ELEKTRA
Translated by
G. Theodoridis, ©2006
Dramatis Personae
Elektra
Farmer
(nominal husband to Elektra)
Orestes
(attendants to Orestes)
Chorus of Argive women
Old Man
Herald
(and servant to Orestes)
Klytaimestra
Kastor
(brother to Klytaimestra)
Pylades
(friend to Orestes – silent)
Polydeuces
(Kastor’s brother – silent)
A humble peasant’s cottage in a rural environment. Next to it the altar of Apollo.
A starry sky, before the break of Dawn. Sounds of birds nearby (owls, for example) and of brooks in the distance.
Slowly the door of the cottage creaks open and the peasant appears. He is good-natured and smiles as he shakes and stretches himself into the morning. He surveys the land all around him as if he belongs to it, moves forward towards the front of the stage and then speaks.
Peasant:
Good morning, brooks of Inachus that nurture the Pelasgian soil!
It was from here that Agamemnon, leader of men, set sail with a thousand ships for Troy. War Lord Ares filled his sails and the hearts of his men. Then, when he killed Priam, the king of Troy and captured the splendid city of Dardanos, he came back here to Argos and graced its high temples with all the spoils he tore away from the barbarians.
1o Ah, but though Fate was with him in the battlefield, here, back home, in the halls of his own palace, he wasn’t so fortunate. His wife, Klytaimestra and her lover, Aegisthus, Thyestes’ son, trapped him with a treacherous net and murdered him.
So, now the royal sceptre of Tandalus was taken by the new lord of Argos, Aegisthus and he now rules with Klytaimestra, Tyndareus’ daughter and Agamemnon’s wife.
Now, when Agamemnon left for Troy, he left behind two children, a boy, Orestes and a girl Elektra. As for Orestes, his father’s old tutor stole him away and passed him on to Strophius to be raised at Phockis.
2o The girl, though, Elektra by name, stayed behind in her father’s palace and when the tender youthful age bloomed within her, suitors from the whole of Hellas came seeking her hand in marriage. These were men of the highest calibre, noble men. Aegisthus, however, was terribly afraid that if Elektra married one of these noblemen, she might bear a son who one day might try and avenge her father’s murder, so he kept her at home taking away the opportunity for her to mate with any of these noblemen.
3o But this, too, was an unsatisfactory solution because there was an even greater danger that she might bear children to some nobleman in secret. So, Aegisthus then thought of killing her but her mother, even though she was a cruel woman saved her from his murderous hands. You see, so far as her murder of Agamemnon was concerned, she felt she had some adequate excuse, seeing that he had sacrificed their daughter, Iphigeneia to Artemis, goddess of the wild. But to kill her children was something even she did not want to do in case there would arise in the city great resentment against her.
So, Aegisthus thought up the plan of putting up a reward for whoever would kill the exiled Orestes and as for Elektra, he gave her to me to marry.
4o His reasoning was that even though I am of an indisputably good Argive stock, I am, alas, a poor man, who to his eyes means a weak man. A weak man cannot be a noble man. And weak man also means a weak fear for him. So I am weak and he is less afraid.
There is fear in Aegisthus also that if a nobleman had married Elektra, the whole shameful act of Agamemnon’s murder would be awakened from its sleep and Aegisthus would have not escaped his due punishment.
Now, I swear by Aphrodite that I’ve done nothing to dishonour the girl. She is still a virgin. You see, I too am an honourable man and my own sense of honour prohibits me from damaging the honour of the girl, a girl born in a wealthy and royal family. To my mind, it’s just not right and so, I’ve stayed away from her bed. And then there’s Orestes. I would feel dreadfully sorry for him if, when he comes back he finds that his brother-in-law is such a lowly creature as me and that his sister is so unlucky in marriage.
5o Ha! And if anyone thinks that I am a fool for bringing into my house such a beautiful young virgin like Elektra -legitimately!- (At this stage, unbeknownst to the Peasant, the door of the cottage creaks open again and this time, Elektra emerges holding a water urn. She, too, looks around before she puts the urn upon her head.) -and, let’s say, not making good and proper use of the situation, then, to that I say, that these are that man’s own views of what constitutes modest behaviour and not mine and his views are wrong and that he’d be a fool to have such views!
(Elektra presents the complete opposite disposition towards life and mood for the play, creating a sharp contrast between the poor of the good deed and of the obliged recipient. She is unaware of her husband’s presence. Her head is shaved.)
Elektra: sighs
Greetings, black night that nurtures the golden stars! I walk into you with this water urn on my head to get water from the stream, not because I have to but because I want to show the gods Aegisthus’ shameful insolence towards me and to raise my voice of grief to the broad heavens, for my father to hear.
6o My despicable mother, Tyndareus’ daughter, Klytaimestra, has thrown me out of the house to please her husband and now she has other children by him. Orestes, my brother and I, of course, are treated as illegitimate.
Peasant:
Why do you do this, you poor creature? A delicately raised young girl like you, you shouldn’t do all this hard work for me. I’ve told you, you don’t have to!
Elektra:
7o I do it because you’re more than a mere husband to me. You’re a god. A god because in my hour of despair you have not tried to take advantage of me. It is a wonderful thing that when people like me find themselves in such a predicament there are men like you, ready to help them out of it. So, even though I don’t need to, I think of it as my duty to take some part of your work load and make it easier for you. You do enough work outside the home, I should at least work towards keeping it nice inside. It is a pleasant thing for a man to find his home comfortable and tidy, after a hard day’s work.
Peasant:
Well, if you so wish, Elektra, go ahead. In fact the spring is nearby.
8o Soon Dawn will emerge and I should drive the cattle to pasture. I also need to plant the fields. When a man is lazy, no mater how many “Hail Heras” he utters he’ll still go hungry if he doesn’t do the work.
Exit Elektra and Peasant.
Enter Orestes, Pylades with two attendants. Both wear swords. Both are with beard.
Orestes:
Pylades, my best friend, you’ve stuck with me more faithfully than all the others. You have stuck with me through my many tribulations and often you even let me stay in your own home with you.
You know very well how terrible the tribulations that I suffer from Aegisthus are. He and my murder-loving mother slaughtered my father.
I’ve just left the temple of Apollo where I had performed the appropriate rites and it is he, Apollo, who has sent me here.
9o And so, here I am, walking on Argos’ soil without one Argive knowing it. What I want to do is give equal payment to my father’s murderers: murder for murder.
Before that I had visited my father’s grave and made offerings of my tears and a lock of my hair. I’ve also sacrificed a lamb and offered its blood to him.
The murderers who rule and tyrannise the people of Argos know nothing of this. For now, I won’t set foot inside the city, for two reasons: firstly so that in case I’m recognised by any of the guards I can get out of the Argive jurisdiction quickly and be on another land, and secondly because I want to find my sister.
1oo They say she’s now married and no longer a virgin. I’d like to find her and convince her to become my accomplice when I commit the twin murder.
As well, I also want to find out from a reliable source, how things are inside the city.
Now then, I can see that the brilliant face of Dawn is rising so let’s move out of the way from this path. Perhaps some farmer or woman servant will come by and we can ask her if Elektra lives near by.
All hide behind the altar of Apollo.
Enter Elektra carrying the water urn on her head.
11o Look, Pylades, a servant carrying a water urn on her shaved head. Let’s hide well in case we hear something that will help us in our quest.
Elektra: (to herself)
Come, girl, move! Move on to the beat of your rushing tears!
Agamemnon is your father and Tyndareus’ hateful daughter, Klytaimestra, is your mother. A mother, a murderer!
12o All the Argives here call me “misery.”
My work is hard, my life is appalling.
Dearest father, Agamemnon, Hades has you now because of the dire deed done to you by your wife and her lover, Aegisthus.
Come, girl, let your cheeks be furrowed by the rush of more tears.
Cry yet again!
Ah, how lovely feels this flood of tears!
Come girl, move! Hurry, girl, hurry!
Move on, move on, to the beat of my rushing tears!
13o Orestes is my brother. Orestes is an exile living in a foreign land in a strange house, wandering in exile and I, his wretched sister was left behind inside our father’s halls tortured by unfathomable misfortune.
Come now, Orestes and stop the great flood of tears and the great furrowing of my cheeks.
With the help of Zeus, bring our father’s Justice to him.
Vengeance to the murderers!
Come now, Orestes, Rush!
Come to Argos, our city!
A female slave enters from the shack to take the water urn indoors.
14o Come, girl! Take this urn from me and put it down so that I may cry more easily and so that my tears will reach my father before Dawn.
The slave obeys.
Father, father, father!
I shout my lament, shout it loud that you may hear it
Down there, deep deep beneath the Earth.
I shout out my despair
All day long
All day long
I shout my despair every day.
The grief, my dearest father tears at my throat,
The grief my dearest father beats upon my shaved head.
Unfathomable grief my dearest father at
Your death.
Father, father, father!
Sorrow strikes my head!
15o Ah! Just as the hapless swan sings out loudly for her father -for he, too, was murdered in a watery trap of deadly nets., just so, I sing this melancholy song, father, my melancholy song for you.
Father, father, father!
16o Bitter was the crash of the ax upon your skull
dear father!
Bitter and murderous!
Bitter was the plot of the assassins when you returned from Troy.
A bitter two-edged sword instead of a crown welcomed you, Father.
And it was her and not her lover who spun enough courage to perform the murderous deed! Aegisthus then became her man.
Enter the chorus, a group of Argive women.
Chorus:
17o Elektra, daughter of Agamemnon, I came to your house to tell you that a Mycenean mountain man and lover of milk came down and brought us the news that in two days’ time the Argives will be celebrating a feast, where all the virgins will be marching to Hera’s temple.
Elektra:
No, dear friends. This feast is not for someone whose heart is too sad, whose days and nights are too damp with tears. No golden jewels nor fine dresses for me and nor will I dance and twirl and stamp my feet along with the rest of the Argive girls.
18o A dress in tatters and a hair in a mess – Look at me! How would Agamemnon feel if he saw his daughter looking like this? And how would the whole of Troy feel to know that she was conquered by the father of such a sad creature?
Chorus:
19o Our goddess is great, Elektra. Come now and borrow some of my clothes. A fine, well woven gown and a golden necklace. How will the feast enjoy your presence!
Tears alone will not defeat your enemies, Elektra, but honouring the gods will. Send prayers to the gods, not sighs and success will come to you.
Elektra:
My prayers are not heeded by any of the gods, my friends. Nor do they care about my father who was murdered so long ago.
2oo I cry for my murdered father and for my brother who lives in exile, far from his own home far from his true station of a glorious king’s son, wandering from one common man’s hearth to another.
21o And I, too, live in a peasant’s hut, on a small plot of mountain ground, with a torn heart, in exile too from my father’s house, while my mother lies as wife to Aegisthus in a bed stained full with my father’s blood.
Chorus:
Many are the ills for which Greece can blame your mother’s sister, Helen.
Enter Orestes and Pylades
Elektra:
Oh, no my friends! Enough crying now! I see strangers appear from behind the altar near my house. Let’s escape them. You run that way, along the path and I’ll run into the house.
She tries to run but Orestes seizes her arm.
Orestes:
22o Stay you poor creature. Don’t be afraid of me.
Elektra:
Oh, Phoebos Apollo, let me not be killed!
Orestes:
There are other much greater enemies than you that I wish I could kill.
Elektra:
Let go. Do not touch what is not right for you to touch!
Orestes:
There’s no one else that I could touch with greater right.
Elektra:
So why then wait by my house with sword in hand?
Orestes:
Stay and hear what I have to say and you will understand me.
Elektra:
All right. I shall. You are far stronger than I am.
Orestes:
I’ve come with news about your brother.
Elektra:
23o Oh, dear friend, is he alive or dead?
Orestes:
To tell you the good news first, he lives.
Elektra:
Bless you for you sweet words.
Orestes:
May we both be blessed.
Elektra:
In what bitter exile is the poor man wandering?
Orestes:
He’s a lost soul, wandering from one city to the next.
Elektra:
Does he lack his daily food?
Orestes:
No, he doesn’t but one is weak when one lives in exile.
Elektra:
What then is the reason he has sent you?
Orestes:
To find out if you’re alive and well. What sort of a life you lead.
Elektra:
24o Look at me then! Look how I have withered!
Orestes:
Misery has hurt you so much that I feel like crying.
Elektra:
And my hair is totally shaved
Orestes:
The pain of losing both your father and your brother is your great burden.
Elektra:
Oh, who could be dearer to me than those two?
Orestes:
What do you think of your brother?
Elektra:
He’s too far to be my support.
Orestes:
Why do you live far from the city?
Elektra:
I have made a marriage, friend, that more is like death than marriage.
Orestes:
I pity your brother. Is your husband from Mycaene?
Elektra:
Yes but not the sort of man my father would have me marry.
Orestes:
25o Tell me all you can so that I can convey everything to your brother.
Elektra: (indicates her house)
I live there, far from the city.
Orestes:
A shack like this is proper only for diggers and cowherds.
Elektra:
True, he’s poor but he is from a good family and he respects me.
Orestes:
Respect? How does he show his respect?
Elektra:
He hasn’t yet approached my bed.
Orestes:
Is that because he pledged an oath to the gods or doesn’t he find you attractive?
Elektra:
He doesn’t feel it’s right to insult my parents.
Orestes:
How is it he didn’t enjoy you once he married you?
Elektra:
He does not regard as my master the man who gave me to him.
Orestes:
26o I understand. He’s afraid he’ll be punished by Orestes.
Elektra:
That, too but he’s a kind man, as well.
Orestes:
Such a good man, your husband, he should receive a good reward.
Elektra:
Yes, and he will receive it once my brother returns.
Orestes:
But how does your mother cope with all this?
Elektra:
My friend, women love their men more than their children.
Orestes:
But why did Aigisthus shame you so much?
Elektra:
He wanted me to give birth to a common child so he gave me to a common man.
Orestes:
Obviously so that you won’t bear children who’ll exact vengeance.
Elektra:
That’s what he thought but he’ll pay for it heavily.
Orestes:
27o Does he know that you’re still a virgin?
Elektra:
No. It’s a secret. We won’t tell him.
Orestes: (Indicating the chorus)
These women who are listening to us, can they be trusted?
Elektra:
Yes. They can hold a secret well.
Orestes:
If Orestes comes to Argos, what can he do?
Elektra:
You are asking me about that? Shame! So he’s not coming then?
Orestes:
How will he kill your father’s murderers?
Elektra:
By doing what they did to my father.
Orestes:
Would you have killed your mother along with Aigisthus?
Elektra:
With the very ax that my father was slaughtered.
Orestes:
28o I’ll tell him that… You won’t be changing your mind, will you?
Elektra:
Let me kill my mother and then let me die.
Orestes:
If only Orestes were here to hear you!
Elektra:
Even if I saw him, friend, I would not recognise him.
Orestes:
That’s not strange at all. You were young when you were separated.
Elektra:
There’s only one person from my lot who’d recognise him.
Orestes:
The man who, as they say, saved Orestes from the murder?
Elektra:
Yes, my father’s old tutor.
Orestes:
Does your father have a grave?
Elektra:
Yes, a rather pitiful one. They’ve placed it far from the palace.
Orestes:
Ah! What is it you’re telling me?
29o Sadness bites the mortals hard even when the sadness is of other people.
Tell me then the bitter words I should take to your brother, the ones he needs hear.
The ignorant do not sympathise yet the knowledgeable suffer for having knowledge.
Chorus:
I need to know as well. I live far from the city and I don’t know what she’s going through. Now I want to know everything.
Elektra:
I shall speak, if I must –and to a friend I must speak- about the heavy Fates that came upon me and my father.
3oo And since you made me make this speech, I beg you, stranger tell Orestes of this hard Fate that befell me and my father.
Begin with how I am dressed. Look at my clothes! Tell him of the despair that has overtaken me and in what sort of house I live now compared to the palaces I used to live once.
Now, I mend my clothes myself, otherwise I’d have no clothes to wear and I’d be left naked.
31o I carry water from the fountain and I never go to any festivals or religious celebrations.
Being a virgin, I am ashamed to be with other women and I am ashamed to know that Kastor, before the gods took him, was my suitor, since he was kin.
Yet my mother, adorned with Phrygian gold, sits on a throne, surrounded by the Asian slaves who my father brought home, slaves wearing gowns from Ida pinned with golden brooches.
32o My father’s blood, is still rotting black in our palace halls and his murderer runs around in my father’s chariots and with puffed up pride carries in his bloody hands the sceptre that once, when it was held by my father, ruled the army of Greece.
And his tomb, abandoned, so far has not received either libations nor branches of myrtle. It’s a deserted place with no adornments. They tell me that my mother’s husband now, when he is drunk, jumps up and down on the grave throwing stones at his tombstone and yelling, “where is your Orestes now? Is he standing by your tomb defending it?”
33o This is the sort of insults he casts at him who is absent.
Stranger, I beg you, tell my brother all this! There are many who beg him to come back and I am their voice. Here, look! My hands, my tongue, my hapless heart, my closely shaved head and Agamemnon, his father, all beg him to come back.
34o Because it is a huge shame that while his famous father destroyed Troy, he, in the spring of his youth, is not able to kill one man.
Enter the Peasant
Chorus:
Here is your husband, Elekra. He’s finished his work.
Peasant:
Ah, who are these strangers standing by the door of my house? Why have they come here, to my rustic house? Are they after me? Elektra, it’s a shame for a woman to be standing around talking with young men.
Elektra:
Don’t be suspicious, husband. You’ll learn immediately what we were talking about. These strangers have come from Orestes and they brought me messages from him. You, messengers, forgive him for what he said just now.
Peasant:
35o Well, what did they say? Is he alive? Does he see the sun?
Elektra:
They said he lives and I believe them.
Peasant:
And does he remember your father’s suffering and yours?
Elektra:
I hope so but the exiled man is weak.
Peasant:
So what news do they bring from Orestes?
Elektra:
He has sent these two men to find out about me.
Peasant:
You tell them about some of your despair. The rest they can see for themselves.
Elektra:
They know it all. There are no secrets left.
Peasant:
Shouldn’t you open our doors to them then?
36o Come then, strangers, come in! Come in and I shall repay your kind words with whatever my poor house can afford. (to Orestes’ attendants) Come, attendants, take their things inside. (back to Orestes and Pylades) Don’t refuse me. You’ve come from a friend so you are friends and you’re most welcome. Even though I was born in poverty I will not be seen as poor in spirit.
Orestes:
By the gods! Is this the man who holds your marriage a secret so that he won’t insult Orestes?
Elektra:
Yes, this is the man they call my husband.
Orestes:
It is impossible to judge a man’s virtue with accuracy. There’s always great confusion in the nature of mortals.
37o I, myself have seen worthless children born of a virtuous man and from evil parents born brilliant children. I have seen a small, poor mind in a wealthy man and in the soul of a poor man, a great one. How then can someone judge a man when he must consider all these attributes? By wealth? No, he will be a bad judge. By poverty? No, because poverty brings misery and makes the man turn to evil by necessity. Should I consider arms? Would you believe that a man is brave simply by the fact that he’s holding a spear?
38o Much better if one leaves all this to Fate’s judgement. This man here is not great amongst the Argives, nor does he puff his chest up in pride about his ancestors but one sees him as being quite apart from the masses. Speaking to the audience. You, however who, with mindless opinions fall astray, will you never think wisely and consider weighing mortals by their manner and the virtuous among them by their character?
39o They are the men who govern their cities and their houses well. Men of good physiques but who lack thinking are only good as statues in the market place.
Nor can a hand, though mighty in spear, can stand up against it better than someone weak. In this it’s a matter of natural strength and bravery.
(To the peasant) Yes, we shall accept your hospitality. It is worthy for the children of Agamemnon, both, for Elektra as well as for Orestes, who’s absent far away and on whose behalf we came here. Go on, then servants, go inside. So far as I’m concerned it’s better that I am the guest of a willing poor man rather than a wealthy one. I rejoice in the fact that I stand at his household. I’d prefer, however if your brother himself happily entertained us in his own prosperous house.
4oo Still, you never know he just might come back because, Apollo’s prophecies are always correct whereas the prophecies of men, I do not trust at all.
Orestes, Pylades and his attendants go into the house.
Chorus:
Elektra, now more than before our heart sparks with joy because perhaps Fate might be moving in the right direction judging by what he said.
Elektra: (to the peasant)
Poor man, you know the poverty of your house yet you receive these strangers, these men of a much higher status.
Peasant:
What of it, Elektra? If they are, as they seem to be, from a good and noble family then they’ll be just as happy with the little as they would be with the plenty.
Elektra:
41o Well, then, since you made the mistake, poor man, go quickly and see my beloved father’s old tutor who’s been thrown out of the city and now grazes sheep near Tanaou river, at the border between Sparta and Argos. Tell him that, now that the guests are here to bring some food for them.
42o He will be overjoyed and he’ll thank the gods when he finds out that the child whose life he once saved, lives. Forget about asking my mother. Nothing will come from my father’s palace. Poor woman, we’d be bringing her bitter news telling her that Orestes is still alive.
Peasant:
Good. All right then, I shall do as you wish. I’ll pass your words on to the old man but you go inside and prepare the table. And don’t be late with it. A woman can do wonders in the kitchen when the need calls for it. We still have enough food in the house to see the strangers adequately through for a day. When I think of such things then I see what mighty power money has! Not only you help your friends with the stuff but you can also heal yourself from any illness when you have the money to pay.
43o The cost of a normal everyday meal is cheap, because everyone, rich and poor, once he had enough he feels the same joy.
Exit both, Elektra and Peasant into the house.
Chorus:
Famous ships that once sailed for Troy with countless oars and with the daughters of Nereas kept you good company with their dances.
44o All round the blue prows the dolphins leaped about, drunk with the sound of the pipes’ song as you took Thetis’ son, fleetfooted Achilles to the shores of the Trojan river Simois, with Agamemnon by his side.
They left the shores of Euboa holding the shield and the golden armour forged by Hephaestos on his golden anvil and headed for Pelios and for Ossas’ holy tight knit valleys and the lookouts where the nymphs live.
45o These neraids left to find Achilles, the son of the sea goddess, Thetis, there where his horseman father, Peleas raised him, a beacon of light for the Greeks and the fleetfooted sons of Atreas.
I’ve heard from someone who had left Troy and reached the harbour of Nauplion telling of the Achilles’ famous shield, the son of Thetis. Fearsome! He said it was painted with pictures to spread wild fear among the Trojans, in the land of Phrygia.
46o Around the rim of the shield, the man said, was Perseus with his winged sandals, flying above the sea, his hand grasping the severed head of the Gorgon. Beside him flew Hermes, Zeus’ messenger, the peasant son of Maia.
And in the centre of the shield shimmered the blinding glow of the sun’s orb, carried in a chariot of winged horses. All around this were the heavens dancing – stars like the Pleiads and the Hyades, frightening enough to make Hektor turn his eyes away.
47o On his golden helmet Sphinxes held with their talons the prey their songs had lured.
A fire-breathing lioness on his chestplate, the chimera, with the sharp paws, speeds off as she sees, Pegasus, Peirene’s colt.
And on his murderous sword, the horses pounded and the black dust rose behind them.
48o A King, Klytaimestra, a King of such brave lot of warriors your evil adultery slaughtered, daughter of Tyndareus, and I hope one day I’ll see the gods send you to your death. And so I will. One day I shall see a sword cut through your neck and the blood gush forth from your mortal wound.
Enter the Old Man. He is walking with great difficulty and with the aid of a shepherd’s crook. His clothes are old and in tatters. Over his shoulders he is carrying a suckling lamb and a sack of other items.
Old Man:
Where is my noble lady, the daughter of Agamemnon the King, whom I raised all those years ago?
49o Och, what a steep hill this house is on. Too steep for a bent old man like me. Still, it was necessary for me to drag here my bent back and my shaking legs.
Elektra appears at the door.
Ah! Daughter! Now I can see you by the doorway. I brought you a young lamb which I’ve just taken away from its mother’s teat. As well, I’ve brought along some garlands, some cheeses, just fresh from the presses and this here treasure, a very old, fragrant wine of which 5oo I’ve made only a little. It’s not much but if you put but a drop of it in some lesser vintage, you will be drinking a nice sweet wine. Now get someone to carry these things to the strangers inside. I want to wipe my tears with my old, tattered garment.
Elektra claps her hands and a male servant appears from the hut. He picks up the old man’s burden and takes it inside.
The old man wipes his tears.
Elektra:
But, old man, why cry? What is the meaning of your teary look? Is it because you still remember my tribulations even though they happened so long ago?
51o Or are you sighing because of Orestes, who is in exile, or is it because of my father whom a long time ago you brought up with your own hands but all to no avail for you or for your friends?
Old Man:
Yes, totally to no avail.
Still I couldn’t take it. I came out of this road and went to your father’s tomb and as I saw it deserted and full of weeds I fell on my knees and cried. I took some of the wine I brought the strangers and poured libations upon it and placed branches of myrtle around it. But, just then, I saw on the tomb a black sheep, slaughtered and with its blood, still fresh, spilled. Next to it was a lock of blond hair.
I wondered, child, who on earth would have such courage to approach the tomb. Certainly none of the Argives. Perhaps your brother arrived in secret and he honoured your father’s poor tomb. He takes a lock of hair out of his clothes and offers it to Elektra.
52o Here, place this cut hair next to yours and see if the colour matches. It is common that they who have the same father to have many similarities all over their body.
Elektra: Rejecting the old man’s offer.
Old father, your words are not wise if you’re saying that my brave brother came here in secret, because he is afraid of Aigisthus.
53o Also, how could the hair of a noble hero, raised in the wrestling arenas match that of a virgin who combs her hair the feminine way? Impossible! Matching colour hair, old father, you’ll find on many but they are not necessarily of the same blood.
Old Man:
Well, then, my daughter, go and take a look at his footprints. See if they match yours.
Elektra:
But how is it possible for someone to leave footprints on a rocky ground? In any case, even if that were possible, the feet of two siblings, one male the other female wouldn’t match. The male feet are always bigger.
Old Man:
54o You have weaved him his clothes before I snatched him away from the slaughter. Will you be able to recognise any of them?
Elektra:
Can you not remember that when you took Orestes I was still a young girl? And even if I did weave his garments, how could he possibly be wearing the same baby clothes? Unless, of course, clothes and bodies grow together! It must have been some stranger who felt sorry for him and gave an offering of his hair, or some local who took with him some guards to help him.
Old Man:
55o Where are the strangers? I want to see them and ask them questions about your brother.
Enter Orestes and Pylades from the house.
Elektra:
Here they are. Just came out of the house.
Old Man:
They seem to be from a good family but I could be wrong. Many men have a bad character even though their parents are nobles. In any case, I greet you friends.
Orestes:
And we greet you, too, old man. Elektra, which one of your friends belongs to this old remnant of a man?
Elektra:
Friend, he is the man who reared my father.
Orestes:
Is this right? Is he also the man who saved your brother from certain death?
Elektra:
Yes, he is the one who saved Orestes and that’s why he is still alive.
Orestes:
I see. But why is he staring at me like this, as if he is checking out the bright symbol on a silver coin. Or does he take me for someone I look like?
Elektra:
56o Perhaps he’s rejoicing the fact that you have Orestes’ years.
The old man is walking around Orestes with extreme curiosity.
Orestes:
He is confusing me with someone he loves. Why is he walking around me?
Elektra:
I, too, wonder at this as I see it, friend.
Old Man:
Lady, my darling Elektra, pray to the gods.