ELECTRA.
SCENE—Mykenæ. On one side the entrance of the Palace; on the other, in the background, the funeral mound of Agamemnon; Agora and Temples in the centre, Argos in the distance.
Enter Orestes, Pylades and Attendant.
Attend. Now, son of Agamemnon, who of old
Led our great hosts at Troy, 'tis thine to see
What long thou hast desired. For lo! there lies
The ancient Argos, which, with yearning wish,
Thou oft did'st turn to; here the sacred grove
Of her who wandered, spurred by ceaseless sting,
Daughter of Inachos:[1] and this, Orestes,
Is the wide agora, Lykeian named
In honour of the God who slew the wolves;[2]
Here on the left, the shrine of Hera famed;[3]
And where we stand, Mykenæ, rich in gold,
- ↑ Io, daughter of Inachos, beloved by Zeus, and driven over land and sea by Hera, was one of the special deities of Argos, and the country was sometimes distinguished from other districts bearing the same name by the epithet Inacheian.
- ↑ Of the many conjectures as to the meaning Lykeian, Sophocles adopts that which connected it with the idea of Apollo, as clearing the country from the wolves that troubled it.
- ↑ The temple of Hera lay between Argos and Mykenæ, about a mile and a half from the former city.
