Come in joy,
Brother, and take to bind thy rippling hair
My crowns!
Brother, and take to bind thy rippling hair
My crowns!
Euripides - Electra
Aegisthus dead! My father's murderer dead!
What have I still of wreathing for the head
Stored in my chambers? Let it come forth now
To bind my brother's and my conqueror's brow.
[_Some garlands are brought out from the house to_ ELECTRA.
CHORUS.
Go, gather thy garlands, and lay them
As a crown on his brow, many-tressed,
But our feet shall refrain not nor stay them:
'Tis the joy that the Muses have blest.
For our king is returned as from prison,
The old king, to be master again,
Our beloved in justice re-risen:
With guile he hath slain. . .
But cry, cry in joyance again!
[_There enter from the left_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES, _followed by some
thralls_.
ELECTRA.
O conqueror, come! The king that trampled Troy
Knoweth his son Orestes.
Come in joy,
Brother, and take to bind thy rippling hair
My crowns! . . . . O what are crowns, that runners wear
For some vain race? But thou in battle true
Hast felled our foe Aegisthus, him that slew
By craft thy sire and mine. [_She crowns_ ORESTES.
And thou no less,
O friend at need, O reared in righteousness,
Take, Pylades, this chaplet from my hand.
'Twas half thy battle. And may ye two stand
Thus alway, victory-crowned, before my face! [_She crowns_ PYLADES.
ORESTES.
Electra, first as workers of this grace
Praise thou the Gods, and after, if thou will,
Praise also me, as chosen to fulfil
God's work and Fate's. --Aye, 'tis no more a dream;
In very deed I come from slaying him.
Thou hast the knowledge clear, but lo, I bring
More also.
