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.
- Sing with me, maidens, sing the praises of Artemis, whose temple faces Chalcis,
- where angry spearmen madly chafe, here in the narrow havens of Aulis, because of me.
- O Pelasgia, land of my birth, and Mycenae, my home!
- Is it on Perseus’ citadel you call, that town Cyclopean workmen built?
- To be a light to Hellas did you rear me, and so I do not say No to death.
- You are right; no fear that fame will ever desert you!
- Hail to you, bright lamp of day and light of Zeus! A different life, a different lot is henceforth mine. Farewell I bid you, light beloved! Exit Iphigenia..
- Behold the maiden on her way, the destroyer of Ilium’s town and the Phrygians, with garlands twined about her head, and drops of lustral water on her, soon to be sprinkled with her gushing blood
- the altar of a murderous goddess, when her shapely neck is severed.[*](Lines 1514-16 read διαίμονος with Markland for γε δαίμονοσ; ῥανοῦσαν, Markland for θανοῦσαν; and omit τε with Bothe after εὐφυᾶ.)
- For you fair streams of a father’s pouring and lustral waters are in store, for you Achaea’s army is waiting, eager
- to reach the citadel of Ilium. But let us celebrate Artemis, the daughter of Zeus, queen among the gods, as if upon some happy chance.
- O lady revered, delighting in human
- sacrifice, send on its way to Phrygia’s land the army of the Hellenes, to Troy’s abodes of guile, and grant that Agamemnon may wreathe his head with deathless fame,
- a crown of fairest glory for the spearmen of Hellas.
- Come forth, O Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus, from the tent, to hear my news.
- I heard your voice and have come
- in sad dismay and fearful dread, not sure but what you have arrived with tidings of some fresh trouble for me besides the present woe.
- No, rather I want to unfold to you a strange and marvellous story about your child.
- Do not delay, then, but speak at once.
- Dear mistress, you shall learn all clearly; from the outset will I tell it, unless my memory fails me somewhat and confuses my tongue in its account. As soon as we reached the grove of Artemis, the child of Zeus, and the flowery meadows,