_Electra_ puts to the Chorus the same difficulty they have been feeling:
What shall I say as these funereal gifts
I pour? How shall I speak acceptably?
How to my father pray? What? shall I say
"I bring from loving wife to husband loved
Gifts"--from my mother? No, I am not bold
Enough for that, nor know I what to speak,
Pouring this chrism on my father's tomb:
Or shall I say this prayer, as men are wont,
"Good recompense make thou to those who bring
These garlands," yea, a gift full well deserved
By deeds of ill? Or, dumb with ignominy
Like that with which he perished, shall I pour
Libations on the earth, and like a man
That flings away the lustral filth, shall I
Throw down the urn and walk with eyes not turned? {97}
The _Chorus-Leader_ breaking ranks to lay her hand on the Sepulchre as
sign of fidelity, advises to throw off all disguise and pray boldly for
friend and against foe. Electra in this sense offers the Prayer:
setting forth the wrongs of the house and praying for Orestes and
Vengeance: then calling on the Chorus for a Sepulchral Song she
descends to the tomb. {144}
_Sepulchral Paean of short Strophe and Antistrophe_: for these
libations' sake may the curse be averted--yet who strong enough to come
as Averter: _while Electra is pouring the libations on the tomb_. {157}
_Electra returns to Stage, her whole manner changed_: as if the prayer
had already begun to be fulfilled, she has found the mysterious locks
which, she bit by bit lets out, must be those of Orestes--the Chorus,
like sailors in a storm, can only invoke the gods: if the day has come,
from a small seed a mighty trunk may grow--Electra then discovers
foot-prints [_as if leading from the Side Stage-door to the
Orchestra-staircase_] of two travellers; one foot-print agrees with her
brother's: {203}
_Orestes and Pylades_ come forward: recognition and joy, Electra hardly
believing. She addresses him by four-fold name: as father dear,
The love I owe my mother turns to thee,
My sister's too that ruthlessly was slain,
And thou wast ever faithful brother found.
Orestes compares his family to an eagle's brood orphaned by the
spoiler. Electra catching at the omen of eagle, dear bird of Zeus who
will avenge his own--_Chorus_ are afraid that their noisy joy may be
overheard and ruin all--Orestes has no fear of ruin after the strong
oracles of Apollo that bade him come under terrible penalties if he
disobeyed: {261}
Leprous sores that creep
All o'er the flesh, and as with cruel jaws
Eat out its ancient nature, and white hairs
On that foul ill to supervene: and still
He spake of other onsets of the Erinnyes,
As brought to issue from a father's blood;
For the dark weapon of the Gods below
Winged by our kindred that lie low in death,
And beg for vengeance, yea, and madness too,
And vague, dim fears at night disturb and haunt me,
Seeing full clearly, though I move my brow
In the thick darkness . . . . and that then my frame
Thus tortured should be driven from the city
With brass-knobbed scourge: and that for such as I
It was not given to share the wine-cup's taste,
Nor votive stream in pure libation poured;
And that my father's wrath invisible
Would drive me from all altars, and that none
Should take me in or lodge with me: at last,
That loathed of all and friendless I should die,
A wretched mummy, all my strength consumed.
Must I not trust such oracles as these? {297}
_The Chorus, breaking into lyrics, feel that Justice has at last taken
their side: then follows an elaborate_