The oresteia by Andy Hinds

Author:Andy Hinds
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781786821348
Publisher: Oberon Books
Published: 2017-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHORUS Earth breeds many horrors,

Causing anguish,

Wretchedness and pain;

Devouring monsters

Scour the deep;

On high, the sky

Hurls searing fires

To earth;

And one might cite

The wrath of hurricanes

Which harms

Both beasts of foot

And beasts of wing.

But for inducing ruin on mankind,

What can match

The dauntless arrogance of men,

Partnered with the passions

In the mind of reckless women?

Bonds that couples,

Beast or human, share

Are treacherously destroyed

When woman’s passions

Take command.

A mind not wholly addled

Knows this,

When it learns how

Thestius’ cruel daughter,

Killed her son,

By throwing on the fire

The log which, when he

Issued, crying from the womb,

The Fates foretold –

So long as it remained unburnt

Would keep the boy from harm.

The story of another

Gruesome maid is told:

Bitch-hearted Scylla

Who, submitting to the dazzle

Of a golden necklace

Offered by King Minos,

Slew a man of closest kin –

So yielding up her city

To besieging Crete:

As her father, Nisus, slept unguarded,

From his head she cut

The lock which had, till then,

Made him immortal.

But, in story, pride of place

Is boasted by the crimes of Lemnos –

Mourned as an atrocity,

And now the mark

For any later wickedness –

When every wife

Assailed and killed

Her unsuspecting spouse.

And now –

Despised by gods

Because of their iniquity –

The Lemnos race has disappeared,

Dishonoured still by all:

For who respects what gods abhor?

Of all these gathered stories,

Which has not been justifiably recounted?

In the light of such unmerciful afflictions

It will not seem out of place to mention

A repugnant coupling –

An abomination to the house of Argos,

And a guileful woman’s schemes

Against a man of arms

Whose very foes revered him

Fervently as we.

I respect a hearth

Not stoked with passion;

Where a woman’s brazenness

Has not assumed command.

These horrors,

Like a sharp and penetrating sword,

Pierce deep into our innards.

Justice now is trampled to the ground:

The only tributes paid to Zeus

Are mockery and slight.

But the foundation-stone of Justice

Is securely set.

We see how Destiny

Already whets its sword;

We see the far-famed,

Unforgetting Fury

Steer the child, Orestes, towards the house,

To bring belated payment

For the stain of blood

Spilt long ago.

ORESTES and PYLADES re-enter. ORESTES knocks on the palace gates.

ORESTES Keeper! Guard!

Can you not hear this drumming

On your doors?

Another try:

Is anyone at home?

Open! Open up, I say!

This is my third attempt

To call out someone from the house –

If, with Aegisthus, it remains

Hospitable to strangers.

DOORKEEPER Right! Alright, I hear you!

Where do you come from, stranger?

Where, I ask you!

ORESTES Tell the masters of the house

I bring them news.

And quick!

For Night’s dark chariot

Is on our heels.

It is the time when travellers

Seek berth and anchor

In a house of welcome.

Tell whoever is in charge

To come –

The lady of the house;

Or yet a man would be more fitting:

Ease and clarity of talk

Can be constrained

When man and woman meet;

Together men are forthright

And composed.

CLYTEMNESTRA enters.

CLYTEMNESTRA Strangers, anything you ask for

You shall have.

All comforts that befit

A royal house

Are plentifully furnished:

Warming baths,

Restoring beds,

The company of honest faces.

But if business brings you here,

Then better you address yourself to men,

And I will summon them.

ORESTES You call me stranger –

That I am,

From Daulia in Phocis –

But I bear a message to this royal house.

Bound for Argos,

All on foot,

My baggage shouldered by myself,

I met a man –

Unknown to me

As I to him –

Who, when we talked,

I learned was Strophius of Phocis.

Told where I

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