ORES. _Father, no word of mine, no deed may bring Light to the darkness where thou liest below:_ _Yet shall the dirge lament thy matchless woe, And grace the tomb of Argos’ noblest king...._ ELEC. _Hear me, too, father, mourning in my turn; Both thine afflicted ones towards thee yearn. Both outcasts, both sad suppliants at thy tomb. What dawn may pierce this overwhelming gloom?..._ ORES. _Where is your power to save, Lords of the grave? Oh curse, of endless might, From lips long lost to light, We, last of Atreus’ race Implore thy dreadful grace, Reft of our halls, and outlawed from our right, Zeus, whither should we turn?_[16] At this point is felt most strongly the undercurrent of doubt and horror. It brims and rushes, overwhelming for a time the confident sense of justice and trust in the oracle of the god. And here the Chorus, expressing, as its function is, the brooding meditation of an onlooker, echoes their inmost thought in sympathetic strains: CHOR. _Again ye make my changeful heart to yearn, Listening your plaintive cry. One while I feel My soul with dark misgivings shake and reel, But by and by the clouds are rolled away And courage heightens with new hopes of day._ ELEC. _Oh mother! Oh enemy! Oh hard soul! Like a foe, unhonoured by funeral bowl, Though a prince, unfollowed by mean or high, Thou didst bury thy husband without one sigh._ ORES. _Ah! ah! every word there hath stung. But shall she not pay For each shame she then flung On my sire?_ [Illustration: ELECTRA _Gertrude Demain Hammond R.I._ ] ELEC. _Thou hearest our father’s death; but I was driven To grieve apart beneath the dews of heaven; Chased from the chambers like a thievish hound, To pour my grief in tears upon the ground, They came more readily than smiles.... Write this in thy soul ..._ ORES. _Father, assist thy children in their deed!_ ELEC. _Thy daughter’s tears implore thee in deep need!..._ ORES. _The cause is set. The battle doth begin!_ ELEC. _Oh gods, be just; and make the righteous win!_[16] The resolution is taken at last. It remains now only to ask their father’s blessing, before putting it into effect. Orestes begs for power to rule well in Agamemnon’s stead, and promises rich sacrifices to his shade. ELEC. _And I will bring Choice offerings from all my patrimony In day of marriage, and will honour first My father’s tomb from the paternal hall...._