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. And how will Achilles, cheated of his bride,
  2. curb the fury of his indignation against you and your wife? Here also is a danger.[*](Paley follows Musgrave in assigning these words to Agamemnon, assuming that the king passes over the servant’s last remark and adds a new cause of alarm, viz., the fraud that is being practiced on Achilles.) Make clear what you are saying.
Agamemnon
  1. It is his name, not himself that Achilles is lending, knowing nothing of the marriage or of my scheming
  2. or my professed readiness to betroth my daughter to him for a husband’s embrace.[*](Lines 124-32 are rejected by some editors. Hennig supposes them to be the work of the younger Euripides.)
Old man
  1. A dreadful venture yours, king Agamemnon, you that, by promise of your daughter’s hand to the son of the goddess,
  2. were bringing the maid here to be sacrificed for the Danaids.
Agamemnon
  1. Ah me! I am utterly distraught; alas! bewilderment comes over me. Away! hurry your steps,
  2. yielding nothing to old age.
Old man
  1. I will make haste, king.
Agamemnon
  1. Do not sit down by woodland fountains; scorn the witcheries of sleep.
Old man
  1. Hush![*](The old man cuts short Agamemnon’s warnings, as being an un-called-for reflection on his own loyalty.)
Agamemnon
  1. And when you pass any place where roads diverge,
  2. cast your eyes all round, taking heed that no mule-wagon eacape you, passing by on rolling wheels, bearing my child to the ships of the Danaids.
Old man
  1. It shall be so.
Agamemnon
  1. Start then from the bolted gates,[*](Paley retains the MSS. κλήθρων δ᾽ ἐξόρμα, omitting νιν with Monk in 1. 150; Wecklein, reading ἐξορμώσαις to agree with πομπαῖς retains νιν. Hermann transposes the verse after 1. 152, and so Nauck edits.)
  2. and if you meet the escort, start them back again, and drive at full speed to the abodes of the Cyclopes.
Old man
  1. But tell me, how shall my message find credit with your wife or child?
Agamemnon
  1. Preserve the seal which you bear on this tablet. Away! Already the dawn is growing grey, lighting the lamp of day and the fire of the sun’s four steeds;
  2. help me in my trouble. Exit Old man. No mortal is prosperous or happy to the last, for no one was ever born to a painless life. Exit Agamemnon.
Chorus
  1. To the sandy beach