This page has been validated.
106
EURIPIDES.
(Chorus raise refrain.)
With jarring strain have ye broken in!
Ah hush! ah hush! refrain ye the din
Of chanting lips, and vouchsafe the grace[1]
Of the peace of sleep to his resting-place.
Chorus.
(Ant. 2)
Tell, what end waiteth his misery?
Electra.
Even to die,—what else should be?
For he knoweth not even craving for food.
Chorus.
Ah, then is his doom plain—all too plain!190
Electra.
Phœbus for victims hath sealed us twain,
Who decreed that we spill a mother's blood
For a father's—a deed without a name!
Chorus.
'Twas a deed of justice—
Electra.
A deed of shame!
Thou slewest,[2] and art dead,
Mother that bare me—thrustedst to the tomb
Our father and these children of thy womb.
