ORESTES: What should we do? Should we kill our mother?

[ὈΡΈΣΤΗΣ: τί δῆτα δρῶμεν; μητέρ᾿ ἦ φονεύσομεν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 966ff (c. 420 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
    (Source)

The answer from Electra, of course, is yes -- Clytemnestra is to be killed for her role in the murder of her late husband (and Electra and Oresthes' father), Agamemnon. They have already killed the other responsible party, her next husband, Aegisthus.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

What now remains
For us to do, shall we with ruthless steel
Pierce the maternal breast?
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

What are we going to do? Shall we kill our mother?
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

What then shall we do? shall we murder our mother?
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

What shall we do? -- our mother shall we slay?
[tr. Way (1896)]

What would we with our mother? Didst thou say
Kill her?
[tr. Murray (1905)]

What must we do to our mother? Slay her?
[tr. Coleridge (1938 ed.)]

What shall we do then? Slaughter our mother?
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

What are we going to do?
Kill our mother?
[tr. Johnston (2009)]

What shall we do? Can we really kill our mother?
[tr. Wilson (2016)]


 
Added on 11-Feb-25 | Last updated 11-Mar-25
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