IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?
OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.
IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.
OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.[106] Thou knowest
the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?
IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.
OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
deftly-wrought web?
IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
thoughts.[107]
OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the
sun?
IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.
OR. And didst thou receive[108] a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?
IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
recollection.[109]
OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried
to thy mother?
IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb[110] in place of my body.
OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the
ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in his
hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain Ænomaus, which is hidden in
thy virgin chamber.
IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes,
one darling son[111] far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear
one!
OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
tearless,[112] and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids,
and mine in like manner.
IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay,
young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words[113] can tell, what
shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.
OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!
IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I
fear lest it flit[114] from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye
Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenæ, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for
my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this
brother light in my home.
OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life
is by nature unhappy.
IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the
sword upon my neck.