no, I shall not. Perish my proud will.Yet whence this weakness? Do I wish to reapThe scorn that springs from enemies unpunished?Dare it I must. What craven fool am I,To let soft thoughts flow trickling from my soul!Go, boys, into the house: and he who may notBe present at my solemn sacrifice—Let him see to it. My hand shall not falter.Ah! ah!Nay, do not, O my heart! do not this thing!Suffer them, O poor fool; yea, spare thy children!There in thy exile they will gladden thee.Not so: by all the plagues of nethermost hellIt shall not be that I, that I should sufferMy foes to triumph and insult my sons!Die must they: this must be, and since it must,I, I myself will slay them, I who bore them.So it is fixed, and there is no escape.Even as I speak, the crown is on her head,The bride is dying in her robes, I know it.But since this path most piteous I tread,Sending them forth on paths more piteous far,I will embrace my children. Oh, my sons,Give, give your mother your dear hands to kiss!Oh, dearest hands, and mouths most dear to me,And forms and noble faces of my sons!Be happy even there: what here was yours,Your father robs you of. Oh, loved embrace!Oh, tender touch and sweet breath of my boys!Go, go, go, leave me! Lo, I cannot bearTo look on you: my woes have overwhelmed me!Now know I all the ill I have to do:But rage is stronger than my better mind,Rage, cause of greatest crimes and griefs to mortals.[9]

Phædra, the heroine of theHippolytus, supplies us with a new conception of the same thirst for εὐκλεία—the same εὐψυχία, γενναιότης, indifference to life when honor is at stake. The pride of her good name drives Phædra to a crime more detestable than Medea's, because her victim, Hippolytus, is eminently innocent. I do not want to dwell upon the pining sickness of Phædra, which Euripides has wrought with exquisitely painful details, but rather to call attention to Hippolytus. Side by side with the fever of Phædra is the pure fresh health of the hunter-hero. The scent of forest-glades, where he pursues the deer with Artemis, surrounds him; the sea-breeze from the sands, where he trains his horses, moves his curls. His piety is as untainted as his purity; it is the maiden-service of a maiden-saint. In his observance of the oath extorted from him by Phædra's nurse, in his obedience to his father's will, in his kindness to his servants, in his gentle endurance of a painful death, and in the joy with which he greets the virgin huntress when she comes to visit him, Euripides has firmly traced the ideal of a guileless, tranquil manhood. Hippolytus among the ancients was the Paladin of chastity, the Percival of their romance. Nor is any knight of mediæval legend more true and pure than he. Hippolytus first comes upon the stage with a garland of wild flowers for Artemis:

Lady, for thee this garland have I wovenOf wilding flowers plucked from an unshorn meadow,Where neither shepherd dares to feed his flock,Nor ever scythe hath swept, but through the meadUnshorn in spring the bee pursues her labors,And maiden modesty with running rillsWaters the garden. Sweet queen, take my crownTo deck thy golden hair: my hand is holy.To me alone of men belongs this honor,To be with thee and answer when thou speakest;Yea, for I hear thy voice but do not see thee.So may I end my life as I began.

Even in this bald translation some of the fresh morning feeling, as of cool fields and living waters, and pure companionship and a heart at peace, transpires. Throughout the play, in spite of the usual Euripidean blemishes of smart logic-chopping and pragmatical sententiousness, this impression is maintained. Hippolytus moves through it with the athletic charm that belongs to such statues as that of Meleager and his dog in the Vatican. At the end the young hero is carried from the sea-beach, mangled, and panting out his life amid intolerable pain and fever-thirst. His lamentations are loud and deep as he calls on Death the healer. Then suddenly is he aware of the presence of Artemis:

Oh, breath and perfume of the goddess! Lo,I feel thee even in torment, and am eased!Here in this place is Artemis the queen.

The scent of the forest coolness has been blown upon him. His death will now be calm.

A.Poor man! she is; the goddess thou most loved.H.Seest thou me, lady, in what plight I lie?A.I see thee; but I may not drop a tear.H.Thou hast no huntsman and no servant now.A.Nay, truly, since thou diest, dear my friend.H.No groom, no guardian of thy sculptured shrine.A.'Twas Kupris, the arch-fiend, who wrought this woe.H.Ah, me! Now know I what god made me die.A.Shorn of her honor, vexed with thy chaste life.H.Three of us her one spite—behold! hath slain.A.Thy father, and his wife, and thirdly thee.H.Yea, and I therefore mourn my sire's ill hap.A.Snared was he by a goddess's deceit.H.Oh! for your sorrow in this woe, my father!T.Son! I have perished: life has now no joy.H.I mourn this error more for you than me.T.Would, son, I were a corpse instead of you.A.Stay! for though earth and gloom encircle thee,Not even thus the anger unavengedOf Kupris shall devour at will thy body:For I, with my own hand, to pay for thee,Will pierce of men him whom she mostly dotes on,With these inevitable shafts. But thou,As guerdon for thine anguish, shalt henceforthGain highest honors in Trœzenian land,My gift. Unwedded maids before their bridalsShall shear their locks for thee, and thou foreverShalt reap the harvest of unnumbered tears.Yea, and for aye, with lyre and song the virginsShall keep thy memory; nor shall Phædra's loveFor thee unnamed fall in oblivious silence.But thou, O son of aged Ægeus, takeThy child within thy arms and cherish him;For without guile thou slewest him, and men,When the gods lead, may well lapse into error.Thee too I counsel; hate not thy own father,Hippolytus: 'twas fate that ruined thee.

A.Poor man! she is; the goddess thou most loved.

H.Seest thou me, lady, in what plight I lie?

A.I see thee; but I may not drop a tear.

H.Thou hast no huntsman and no servant now.

A.Nay, truly, since thou diest, dear my friend.

H.No groom, no guardian of thy sculptured shrine.

A.'Twas Kupris, the arch-fiend, who wrought this woe.

H.Ah, me! Now know I what god made me die.

A.Shorn of her honor, vexed with thy chaste life.

H.Three of us her one spite—behold! hath slain.

A.Thy father, and his wife, and thirdly thee.

H.Yea, and I therefore mourn my sire's ill hap.

A.Snared was he by a goddess's deceit.

H.Oh! for your sorrow in this woe, my father!

T.Son! I have perished: life has now no joy.

H.I mourn this error more for you than me.

T.Would, son, I were a corpse instead of you.

A.Stay! for though earth and gloom encircle thee,Not even thus the anger unavengedOf Kupris shall devour at will thy body:For I, with my own hand, to pay for thee,Will pierce of men him whom she mostly dotes on,With these inevitable shafts. But thou,As guerdon for thine anguish, shalt henceforthGain highest honors in Trœzenian land,My gift. Unwedded maids before their bridalsShall shear their locks for thee, and thou foreverShalt reap the harvest of unnumbered tears.Yea, and for aye, with lyre and song the virginsShall keep thy memory; nor shall Phædra's loveFor thee unnamed fall in oblivious silence.But thou, O son of aged Ægeus, takeThy child within thy arms and cherish him;For without guile thou slewest him, and men,When the gods lead, may well lapse into error.Thee too I counsel; hate not thy own father,Hippolytus: 'twas fate that ruined thee.

Thus Artemis reconciles father and son. Hippolytus dies slowly in the arms of Theseus, and the play ends. The appearance of the goddess, as a lady of transcendent power more than as a divine being—her vindictive hatred of Aphrodite, and the moral that she draws about the fate by which Hippolytus died and Theseus sinned, are all thoroughly Euripidean. Not so would Æschylus the theologian, or Sophocles the moralist, have dealt with the conclusion of the play. But neither would have drawn a more touching picture.

The following scene from the opening of theOrestesmay be taken as a complete specimen of the manner of Euripides when working pathos to its highest pitch, and when desirous of introducing into mythic history the realities of common life. Electra appears as the devoted sister; Orestes as the invalid brother; the Chorus are somewhat importunate, but, at the same time, sympathetic visitors. This extract also serves to illustrate the Euripidean habit of mingling lyrical dialogue with the more regular Iambic in passages which do not exactly correspond to the Commos of the elder tragedians, but which require highly wrought expression. Helen has just left Electra. As the wife of Menelaus walks away, the daughter of Agamemnon follows her with her eyes, and speaks thus:

El.O nature! what a curse art thou 'mid men—Yea, and a safeguard to the nobly-tempered!

[Points her finger at Helen.

See how she snipped the tips of her long hair,Saving its beauty! She's the same woman still.—May the gods hate thee for the ruin wroughtOn me, on him, on Hellas! Woe is me!

[Sees the Chorus advancing.

Here come my friends again with lamentations,To join their wails with mine: they'll drive him farFrom placid slumber, and will waste mine eyesWith weeping when I see my brother mad.

[Speaking to the Chorus.

O dearest maidens, tread with feet of wool;Come softly, make no rustling, raise no cry:For though your kindness be right dear to me,Yet to wake him will work me double mischief.

[The Chorus enters.

Ch.Softly, softly! let your treadFall upon the ground like snow!Every sound be dumb and dead:Breathe and speak in murmurs low!El.Further from the couch, I pray you; further yet, and yet away!Ch.Even so, dear maid, you see that I obey.El.Ah, my friend, speak softly, slowly,Like the sighing of a rush.Ch.See I speak and answer lowlyWith a stealthy smothered hush.El.That is right: come hither now; come boldly forward to my side;Come, and say what need hath brought you: for at length with watching tried,Lo, he sleeps, and on the pillow spreads his limbs and tresses wide.Ch.How is he? Dear lady, say:Let us hear your tale, and knowWhether you have joy to-day,Whether sorrow brings you low.El.He is breathing still, but slightly groaning in his sleep alway.Ch.O poor man! but tell us plainer what you say.El.Hush! or you will scare the pleasantSleep that to his eyelid bringsBrief oblivion of the present.Ch.Ah, thrice wretched race that springsBurdened with the god-sent curses of abhorrèd deeds!El.Ah, me:Guilty was the voice of Phœbus, when enthroned for prophecy,He decreed my mother's murder—mother murdered guiltily!Ch.Look you, lady, on his bed,How he gently stirs and sighs!El.Woe is me! His sleep hath fled,Frightened by your noisy cries!Ch.Nay; I thought he sleeping lay.El.Hence, I bid you, hence awayFrom the bedside, from the house!Cease your noise;Subdue your voice;Stay not here to trouble us!Ch.He is sleeping, and you rightly caution us.El.Holy mother, mother Night!Thou who sheddest sleep on every wearied wight!Arise from Erebus, ariseWith plumy pinions light:Hover o'er the house of Atreus; and upon our aching eyes,Wearied with woe,With grief brought low,Solace bring 'mid miseries.Silence! Hush! what noise was this?Can you ne'er your tongue restrain,And allow soft slumber's kissTo refresh his fevered brain?Ch.Tell me, lady, what the closeOf his grief is like to be?El.Death. Nought else will end his woes.Lo, he fasts continually.Ch.Alas! Alas! his fate is sure.El.By the promise to make pureHands a mother's life-blood stained,Phœbus broughtWoe, and wroughtAll the grief that we have gained.Ch.Just it was to slay the slayer; yet the deed with crime was fraught.El.Thou art dead: oh, thou art dead,Mother, who didst bear me! mother, who didst shedA father's blood, and slayThe children of thy bed!We are dying, we are dying, like the dead, and weak as they:For thou art gone,And I am wan,Weeping, sighing night and day!Look upon me, friends, beholdHow my withered life must run,Childless, homeless, sad and cold,Comfortless beneath the sun.Ch.Come hither, maid Electra, to the couch:Lest haply he should breathe his life awayUnheeded: I like not this deep dead languor.

Ch.Softly, softly! let your treadFall upon the ground like snow!Every sound be dumb and dead:Breathe and speak in murmurs low!

El.Further from the couch, I pray you; further yet, and yet away!

Ch.Even so, dear maid, you see that I obey.

El.Ah, my friend, speak softly, slowly,Like the sighing of a rush.

Ch.See I speak and answer lowlyWith a stealthy smothered hush.

El.That is right: come hither now; come boldly forward to my side;Come, and say what need hath brought you: for at length with watching tried,Lo, he sleeps, and on the pillow spreads his limbs and tresses wide.

Ch.How is he? Dear lady, say:Let us hear your tale, and knowWhether you have joy to-day,Whether sorrow brings you low.

El.He is breathing still, but slightly groaning in his sleep alway.

Ch.O poor man! but tell us plainer what you say.

El.Hush! or you will scare the pleasantSleep that to his eyelid bringsBrief oblivion of the present.

Ch.Ah, thrice wretched race that springsBurdened with the god-sent curses of abhorrèd deeds!

El.Ah, me:Guilty was the voice of Phœbus, when enthroned for prophecy,He decreed my mother's murder—mother murdered guiltily!

Ch.Look you, lady, on his bed,How he gently stirs and sighs!

El.Woe is me! His sleep hath fled,Frightened by your noisy cries!

Ch.Nay; I thought he sleeping lay.

El.Hence, I bid you, hence awayFrom the bedside, from the house!Cease your noise;Subdue your voice;Stay not here to trouble us!

Ch.He is sleeping, and you rightly caution us.

El.Holy mother, mother Night!Thou who sheddest sleep on every wearied wight!Arise from Erebus, ariseWith plumy pinions light:Hover o'er the house of Atreus; and upon our aching eyes,Wearied with woe,With grief brought low,Solace bring 'mid miseries.Silence! Hush! what noise was this?Can you ne'er your tongue restrain,And allow soft slumber's kissTo refresh his fevered brain?

Ch.Tell me, lady, what the closeOf his grief is like to be?

El.Death. Nought else will end his woes.Lo, he fasts continually.

Ch.Alas! Alas! his fate is sure.

El.By the promise to make pureHands a mother's life-blood stained,Phœbus broughtWoe, and wroughtAll the grief that we have gained.

Ch.Just it was to slay the slayer; yet the deed with crime was fraught.

El.Thou art dead: oh, thou art dead,Mother, who didst bear me! mother, who didst shedA father's blood, and slayThe children of thy bed!We are dying, we are dying, like the dead, and weak as they:For thou art gone,And I am wan,Weeping, sighing night and day!Look upon me, friends, beholdHow my withered life must run,Childless, homeless, sad and cold,Comfortless beneath the sun.

Ch.Come hither, maid Electra, to the couch:Lest haply he should breathe his life awayUnheeded: I like not this deep dead languor.

[Orestes wakes up.

Or.O soothing sleep! dear friend! best nurse of sickness!How sweetly came you in my hour of need.Blest Lethe of all woes, how wise you are,How worthy of the prayers of wretched men!Whence came I to this place? How journeyed I?I cannot think: my former mind is vanished.El.O dearest, how hath your sleep gladdened me!Say, can I help to soothe or raise your body?Or.Yes, take me, take me: with your kind hands wipeThe foam of fever from my lips and eyes.El.Sweet is this service to me; I am gladTo soothe my brother with a sister's hand.Or.Support me with your breast, and fan my forehead;Brush the loose hair: I scarce can see for sickness.El.Poor head! How rough and tangled are the curls,How haggard is your face with long neglect!Or.Now lay me back upon the bed again:When the fit leaves me, I am weak and helpless.El.Yea; and the couch is some relief in sickness,A sorry friend, but one that must be borne with.Or.Raise me once more upright, and turn my body:Sick men are hard to please, through wayward weakness.El.How would you like to put your feet to earth?'Tis long since you stood up; and change is pleasant.Or.True: for it gives a show of seeming health;And shows are good, although there be no substance.

El.O dearest, how hath your sleep gladdened me!Say, can I help to soothe or raise your body?

Or.Yes, take me, take me: with your kind hands wipeThe foam of fever from my lips and eyes.

El.Sweet is this service to me; I am gladTo soothe my brother with a sister's hand.

Or.Support me with your breast, and fan my forehead;Brush the loose hair: I scarce can see for sickness.

El.Poor head! How rough and tangled are the curls,How haggard is your face with long neglect!

Or.Now lay me back upon the bed again:When the fit leaves me, I am weak and helpless.

El.Yea; and the couch is some relief in sickness,A sorry friend, but one that must be borne with.

Or.Raise me once more upright, and turn my body:Sick men are hard to please, through wayward weakness.

El.How would you like to put your feet to earth?'Tis long since you stood up; and change is pleasant.

Or.True: for it gives a show of seeming health;And shows are good, although there be no substance.

[Orestes changes his posture and sits at ease.

El.Now listen to me, dearest brother mine,While the dread Furies leave you space to think.Or.What have you new to say? Good news will cheer me;But of what's bad I have enough already.El.Menelaus is here, your father's brother:His ships are safely moored in Nauplia.Or.What! Has he come to end your woes and mine?He is our kinsman and our father's debtor.El.He has: and this is surety for my words—Helen hath come with him from Troy, is here.Or.If heaven had saved but him, he'd now be happier:But with his wife, he brings a huge curse home.El.Yea: Tyndareus begat a brood of daughtersMarked out for obloquy, a shame through Hellas.Or.Be you, then, other than the bad; you can:Make not fine speeches, but be rightly minded!

El.Now listen to me, dearest brother mine,While the dread Furies leave you space to think.

Or.What have you new to say? Good news will cheer me;But of what's bad I have enough already.

El.Menelaus is here, your father's brother:His ships are safely moored in Nauplia.

Or.What! Has he come to end your woes and mine?He is our kinsman and our father's debtor.

El.He has: and this is surety for my words—Helen hath come with him from Troy, is here.

Or.If heaven had saved but him, he'd now be happier:But with his wife, he brings a huge curse home.

El.Yea: Tyndareus begat a brood of daughtersMarked out for obloquy, a shame through Hellas.

Or.Be you, then, other than the bad; you can:Make not fine speeches, but be rightly minded!

[As he speaks, he becomes excited.

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