Chorus
Requital for evils; the breezes of the house shift and blow. At another time my leader, my own, fell murdered in the bath, and the roof and stone walls of the house cried aloud, while he said: O cruelty! My wife, why are you murdering me on my return to my dear country in the tenth year? . . .
Chorus
Retribution for straying love has flowed back and brings to judgment the one who killed her wretched husband, when he came at last to his home and to the towering Cyclopean walls; with her own hand she killed him with the sharp-edged weapon, holding the axe in her hands. Unhappy husband! whatever the curse that possessed that wretched woman. Like a lioness of the hills that ranges through the meadowland woods, she accomplished these things.
Clytemnestra O children, by the gods, do not kill your mother.
Chorus Do you hear her cries within the house?
Clytemnestra O God! Ah me!
Chorus I also wail for you, overpowered by your children. Truly the god deals out justice, whenever it befalls. You have suffered cruelly, unhappy one, yet you did unholy things to your husband.
Chorus Leader
But here they come from the house, defiled in the newly shed blood of their mother, a triumphal rout, evidence of the pitiable sacrifice. There is no house more pitiable than the race of Tantalus, nor has there ever been.
Orestes O Earth, and Zeus who sees all mortal acts, look at these loathsome bloody deeds, these two bodies lying on the earth at the blow from my hand, atonement for my suffering . . .
Electra Too many tears, my brother, and I am the cause. Unhappy, that I came to fiery rage against this woman, who was my mother!
Chorus Alas for your fate; you gave birth to unbearable pain, and you suffered it, miserably and beyond, from your children. Yet you have rightly paid for their father’s murder.
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