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.
- What! have you found me a new home, father?
- Enough of this! it is not for girls to know such things.
- Please hurry home from Troy, father, as soon as you have triumphed there.
- There is a sacrifice I have first to offer here.
- Yes, it is your duty to heed religion with aid of holy rites.[*](Monk interprets in a matter of religion thou must consult the priests. Paley inclines to the view that ll. 674-7 are interpolated.)
- You will witness it, for you will be standing near the libations.
- Am I to lead the dance then round the altar, father?
- I count you happier than myself because you know nothing. Go within—it is wrong for maidens to be seen—after you have given me your hand and a kiss,
- on the eve of your lengthy sojourn far from your father’s side.
- Breast, cheek, and golden hair! ah, how grievous you have found Helen and the Phrygians’ city! I can speak no more; the tears come welling to my eyes, the moment I touch you.
- Go into the house. Exit Iphigenia.
- Agamemnon turns to Clytemnestra. I beg your pardon, daughter of Leda, if I showed excessive grief at the thought of giving my daughter to Achilles; for though we are sending her to taste of bliss, still it wrings a parent’s heart, when he, the father who has toiled so hard for them,
- commits his children to the homes of strangers.
- I am not so senseless; But I think I will go through this as well, when I lead the girl from the chamber to the sound of the marriage hymn; so I do not chide you; but custom will combine with time to make the smart grow less.
- As for him, to whom you have betrothed our daughter, I know his name, it is true, but want to learn his lineage and the land of his birth.
- There was one Aegina, the daughter of Asopus.
- Who wedded her? Some mortal or a god?
- Zeus, and she bore Aeacus, the prince of Oenone.[*](The old name of Aegina.)
- What son of Aeacus secured his father’s halls?
- Peleus, who wedded the daughter of Nereus.