Chorus Leader
He did terrible things, and repaid them to you and Orestes; for Justice has great strength.
Electra
Well then; you must carry the body of this man inside
[960]
and hide it, slaves, so that when my mother comes, she may not see his corpse before her slaughter.
Pylades and the attendants take the body into the hut.
Orestes
Wait! Let us go into another matter.
Electra
What? Those are not rescuers from Mycenae whom I see?
Orestes
No, but the mother who bore me.
Electra
[965]
Then finely she walks to the middle of the net. —And here she comes, splendid in her chariot and dress.
Orestes
What are we going to do? Shall we kill our mother?
Electra
Surely pity did not seize you, when you saw your mother?
Orestes
Ah! How can I kill her when she bore me and brought me up?
Electra
[970]
As she killed your father and mine.
Orestes
O Phoebus, you prophesied a great folly—
Electra
Where Apollo is a fool, who are the wise?
Orestes
You who declared I was to kill my mother, whom it is clearly wrong to kill.
Electra
How can you be hurt by avenging your father?
Orestes
[975]
I shall stand trial as a matricide, though I was pure before.
Electra
And by not defending your father, you will be impious.
Orestes
I, my mother—? To whom will I pay the penalty for her murder?
Electra
And to whom, if you give up our father's vengeance?
Orestes
Was it a fiend who spoke in the likeness of the god?
Electra
[980]
Seated on the holy tripod? I do not think so.
Orestes
I cannot believe that this oracle was well prophesied.
Electra
Do not become a coward and fall into unmanliness!
Orestes
Am I to devise the same crafty scheme for her?
Electra
The same death that you gave to her husband, Aegisthus.
Orestes
[985]
I will go in; it is a dreadful task I am beginning and I will do dreadful things. If the gods approve, let it be; to me the contest is bitter and also sweet.