(The doors open. Torches light PYLADES and ORESTES, sword in hand, standing over the bodies of CLYTAEMNESTRA and AEGISTHUS, as CLYTAEMNESTRA stood over the bodies of AGAMEMNON and CASSANDRA)
Orestes:
Behold the double tyranny of our land!
They k**ed my father, stormed my fathers' house. 965
They had their power when they held the throne.
Great lovers still, as you may read their fate.
True to their oath, hand in hand they swore
to k** my father, hand in hand to die,
Now they keep their word.
(Unwinding from the bodies on the
bier the robes that entangled
AGAMEMNON, he displays them, as
CLYTAEMNESTRA had displayed
them, to the chorus at the altar.)
Look once more on this, 970
you who gather here to attend our crimes -
the master-plot that bound my wretched father,
shackled his ankles, manacled his hands.
Spread it out! Stand in a ring around it,
a grand shroud for a man.
Here, unfurl it 975
so the Father – no, not mine but the One
who watches over all, the Sun can behold
my mother's godless work. So he may come,
my witness when the day of judgment comes,
that I pursued this bloody d**h with justice, 980
mother's d**h.
Aegisthus, why mention him?
The adulterer dies. An old custom, justice.
But she who plotted this horror against her husband,
she carried his children, growing in her womb
and she – I loved her once 985
and now I loathe, I have to loathe -
what is she?
(kneeling by the body of his mother)
Some moray eel, some viper born to rot her mate
with a single touch, no fang to strike him,
just the wrong, the reckless fury in her heart!
(Glancing back and forth from
CLYTAEMNESTRA to the robes)
This – how can I dignify this…snare for a beast? - 990
sheath for a corpse's feet?
This winding-sheet,
this tent for the bath of d**h !
No, a hunting net,
a coiling – what to call - ?
Foot-trap -
woven of robes…
why, this is perfect gear for the highwayman 995
who entices guests and robs them blind and plies
the trade of thieves. With a sweet lure like this
he'd hoist a hundred lives and warm his heart.
Live with such a woman, marry her? Sooner
the gods destroy me – die without an heir ! 1000