Philoctetes [In, Electra and Other Plays: Ajax: Electra: Women of Trachis: Philoctetes: Translated by E. F. Watling] (Penguin Classics). by Sophocles

Author:Sophocles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Proquest LLC
Published: 2011-07-15T05:27:26+00:00

Is sucked from the slayer

By the slain of long ago.

(ORESTES and PYLADES come out of the house.)

Here they come. Their hands are red

With the blood of the sacrifice. And who

Condemns? Not I.

ELECTRA: All right?

ORESTES: All right… if Apollo was right.

ELECTRA: Did you kill the wretch?

ORESTES: You’ll have no more indignities

To suffer from her.

CHORUS: Take care. I can see Aegisthus.

ELECTRA: Go back!

ORESTES: Where is he?

ELECTRA: Just turning out of the street,

Suspecting nothing.

He will soon be here.

CHORUS: Quick – go back into the hall;

And may all go as well as before.

ORESTES: Trust us for that.

ELECTRA: Go, go.

ORESTES: We’ll go.

ELECTRA: I’ll meet him here.

ORESTES and PYLADES go back into the house.

CHORUS: You must give him a friendly greeting

To lure him unsuspecting

To his reckoning with justice.

Enter AEGISTHUS from the town.

AEGISTHUS:

They tell me some Phocian visitors have been here

With a story of Orestes’ having lost his life

In a chariot-smash. Does anyone know where they are?

(Silence)

Electra, what have you to say?… Have you lost your tongue?

You were not used to be so modest. He’s your brother…

You must know something; you had better tell me about it.

ELECTRA:

Of course, I know all about it. It’s my duty to know

All that is happening to my nearest and dearest.

AEGISTHUS: Where are the messengers, then?

ELECTRA: They are in the house.

They have paid their respects to the mistress.

AEGISTHUS: What is their message?

Do they say he is really dead?

ELECTRA: They not only say it,

They have shown us the proof.

AEGISTHUS: Can I see it for myself?

ELECTRA: Yes, you can see it. It’s not a pretty sight.

AEGISTHUS:

This is good news – the best you have given me yet.

ELECTRA: I wish you joy of it – if you find it so.

AEGISTHUS:

Enough then. Open the doors! Let all my people

See this sight. And fools who fixed their hopes

On this poor creature, when they see his corpse,

May now accept my yoke, and not require

My whip to humble them.

ELECTRA: I need no teaching.

I have learned my lesson at last, learned how to serve

The will of those who have the upper hand.

The Palace doors are opened, disclosing ORESTES and PYLADES standing beside the body of CLYTAEMNESTRA. The body is covered. AEGISTHUS goes up and looks at it for a moment in silence.

AEGISTHUS: Surely, O God, there is example here

Of righteous retribution. If it be so,

In the presence of Nemesis, let me say no more.

Uncover the face, for I must mourn my kindred.

ORESTES: You, sir, not I, should lift this veil, and look

On what lies here, and make your kind farewell.

AEGISTHUS:

True. So I will. (To ELECTRA) Call Clytaemnestra here,

If she is in the house.

ORESTES: She is near you now,

Not far to seek.

AEGISTHUS uncovers the body.

AEGISTHUS: God, what is this?

ORESTES: Afraid?

Of whom? Strangers?

AEGISTHUS: Whose trap is this

That I have fallen into?

ORESTES: Are you so blind

You cannot tell the living from the dead?

AEGISTHUS: God help me, now I know. You are Orestes.

ORESTES: The prophet’s eyes are opened.

AEGISTHUS: This is the end…

Yet let me say one thing –

ELECTRA: Let him say nothing!

For God’s sake, brother, do not listen to him!

When a man’s hour has come, a little grace

Can do him little good.

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