Pity these twain, of thine own body sprung! ELECTRA. O Queen o'er Argive altars, Hera high, ORESTES. Grant us thy strength, if for the right we cry. OLD MAN. Strength to these twain, to right their father's wrong! ELECTRA. O Earth, deep Earth, to whom I yearn in vain, ORESTES. And deeper thou, O father darkly slain, OLD MAN. Thy children call, who love thee: hearken thou! ORESTES. Girt with thine own dead armies, wake, O wake! ELECTRA. With all that died at Ilion for thy sake ... OLD MAN. And hate earth's dark defilers; help us now! ELECTRA. Dost hear us yet, O thou in deadly wrong, Wronged by my mother? OLD MAN. Child, we stay too long. He hears; be sure he hears! ELECTRA. And while he hears, I speak this word for omen in his ears: "Aegisthus dies, Aegisthus dies."... Ah me, My brother, should it strike not him, but thee, This wrestling with dark death, behold, I too Am dead that hour. Think of me as one true, Not one that lives. I have a sword made keen For this, and shall strike deep. I will go in And make all ready. If there come from thee Good tidings, all my house for ecstasy Shall cry; and if we hear that thou art dead, Then comes the other end!--Lo, I have said. ORESTES. I know all, all. ELECTRA. Then be a man to-day! [ORESTES _and the_ OLD MAN _depart_. O Women, let your voices from this fray Flash me a fiery signal, where I sit, The sword across my knees, expecting it. For never, though they kill me, shall they touch My living limbs!--I know my way thus much. [_She goes into the house_. * * * * * CHORUS. When white-haired folk are met [_Strophe_. In Argos about the fold, A story lingereth yet, A voice of the mountains old, That tells of the Lamb of Gold: A lamb from a mother mild, But the gold of it curled and beat; And Pan, who holdeth the keys of the wild, Bore it to Atreus' feet: His wild reed pipes he blew, And the reeds were filled with peace, And a joy of singing before him flew, Over the fiery fleece: And up on the basèd rock, As a herald cries, cried he: "Gather ye, gather, O Argive folk, The King's Sign to see, The sign of the blest of God, For he that hath this, hath all!" Therefore the dance of praise they trod In the Atreïd brethren's hall.