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. It is buying what we most detest[*](Reading τἄχθιστα τοῖσι.) with what we hold most dear. Again, if you go forth with the army, leaving me in your halls and are long absent at Troy, what will my feelings be at home, do you think? when I behold each vacant chair
  2. and her chamber now deserted, and then sit down alone in tears, making ceaseless lamentation for her, Ah! my child, he that begot you has slain you himself, he and no one else, nor are was it by another’s hand,[*](Paley thinks a line has here fallen out to the effect, How wilt thou dare to return to thy wife and . . . Monks rejects l. 1179; omitting it, the sense might be continuous, thus; Thy father was the real murderer and no one else; for it only needed a slight excuse on thy part and the sacrifice might have been prevented . . .; but this is extremely awkward, and Paley’s view is preferable.) leaving behind him such a return to his home.
  3. For it needs[*](Reading ἐνδεῖ with Reiske.) now only a trifling pretext for me and the daughters remaining to give you the reception it is right you should receive. I adjure you by the gods, do not compel me to sin against you, or sin yourself.
  4. Well; suppose you sacrifice the child; what prayer will you utter, when it is done? what will the blessing be that you will invoke upon yourself as you are slaying our daughter? An ill returning, seeing the disgrace that speeds your going forth? Is it right that I should pray for any luck to attend you? Surely we should deem the gods devoid of sense,
  5. if we harbored a kindly feeling towards murder? Shall you embrace your children on your coming back to Argos? No, you have no right. Will any child of yours ever face you, if you have surrendered one of them to death?[*](Reading ἐὰν σφῶν προέμενος, as Nauck edits from the joint correction of Hartung and Elmsley.) Has this ever entered into your calculations, or does your one duty consist
  6. in carrying a scepter about and marching at the head of an army? When you might have made this fair proposal among the Argives; Is it your wish, Achaeans, to sail for Phrygia’s shores? Why then, cast lots whose daughter has to die. For that would have been a fair course for you to pursue, instead of picking out
  7. your own child for the victim and presenting her to the Danaids; or Menelaus, as it was his concern, should have slain Hermione for her mother. As it is, I, who still am true to your bed, must lose my child; while she, who went astray,
  8. will return with her daughter, and live in happiness at Sparta. If I am wrong in my words, answer me; but if they have been fairly urged, do not still[*](The reading adopted by Paley is εἰ δ᾽ εὖ λέλεκται τάμὰ, μηκέτι . . . for the admittedly corrupt reading of the MSS.) slay your child, who is mine too, and you will be wise.
Chorus Leader
  1. Hearken to her, Agamemnon, for to join in saving your children’s lives is surely a noble deed;
  2. no one will deny this.
Iphigenia
  1. If I had the eloquence of Orpheus, my father, to move the rocks by chanted spells to follow me, or to charm by speaking anyone I wished, I would have resorted to it. But as it is, I’ll bring my tears—the only art I know;
  2. for that I might attempt. And about your knees, as a suppliant, I twine my limbs—these limbs your wife here bore. Do not destroy me before my time, for it is sweet to look upon the light, and do not force me to visit scenes below.
  3. I was the first to call you father, you the first to call me child; I was the first to sit upon your knee and give and take the fond caress. And this was what you would saythen: Shall I see you, my child, living a happy prosperous life
  4. in a husband’s home one day, in a manner worthy of myself? And I in my turn would ask, as I hung about your beard, where I now am clinging, What then will I do for you? Shall I be giving you a glad reception in my halls, father,
  5. in your old age, repaying all your anxious care in rearing me?
  6. I remember all we said, it is you who have forgotten and now would take my life. By Pelops, I entreat you spare me, by your father Atreus and my mother here, who suffers now a second time the pangs
  7. she felt before when bearing me! What have I to do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Why is his coming to prove my ruin, father? Look upon me; bestow one glance, one kiss, that this at least I may carry to my death
  8. as a memorial of you, though you do not heed my pleading.
  9. holding up the baby Orestes. Feeble ally though you are, brother, to your loved ones, yet add your tears to mine and entreat our father for your sister’s life; even in babies there is a natural sense of evil.
  10. O father, see this speechless supplication made to you; pity me; have mercy on my tender years! Yes, by your beard we two fond hearts implore your pity, the one a baby, a full-grown maid the other. By summing all my pleas in one, I will prevail in what I say: