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.
- But where am I to make ready the feast for the women?
- Here beside our gallant Argive ships.
- Finely here! but still I must;[*](Reading καλῶς γ᾽, ἀνασκαίως δὲ·, as Paley edits on his own correction.) good come of it for all that!
- Do you know what to do, lady? Then obey me.
- In what matter? for I was ever accustomed to obey you.
- Here, where the bridegroom is, I will—
- Which of my duties will you perform in the mother’s absence?
- Give your child away with help of Danaids.
- And where am I to be then?
- Go to Argos, and take care of your unwedded daughters.
- And leave my child? Then who will raise her bridal torch?
- I will provide the proper wedding torch.
- That is not the custom; but you think lightly of these things.
- It is not good for you to be alone among a soldier-crowd.
- It is good that a mother should give her own child away.
- Yes, and that those maidens at home should not be left alone.
- They are well guarded in their maiden bowers.
- Obey.
- No, by the goddess-queen of Argos!
- Go, manage matters out of doors; but in the house it is my place to decide what is proper for maidens at their wedding.[*](This line is rejected by Monk as spurious; Hermann proposes to read νυμφίοισι παρθένων, and without some such emendation it is diificult to find any meaning in it.)