HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.
ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of me.
HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.
ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come, and
join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy mother, the
supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O thou, that
receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us, and alleviate
our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead the way, for thou
alone hast the ends of our preservation.
HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as far as
lies in me.
ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your prey?
HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?
ORES. (_advancing_) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to preserve us,
not thyself.
ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent, that
Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he has
treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho! my
friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else we
hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I know,
and part not accurately.
CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she filled
the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless, ruthless Idean
Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be silent, for the bolts
of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the Phrygians comes forth,
from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the house, in what state they
are.