Iphigenia in Tauris

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. One pain comes after another, to the house of the golden lamb. . . . from that earlier time when the Tantalids were killed,
  2. punishment came to the house, and fate presses what you do not want upon you.
Iphigenia
  1. From the beginning my fate was unhappy, from that first night of my mather’s marriage;
  2. from the beginning the Fates attendant on my birth directed a hard upbringing for me, wooed by Hellenes, the first-born child in the home,
  3. whom the unhappy daughter of Leda, by my father’s fault, bore as a victim and a sacrifice not joyful, she brought me up as an offering. In the horse-drawn chariot,
  4. they set me as a bride on the sands of Aulis, oh woe, a wretched bride for the son of the Nereid, alas! But now, as a stranger I live in an unfertile home on this sea that is hostile to strangers,
  5. without marriage, or children, or city, or friends, not raising hymns to Hera at Argos, nor embroidering with my shuttle, in the singing loom, the likeness of Athenian Pallas and the Titans; but
  6. . . . a bloody fate, not to be hymned by the lyre, of strangers who wail a piteous cry and weep piteous tears. And now I must forget these things,
  7. and lament my brother, killed in Argos, whom I left at the breast, still a baby, still an infant, still a young child in his mother’s arms and at her breast,
  8. the holder of the scepter in Argos, Orestes.
Chorus Leader
  1. Look, here comes a herdsman, who has left the shores of the sea to bring you some new message.
Herdsman
  1. Daughter of Agamemnon, and of Clytemnestra, hear a strange report from me.
Iphigenia
  1. And what is amazing in your news?
Herdsman
  1. Two young men have come to this land, fleeing the dark Symplegades in their ship, an offering and sacrifice pleasing to the goddess Artemis. Be quick to prepare
  2. the purifications and the first offerings.
Iphigenia
  1. What country are the strangers from? How are they dressed?
Herdsman
  1. They are Hellenes; I know this one thing, and nothing further.
Iphigenia
  1. Can’t you tell me their names? Did you hear them?
Herdsman
  1. One was called Pylades by the other.
Iphigenia
  1. What is the name of his companion?