AESCHYLUS. "Oh! Hermes of the nether world, whose watchful power executes the paternal bidding."
EURIPIDES. Is not Orestes speaking in this fashion before his father's tomb?
AESCHYLUS. Agreed.
EURIPIDES. Does he mean to say that Hermes had watched, only that Agamemnon should perish at the hands of a woman and be the victim of a criminal intrigue?
AESCHYLUS. 'Tis not to the god of trickery, but to Hermes the benevolent, that he gives the name of god of the nether world, and this he proves by adding that Hermes is accomplishing the mission given him by his father.
EURIPIDES. The blunder is even worse than I had thought to make it out; for if he holds his office in the nether world from his father….
DIONYSUS. It means his father has made him a grave-digger.
AESCHYLUS. Dionysus, your wine is not redolent of perfume.[503]
DIONYSUS. Continue, Aeschylus, and you, Euripides, spy out the faults as he proceeds.
AESCHYLUS. "Be my deliverer, assist me, I pray thee. I come, I return to this land."