ORESTES.
Sister, touch her again:
Oh, veil the body of her;
Shed on her raiment fair,
And close that death-red stain.
--Mother! And didst thou bear,
Bear in thy bitter pain,
To life, thy murderer?
[_The two kneel over the body of_ CLYTEMNESTRA, _and cover her with
raiment_.
ELECTRA.
On her that I loved of yore,
Robe upon robe I cast:
On her that I hated sore.
CHORUS.
O House that hath hated sore,
Behold thy peace at the last!
* * * * *
LEADER.
Ha, see: above the roof-tree high
There shineth ... Is some spirit there
Of earth or heaven? That thin air
Was never trod by things that die!
What bodes it now that forth they fare,
To men revealèd visibly?
[_There appears in the air a vision of_ CASTOR _and_ POLYDEUCES. _The
mortals kneel or veil their faces._
CASTOR.
Thou Agamemnon's Son, give ear! 'Tis we.
Castor and Polydeuces, call to thee,
God's Horsemen and thy mother's brethren twain.
An Argive ship, spent with the toiling main,
We bore but now to peace, and, here withal
Being come, have seen thy mother's bloody fall,
Our sister's. Righteous is her doom this day,
But not thy deed. And Phoebus, Phoebus ... Nay;
He is my lord; therefore I hold my peace.
Yet though in light he dwell, no light was this
He showed to thee, but darkness! Which do thou
Endure, as man must, chafing not. And now
Fare forth where Zeus and Fate have laid thy life.
The maid Electra thou shalt give for wife
To Pylades; then turn thy head and flee
From Argos' land. 'Tis never more for thee
To tread this earth where thy dead mother lies.
And, lo, in the air her Spirits, bloodhound eyes,
Most horrible yet Godlike, hard at heel
Following shall scourge thee as a burning wheel,
Speed-maddened. Seek thou straight Athena's land,
And round her awful image clasp thine hand,
Praying: and she will fence them back, though hot
With flickering serpents, that they touch thee not,
Holding above thy brow her gorgon shield.
There is a hill in Athens, Ares' field,
Where first for that first death by Ares done
On Halirrhothius, Poseidon's son,
Who wronged his daughter, the great Gods of yore
Held judgment: and true judgments evermore
Flow from that Hill, trusted of man and God.
There shalt thou stand arraignèd of this blood;
And of those judges half shall lay on thee
Death, and half pardon; so shalt thou go free.
For Phoebus in that hour, who bade thee shed
Thy mother's blood, shall take on his own head
The stain thereof. And ever from that strife
The law shall hold, that when, for death or life
Of one pursued, men's voices equal stand,
Then Mercy conquereth.--But for thee, the band
Of Spirits dread, down, down, in very wrath,
Shall sink beside that Hill, making their path
Through a dim chasm, the which shall aye be trod
By reverent feet, where men may speak with God.
But thou forgotten and far off shalt dwell,
By great Alpheüs' waters, in a dell
Of Arcady, where that gray Wolf-God's wall
Stands holy. And thy dwelling men shall call
Orestes Town. So much to thee be spoke.
But this dead man, Aegisthus, all the folk
Shall bear to burial in a high green grave
Of Argos. For thy mother, she shall have
Her tomb from Menelaus, who hath come
This day, at last, to Argos, bearing home
Helen. From Egypt comes she, and the hall
Of Proteus, and in Troy hath ne'er at all
Set foot. 'Twas but a wraith of Helen, sent
By Zeus, to make much wrath and ravishment.
So forth for home, bearing the virgin bride,
Let Pylades make speed, and lead beside
Thy once-named brother, and with golden store
Stablish his house far off on Phocis' shore.
Up, gird thee now to the steep Isthmian way,
Seeking Athena's blessèd rock; one day,
Thy doom of blood fulfilled and this long stress
Of penance past, thou shalt have happiness.
LEADER (_looking up_).
Is it for us, O Seed of Zeus,
To speak and hear your words again!
CASTOR. Speak: of this blood ye bear no stain.
ELECTRA. I also, sons of Tyndareus,
My kinsmen; may my word be said?
CASTOR. Speak: on Apollo's head we lay
The bloody doings of this day.
LEADER. Ye Gods, ye brethren of the dead,
Why held ye not the deathly herd
Of Kêres back from off this home?
CASTOR. There came but that which needs must come
By ancient Fate and that dark word
That rang from Phoebus in his mood.
ELECTRA. And what should Phoebus seek with me,
Or all God's oracles that be,
That I must bear my mother's blood?
CASTOR. Thy hand was as thy brother's hand,
Thy doom shall be as his. One stain,
From dim forefathers on the twain
Lighting, hath sapped your hearts as sand.
ORESTES (_who has never raised his head, nor spoken to the Gods_).
After so long, sister, to see
And hold thee, and then part, then part,
By all that chained thee to my heart
Forsaken, and forsaking thee!
CASTOR. Husband and house are hers. She bears
No bitter judgment, save to go
Exiled from Argos.
ELECTRA. And what woe,
What tears are like an exile's tears?
ORESTES. Exiled and more am I; impure,
A murderer in a stranger's hand:
CASTOR. Fear not. There dwells in Pallas' land
All holiness. Till then endure!
[ORESTES _and_ ELECTRA _embrace_
ORESTES. Aye, closer; clasp my body well,
And let thy sorrow loose, and shed,
As o'er the grave of one new dead,
Dead evermore, thy last farewell! [_A sound of weeping_.
CASTOR. Alas, what would ye? For that cry
Ourselves and all the sons of heaven
Have pity. Yea, our peace is riven
By the strange pain of these that die.
ORESTES. No more to see thee! ELECTRA. Nor thy breath
Be near my face! ORESTES. Ah, so it ends.
ELECTRA. Farewell, dear Argos. All ye friends,
Farewell! ORESTES. O faithful unto death,
Thou goest? ELECTRA. Aye, I pass from you,
Soft-eyed at last. ORESTES. Go, Pylades,
And God go with you! Wed in peace
My tall Electra, and be true.
[ELECTRA _and_ PYLADES _depart to the left._
CASTOR.
Their troth shall fill their hearts.--But on:
Dread feet are near thee, hounds of prey,
Snake-handed, midnight-visaged, yea,
And bitter pains their fruit! Begone!
[ORESTES _departs to the right_.
But hark, the far Sicilian sea
Calls, and a noise of men and ships
That labour sunken to the lips
In bitter billows; forth go we,
Through the long leagues of fiery blue,
With saving; not to souls unshriven;
But whoso in his life hath striven
To love things holy and be true,
Through toil and storm we guard him; we
Save, and he shall not die!--Therefore,
O praise the lying man no more,
Nor with oath-breakers sail the sea:
Farewell, ye walkers on the shore
Of death! A God hath counselled ye.
[CASTOR _and_ POLYDEUCES _disappear_.
CHORUS.
Farewell, farewell!--But he who can so fare,
And stumbleth not on mischief anywhere,
Blessed on earth is he!
NOTES TO THE ELECTRA
The chief characters in the play belong to one family, as is shown by the
two genealogies:--
I.
TANTALUS
|
Pelops
__________|__________________
| |
Atreus Thyestes
_________|__________ |
| | |
Agamemnon Menelaus Aegisthus
(=Clytemnestra) (=Helen) (=Clytemnestra)
_____|________________________
| | |
Iphigenia Electra Orestes
(Also, a sister of Agamemnon, name variously given, married Strophios, and
was the mother of Pylades.)
II.
Tyndareus = Leda = Zeus
____________________| ____|_________________________
| | | |
Clytemnestra Castor Polydeuces Helen
P. 1, l. 10, Son of his father's foe.]--Both foe and brother. Atreus and
Thyestes became enemies after the theft of the Golden Lamb. See pp. 47 ff.
P. 2, l. 34, Must wed with me.]--In Aeschylus and Sophocles Electra is
unmarried. This story of her peasant husband is found only in Euripides,
but is not likely to have been wantonly invented by him. It was no doubt
an existing legend--an [Greek: ôn logos], to use the phrase attributed to
Euripides in the _Frogs_ (l. 1052). He may have chosen to adopt it for
several reasons. First, to marry Electra to a peasant was a likely step
for Aegisthus to take, since any child born to her afterwards would bear a
stigma, calculated to damage him fatally as a pretender to the throne.
Again, it seemed to explain the name "A-lektra" (as if from [Greek:
lektron] "bed;" cf. Schol. _Orestes_, 71, Soph. _El_. 962, _Ant_. 917)
more pointedly than the commoner version. And it helps in the working out
of Electra's character (cf. pp. 17, 22, &c.). Also it gives an opportunity
of introducing the fine character of the peasant. He is an [Greek:
Autourgos] literally "self-worker," a man who works his own land, far from
the city, neither a slave nor a slave-master; "the men," as Euripides says
in the _Orestes_ (920), "who alone save a nation." (Cf, _Bac_., p. 115
foot, and below, p. 26, ll. 367-390.) As Euripides became more and more
alienated from the town democracy he tended, like Tolstoy and others, to
idealise the workers of the soil.
P. 6, l. 62, Children to our enemy.]--Cf. 626. Soph. _El_. 589. They do
not seem to be in existence at the time of the play.
Pp. 5-6.]--Electra's first two speeches are admirable as expositions of
her character--the morbid nursing of hatred as a duty, the deliberate
posing, the impulsiveness, the quick response to kindness.
P. 7, l. 82, Pylades.]--Pylades is a _persona muta_ both here and in
Sophocles' _Electra_, a fixed traditional figure, possessing no quality
but devotion to Orestes. In Aeschylus' _Libation-Bearers_ he speaks only
once, with tremendous effect, at the crisis of the play, to rebuke Orestes
when his heart fails him. In the _Iphigenia in Tauris_, however, and still
more in the _Orestes_, he is a fully studied character.
P. 10, l. 151, A swan crying alone.]--Cf. _Bacchae_, p. 152, "As yearns
the milk-white swan when old swans die."
P. 11, ll. 169 ff., The Watcher hath cried this day.]--Hera was an old
Pelasgian goddess, whose worship was kept in part a mystery from the
invading Achaeans or Dorians. There seems to have been a priest born "of
the ancient folk," _i.e._, a Pelasgian or aboriginal Mycenaean, who, by
some secret lore--probably some ancient and superseded method of
calculating the year--knew when Hera's festival was due, and walked round
the country three days beforehand to announce it. He drank "the milk of
the flock" and avoided wine, either from some religious taboo, or because
he represented the religion of the milk-drinking mountain shepherds.
P. 13, ll. 220 ff.]--Observe Electra's cowardice when surprised; contrast
her courage, p. 47, when sending Orestes off, and again her quick drop to
despair when the news does not come soon enough.
P. 16, ll. 247 ff., I am a wife.... O better dead!]--Rather ungenerous,
when compared with her words on p. 6. (Cf. also her words on pp. 24 and
26.) But she feels this herself, almost immediately. Orestes naturally
takes her to mean that her husband is one of Aegisthus' friends. This
would have ruined his plot. (Cf. above, p. 8, l. 98.)
P. 22, l. 312, Castor.]--I know no other mention of Electra's betrothal to
Castor. He was her kinsman: see below on l. 990.
Pp. 22-23, ll. 300-337.]--In this wonderful outbreak, observe the mixture
of all sorts of personal resentments and jealousies with the devotion of
the lonely woman to her father and her brother. "So men say," is an
interesting touch; perhaps conscience tells her midway that she does not
quite believe what she is saying. So is the self-conscious recognition of
her "bitter burning brain" that interprets all things in a sort of
distortion.--Observe, too, how instinctively she turns to the peasant for
sympathy in the strain of her emotion. It is his entrance, perhaps, which
prevents Orestes from being swept away and revealing himself. The
peasant's courage towards two armed men is striking, as well as his
courtesy and his sanity. He is the one character in the play not somehow
tainted with blood-madness.
P. 27, ll. 403, 409.]--Why does Electra send her husband to the Old Man?
Not, I think, really for want of the food. It would have been easier to
borrow (p. 12, l. 191) from the Chorus; and, besides, what the peasant
says is no doubt true, that, if she liked, she could find "many a pleasant
thing" in the house. I think she sends for the Old Man because he is the
only person who would know Orestes (p. 21, l. 285). She is already, like
the Leader (p. 26, l. 401), excited by hopes which she will not confess.
This reading makes the next scene clearer also.
Pp. 28-30, ll. 432-487, O for the Ships of Troy.]--The two main Choric
songs of this play are markedly what Aristotle calls [Greek: embolima]
"things thrown in." They have no effect upon the action, and form little
more than musical "relief." Not that they are positively irrelevant.
Agamemnon is in our minds all through the play, and Agamemnon's glory is
of course enhanced by the mention of Troy and the praises of his
subordinate king, Achilles.
Thetis, the Nereid, or sea-maiden, was won to wife by Peleus. (He wrestled
with her on the seashore, and never loosed hold, though she turned into
divers strange beings--a lion, and fire, and water, and sea-beasts.) She
bore him Achilles, and then, unable permanently to live with a mortal,
went back beneath the sea. When Achilles was about to sail to Troy, she
and her sister Nereids brought him divine armour, and guided his ships
across the Aegean. The designs on Achilles' armour, as on Heracles'
shield, form a fairly common topic of poetry.
The descriptions of the designs are mostly clear. Perseus with the
Gorgon's head, guided by Hermês; the Sun on a winged chariot, and stars
about him; two Sphinxes, holding as victims the men who had failed to
answer the riddles which they sang; and, on the breastplate, the Chimaera
attacking Bellerophon's winged horse, Pêgasus. The name Pêgasus suggested
to a Greek [Greek: pegê], "fountain;" and the great spring of Pirênê, near
Corinth, was made by Pêgasus stamping on the rock.
Pp. 30-47.]--The Old Man, like other old family servants in Euripides--the
extreme case is in the _Ion_--is absolutely and even morbidly devoted to
his masters. Delightful in this first scene, he becomes a little horrible
in the next, where they plot the murders; not only ferocious himself, but,
what seems worse, inclined to pet and enjoy the bloodthirstiness of his
"little mistress."
Pp. 30-33, ll. 510-545.]--The Signs of Orestes. This scene, I think, has
been greatly misunderstood by critics. In Aeschylus' _Libation-Bearers_,
which deals with the same subject as the _Electra_, the scene is at
Agamemnon's tomb. Orestes lays his tress there in the prologue. Electra
comes bringing libations, sees the hair, compares it with her own, finds
that it is similar "wing for wing" ([Greek: homopteros]--the same word as
here), and guesses that it belongs to Orestes. She then measures the
footprints, and finds one that is like her own, one not; evidently Orestes
and a fellow-traveller! Orestes enters and announces himself; she refuses
to believe, until he shows her a "woven thing," perhaps the robe which he
is wearing, which she recognises as the work of her own hand.
The same signs, described in one case by the same peculiar word, occur
here. The Old Man mentions one after the other, and Electra refutes or
rejects them. It has been thought therefore that this scene was meant as
an attack--a very weak and undignified attack--on Euripides' great master.
No parallel for such an artistically ruinous proceeding is quoted from any
Greek tragedy. And, apart from the improbability _a priori_, I do not
think it even possible to read the scene in this sense. To my mind,
Electra here rejects the signs not from reason, but from a sort of nervous
terror. She dares not believe that Orestes has come; because, if it prove
otherwise, the disappointment will be so terrible. As to both signs, the
lock of hair and the footprints, her arguments may be good; but observe
that she is afraid to make the comparison at all. And as to the footprint,
she says there cannot be one, when the Old Man has just seen it! And,
anyhow, she will not go to see it! Similarly as to the robe, she does her
best to deny that she ever wove it, though she and the Old Man both
remember it perfectly. She is fighting tremulously, with all her flagging
strength, against the thing she longs for. The whole point of the scene
requires that one ray of hope after another should be shown to Electra,
and that she should passionately, blindly, reject them all. That is what
Euripides wanted the signs for.
But why, it may be asked, did he adopt Aeschylus' signs, and even his
peculiar word? Because, whether invented by Aeschylus or not, these signs
were a canonical part of the story by the time Euripides wrote. Every one
who knew the story of Orestes' return at all, knew of the hair and the
footprint. Aristophanes in the _Clouds_ (534 ff.) uses them proverbially,
when he speaks of his comedy "recognising its brother's tress." It would
have been frivolous to invent new ones. As a matter of fact, it seems
probable that the signs are older than Aeschylus; neither they nor the
word [Greek: homopteros] particularly suit Aeschylus' purpose. (Cf. Dr.
Verrall's introduction to the _Libation-Bearers_.) They probably come from
the old lyric poet, Stesichorus.
P. 43, l. 652, New-mothered of a Man-Child.]--Her true Man-Child, the
Avenger whom they had sought to rob her of! This pitiless plan was
suggested apparently by the sacrifice to the Nymphs (p. 40). "Weep my
babe's low station" is of course ironical. The babe would set a seal on
Electra's degradation to the peasant class, and so end the blood-feud, as
far as she was concerned. Clytemnestra, longing for peace, must rejoice in
Electra's degradation. Yet she has motherly feelings too, and in fact
hardly knows what to think or do till she can consult Aegisthus (p. 71).
Electra, it would seem, actually calculates upon these feelings, while
despising them.
P. 45, l. 669, If but some man will guide me.]--A suggestion of the
irresolution or melancholia that beset Orestes afterwards, alternating
with furious action. (Cf. Aeschylus' _Libation-Bearers_, Euripides'
_Andromache_ and _Orestes_.)
P. 45, l. 671, Zeus of my sires, &c]--In this invocation, short and
comparatively unmoving, one can see perhaps an effect of Aeschylus' play.
In the _Libation-Bearers_ the invocation of Agamemnon comprises 200 lines
of extraordinarily eloquent poetry.
P. 47 ff., ll. 699 ff.]--The Golden Lamb. The theft of the Golden Lamb is
treated as a story of the First Sin, after which all the world was changed
and became the poor place that it now is. It was at least the First Sin in
the blood-feud of this drama.
The story is not explicitly told. Apparently the magic lamb was brought by
Pan from the gods, and given to Atreus as a special grace and a sign that
he was the true king. His younger brother, Thyestes, helped by Atreus'
wife, stole it and claimed to be king himself. So good was turned into
evil, and love into hatred, and the stars shaken in their courses.
[It is rather curious that the Lamb should have such a special effect upon
the heavens and the weather. It is the same in Plato (_Polit._ 268 ff.),
and more definitely so in the treatise _De Astrologia,_ attributed to
Lucian, which says that the Golden Lamb is the constellation Aries, "The
Ram." Hugo Winckler (_Weltanschauung des alten Orients_, pp. 30, 31)
suggests that the story is a piece of Babylonian astronomy misunderstood.
It seems that the vernal equinox, which is now moving from the Ram into
the Fish, was in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. moving from the Bull
into the Ram. Now the Bull, Marduk, was the special god of Babylon, and
the time when he yielded his place to the Ram was also, as a matter of
fact, the time of the decline of Babylon. The gradual advance of the Ram
not only upset the calendar, and made all the seasons wrong; but seemed,
since it coincided with the fall of the Great City, to upset the world in
general! Of course Euripides would know nothing of this. He was apparently
attracted to the Golden Lamb merely by the quaint beauty of the story.]
P. 50, l. 746, Thy brethren even now.]--Castor and Polydeuces, who were
received into the stars after their death. See below, on l. 990.
P. 51, l. 757, That answer bids me die.]--Why? Because Orestes, if he won
at all, would win by a surprise attack, and would send news instantly. A
prolonged conflict, without a message, would mean that Orestes and Pylades
were being overpowered. Of course she is wildly impatient.
P. 51, l. 765, Who an thou? I mistrust thee.]--Just as she mistrusted the
Old Man's signs. See above, p. 89.
P. 52 ff., ll. 774 ff.]--Messenger's Speech. This speech, though swift
and vivid, is less moving and also less sympathetic than most of the
Messengers' Speeches. Less moving, because the slaying of Aegisthus has
little moral interest; it is merely a daring and dangerous exploit. Less
sympathetic, because even here, in the first and comparatively blameless
step of the blood-vengeance, Euripides makes us feel the treacherous side
of it. A [Greek: dolophonia], a "slaying by guile," even at its best,
remains rather an ugly thing.
P. 53, l. 793, Then quickly spake Orestes.]--If Orestes had washed with
Aegisthus, he would have become his _xenos_, or guest, as much as if he
had eaten his bread and salt. In that case the slaying would have been
definitely a crime, a dishonourable act. Also, Aegisthus would have had
the right to ask his name.--The unsuspiciousness of Aegisthus is partly
natural; it was not thus, alone and unarmed, that he expected Orestes to
stand before him. Partly it seems like a heaven-sent blindness. Even the
omens do not warn him, though no doubt in a moment more they would have
done so.
P. 56, l. 878, With guile he hath slain.]--So the MSS. The Chorus have
already a faint feeling, quickly suppressed, that there may be another
side to Orestes' action. Most editors alter the text to mean "He hath
slain these guileful ones."
P. 58, l. 900, It shames me, yet God knows I hunger sore.]--To treat the
dead with respect was one of the special marks of a Greek as opposed to a
barbarian. It is possible that the body of Aegisthus might legitimately
have been refused burial, or even nailed on a cross as Orestes in a moment
of excitement suggests. But to insult him lying dead would be a shock to
all Greek feeling. ("Unholy is the voice of loud thanksgiving over
slaughtered men," _Odyssey_ xxii. 412.) Any excess of this kind, any
violence towards the helpless, was apt to rouse "The sleeping wrath of the
world." There was a Greek proverb, "Even an injured dog has his Erinys"--
_i.e._, his unseen guardian or avenger. It is interesting, though not
surprising, to hear that men had little love for Electra. The wonderful
speech that follows, though to a conventional Greek perhaps the most
outrageous thing of which she is guilty, shows best the inherent nobility
of her character before years of misery had "killed her soul within."
P. 59, ll. 928 f., Being in falseness one, &c]--The Greek here is very
obscure and almost certainly corrupt.
P. 61, l. 964, 'Tis my mother comes.]--The reaction has already begun in
Orestes. In the excitement and danger of killing his enemy he has shown
coolness and courage, but now a work lies before him vastly more horrible,
a little more treacherous, and with no element of daring to redeem it.
Electra, on the other hand, has done nothing yet; she has merely tried,
not very successfully, to revile the dead body, and her hate is
unsatisfied. Besides, one sees all through the play that Aegisthus was a
kind of odious stranger to her; it was the woman, her mother, who came
close to her and whom she really hated.
P. 63, l. 979, Was it some fiend of Hell?]--The likeness to _Hamlet_ is
obvious. ("The spirit that I have seen May be the Devil." End of Act II.)
P. 63, l. 983, How shall it be then, the same stealthy blow?...]--He
means, I think, "the same as that with which I have already murdered an
unsuspecting man to-day," but Electra for her own purposes misinterprets
him.