Iphigenia in Tauris
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Iphigenia
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That Orestes, my only brother, is happy.
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Thoas
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So that you might save them, for the delight of their messages.
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Iphigenia
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And that my father is alive and doing well.
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Thoas
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But you turned to the goddess, with reason.
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Iphigenia
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Yes, for I hate all Hellas, which has ruined me.
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Thoas
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Tell me, what shall we do with the strangers?
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Iphigenia
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We must reverence the law as it stands.
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Thoas
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But the libations and your sword are not at work?
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Iphigenia
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First I want to wash them, with holy purification.
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Thoas
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In fountain waters, or the drops of the sea?
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Iphigenia
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The sea washes away all men’s evils.
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Thoas
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They would certainly be holier victims for the goddess.
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Iphigenia
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And in this way my plans would succeed better.
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Thoas
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Doesn’t the wave beat against this very temple?
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Iphigenia
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This requires solitude; and I shall do more.
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Thoas
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Then where you wish; I do not want to see what should not be seen.
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Iphigenia
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I must purify the image of the goddess also.
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Thoas
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Yes, if a stain from the matricide has fallen on it.
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Iphigenia
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For I would not have lifted it from its base otherwise.
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Thoas
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Your piety and forethought are correct.
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Iphigenia
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Do you know what to do for me now?
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Iphigenia
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Put chains on the strangers.
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Iphigenia
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Hellas knows no faith.
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Iphigenia
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And let them bring the strangers here.
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Iphigenia
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And veil their faces with their robes.
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Iphigenia
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And send some of your servants with me.
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Iphigenia
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And send someone to announce to the city—
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Iphigenia
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That all remain indoors.
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Iphigenia
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Yes, for such things are polluted.
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Iphigenia
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That no one come near the sight. An attendant departs.
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Iphigenia
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And of the friends to whom I owe the most.
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Iphigenia
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. . .
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Iphigenia
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You stay here before the shrine of the goddess.
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Iphigenia
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Purify the house with fire.
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Iphigenia
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When the strangers come outside—
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Iphigenia
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Hold your robe over your eyes.
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Iphigenia
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If I seem to delay too long—
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Iphigenia
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Do not wonder at it.
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Iphigenia
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May this purification fall out as I wish!
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Iphigenia
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I see the strangers coming out of the temple now, and the ornaments of the goddess and the new-born lambs, because I will wash blood-pollution away with blood, and the flash of torches and all the rest that
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I have set out as purification for the strangers and the goddess.
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I proclaim to the citizens to keep away from this pollution, if any guard of the temple is purifying his hands for the gods, or if anyone is coming to form a marriage alliance, or is weighted down by childbirth— begone, stand away, so that this defilement does not fall on anyone.
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(Aside.) O lady, maiden daughter of of Leto and Zeus, if I cleanse the stain of murder from these men, and make the sacrifice where I ought to make it, you will dwell in a pure home, and we will be fortunate. I do not speak the rest, but I indicate it to those who know more, the gods and you, goddess. Exit Iphigenia.
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Chorus
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Lovely is the son of Leto,
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whom she, the Delian, once bore in the fruitful valleys, golden-haired, skilled at the lyre; and also the one who glories in her well-aimed arrows.
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For the mother, leaving the famous birth-place, brought him from the ridges of the sea to the heights of Parnassus, with its gushing waters, which celebrate the revels for Dionysus. Here the dark-faced serpent
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with brightly colored back, his scales of bronze in the leaf-shaded laurel, huge monster of the earth, guarded Earth’s prophetic shrine. You killed him, o Phoebus, while still a baby,
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still leaping in the arms of your dear mother, and you entered the holy shrine, and sit on the golden tripod, on your truthful throne
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distributing prophecies from the gods to mortals, up from the sanctuary, neighbor of Castalia’s streams, as you dwell in the middle of the earth.
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Chorus
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But when he came and sent Themis,
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the child of Earth, away from the holy oracle of Pytho, Earth gave birth to dream visions of the night; and they told to the cities of men the present,
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and what will happen in the future, through dark beds of sleep on the ground; and so Earth took the office of prophecy away from Phoebus, in envy, because of her daughter. The lord made his swift way to Olympus
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and wound his baby hands around the throne of Zeus, to take the wrath of the earth goddess from the Pythian home. Zeus smiled, that the child so quickly came
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to ask for worship that pays in gold. He shook his locks of hair, to put an end to the night voices, and took away from mortals the truth that appears in darkness,
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and gave the privilege back again to Loxias, and to mortals confidence in the songs of prophecy at the throne visited by many men.
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Messenger
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O you that guard the temple and stand by the altar,
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where has Thoas, the lord of this land, gone? Open the well-fastened gates, and call forth from this shrine the ruler of the land.
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Chorus Leader
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What is it, if I may speak when not commanded?
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Messenger
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The two young men are gone away,
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through the plots of Agamemnon’s daughter; they are escaping from this land, with the holy image deep within a Hellene ship.
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Chorus Leader
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What you say is incredible; but the one you want to see, the lord of the country, has gone in haste from the temple.
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Messenger
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Where? For he should know what has been done.
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Chorus Leader
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We don’t know; but go after him, and report these things to him where you find him.
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Messenger
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See, what a faithless race you women are! You also have a share in what has been done.
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Chorus Leader
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You are mad! What do we have to do the the flight of the strangers? Go as quickly as you can to the ruler’s door!
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Messenger
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No! Not until this interpreter brings word if the king is inside or not. Ho there! Unbar the doors—I am speaking to those within—
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and inform the master that I am at the gate with a burden of bad news.
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Thoas
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(appearing at the temple door.) Who is raising this clamor at the temple of the goddess, striking at the gates and sending his noise within?
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Messenger
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Ah! These women told me that you were outside; they would have driven me away from the temple,
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but you were inside after all.
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Thoas
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What advantage were they expecting and hunting after?
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Messenger
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I will tell you about them later; hear what is currently at hand. The girl who presided at this altar, Iphigenia, has left the country
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with the strangers, and takes with her the holy statue of the goddess; the purification was a cheat.
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Thoas
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What are you saying? What influence in her character brought her to this?
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Messenger
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To save Orestes; here is a marvel for you!
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Thoas
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To save whom? Clytemnestra’s son?
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Messenger
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The one whom the goddess was dedicating to herself at this altar.
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Thoas
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Marvelous! for what more can it be called?
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Messenger
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Do not think of that, but listen to me; consider it clearly and when you hear, devise a pursuit to hunt down the strangers.
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Thoas
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Speak; you have said well; for their flight is not so brief a voyage as to escape my spear.
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Messenger
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When we came to the sea-shore, where Orestes’ ship was moored in hiding,
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Agamemnon’s daughter motioned to those of us you sent with the strangers’ bonds to stand far off, as if her sacrifice of purifying flame, that she had come for, were secret. But she went on alone, holding the strangers’ chains in her hands, behind them. Your servants, lord, were suspicious,
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but we allowed it. After a while, so that we might think that she was accomplishing something, she raised a shout, and chanted strange songs and spells, as if she were washing off the pollution of murder. When we had sat a long time,
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it occurred to us that the strangers, loosed from their bonds, might kill her and escape by flight. But we were afraid of seeing what we ought not, and sat in silence. But at length we all resolved to go where they were, although we were not allowed.
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There we saw a Hellene ship, winged with ready blade for the stroke, and at the oar-locks were fifty rowers with their oars; the two youths stood by the stern, freed from their chains.
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Some were holding the prow in place with poles; others were fastening the anchor from the cat-heads; others were drawing the stern-cables through their hands, and making haste to let down the ladders into the sea for the strangers. Without sparing ourselves, when we saw
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their treacherous wiles, we seized the priestess and the cables, and tried to draw the ship’s rudder-oars out through their holes. Then there was a debate: What is your reason for carrying the statue and the priestess away from the land by theft?
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Who is your father, who are you, to smuggle her away? He said: Know that I am Orestes, her brother, Agamemnon’s son, and I have come to take my sister, whom I lost from her home.
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But we held her no less,
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and were leading her to you by force, for which I received these dreadful blows on my cheeks; they had no swords, nor did we. Both the youths gave rattling blows with their fists,
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darting their limbs against our sides and breasts, so that as soon as we joined battle, we were worn out. We were fleeing to the cliff, stamped with dreadful marks, some with bloody wounds on their heads, others on their eyes;
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when we stood on the on the heights, we fought more cautiously and hurled rocks at them. But, standing on the stern, the archers with their arrows kept us off and drove us away. And now an immense swelling wave ran the ship aground,
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and the maiden was afraid to get her feet wet. Orestes bore his sister on his left arm, going into the sea and quickly up the ladder, and he set her on the ship, along with the statue of Zeus’ daughter, fallen from heaven.
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From the middle of the ship, he cried out: Sailors of Hellas, seize the ship with the oars and make the waves white with foam; for we possess those things for which we sailed the inhospitable straits, within the clashing rocks.
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They gave a cheerful shout, and struck the salt wave. The ship, while it was within the harbor, was headed for the mouth; but when it had crossed, it met with a violent swell aand was hard pressed; and the wind, rising with sudden dreadful gusts,
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forced it astern. They beat the waves strongly; but the swell was driving the ship back towards the land. Agamemnon’s daughter stood up and prayed: O daughter of Leto, bring me, your priestess, safely to Hellas
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from this barbaric land, and forgive my thefts. For you, goddess, love your brother; believe that I love mine also. The sailors shouted the paean in response to her prayer, and applied their naked shoulders
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to the oars, at the command. But the ship came nearer and nearer to the rocks; some of us rushed into the sea, others grasped the woven ropes. And I set out here to you at once, lord,
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to tell you what has happened there. But go, take chains and nets with you; for if the swell does not become calm, there is no hope of safety for the strangers.
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Revered Poseidon, ruler of the sea, watches over Troy and is hostile to the race of Pelops; he will now allow you and your citizens, as is right, to have in your hands the son of Agamemnon and his sister; she stands convicted as betrayer of her unremembered sacrifice to the goddess in Aulis.