guiding him back, after his long exile, to the familiar scenes of Argolis. Orestes has returned to Mycenæ (as he tells his friends and the audience) on a holy mission of vengeance, consecrated by Apollo himself; but in order to gain his ends he must use a pious fraud. His old attendant must enter the palace, and represent himself as a Phocian stranger, sent by an old friend of the family:—
"And tell them—yea, and add a solemn oath—
That some fell fate has brought Orestes' death
In Pythian games, from out the whirling car
Polled headlong to the earth. This tale tell thou;
And we, first honouring my father's grave,
As the God bade us, with libations pure
And tresses from our brow, will then come back,
Bearing the urn well wrought with sides of bronze,
Which, thou know'st well, 'mid yonder shrubs lies hid,
That we with crafty words may bring to them
The pleasant news that my poor frame is gone,
Consumed with fire, to dust and ashes turned.
*******
So I, from out this rumour of my death,
Shall, like a meteor, blaze upon my foes."—(P.)
Then the three retire, for the purpose of pouring a libation at Agamemnon's grave. Pylades, it should be observed, owing to the strict rule of the Athenian drama limiting the speakers on the stage to three, never takes part in the dialogue throughout the play.
Even before they left the stage, they had heard the wailing of women from the palace; and now there issues from the gates Electra, the sister of Orestes,
