Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/281

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ELECTRA.
183

Do thou go in, whene'er occasion serves,
Within this house, and learn what passes there,40
That, knowing all, thou may'st report it well;
Changed as thou art by age and lapse of years,
They will not know thee, nor, with those grey hairs,
Even suspect thee. And with this pretence
Go in, that thou a Phokian stranger art,
Come from a man named Phanoteus; for he
Of all their friends is counted most in fame,
And tell them—yea, and add a solemn oath—
That some fell fate has brought Orestes' death,
In Pythian games,[1] from out the whirling car
Rolled headlong to the earth. This tale tell thou;50
And we, first honouring my father's grave,
As the God bade us, with libations pure
And tresses from our brow, will then come back,
Bearing the urn well wrought with sides of bronze,
Which, thou know'st well, 'mid yonder shrubs lies hid,
That we with crafty words may bring to them
The pleasant news that my poor frame is gone,
Consumed with fire, to dust and ashes turned.
Why should this grieve me, when, by show of death,
In truth I safety gain, and win renown?60
To me no speech that profits soundeth ill,
For often have I seen men known as wise,
Reported dead in words of idle tales,[2]
And then, when fortune brings them home again,
Gain more abundant honours. So I boast

  1. The mention of the Pythian games must be noted as an anachronism. The date assigned for their institution is B.C. 586.
  2. Orestes may be supposed to refer to Odysseus, who appeared and triumphed after the report of his death. There may possibly be a reference, intelligible to those who heard the play, to the story of Pythagoras, who, after an apparent death, returned to life, and preached the doctrine of the metempsychosis.