Euripides, Orestes 288-293 (see the full text in the Scaife Viewer)
“I think that my father, if I had gazed in is eyes
And asked him if I should kill my mother,
Would have touched my chin over and over
Not to plunge my sword into my mother’s neck,
Because he was not about return to life
And I would be miserable suffering tortures like these.”
οἶμαι δὲ πατέρα τὸν ἐμόν, εἰ κατ᾿ ὄμματα
ἐξιστόρουν νιν μητέρ᾿ εἰ κτεῖναί με χρή,
πολλὰς γενείου τοῦδ᾿ ἂν ἐκτεῖναι λιτὰς
μήποτε τεκούσης ἐς σφαγὰς ὦσαι ξίφος,
εἰ μήτ᾿ ἐκεῖνος ἀναλαβεῖν ἔμελλε φῶς
ἐγώ θ᾿ ὁ τλήμων τοιάδ᾿ ἐκπλήσειν κακά.
585-587
“You’re the one who ruined me, old man
By fathering an evil daughter! Her audacity
Stole my father from me and made me a mother-killer.”
σύ τοι φυτεύσας θυγατέρ᾿, ὦ γέρον, κακὴν
ἀπώλεσάς με· διὰ τὸ κείνης γὰρ θράσος
5πατρὸς στερηθεὶς ἐγενόμην μητροκτόνος.
802-3
“I will carry you and suffer no shame. Where would I show I am your friend
If I do not come to your side when you’re in the worst troubles?”
οὐδὲν αἰσχυνθεὶς ὀχήσω. ποῦ γὰρ ὢν δείξω φίλος,
εἴ τι μὴ ᾿ν δειναῖσιν ὄντι συμφοραῖς ἐπαρκέσω;
1590
“I will never tire of killing wicked women”
οὐκ ἂν κάμοιμι τὰς κακὰς κτείνων ἀεί.
