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. I left you still a baby,
  2. young in the arms of your nurse, young in the house. O my soul, you have been more fortunate than words can say.
  3. I have come upon things that are beyond wonder, far from speech.
Orestes
  1. For the rest of time, may we be fortunate with each other!
Iphigenia
  1. O my friends, I have found an extraordinary joy; I am afraid that he will fly from my hands into the air.
  2. O Cyclopean hearths; o my country, dear Mycenae, I thank you for his life, for his nourishment, because you brought up this light of the house, my brother.
Orestes
  1. We are fortunate in our family, but in our circumstances, my sister, we were born to be unfortunate in life.
Iphigenia
  1. I was unhappy, I know, when my wretched father put the sword to my throat.
Orestes
  1. Alas! Though I was not present, I seem to see you there.
Iphigenia
  1. O brother, when I was brought, not a bride, to the treacherous bed of Achilles;
  2. but beside the altar there were tears and wails. Alas for the libations there!
Orestes
  1. I also mourned for the daring act of our father.
Iphigenia
  1. Fatherless was the fate I received, fatherless.
  2. One thing comes from another, by divine fortune.
Orestes
  1. Yes, if you had killed your brother, unhappy one!
Iphigenia
  1. O wretched, in my dreadful daring!
  2. How dreadful were the things I endured, alas, my brother! By only a little you escaped an unholy death, slain by my hands. But how will these things end? What fortune will assist me?
  3. What way will I find to send you from this city, from slaughter, to your native Argos,
  4. before the sword draws near to your blood? This is your business, unhappy soul, to find out. On the dry land, not in a ship?
  5. But if you go on foot, through trackless paths and barbarian tribes, you will draw near to death.