Aeschylus - The Libation Bearers (Lines 879-910) lyrics

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Aeschylus - The Libation Bearers (Lines 879-910) lyrics

(The main doors open; Orestes, sword in hand, is standing over the body of AEGISTHUS, with PYLADES close behind him.) Orestes: It's you I want. This one's had enough. Clytaemnestra: Gone, my violent one - Aegisthus, very dear. Orestes: You love your man? Then lie in the same grave. You can never be unfaithful to the dead. (Pulling her towards Aegisthus' body.) Clytaemnestra: Wait, my son - no respect for this, my child? The breast you held, drowsing away the hours, soft gums tugging the milk that made you grow? (ORESTES turns to PYLADES.) Orestes: What will I do, Pylades? - I dread to k** my mother! Pylades: What of the future? What of the Prophet God Apollo, the Delphic voice, the faith and oaths we swear? Make all mankind your enemy, not the gods. Orestes: O you win me over - good advice. (Wheeling on Clytaemnestra, thrusting her towards Aegisthus.) This way- I want to butcher you - right across his body! In life you thought he dwarfed my father - Die! - go down with him forever! You love this man, the man you should have loved you hated. Clytaemnestra: I gave you life. Let me grow old with you. Orestes: What - k** my father, then you'd live with me? Clytaemnestra: Destiny had a hand in that, my child. Orestes: This too: destiny is handing you your d**h. Clytaemnestra: You have no fear of a mother's curse, my son? Orestes: Mother? You flung me to a life of pain. Clytaemnestra: Never flung you, placed you in a comrade's house. Orestes: -Disgraced me, sold me, a freeborn father's son. Clytaemnestra: Oh? then name the price I took for you. Orestes: I am ashamed to mention it in public. Clytaemnestra: Please, and tell your father's failings, too. Orestes: Never judge him - he suffered, you sat here at home. Clytaemnestra: It hurts women, being kept from men, my son. Orestes: Perhaps... but the man slaves to keep them safe at home. Clytaemnestra: -I see murder in your eyes, my child - mother's murder! Orestes: You are the murderer, not I - and you will k** yourself.