First Stasimon of Orestes

Canticum Euripidis. Musici Scriptores Graeci. Jan, Karl von, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.

Open Greek and Latin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.

This work is a choral song (stasimon) from a Greek tragedy, depicting the intense suffering of Orestes, who has been driven to madness by the Furies for the crime of matricide. The chorus vividly compares the sudden madness and torment assaulting him to a swift ship caught in a violent storm at sea. Deeply pitying the tragic fate that has befallen the once-glorious house of Tantalus, they lament the vulnerability of mortals in the face of divine retribution. This brief yet powerful choral ode leaves a haunting impression of the inescapable weight of guilt and the misery of human existence.