f Aegisthus has
little moral interest; it is merely a daring and dangerous exploit. Less
sympathetic, because even here, in the first and comparatively blameless
step of the blood-vengeance, Euripides makes us feel the treacherous side
of it. A [Greek: dolophonia], a "slaying by guile," even at its best,
remains rather an ugly thing.

P. 53, l. 793, Then quickly spake Orestes.]--If Orestes had washed with
Aegisthus, he would have become his _xenos_, or guest, as much as if he
had eaten his bread and salt. In that case the slaying would have been
definitely a crime, a dishonourable act. Also, Aegisthus would have had
the right to ask his name.--The unsuspiciousness of Aegisthus is partly
natural; it was not thus, alone and unarmed, that he expected Orestes to
stand before him. Partly it seems like a heaven-sent blindness. Even the
omens do not warn him, though no doubt in a moment more they would have
done so.

P. 56, l. 878, With guile he hath slain.]--So the MSS. The Chorus have
already a faint feeling, quickly suppressed, that there may be another
side to Orestes' action. Most editors alter the text to mean "He hath
slain these guileful ones."

P. 58, l. 900, It shames me, yet God knows I hunger sore.]--To treat the
dead with respect was one of the special marks of a Greek as opposed to a
barbarian. It is possible that the body of Aegisthus might legitimately
have been refused burial, or even nailed on a cross as Orestes in a moment
of excitement suggests. But to insult him lying dead would be a shock to
all Greek feeling. ("Unholy is the voice of loud thanksgiving over
slaughtered men," _Odyssey_ xxii. 412.) Any excess of this kind, any
violence towards the helpless, was apt to rouse "The sleeping wrath of the
world." There was a Greek proverb, "Even an injured dog has his Erinys"--
_i.e._, his unseen guardian or avenger. It is interesting, though not
surprising, to hear that men had little love for Electra. The wonderful
speech that follows, though to a conventional Greek perhaps the most
outrageous thing of which she is guilty, shows best the inherent nobility
of her character before years of misery had "killed her soul within."

P. 59, ll. 928 f., Being in falseness one, &c]--The Greek here is very
obscure and almost certainly corrupt.

P. 61, l. 964, 'Tis my mother comes.]--The reaction has already begun in
Orestes. In the excitement and danger of killing his enemy he has shown
coolness and courage, but now