But the strange visions which the night now past Brought with it,to the air,if that may soothe My troubled thought,I will relate.I seem'd,As I lay sleeping,from this land removed,To dwell at Argos,resting on my couch Mid the apartments of the virgin train.
Sudden the firm earth shook:I fled,and stood Without;the battlements I saw,and all The rocking roof fall from its lofty height In ruins to the ground:of all the house,My father's house,one pillar,as I thought,Alone was left,which from its cornice waved A length of auburn locks,and human voice Assumed:the bloody office,which is mine To strangers here,respecting,I to death,Sprinkling the lustral drops,devoted it With many tears.My dream I thus expound:-Orestes,whom I hallow'd by my rites,Is dead:for sons are pillars of the house;They,whom my lustral lavers sprinkle,die.
I cannot to my friends apply my dream,For Strophius,when I perish'd,had no son.
Now,to my brother,absent though he be,Libations will I offer:this,at least,With the attendants given me by the king,Virgins of Greece,I can:but what the cause They yet attend me not within the house,The temple of the goddess,where I dwell?
(She goes into the temple.ORESTES and PYLADES enter cautiously.)
ORESTES
Keep careful watch,lest some one come this way.