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[622-659] Electra 519
CLYTEMNESTRA
Thou brazen one! Truly I and my sayings and my deeds give thee too
much matter for words.
ELECTRA
The words are thine, not mine; for thine is the action; and the acts
find the utterance.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Now by our lady Artemis, thou shalt not fail to pay for this boldness,
so soon as Aegisthus returns.
ELECTRA
Lo, thou art transported by anger, after granting me free speech, and
hast no patience to listen.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Now wilt thou not hush thy clamour, or even suffer me to sacrifice,
when I have permitted thee to speak unchecked?
ELECTRA
I hinder not,—begin thy rites, I pray thee; and blame not my voice,
for I shall say no more.
CLYTEMNESTRA
Raise then, my handmaid, the offerings of many fruits, that I may uplift
my prayers to this our king, for deliverance from my present fears.
Lend now a gracious ear, O Phoebus our defender, to my words, though
they be dark; for I speak not among friends, nor is it meet to unfold my
whole thought to the light, while she stands near me, lest with her malice
and her garrulous cry she spread some rash rumour throughout the town:
but hear me thus, since on this wise I must speak.
That vision which I saw last night in doubtful dreams—if it hath come
for my good, grant, Lycean king, that it be fulfilled; but if for harm, then
let it recoil upon my foes. And if any are plotting to hurl me by treachery
from the high estate which now is mine, permit them not; rather vouchsafe
that, still living thus unscathed, I may bear sway over the house of
the Atreidae and this realm, sharing prosperous days with the friends
who share them now, and with those of my children from whom no enmity
or bitterness pursues me.
O Lycean Apollo, graciously hear these prayers, and grant them to us
all, even as we ask! For the rest, though I be silent, I deem that thou, a
god, must know it; all things, surely, are seen by the sons of Zeus.
(The PAEDAGOGUS enters.)