Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atridæ again falls into another,
another fearful struggle.
SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city, or
shall we keep in silence?
SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.
SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in the
air portends _something_.
SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the mansion
of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.
CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way he
wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has struck, has
struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of the fall of
Myrtilus from the chariot.
But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick step,
having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is present.
Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye children
of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a terrible thing
to those in adversity, as now them art in misery, Orestes.
MENELAUS _below_, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
_above_, CHORUS.
MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the two
lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that she
died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report, which one
deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the matricide,
and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I command to burst
open these gates here, that my child at least we may deliver from the hand
of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my unhappy, my miserable lady,
with whom those murderers of my wife must die by my hand.
ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to Menelaus I
speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this pinnacle will I
crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement, the labor of the
builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which will hinder thee
from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not pass within the
palace.
MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed on
the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed over the
neck of my daughter to guard her.
ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the
Gods.
MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
insult me.