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Euripides · Electra Ἠλέκτρα

Euripides, Electra 1111–1146: Exodos: Electra lures Clytemnestra into the house

Ancient Sources / Euripides / Electra / 1111–1146

Electra tells her mother that she sighs too late, and says that she might remember her exiled son. Clytemnestra asks why she was summoned. Electra tells her that she has given birth and begs her mother to make the tenth-day sacrifice for the child, since she does not know how. Clytemnestra says that she will go to the field to sacrifice to the gods, and goes into the poor house, and Electra says in an aside that she will receive her due.

Lines 1111–1146 · 391 words · click a number to copy its link
1111–1146
Ἠλέκτρα 1111ὀψὲ στενάζεις, ἡνίκʼ οὐκ ἔχεις ἄκη. πατὴρ μὲν οὖν τέθνηκε· τὸν δʼ ἔξω χθονὸς πῶς οὐ κομίζῃ παῖδʼ ἀλητεύοντα σόν; Κλυταιμήστρα δέδοικα· τοὐμὸν δʼ, οὐχὶ τοὐκείνου, σκοπῶ. 1115πατρὸς γάρ, ὡς λέγουσι, θυμοῦται φόνῳ. Ἠλέκτρα τί δαὶ πόσιν σὸν ἄγριον εἰς ἡμᾶς ἔχεις; Κλυταιμήστρα τρόποι τοιοῦτοι· καὶ σὺ δʼ αὐθάδης ἔφυς. Ἠλέκτρα ἀλγῶ γάρ· ἀλλὰ παύσομαι θυμουμένη. Κλυταιμήστρα καὶ μὴν ἐκεῖνος οὐκέτʼ ἔσται σοι βαρύς. Ἠλέκτρα 1120φρονεῖ μέγʼ· ἐν γὰρ τοῖς ἐμοῖς ναίει δόμοις. Κλυταιμήστρα ὁρᾷς; ἀνʼ αὖ σὺ ζωπυρεῖς νείκη νέα. Ἠλέκτρα σιγῶ· δέδοικα γάρ νιν ὡς δέδοικʼ ἐγώ. Κλυταιμήστρα παῦσαι λόγων τῶνδε. ἀλλὰ τί μʼ ἐκάλεις, τέκνον; Ἠλέκτρα ἤκουσας, οἶμαι, τῶν ἐμῶν λοχευμάτων· 1125τούτων ὕπερ μοι θῦσον — οὐ γὰρ οἶδʼ ἐγώ — δεκάτῃ σελήνῃ παιδὸς ὡς νομίζεται· τρίβων γὰρ οὐκ εἴμʼ, ἄτοκος οὖσʼ ἐν τῷ πάρος. Κλυταιμήστρα ἄλλης τόδʼ ἔργον, ἥ σʼ ἔλυσεν ἐκ τόκων. Ἠλέκτρα αὐτὴ ʼλόχευον κἄτεκον μόνη βρέφος. Κλυταιμήστρα 1130οὕτως ἀγείτων οἶκος ἵδρυται φίλων; Ἠλέκτρα πένητας οὐδεὶς βούλεται κτᾶσθαι φίλους. Κλυταιμήστρα ἀλλʼ εἶμι, παιδὸς ἀριθμὸν ὡς τελεσφόρον θύσω θεοῖσι· σοὶ δʼ ὅταν πράξω χάριν τήνδʼ, εἶμʼ ἐπʼ ἀγρὸν οὗ πόσις θυηπολεῖ 1135νύμφαισιν. ἀλλὰ τούσδʼ ὄχους, ὀπάονες, φάτναις ἄγοντες πρόσθεθʼ· ἡνίκʼ ἂν δέ με δοκῆτε θυσίας τῆσδʼ ἀπηλλάχθαι θεοῖς, πάρεστε· δεῖ γὰρ καὶ πόσει δοῦναι χάριν. Ἠλέκτρα χώρει πένητας ἐς δόμους· φρούρει δέ μοι 1140μή σʼ αἰθαλώσῃ πολύκαπνον στέγος πέπλους. θύσεις γὰρ οἷα χρή σε δαίμοσιν θύη. κανοῦν δʼ ἐνῆρκται καὶ τεθηγμένη σφαγίς, ἥπερ καθεῖλε ταῦρον, οὗ πέλας πεσῇ πληγεῖσα· νυμφεύσῃ δὲ κἀν Ἅιδου δόμοις 1145ᾧπερ ξυνηῦδες ἐν φάει. τοσήνδʼ ἐγὼ δώσω χάριν σοι, σὺ δὲ δίκην ἐμοὶ πατρός.

Electra You sigh too late, when you have no remedy. My father is dead; but why do you not recall that exile, your own wandering son?

Clytemnestra I am afraid; I am looking to my interests, not his. For he is angry, they say, over the murder of his father.

Electra And why do you cause your husband to be cruel to me?

Clytemnestra Such are his ways. You have a stubborn nature also.

Electra Yes, for I am in distress. Yet I will cease from my anger.

Clytemnestra And then he will no longer be harsh to you.

Electra He is proud; for he lives in my home.

Clytemnestra You see? Again you are rekindling new quarrels.

Electra I am silent; I fear him—as I fear him.

Clytemnestra Stop this talk! But why did you summon me, child?

Electra You have heard, I suppose, that I have given birth; in thanks for this, please sacrifice—for I do not know how—on the tenth day, as is the custom for the child. For I have no experience, being childless before.

Clytemnestra This is work for another, the one who delivered you.

Electra I was all alone in my labor and at the baby’s birth.

Clytemnestra Is this household situated with no friends as neighbors?

Electra No one is willing to have the poor as friends.

Clytemnestra But I will go to make the tenth-day sacrifice to the gods for the child; and when I have done you this favor, I will go to the field where my husband is sacrificing to the Nymphs. Take this team away, my attendants, and bring it to the stalls; and when you think that I have finished this sacrifice to the gods, be ready; for I must also please my husband.

Electra Go into a poor house; but please take care that my smoke-grimed walls do not smear your robes with soot. For you will make the sacrifice to the gods that you ought to make. The basket is ready, and the knife sharpened, the same that killed the bull by whose side you will lie, struck down. Even in Hades’ house you will be the bride of the one whom you slept with in life. This is the favor I will give you, and you will give me retribution for my father.

People and places in this passage

Passages in other works that tell of the same people and places, oldest and closest first.

  1. Sophocles, Electra 1384–1441Third stasimon and the killing of Clytaemnestra
  2. Sophocles, Electra 773–848Second episode: Clytaemnestra's relief and Electra's despair
  3. Euripides, Orestes 71–135Prologue: Helen asks Electra to take offerings to Clytemnestra's tomb
  4. Euripides, Orestes 1313–1352Seventh episode: Hermione is lured into the trap
  5. Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 152–245First episode (cont.): the lock of hair and the recognition

English translation by Edward P. Coleridge (1891). Original text: Greek text: Gilbert Murray (ed.), Euripidis Fabulae, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913, as digitised by Perseus. English: Edward P. Coleridge, The Plays of Euripides, London: George Bell and Sons, first published 1891 (Bohn's Classical Library; the Perseus header records a later printing).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.