Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

¹³⁸⁹ to violate the dead Ajax ruthlessly, as did the crazed general who came, since he and his brother wanted to cast out the outraged corpse without burial. Therefore may the Father supreme on Olympus above us, ¹³⁹⁰ and the unforgetting Fury and Justice the Fulfiller destroy them for their wickedness with wicked deaths, just as they sought to cast this man out with unmerited, outrageous mistreatment. But you, progeny of aged Laertes, I hesitate to permit you to touch the corpse in burial, ¹³⁹² and the unforgetting Fury and Justice the Fulfiller destroy them for their wickedness with wicked deaths, just as they sought to cast this man out with unmerited, outrageous mistreatment. But you, progeny of aged Laertes, I hesitate to permit you to touch the corpse in burial,

²³ ORESTES: True friend and follower, how well dost thou prove thy loyalty to our house! As a steed of generous race, though old, loses not courage in danger, but pricks his ear, even so thou urgest us forward, and art foremost in our support. I will tell thee, then, what I have determined; listen closely to my words, and correct me, if I miss the mark in aught. When I went to the Pythian oracle, to learn how I might avenge my father on his murderers, Phoebus gave me the response which thou art now to hear:- that alone, and by stealth, without aid of arms or numbers, I should snatch the righteous vengeance of my hand. Since, then, the god spake to us on this wise, thou must go into yonder house, when opportunity gives thee entrance, and learn all that is passing there, so that thou mayest report to us from sure knowledge. Thine age, and the lapse of time, will prevent them from recognising thee; they will never suspect who thou art, with that silvered hair. Let thy tale be that thou art a Phocian stranger, sent by Phanoteus; for he is the greatest of their allies. Tell them, and confirm it with thine oath, that Orestes hath perished by a fatal chance, hurled at the Pythian games from his rapid chariot; be that the substance of thy story. We, meanwhile, will first crown my fathers tomb, as the god enjoined, with drink-offerings and the luxuriant tribute of severed hair; then come back, bearing in our hands an urn of shapely bronze, now hidden in the brushwood, as I think thou knowest, so to gladden them with the false tidings that this my body is no more, but has been consumed with fire and turned to ashes. Why should the omen trouble me, when by a feigned death I find life indeed, and win renown? I trow, no word is ill-omened, if fraught with gain. often ere now have I seen wise men die in vain report; then, when they return home, they are held in more abiding honour: as I trust that from this rumour I also shall emerge in radiant life, and yet shine like a star upon my foes. O my fatherland, and ye gods of the land, receive me with good fortune in this journey,- and ye also, halls of my fathers, for I come with divine mandate to cleanse you righteously; send me not dishonoured from the land, but grant that I may rule over my possessions, and restore my house! Enough;- be it now thy care, old man, to go and heed thy task; and we twain will go forth; for so occasion bids, chief ruler of every enterprise for men. ELECTRA (within) Ah me, ah me! PAEDAGOGUS: Hark, my son,- from the doors, methought, came the sound of some handmaid moaning within. ORESTES: Can it be the hapless Electra? Shall we stay here, and listen to her laments? PAEDAGOGUS: No, no: before all else, let us seek to obey the command of Loxias, and thence make a fair beginning, by pouring libations to thy sire; that brings victory within our grasp, and gives us the mastery in all that we do. (Exeunt PAEDAGOGUS on the spectators left, ORESTES and PYLADES: the right.- Enter ELECTRA, from the house. She is meanly clad.) ELECTRA (chanting) O thou pure sunlight, and thou air, earths canopy, how often have ye heard the strains of my lament, the wild blows dealt against this bleeding breast, when dark night fails! And my wretched couch in yonder house of woe knows well, ere now, how I keep the watches of the night,- how often I bewail my hapless sire; to whom deadly Ares gave not of his gifts in a strange land, but my mother, and her mate Aegisthus, cleft his head with murderous axe, as woodmen fell an oak. And for this no plaint bursts from any lip save mine, when thou, my father, hath died a death so cruel and so piteous! But never will I cease from dirge and sore lament, while I look on the trembling rays of the bright stars, or on this light of day; but like the nightingale, slayer of her offspring, I will wail without ceasing, and cry aloud to all, here, at the doors of my father. O home of Hades and Persephone! O Hermes of the shades! potent Curse, and ye, dread daughters of the gods, Erinyes,- Ye who behold when a life is reft by violence, when a bed is dishonoured by stealth,- come, help me, avenge the murder of my sire,- and send to me my brother; for I have no more the strength to bear up alone against the load of grief that weighs me down. (As ELECTRA finishes her lament, the CHORUS OF WOMEN OF MYCENAE enter. The following lines between ELECTRA and the CHORUS are chanted responsively.)",
⁶⁷ And so for myself I trust that as a result of this rumor I, too, shall live, shining down like a star upon my enemies. But you, O my fatherland and native gods of my soil, receive me with good fortune in this journey, and you also, house of my ancestors, ⁷⁰ ince I come by divine mandate to cleanse you as justice demands. Do not dismiss me from this land in dishonor, but grant that I may rule over my possessions and restore my house! I have said enough. Go now, old one, and take care to watch over your task. ⁷² ince I come by divine mandate to cleanse you as justice demands. Do not dismiss me from this land in dishonor, but grant that I may rule over my possessions and restore my house! I have said enough. Go now, old one, and take care to watch over your task.
¹⁴¹⁹ The curses bring fulfillment: those who are buried live. ¹⁴²⁰ For men long dead are draining their killers’ blood in a stream of requital. Enter Orestes and Pylades from the house. Choru, ¹⁴²¹ For men long dead are draining their killers’ blood in a stream of requital. Enter Orestes and Pylades from the house. Choru, "

¹²⁷⁴ and lifting them struck his own eye-balls, uttering words like these: No longer will you behold such horrors as I was suffering and performing! Long enough have you looked on those whom you ought never to have seen, having failed in the knowledge of those whom I yearned to know—henceforth you shall be dark! ¹²⁷⁵ With such a dire refrain, he struck his eyes with raised hand not once but often. At each blow the bloody eye-balls bedewed his beard, and sent forth not sluggish drops of gore, but all at once a dark shower of blood came down like hail. ¹²⁷⁹ With such a dire refrain, he struck his eyes with raised hand not once but often. At each blow the bloody eye-balls bedewed his beard, and sent forth not sluggish drops of gore, but all at once a dark shower of blood came down like hail. ¹²⁸⁰ But one black gory downpour, thick as hail. Such evils, issuing from the double source, Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife. Till now the storied fortune of this house Was fortunate indeed; but from this day Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace, All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs. CHORUS: But hath he still no respite from his pain? Second Messenger: He cries, "Unbar the doors and let all ThebesBehold the slayer of his sire, his mothers — " That shameful word my lips may not repeat. He vows to fly self-banished from the land, Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse Himself had uttered; but he has no strength Nor one to guide him, and his tortures more Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see. For lo, the palace portals are unbarred, And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad That he who must abhorred would pity it. Enter OEDIPUS blinded. ¹²⁸¹ From the deeds of the two of them such ills have broken forth, not on one alone, but with mingled woe for man and wife. The old happiness of their ancestral fortune was once happiness indeed. But now today lamentation, ruin, death, shame, ¹²⁸⁴ From the deeds of the two of them such ills have broken forth, not on one alone, but with mingled woe for man and wife. The old happiness of their ancestral fortune was once happiness indeed. But now today lamentation, ruin, death, shame,

⁹ For I, while still dwelling in the house of my father Oeneus at Pleuron, had such fear of marriage as never any woman of Aetolia had. For my suitor was a river-god, Achelous, ¹⁰ who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and coiled, now ox-faced with human trunk, while from his thick-shaded beard wellheads of fountain-water sprayed. ¹¹ who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and coiled, now ox-faced with human trunk, while from his thick-shaded beard wellheads of fountain-water sprayed. ⁸⁰⁹ while he moaned in his convulsions. And you shall soon see him, either alive or freshly dead. Such, Mother, are the designs and deeds against my father of which you have been found guilty. May Punishing Justice and the Erinys punish you for them! Yes, if it be right, that is my prayer. ⁸¹⁰ Right it is, for to my eyes you have rejected the right by killing the best and bravest of men in all the world, whose equal you will never see again.Deianeira moves towards the house. Chorus: To Deianeira. ⁸¹² Right it is, for to my eyes you have rejected the right by killing the best and bravest of men in all the world, whose equal you will never see again.Deianeira moves towards the house. Chorus: To Deianeira. ⁸¹³ Why do you leave without a word? Do you not know that your silence pleads your accuser’s case? Hyllus:
⁸¹⁸ Let her leave. May a fair wind speed her far from my sight! Why should she falsely keep the dignity of the name “Mother,” when she is all unlike a mother in her deeds? No, let her go—farewell to her. May such delight as, ⁸¹⁹ Let her leave. May a fair wind speed her far from my sight! Why should she falsely keep the dignity of the name “Mother,” when she is all unlike a mother in her deeds? No, let her go—farewell to her. May such delight as, ⁸²⁰ he gives my father become her own!Exit Deianeira into the house, followed at a distance by Hyllus. Chorus: ¹⁰⁶² not Hellas, nor the land of the barbarian, nor any land which I came to purify has ever done this to me. No, a woman, a weak woman, born not to the strength of man, all alone has brought me down without a stroke of the sword! Son, show yourself my trueborn son, ¹⁰⁶³ not Hellas, nor the land of the barbarian, nor any land which I came to purify has ever done this to me. No, a woman, a weak woman, born not to the strength of man, all alone has brought me down without a stroke of the sword! Son, show yourself my trueborn son,
¹⁰⁷⁵ But now in my misery I have been found a woman, instead of the man I used to be.
¹¹¹⁰ o that she may learn to proclaim this message to all the world, that in my death, as in my life, I punished the guilty! Chorus: ¹¹¹¹ o that she may learn to proclaim this message to all the world, that in my death, as in my life, I punished the guilty! Chorus: ¹¹⁶⁴ perish by no creature that had the breath of life, but by one already dead, a dweller with Hades. So this savage Centaur in death has killed me alive, just as the divine will had been foretold. And I will show you how, ¹¹⁶⁵ later oracles tally with the first and testify to the old prophecy. I wrote them down for myself from the mouth of my father’s oak of many tongues in the grove of the Selli, who dwell on the hills and sleep on the ground. The tree said that, at the time which lives and now is, ¹¹⁶⁷ later oracles tally with the first and testify to the old prophecy. I wrote them down for myself from the mouth of my father’s oak of many tongues in the grove of the Selli, who dwell on the hills and sleep on the ground. The tree said that, at the time which lives and now is, ...

^3.345 Vel tibi composita cantetur Epistola voce: ^3.346 rend=

^3.345 If swarthy, to the Pharian varnish fly. ^3.346 A leg too lank tight garters still must wear,

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