Iphigenia in Aulis

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. after slaying Tantalus, my former husband, and dashing[*](Reading προσούδισας πέδῳ (Scaliger) and ζῶν (Musgrave) for the MSS. σῷ προσούρισας πάλῳ, which Hermann explains as meaning having added him to yoar share in the division of the spoils. Hartung gives προσώρισας.) my baby on the ground when you had torn him from my breast with brutal violence. Then those two sons of Zeus, who were my brothers, came flashing on horseback to war with you;
  2. but Tyndareus, my old father, rescued you because of your suppliant prayers, and you in turn had me to wife. Once I was reconciled to you upon this footing, you will bear me witness I have been a blameless wife to you and your family, chaste in love,
  3. an honor to your house, that so your coming in might be with joy and your going out with gladness. And it is seldom a man secures a wife like this, though the getting of a worthless woman Is no rarity.
  4. Besides three daughters, of one of whom you are heartlessly depriving me,
  5. I am the mother of this son of yours. If anyone asks you your reason for slaying her, tell me, what will you say? or must I say it for you? It is that Menelaus may recover Helen. An honorable exchange, indeed, to pay a wicked woman’s price in children’s lives!