"If that Ægisthos knoweth, being at home, 560
Why 'gainst the suppliant doth he shut the door?"
Then if the threshold of the gates I cross,
And him discover on my father's seat,—
Or should he meet me face to face, and set
His eyes on me, ere he can speak the word,
"Whence is this stranger?"—I will lay him dead,
Spitting his body round my nimble steel.
The Fury thus, of gore insatiate,
Shall blood untempered quaff, third, crowning draught.
[To Electra.
Go thou,—keep watchful guard within the house, 570
That all, well ordered, fitly may combine.
[To the Chorus.
To you a tongue of wisdom I commend,
To speak in season, or from speech refrain.—
[To Pylades.
And for the rest let this man look to it,
When in the strife of swords this arm hath won.
[Exeunt Orestes and Pylades. Electra enters the palace.]
Chorus. Strophe I.
Full many a horror drear
And ghastly, Earth doth rear;—
With direful monsters teems encircling Ocean;
Meteors, with threatening sheen, 580
Hang heaven and earth between;—
The tempest's wrath still raves with wild commotion;
These, and dire wingèd things, and things that crawl,
Thou mayst describe them all.
