ORESTES [8]
thou deny having slain her, saying this out of wanton insult? ORESTES Yes, I do deny it to my sorrow. Would God- MENELAUS Would God-what? Thou provokest my fears. ORESTES I had hurled to Hades the pollution of Hellas! MENELAUS Surrender my wife's dead body, that I may bury her. ORESTES Ask the gods for her; but thy daughter I will slay. MENELAUS This matricide is bent on adding murder to murder. ORESTES This champion of his sire, betrayed by thee to death. MENELAUS Art thou not content with the stain of the mother's blood which is on thee? ORESTES I should not grow tired if I had these wicked women to slay for ever. MENELAUS Art thou too, Pylades, a partner in this bloody work? ORESTES His silence says he is; so my saying it will suffice. MENELAUS Not without thy ruing it, unless thou take wings and fly. ORESTES Fly we never will, but will fire the palace. MENELAUS What! wilt thou destroy the home of thy ancestors? ORESTES To prevent thee getting it I will, offering this maid in sacrifice upon its flames. MENELAUS Kill her, for thou wilt be punished by me for such a murder. ORESTES Agreed. MENELAUS No, no! refrain! ORESTES Silence! thy sufferings are just; endure them. MENELAUS Pray, is it just that thou shouldst live? ORESTES And rule a kingdom, yes. MENELAUS A kingdom-where? ORESTES Here in Pelasgian Argos. MENELAUS Thou art so well qualified to handle sacred water! ORESTES And, pray, why not? MENELAUS And to slay victims before battle! ORESTES Well, art thou? MENELAUS Yes, my hands are clean. ORESTES But not thy heart. MENELAUS Who would speak to thee? ORESTES Every man that loves his father. MENELAUS And the man who honours his mother? ORESTES He's a happy man. MENELAUS Thou didst not honour thine, at any rate. ORESTES No, for I delight not in your wicked women. MENELAUS Remove that sword from my daughter's throat. ORESTES Thou art wrong. MENELAUS What! wilt slay her? ORESTES Right once more. MENELAUS Ah me! what can I do? ORESTES Go to the Argives and persuade them- MENELAUS To what? ORESTES Entreat the city that we may not die. MENELAUS Otherwise, will ye slay my child? ORESTES That is the alternative. MENELAUS Alas for thee, Helen! ORESTES And is it not "alas!" for me? MENELAUS I brought her back from Troy only for thee to butcher. ORESTES Would I had! MENELAUS After troubles innumerable. ORESTES Except where I was concerned. MENELAUS Dread treatment mine! ORESTES The reason being thy refusal to help me then? MENELAUS Thou hast me. ORESTES Thy own cowardice has. (Calling from the roof to ELECTRA) Ho there! fire the palace from beneath, Electra; and, Pylades, my trusty friend, kindle the parapet of yonder walls. (The palace is seen to be ablaze.) MENELAUS Help, help, ye Danai! gird on your harness and come, ye dwellers in knightly Argos! for here is a fellow trying to wrest his life from your whole city, though he has caused pollution by shedding his mother's blood. (APOLLO appears from above with HELEN.) APOLLO Menelaus, calm thy excited mood; I am Phoebus, the son of Latona, who draw nigh to call thee by name, and thou no less, Orestes, who, sword in hand, art keeping guard on yonder maid, that thou mayst hear what have come to say. Helen, whom all thy eagerness failed to destroy, when thou wert seeking to anger Menelaus, is here as ye see in the enfolding air, rescued from death instead of slain by thee. 'Twas I that saved her and snatched her from beneath thy sword at the bidding of her father Zeus; for she his child must put on immortality, and take her place with Castor and Polydeuces in the bosom of the sky, a saviour to mariners. Choose thee then another bride and take her to thy home, for the gods by means of Helen's loveliness embroiled Troy