Symphonic Metal Orestes
by Elise De Biasio ‘23
This piece is an excerpt of an excerpt demonstrating the extent of Orestes’ madness. Orestes has murdered his mother (Klytaimnestra) after killing his father (Aigisthos), here suffering the effects of the Erinyes as the sight of them drives one mad if they are guilty of bloodshed. They punish Orestes for his parricide as the chorus weeps, pitying Orestes for his predetermined fate as he, being mortal, is doomed to suffer without the agency to change his future.
This musical fragment comes from a papyrus holding the Chorus of Euripides’ Orestes, lines 339-345 (link). It uses bass vocals, double bass, angel harp, droplets, drip-drop, timpani, glass harmonica, and electric guitar to create a dramatic cinematic soundtrack of the point in which the audience realizes that this truly is the end for Orestes: there will be no escape from fate.
κατολοφύροµαι; κατολοφύροµαι [katolophýromai. katolophýromai]
I weep; I weep
ματέρος αἷμα σᾶς, ὅ σ᾽ ἀναβακχεύει; [matéros haîma sâs, hó s’anabakcheúei]
your mother’s blood, it drives you mad;
ὁ μέγας ὄλβος οὐ [ho mégas ólbos ou]
there is no great happiness
In order to provide you with the full context of the scene, I have retranslated the text of the papyrus: I weep, I weep, for it the sight of your mother’s blood has driven you into a frenzy. True happiness is fleeting among mortals: their fates are treated like the sail of a swift ship that the gods roughly shook back and forth before plunging it into the deep abyss below the deadly waves of the greedy sea.