Orestes

Acts

• Prologue

  Electra watches over Orestes, sick with guilt after killing Clytemnestra. Argos has condemned them both.

  139 lines
• Parodos

  The chorus arrives quietly — Orestes is sleeping. They whisper, terrified of waking him.

  60 lines
• First Episode

  Helen arrives from Egypt. She asks Electra to pour libations at Clytemnestra's tomb.

  110 lines
• First Stasimon

  The chorus recalls the chain of murders in the house of Atreus.

  32 lines
• Second Episode

  Menelaus arrives. Orestes begs for help. Tyndareus furiously opposes clemency.

  482 lines
• Second Stasimon

  The curse traced back to Tantalus. Generation after generation, the same pattern.

  37 lines
• Third Episode

  Menelaus refuses to help. Pylades proposes they plead before the Argive assembly.

  116 lines
• Third Stasimon

  The chorus fears the worst.

  58 lines
• Fourth Episode

  The assembly condemns Orestes and Electra to death.

  239 lines
• Fourth Stasimon

  The chorus mourns the imminent deaths.

  34 lines
• The Plot

  They devise a desperate plan: seize Helen as a hostage.

  66 lines
• Fifth Stasimon

  The chorus watches in terror as the conspirators enter the palace.

  14 lines
• Helen's Seizure

  A Phrygian slave describes the attack. Helen vanishes — snatched away by Apollo.

  196 lines
• The Standoff

  Orestes holds a sword to Hermione's throat. Pylades holds a torch to the palace. Menelaus arrives with soldiers.

  14 lines
• Exodos

  Apollo appears and resolves everything. Helen is made a goddess. Orestes must stand trial in Athens.

  165 lines