Page:Sophocles (Storr 1919) v2.djvu/249



’Tis he; let that suffice thee; ask no more.

O happy day! O sole deliverer

Of Agamemnon’s house, how cam’st thou hither?

Art thou indeed our saviour who redeemed

From endless woes my brother and myself?

O hands beloved, O messenger whose feet

Were bringers of glad tidings, how so long

Couldst thou be with me and remain unknown,

Stay me with feignèd fables and conceal

The truth that gave me life? Hail, father, hail!

For ’tis a father whom I seem to see.

Verily no man in the self-same day

Was hated so and so much loved as thou.

Enough methinks; the tale ’twixt then and now—

Many revolving nights and days as many

Shall serve, Electra, to unfold it all.

(To and )

Why stand ye here! ’tis time for you to act,

Now Clytemnestra is alone; no man

Is now within; but, if ye stay your hand,

Not only with her house-carls will ye fight

But with a troop more numerous and more skilled.

Our business, Pylades, would seem to crave

No longer parley; let us instantly

Enter, but ere we enter first adore

The gods who keep the threshold of the house.

[ and enter the palace.

O King Apollo! lend a gracious ear 237