Electra Well then; you must carry the body of this man inside and hide it, slaves, so that when my mother comes, she may not see his corpse before her slaughter.
Orestes Wait! Let us go into another matter.
Electra What? Those are not rescuers from Mycenae whom I see?
Orestes No, but the mother who bore me.
Electra Then finely she walks to the middle of the net. —And here she comes, splendid in her chariot and dress.
Orestes What are we going to do? Shall we kill our mother?
Electra Surely pity did not seize you, when you saw your mother?
Orestes Ah! How can I kill her when she bore me and brought me up?
Electra As she killed your father and mine.
Orestes O Phoebus, you prophesied a great folly—
Electra Where Apollo is a fool, who are the wise?
Orestes You who declared I was to kill my mother, whom it is clearly wrong to kill.
Electra How can you be hurt by avenging your father?
Orestes I shall stand trial as a matricide, though I was pure before.
Electra And by not defending your father, you will be impious.
Orestes I, my mother—? To whom will I pay the penalty for her murder?
Electra And to whom, if you give up our father’s vengeance?
Orestes Was it a fiend who spoke in the likeness of the god?
Electra Seated on the holy tripod? I do not think so.
Orestes I cannot believe that this oracle was well prophesied.
Electra Do not become a coward and fall into unmanliness!
Orestes Am I to devise the same crafty scheme for her?
Electra The same death that you gave to her husband, Aegisthus.
Orestes I will go in; it is a dreadful task I am beginning and I will do dreadful things. If the gods approve, let it be; to me the contest is bitter and also sweet.
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