Iphigenia in Tauris
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Orestes
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Stop now, and do not ask further.
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Iphigenia
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Only this much, if the wife of the wretched man is alive.
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Orestes
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She is not; she was killed by the son that she bore.
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Iphigenia
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O house thrown into confusion! What was his intent?
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Orestes
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To avenge on her the death of his father.
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Iphigenia
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Ah! How well he exacted an evil justice!
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Orestes
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Though he is just, he does not have good fortune from the gods.
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Iphigenia
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Did Agamemnon leave any other children in his house?
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Orestes
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He left one virgin daughter, Electra.
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Iphigenia
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What else? Is there any report of the daughter who was sacrificed?
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Orestes
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None, except that she is dead and does not see the light.
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Iphigenia
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Unhappy girl, and also the father that killed her!
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Orestes
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As a thankless favor to an evil woman, she died.
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Iphigenia
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Does the dead father’s son live at Argos?
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Orestes
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He lives, the miserable one, both nowhere and everywhere.
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Iphigenia
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False dreams, farewell; after all, you were nothing.
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Orestes
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And those who are called wise divinities are not less false than winged dreams. These is much confusion, both in divine affairs and in human; but only this is a grief to the one who was not foolish, but trusted in the words of prophets
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and died—as he died to those that know.
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Chorus Leader
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Ah! What about me, and my parents? Are they alive? Are they not? Who can say?
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Iphigenia
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Listen to me; I have come to a subject which means benefit both to you, strangers,
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and to me, by your efforts. A good action is especially so, if the same matter is pleasing to all. Would you, if I should save you, go to Argos and take a report of me to my friends there, and bring a tablet,
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which a captive wrote for me in pity? He did not think my hand murderous, but that the victims of the goddess, who holds these things just, die under the law. For I have had no one to go back to Argos with that message, who,
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being saved, would send my letter to one of my friends. But you—if, as it seems, you are not hostile to me, and you know Mycenae and those whom I want you to know—be rescued, and have this reward, not a shameful one, safety for the sake of this small letter.
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But let him, since the city exacts it, be the offering to the goddess, separated from you.
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Orestes
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Stranger, you have spoken all well but this: to sacrifice him would be a heavy grief to me. I am the pilot of these misfortunes,
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he sailed with me for the sake of my troubles. For it is not right for me to do you a favor and get out of danger, on condition of his death. But let it happen this way: give him the letter and he will take it to to Argos, for your well-being;
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let anyone who wishes kill me. It is most shameful for anyone to save himself by hurling his friends’ affairs into catastrophe. That man is my friend, and I wish him to live, no less than myself.
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Iphigenia
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O brave spirit! How you were born from some noble
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stock, and are rightly a friend to your friends! May that one of my relatives who is left be such as you! For I am not without a brother, strangers, except in so far as I do not see him.
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Since you wish it, I will send this man
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with the tablet, and you will die; a great eagerness for this seems to possess you.
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Orestes
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Who will sacrifice me and dare such a dreadful deed ?
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Iphigenia
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I will; for I hold the office of this goddess.
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Orestes
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It is not envied, lady, and not blessed.
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Iphigenia
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But I am dedicated to necessity, which must be kept.
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Orestes
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Do you yourself, a woman, sacrifice men with the sword?
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Iphigenia
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No; but I sprinkle the holy water around your hair.
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Orestes
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Who is the slayer? If I may ask this.
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Iphigenia
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That charge belongs to those within this temple.
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Orestes
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What sort of tomb will receive me, when I die?
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Iphigenia
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The sacred fire within and the wide hollow of a cave.
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Orestes
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Ah! Would that my sister’s hand might lay out my body!
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Iphigenia
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You have prayed in vain, unhappy youth, whoever you are; for she lives far from a barbarian land.
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Yet indeed, since you happen to be an Argive, I too will not leave out any favor that I can do. I will set much ornament on the tomb and quench your body with yellow oil, and throw onto your funeral pyre the gleaming honey, that streams from flowers,
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of the tawny mountain bee.
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But I will go and bring the tablet from the temple of the goddess; take care not to bear me ill-will.
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Guard them, attendants, without chains. Perhaps I will send unexpected news to one of my friends,
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whom I especially love, in Argos; and the tablet, in telling him that those whom he thought dead are alive, will report a joy that can be believed. Exit Iphigenia.
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Chorus
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(to Orestes.) I raise a lament for you; the drops from the holy water,
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mingled with blood, will soon take you into their care.
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Orestes
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This is not a case for pity, but farewell, strangers.
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Chorus
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(to Pylades.) We honor you, young man, for your happy fate, because you will tread on your native land some day.
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Pylades
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An unenviable fate indeed for a friend, when his friend is to die.
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Chorus
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O cruel mission!
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Ah, ah! You are destroyed! Alas, alas! Which is better?
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For still my mind disputes a double argument, shall I mourn for you or rather for you.
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Orestes
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By the gods, Pylades, do you feel the same thing I do?
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Pylades
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I do not know; I have no reply to your question.
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Orestes
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Who is the girl? How like a Hellene she questioned me about the labors in Ilium and the return of the Achaeans, and Calchas, wise in omens, and Achilles’ name; and how she pitied the wretched Agamemnon, and asked me about
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his wife and children! This stranger is an Argive by race, and from that land; or she would not be sending the tablet and examining these things, as if she had some share in Argos’ prosperity.
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Pylades
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You are not much ahead of me: I was about to say the same things you said,
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except this: all who move about in the world know what happens to kings. But I have arrived at another consideration.
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Orestes
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What is it? Share it with me so that you may know better.
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Pylades
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It is shameful for me to live when you are dead;
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I sailed together with you, and I ought to die together with you. For I will seem a coward and base in Argos and Phocis of the many mountain folds. Most will think—for most people are base—that I betrayed you and saved myself to come home alone,
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or I plotted your death, in the afflictions of your house, for the sake of your kingdom, since I married your sister and heiress. I fear these things and I am ashamed; and I must breathe my last with you,
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be slaughtered with you and consumed on the pyre; because I am your friend and I fear reproach.
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Orestes
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Hush! I must bear my own ills, and when the grief is single, I will not bear it double. What you call vile and infamous,
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would be mine, if I cause you, who have toiled with me, to die; for it is not a hardship for me, suffering as I do at the hands of the gods, to give up my life. But you are prosperous, and you have a house that is pure, not afflicted, while mine is impious and unfortunate.
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If you are saved and get sons from my sister, whom I gave to you for wife, my name would remain and the whole house of my father would not be wiped out in childlessness. But go, and live, and dwell in my father’s house.
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And when you come to Hellas and to Argos of the horses, I charge you, by this right hand: heap up a tomb and build a memorial for me, and let my sister give her hair and tears to the tomb. Report that I died at the hand of an Argive
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woman, at an altar, purified for death. Do not ever betray my sister, when you see how lonely is my father’s house that you have joined by marriage. And now farewell; I have found you the dearest of my friends, you who have hunted with me, grown up with me,
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and borne with me many miseries. Phoebus, though a prophet, has deceived me; creating his plot, he drove me far away from Hellas, ashamed of his earlier prophecies. I gave him my all and trusted in his words,
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killed my mother, and myself perish in turn.
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Pylades
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You will have a tomb, and I will never betray your sister’s bed, unhappy youth, since I will hold you dearer when dead than when alive. But the prophecy of the god has not destroyed you yet;
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although you stand near to slaughter. Great misfortune can offer great reversals, when it is fated; it can indeed.
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Orestes
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Silence; the words of Phoebus are no benefit to me; here comes the woman out of the temple.
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Iphigenia
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(to the guard.) Go away and make the preparations within for those who attend to the sacrifice.
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Here are the many folds of the tablet, strangers. Hear what I want in addition. No man is the same when he is in troubles
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and when he falls out of fear into courage. I am afraid that when the one who is going to take this tablet to Argos leaves this land, he will put aside my letter as worth nothing.
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Orestes
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What do you want, then? What are you perplexed about?
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Iphigenia
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Let him give me an oath that he will convey this letter to Argos, to the friends to whom I wish to send it.
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Orestes
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And will you give in return the same words to him?
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Iphigenia
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To do what, or refrain from doing? Tell me.
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Orestes
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To send him from this barbarous land alive.
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Iphigenia
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What you say is right; how else could he deliver it?
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Orestes
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Will the king agree to this?
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Iphigenia
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Yes. I will persuade the king, and I myself will put this man on the ship.
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Orestes
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(to Pylades.) Swear; begin a pious oath.
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Iphigenia
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(to Pylades.) You must say: I will give this to your friends.
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Pylades
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I will give this letter to your friends.
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Iphigenia
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And I will see you safely outside the dark rocks.
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Pylades
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What god do you do you swear by, as witness to your oath?
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Iphigenia
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Artemis, in whose temple I hold office.
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Pylades
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And I swear by the king of heaven, revered Zeus.
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Iphigenia
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But if you leave off your oath, and wrong me?
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Pylades
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May I not return. What about you, if you do not save me?
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Iphigenia
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May I never set foot in Argos alive.
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Pylades
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Now listen to a consideration we have passed over.
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Iphigenia
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But it will be something new, if it is good.