IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious
nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations.
Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!
OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.
IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows
upon another.[116]
OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
intervention of some demon.
IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared
horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an
unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after
this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away
from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
blood?[117] This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over
the land, not in a ship, but by the gust[118] of your feet thou wilt
approach death, passing through[119] barbarian hordes, and through ways not
to be traversed? Or[120] [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long
journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or
mortal, or [unexpected event,[121]] having accomplished a way out of
inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
release from ills?
CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I
shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.
PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of friends,
Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but, having ceased
from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you to those measures
by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may depart from this
barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not wandering from their
present chance, when they have obtained an opportunity, to acquire further
delights.[122]
OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this with
us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will have
still greater power.
IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know what
fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me [to
hear.][123]
OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.
IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?
OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.
IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?
OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.
IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?
OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.
IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.
OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.
IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your mother?
OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother--'twas in avenging my father.
IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?
OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to hear.
IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.
OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.
IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?
OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.
IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on the
shore.
OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.
IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy mother.
OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit[124] upon me.
IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?