The Greek Tragic Theatre - v. 3 Author:Robert Potter Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ORESTES. ELECTRA. The Palace Doors thrown open, discover Orestes sleeping on a Couch. 1 Hebe's not an evil in the power of words T' express, no dire cal... more »amity, no scourge Inflicted by the Gods, whose weight the race Of man endures not. For e'en he who sprung, Tis said, from Jove, e'en Tantalus the blest, (Nor do 1 speak in too presumptuous terms Of his past fortunes, when I style them blest) Scar'd by the rock impending o'er his head, Floats in the midway air, and suffers thus, As fame relates, because, when with the Gods Admitted, tho' a mortal, to partake The social board, by an unbridled tongue He did offend most foully: he begot Pelops, the Sire of Atreus, whom the Fates, As in their loom they wove his vital thread, Ordain'd with discord and fraternal hate To vex Thyestes. Why should I recount .. .. Such execrable deeds ? When he had slain Thyestes' children, Atreus at the banquet Plac'd them before their Father. But to Atreus And Cretan Erope, for I suppress The intermediate fortunes of our house, Was Agamemnon the illustrious born, (If to the chief whoso ignobly died, The title of. illustrious can belong) Both how thou far'st, and how thy brother fares That wretch Orestes who his Mother slew? To thee, without pollution, by transferring That crime from you to Phoebus, can I speak. Yet I bewail the fate of Clytemnestra My Sister, whom, since I to Ilion sail'd (For sail I did, by Heaven's decrees inspir'd With frenzy), never have these eyes beheld, But reft of her that sad event I mourn. ELECTRA. What need of Words, when you a present witness, 0 Helen, Agamemnon's race behold, Plung'd in calamity? Sleep's balmy joys 1 taste not, seated by my Brother's corse, He hardly breathes, nor when I term him dead, Do I his woes exaggerate. You meantime, Tho' ...« less