For if thou fail me, or of tireless watch
Fall sick, I am lost, in thee alone have I305
Mine help, of others, as thou seest, forlorn.
Electra.
Never! With thee will I make choice of death
Or life: it is all one; for, if thou die,
What shall a woman do? how 'scape alone,
Without friend, father, brother? Yet, if thou310
Wilt have it so, I must. But lay thee down,
And heed not terrors overmuch, that scare
Thee from thy couch, but on thy bed abide.
For though thou be not, save in fancy, sick,
This is affliction, this despair, to men.[Exit.
Chorus.
Terrible Ones of the on-rushing feet,
Of the pinions far-sailing,
Through whose dance-revel, held where no Bacchanals meet,
Ringeth weeping and wailing,
Swart-hued Eumenides, wide 'neath the dome320
Of the firmament soaring,
Avenging, avenging blood-guilt,—lo, I come,
Imploring, imploring!—
To the son of Atreides vouchsafe to forget
His frenzy of raving.
Ah for the task to the woe-stricken set!
Ah ruinous craving
To accomplish the hest of the Tripod, the word
That of Phœbus was uttered
At the navel of earth as thou stoodest, when stirred330
The dim crypt as it muttered!
