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.
- The one you are looking at; don’t confuse me by your talk. Bring me to Argos, my brother, before I die.
- Take me away from the barbarian land and the sacrifices of the goddess, where I hold the office of killing foreigners.
- Pylades, what shall I say? Where have we found ourselves?
- Or I will be a curse to your house.
- Orestes?
- (stopping to address Pylades.)So that you may know the name, hearing it twice.
- O gods!
- Why do you invoke the gods in my affairs?
- No reason; finish your words; my thoughts were elsewhere. Perhaps, if I question you, I will not arrive at things I cannot believe.
- Tell him that Artemis saved me, by giving a deer in exchange for me; my father sacrificed it,
- thinking that he drove the sword sharply into me; and she settled me in this land. This is my letter, this is the writing in the tablet.
- You have bound me with an easy oath, and sworn very well. I will not take much time
- to carry out the oath I swore.
- See, Orestes, I bring you a tablet from your sister here, and give it to you.
- I do receive it, but first I will pass over the letter’s folds to take a joy that is not in words.
- (Approaching to embrace Iphigenia.)My dearest sister, with what astonishment and delight I hold you in my unbelieving arms, after learning these marvels!
- Stranger, you are wrongly defiling the attendant of the goddess, by putting your hands on her robe that should not be touched.
- My own sister, born from my father Agamemnon, do not turn away from me, when you hold your brother and thought you never would!
- You are my brother? Stop this talk! He is well known in Argos and Nauplia.
- Unhappy girl, your brother is not there.