Iphigenia in Tauris
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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We got the better of them with difficulty; not by daring, but by surrounding them in a circle, with stones we took away their swords; they sank on their knees to the ground, in weariness. Then we brought them to the lord of this land. He saw them, and at once
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sent them to you, for purification and slaughter. You have prayed for such sacrificial victims as these strangers, lady; if you destroy them, Hellas will make atonement for your murder and pay the penalty for the sacrifice in Aulis.
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Chorus Leader
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You have told an amazing story about this madman, whoever he is, who has come from Hellas to the Black Sea.
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Iphigenia
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Very well. You go and bring the strangers here; the holy rites will be my concern. Exit Herdsman.
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O my unhappy heart, you were gentle to strangers before,
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and always full of pity, measuring out tears for the sake of our common race, whenever Hellenes came into your hands. But now, after those dreams that have made me savage, thinking that Orestes is no longer alive,
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whoever comes here will find me harsh to them. This is true after all, my friends, I have realized: the unfortunate, when themselves doing badly, do not have kind thoughts towards those who are more unfortunate.
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But no breeze from Zeus ever came,
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or a boat, bringing Helen here, through the rocks of the Symplegedes—Helen who destroyed me, with Menelaus, so that I might avenge myself on them, setting an Aulis here against that one there, where the Danaids overpowered me and were going to sacrifice me like a calf,
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and my own father was the priest.
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Ah me!—I cannot forget those past evils—how often did I stroke my father’s cheek and, hanging on his knees, told him: O father, I am brought
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to a shameful betrothal by you; but while you are killing me, my mother and the Argive women are singing wedding hymns, and the whole house is filled with the music of flutes; but I am being destroyed by you. For Achilles was Hades after all, not the son of Peleus,
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whom you held out to me as a husband, and you brought me in a chariot to a bloody wedding by treachery. But I was modestly looking out through a fine veil, and did not take up my brother in my arms—and now he is dead—did not kiss my sister,
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because I was going to the house of Peleus; I put off many embraces to another time, thinking that I would come back again to Argos.
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My unhappy Orestes, if you are dead, what glories have you left, what achievements of a father!
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I blame the goddess’ subtleties; whichever mortal has engaged in murder, or has touched a woman in childbirth or a corpse, she drives from her altars, thinking him impure; but she herself delights in human sacrifices.
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It is not possible that Leto, the wife of Zeus, gave birth to such folly. I judge that the feast prepared by Tantalus for the gods is not to be believed, that they fed on the flesh of his son; and I think that the people here, who are themselves killers of men,
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ascribe to the goddess their sorry behavior. For I believe that no god is evil.
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Chorus
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Dark straits of the sea, dark, where the gadfly flying from Argos
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crossed over the inhospitable wave . . . taking the Asian land in exchange for Europe. Whoever are the ones who left the lovely waters
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of Eurotas, green with reeds, or the holy streams of Dirce, to come here, to come to the unsociable land, where, for the divine maiden, the blood of mortals stains
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the altars and columned temples?
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Chorus
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Did they sail the pine-wood oars with double beat of surge, over the waves of the sea,
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a chariot of a ship in breezes that move the linen sails, to increase the contest of wealth for their halls? For hope is sweet, and
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insatiable in mortals, to their hurt, for those who bear away the weight of wealth, wandering over the wave and crossing to barbarian cities, with one expectation. But thought of wealth comes at the wrong time for some,
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while for others it comes moderately.
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Chorus Leader
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But here come the two youths, with tightly bound hands, the new sacrifice for the goddess; silence, my friends. These first-fruits of Hellas are indeed
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approaching the temple; the herdman did not deliver a false message.
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Lady Artemis, if this city carries out the rites in a way pleasing to you, accept the victims,
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which the custom among us declares to be unholy.
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Iphigenia
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Enough; first, it will be my care to perform well the rites of the goddess. Unbind the strangers’ hands, so that, as holy victims, they may no longer be in chains.
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Then go into the temple and make ready what is necessary and customary at the present time.
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(Turning to the prisoners.) Ah! Who was your mother, who gave you birth, and your father? And your sister, if you happen to have one . . . such two youths as she has lost,
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and will be without a brother! Who knows where such fortunes will arrive? For all the gods’ affairs creep on in darkness, and no one knows evil . . . fate leads us on towards what we cannot know.
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Unhappy strangers, where have you come from?
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For you have sailed a long time to reach this land, and you will be away from your home a long time, in the world below.
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Orestes
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Why do you lament these things, and mourn for the evils about to come upon us, lady, whoever you are? I do not think the one who is about to die wise,
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if he wishes to conquer the fear of death by wailing, nor the one who laments when Hades is near and there is no hope of safety; for so he puts together two ills out of one, incurring a charge of folly and dying all the same; we must let fate alone.
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Do not grieve for us; for we are acquainted with the sacrifices here and we know them.
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Iphigenia
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Which of you is called by the name of Pylades? I want to know this first.
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Orestes
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That one, if you have any pleasure in the knowledge.
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Iphigenia
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Of what city of Hellas were you born a citizen?
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Orestes
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What would you gain by learning this, lady?
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Iphigenia
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Are you brothers, from one mother?
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Orestes
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By friendship, yes; we are not brothers by birth, lady.
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Iphigenia
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What name did your father give you?
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Orestes
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I might rightly be called Unfortunate.
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Iphigenia
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I do not ask that; ascribe that to fortune.
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Orestes
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If I die unnamed, I would not be mocked at.
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Iphigenia
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Why do you begrudge this? Are you so proud?
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Orestes
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You will sacrifice my body, not my name.
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Iphigenia
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Can you not say what city you are from?
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Orestes
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You are seeking nothing profitable, since I am going to die.
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Iphigenia
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What hinders you from doing me this favor?
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Orestes
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The famous Argos I claim as my native land.
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Iphigenia
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By the gods, truly, stranger, were you born there?
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Orestes
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Yes, from Mycenae, which was once prosperous.
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Iphigenia
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Have you left your country as an exile, or by what fate?
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Orestes
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My flight is in some manner willed and unwilled.
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Iphigenia
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Could you then tell me something that I wish to know?
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Orestes
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It will be no great addition to my own misfortune.
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Iphigenia
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Indeed, I am so glad that you have come from Argos!
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Orestes
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I am not; but if you are, take pleasure in it.
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Iphigenia
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Perhaps you know Troy, whose fame is everywhere.
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Orestes
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Would that I did not, even seen in a dream!
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Iphigenia
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They say it is no more, lost to the spear.
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Orestes
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It is so; you have heard nothing that has not happened.
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Iphigenia
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Has Helen come back to Menelaus’ home?
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Orestes
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She has; it was an unfortunate arrival for one dear to me.
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Iphigenia
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And where is she? She deserves an ill turn from me also.
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Orestes
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She lives at Sparta with her former bedfellow.
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Iphigenia
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Creature hated by Hellas, not by me alone!
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Orestes
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I have also had some benefit from the marriage of that woman!
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Iphigenia
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Have the Achaeans returned, as reported?
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Orestes
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How you put everything together and ask me all at once!
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Iphigenia
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Before you die, I want to profit by your answers.
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Orestes
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Question me, since you desire this; I will tell you.
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Iphigenia
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Has a certain Calchas, a prophet, come back from Troy?
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Orestes
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He is dead, as the story goes in Mycenae.
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Iphigenia
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O goddess, how good that is! What about Odysseus?
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Orestes
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He has not yet returned, but is alive, they say.
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Iphigenia
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May he die and never achieve a return to his country!
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Orestes
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Do not pray against that man; all is misery for him.
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Iphigenia
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But is the son of Thetis the Nereid still alive?
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Orestes
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He is not; his marriage at Aulis was in vain.
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Iphigenia
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Yes, for it was a cheat, as those who experienced it know.
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Orestes
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Who are you? How well you ask about Hellas!
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Iphigenia
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I am from there; while still a child I was lost.
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Orestes
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Then rightly you desire to know what has happened there, lady.
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Iphigenia
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What about the general, who is said to be happy?
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Orestes
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Who? The one I knew was not happy.
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Iphigenia
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There was said to be a certain lord, Agamemnon, son of Atreus.
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Orestes
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I do not know; leave this subject, lady.
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Iphigenia
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No, by the gods, but tell me, stranger, to delight me.
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Orestes
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The wretched man is dead, and in addition he destroyed another.
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Iphigenia
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Dead? By what fate? I am unhappy!
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Orestes
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Why do you mourn for this? It doesn’t concern you, does it?
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Iphigenia
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I grieve for his former prosperity.
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Orestes
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Yes, for he was dreadfully murdered by a woman.
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Iphigenia
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O miserable the slayer . . . and the slain!