wailings, to send thee thither, where think not thou shalt ever behold the light of the sun; but living in a confined vault, without this country, shalt thou chaunt thy woes. Wherefore bethink thee, and never hereafter in thy misery blame me. be wise in good time. For now it is thine to EL. What then, and have they resolved thus to treat me? CHR. Most surely; when in fact Œgisthus shall come home. EL. Nay then, may he quickly arrive for this at least. CHR. What words are these thou cursest thyself withal, unhappy? EL. That he may come, if he purposes to do aught of this. CHR. That thou mayest feel what suffering? Where can thy senses be? EL. That I may escape as far as possible from you. CHR. But hast thou no regard to thy present life? EL. Aye, a fine life is mine, worth admiring. CHR. Nay, it might be, an thou knewest how to be wise. tigone: the coincidence of the two plays is here made still more striking by the punishment with which Electra is threatened. "If mournful cries and wailings before death Availed, there is not one, be well assured, That e'er would cease them. Instant take her hence, As I commanded; leave her there alone, POTTER, ANT. p. 168. EL. Teach me not to be a traitress to my friends. CHR. I teach thee not so, but to give way to those in power. EL. Be this flattery thine, thou speakest not my wont. CHR. Yet surely it is honourable at least not to have fallen from imprudence. EL. I will fall, if needs I must, in avenging my father. CHR. Our father, I am sure, grants indulgence in this. EL. These words it is the coward's part to praise. CHR. But wilt not thou be persuaded and consent to me? EL. No truly. May I not yet be so void of understanding. CHR. Then will I too begone on my way, whither I was sent. EL. But whither art thou wending? to whom carriest thou these funeral gifts? CHR. My mother sends me to make libations at my father's tomb. EL. How sayest thou? to the deadliest of her human enemies? • Thus Ismene to her sister: "I then (of those beneath the earth revered Attempts beyond our strength no prudence shew." POTT. ANT. v. 69. M CHR. Whom Pherself slew. For this wouldst thou say. EL. At the persuasion of whom of her friends? Whose pleasure is this? CHR. From some nocturnal fright, to my thinking. EL. O Gods of my fathers! aid me even now. CHR. Hast thou any cheering hope respecting this terror? EL. Wouldst thou relate to me the vision, I then could tell thee. CHR. I know not, save a little, to tell thee. EL. Nay, tell me that. Many a trifling word, believe me, hath ere now both overthrown and established mortals. CHR. There was a report that she witnessed a second time the presence of my and thy father having returned to life, and then that he, having taken the staff which once he bore, but now Ægisthus, fixed it P Homer's account is different; vid. Od. IV. 529. Αὐτίκα δ' Αἴγισθος δολίην ἐφράσσατο τέχνην Τὸν δ ̓ οὐκ εἴδοθ ̓ ὄλεθρον ἀνήγαγε καὶ κατέπεφνε He further adds that Ægisthus alone escaped, both his own and Agamemnon's followers being slain. Compare the Choephore of Eschylus, from which Sophocles has borrowed the idea of the dream. in the hearth and from it sprouted up a vigorous scion, wherewith the whole land of Mycena was overshadowed. This I heard her relating when she 'reveals her dream to the Sun. But more than this I know not, save that she sends me in consequence of this alarm. Now by our country's Gods I implore thee, yield to me, nor fall by imprudence. For if thou shalt repulse me, hereafter thou wilt send for me in trouble. EL. But, my beloved, of all this, that thou carriest in thine hands, attach nothing to the tomb: for it is not lawful for thee, nor pious, to place funeral gifts, nor carry expiatory libations to my father from that hated woman. But away with them secretly, either to the winds, or to deep-sunk dust, where never any of them shall approach my father's [narrow] bed: but lie they in earth a deposit for herself, when she shall be dead. For had she not been naturally the most hardened of women, she in the first place had never at any time crowned these hateful libations for him, whom at least she slew. For consider, whether the entombed dead in thy opinion receives these honours Under an idea that the God who dispelled the shades of night from the earth, was also capable of averting the evils which had been threatened during that night, the ancients, having been alarmed by dreams, used to tell them to the Sun, and hence, says Franklin, Apollo was termed 'Αποτροπαῖος. "Senserat ut pulsas tandem Medea tenebras, Rapta toris, primi jubar ad placabile Phœbi Ibat." VAL. FLACC. 5. 330. in mood friendly to her: by whom perishing unhonoured, like a foe, he was mangled, and for a purification she wiped off her spots upon his head. What, thinkest thou to bear these as atonements of the murder for her? It cannot be. But leave these alone, and do thou having cut from the 'ringlets on thine head the extreme hairs, and from me unhappy, mean this indeed, but still such as I have, give him this suppliant hair, and my girdle, not garnished with fineries. And falling down beseech him from the earth to come a kindly aid to us against our enemies, and that his son Orestes with mightier hand may alive trample under foot his foes, that henceforth we may crown him with wealthier hands, than wherewith we now gift him. In good sooth I think that he hath some plan in sending these dreams of horrid aspect to her. But however, my sister, perform this service for both thyself and me an aid, and for the most beloved of all mankind, our common sire, lying in Hades. Those among the ancients who had murdered any person, believed that the wiping their swords or any other weapon they had used on the head of the deceased, would prevent his avenging spirit from having power upon them. The cutting off and wearing under their arms a piece of flesh taken from the dead body was also thought a spell of like influence. t “It hath been observed, that the ceremony of cutting off the hair, while it was obviously expressive of violent emotion, had a latent meaning couched under it. As the hair was cut off from the head, never more to be united to it, so were the dead cut off from the living, never more to return. This usage was not confined to the heathen world. It is taken notice of in Scripture: Ezekiel, describing a great lamentation, says, They shall make themselves utterly bald for thee.' c. xxvii. 31." Notes to Trans. Min. Poet. Q. 191. |