Classic Greek Drama_ 10 Plays by Euripides in a Single File [NOOK Book] - Euripides [43]
ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the Gods.
MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to insult me.
ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that--
MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.
ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.
MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.
ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.
MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.
ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.
MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for thee?
ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay them forever.
MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?
ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be sufficient.
MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.
ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?
MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?
ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed this virgin here over the flames.
MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction for these deeds.
ORES. It shall be so then.
MEN. Alas! on no account do this!
ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.
MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?
ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.
MEN. What land!
ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.
MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!
ORES. And pray why not?
MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!
ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.
MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.
ORES. But not thy heart.
MEN. Who would speak to thee?
ORES. Whoever loves his father.
MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.
ORES. --Is happy.
MEN. Not thou at least.
ORES. For wicked women please me not.
MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.
ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.
MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?
ORES. Thou art no longer false.
MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?
ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.
MEN. With what persuasion?
ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a]
MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?
ORES. The thing is so.
MEN. O wretched Helen!--
ORES. And am I not wretched?
MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.
ORES. For would this were so!
MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.
ORES. Except on my account.
MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.
ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance.
MEN. Thou hast me.
ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my friends, light up these battlements of the walls.
MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that he may live.
APOLLO.
Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Phoebus the son of Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes, who standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know what commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy, working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom ye see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy hands. Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my father Jove. For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should live immortal.