Iphigenia in Aulis
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Now I am anxious to test you, and do not seek from rage to turn aside from the truth, nor will I on my part overstrainReading οὔτε κατατενῶ with Hermann. the case. Do you remember when you were all eagerness to captain the Danaids against Troy, making a pretence of declining, though eager for it in your heart; how humble you were then, taking each man by the hand
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and keeping open doors for every fellow-townsman who cared to enter, affording each in turn chance to speak with you, even though some did not wish it, seeking by these methods to purchase popularity from all bidders? Then when you had secured the command, there came a change over your manners; you were no longer so cordial as before to former friends,
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but hard of access, seldom to be found at home. But the man of real worth ought not to change his manners in the hour of prosperity, but should then show himself most staunch to friends, when his own good fortune can help them most effectually.
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This was the first cause I had to reprove you, for it was here I first discovered your villainy;
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but afterwards, when you cameReading ἧλθες with Monk. to Aulis with all the gathered hosts of Hellas, you were of no account; no! the want of a favorable breeze filled you with consternation at the chance dealt out by the gods.Nauck, following Dindorf’s suggestion, regards 11. 351 and 354-5 as interpolations, foisted in to supply gaps in the MSS., and he therefore omits them, marking a lacuna after 1. 353. Then the Danaids began demanding that you should send the fleet away instead of vainly toiling on at Aulis; what dismay and confusion was then depicted in your looks, to think that you, with a thousand
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ships at your command, had not occupied the plains of Priam with your armies! And you would ask my counsel, What am I to do? What scheme can I devise, where find one?—to save yourself being stripped of your command and losing your fair fame. Next when Calchas bade you offer your daughter in sacrifice to Artemis, declaring that the Danaids should then sail, you were overjoyed,Line 359 is regarded by Nauck as spurious.
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and gladly undertook to offer the girl, and of your own accord—never allege compulsion—you are sending word to your wife to despatch your daughter here on pretence of wedding Achilles. And after all you turn round and have been caught casting your letter to this effect: I will no longer be my daughter’s murderer. Exactly so!μάλιστά γε. L. Dindorf proposed κάλλιστά γε, ironical very fine! Both this and the previous line are omitted in Nauck’s text as spurious.
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This is the same air that heard you say it.This line was thus transposed by Paley from its usual position after l. 365. Countless others have done the same; they make an effort while in power, and then retire dishonorably, sometimes owing to the senselessness of the citizens, sometimes deservedly, because they are too feeble of themselves to maintain their watch upon the state.
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For my part, I am more sorry for our unhappy Hellas, whose purpose was to read these worthless foreigners a lesson, while now she will let them escape and mock her, thanks to you and your daughter. May I never appoint a man to rule my country or lead its warriors because of his couragekinship!There is some corruption in this line; perhaps Monk’s μηδέν᾽ οὖν γένους ἕκατι (Nauck ἄρα for οὔν), supplies the required sense best. Sense is what the general must have;
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since any man, with ordinary intelligence, can govern a state.Following Hermann’s punctuation. Monk retains the stop after πόλεος, the head of the state must have sense; for every man, if so gifted, is a ruler. Hennig condemns l. 374.
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Chorus Leader
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For brothers to come to words and blows, whenever they disagree, is terrible.
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Agamemnon
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I wish to rebuke you in turn,Paley follows Markland in reading αὖ for MSS. εὖ. briefly, not lifting my eyes too high shamelessly, but in more sober fashion,
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as a brother; for it is a good man’s way to be considerate. Tell me, why this burst of fury, these bloodshot eyes? who wrongs you? what is it you want? are you longing to have a virtuous wife? WeIl, I cannot supply you; for she, whom you once had, was ill-controlled by you. Am I then, a man who never went astray, to suffer for your sins?
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or is it my popularity that galls you? No! it is the longing you have to keep a beautiful woman in your embrace, casting reason and honor to the winds. A bad man’s pleasures are like himself. Am I mad, if I change to wiser counsels, after previously deciding amiss? Yours is the madness rather in wishing to recover
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a wicked wife, once you had lost her—a stroke of heaven-sent luck. Those foolish suitors swore that oath to Tyndareus in their longing to wed; but Hope was the goddess that led them on,Reading ἧγε δ᾽ with Matthiae for MSS. ἡ δέ γ᾽. I think, and she it was that brought it about rather than you and your strength. So take the field with them; they are ready for itPaley adopts Monk’s ἔτομοι δ᾽ εἰσὶ for γ᾽ οἶμαι δ᾽ εἴσῃ, but follows Dindorf’s punctuation in not making these words parenthetical. Hermann gives ἐγῷμαι, μωρίαν εἴσῃ φρενῶν, thou wilt find out their folly, I expect. in the folly of their hearts; for the deity is not without insight, but is able to discern
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where oaths have been wrongly pledged or forcibly extorted. I will not slay my children, norIn this difficult and much emended passage Lenting’s κοὐ for καὶ Reiske’s παρὰ δίκης, and τιμωρίᾳ, dat. for nom., are the readings followed. shall your interests be prospered by justice in your vengeance for a worthless wife, while I am left wasting, night and day, in sorrow for what I did to one of my own flesh and blood, contrary to all law and justice.
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Here is your answer shortly given, clear and easy to understand; and if you will not come to your senses, I shall do the best for myself.
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Chorus Leader
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This differs from your previous declaration, but there is good in it, your child’s reprieve.
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Menelaus
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Ah me, how sad my lot! I have no friends then after all.
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Agamemnon
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Friends you have, if you do not seek their destruction.
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Menelaus
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Where will you find any proof that you are sprung from the same father as I?
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Agamemnon
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It is your moderation, not your madness, that I share by nature.
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Menelaus
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Friends should sympathize with friends in sorrow.
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Agamemnon
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Claim my help by kindly service, not by paining me.
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Menelaus
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So you have no mind to share this trouble with Hellas?
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Agamemnon
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No, Hellas is diseased like you, according to some god’s design.
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Menelaus
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Go boast of your scepter, after betraying your own brother! whileLines 413-41 are regarded by Kirchhoff as the work of a much later age. Nauck incloses them in brackets, but Paley, Monk, and Hermann agree in retaining them as probably genuine. I will seek some different means and other friends.
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I have come and bring you your daughter, whom you call Iphigenia in your home; and her mother, your wife Clytemnestra, is with her, and the child Orestes, a sight to gladdenReading ὥς τι τερφθείης with Hermann for ὥστε; if ὥστε is retained the meaning apparently is therefore, mayst thou rejoice at seeing him, involving rather an awkward parenthesis. you after your long absence from your home;
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but they had been travelling long and far, they are now resting their tender feet at the waters of a fair spring, they and their horses, for we turned these loose in the grassy meadow to browse their fill. But I have come as their forerunner to prepare you for their reception;
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for the army knows already of your daughter’s arrival, so quickly did the rumor spread; and all the people are running together to the sight, that they may see your child; for Fortune’s favorites enjoy world-wide fame and have all eyes fixed on them.
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Some say: Is it a wedding, or what is happening? or has king Agamemnon from fond yearning summoned his daughter here? From others you would have heard: They are presenting the maiden to Artemis, queen of Aulis, previous to marriage; who can the bridegroom be, that is to lead her home?
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Come, then, begin the rites, that is the next step, by getting the baskets ready; crown your heads—you too,τε was added by Hermann, because Menelaus could only be invited to take part in the ceremony as an assistant, all important duties devolving on the bride’s parents. lord Menelaus; prepare the wedding hymn; let flutes sound throughout the tents with noise of dancer’s feet; for this is a happy day, that has come for the maid.
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Agamemnon
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You have my thanks; now go within; for the rest it will be well, as Fate proceeds. Exit Messenger.
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Ah, woe is me! unhappy wretch, what can I say? where shall I begin? To what cruel straits have I been plunged! A god has outwitted me, proving far cleverer
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than any cunning of mine. What an advantage humble birth possesses! for it is easy for her sons to weep and tell out all their sorrows; while to the high-born man come these same sorrows, but we heve dignity
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throned over our life and are the people’s slaves.The meaning seems to be that though both classes have the same sorrows, the high-born are prevented by their sense of dignity from giving way to any outward expression of them for their relief. In 1. 450 ὄγκον, the reading restored from Plutarch, is followed rather than the old δῆμον. I, for instance, am ashamed to weep, and no less ashamed, poor wretch, to check my tears at the dreadful pass to which I am brought. Enough; what am I to tell my wife?
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how shall I welcome her? with what face meet her? for she too has undone me by coming uninvited in this my hour of sorrow; yet it was only natural she should come with her daughter to prepare the bride and perform the fondest duties, where she will discover my villainy.
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And for this poor maid—why maid? Death, it seems, will soon make her his bride—how I pity her! Thus will she plead to me, I think: My father, will you slay me? May you yourself make such a marriage, and whoever is a friend to you!
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While Orestes, from his station near us, will cry in childish accents, inarticulate, yet fraught with meaning. Alas! to what utter ruin Paris, the son of Priam, the cause of these troubles, has brought me by his union with Helen!
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Chorus Leader
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I pity her myself, as a woman who is a stranger
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may grieve for the misfortunes of royalty.
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Menelaus
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Your hand, brother! let me grasp it.
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Agamemnon
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I give it; yours is the victory, mine the sorrow.
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Menelaus
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By Pelops our reputed grandsire and Atreus our father,
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I swear to tell you the truth from my heart, without any covert purpose, but only what I think. The sight of you in tears made me pity you, and in return I shed a tear for you myself; I withdraw from my former proposals,
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ceasing to be a cause of fear to you; yes, and I will put myself in your present position;Reading εἶμι of MSS. Kirchhoff proposed εἰμί, i.e., I share thy views. and I counsel you, do not slay your child or prefer my interests to yours; for it is not just that you should grieve, while I am glad, or that your children should die, while mine still see the light of day.
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What is it, after all, I seek? If I am set on marriage, could I not find a bride as choice elsewhere? Was I to lose a brother—the last I should have lost—to win a Helen, getting bad for good? I was mad, impetuous as a youth, till I perceived,
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on closer view, what slaying children really meant. Moreover I am filled with compassion for the hapless maiden, doomed to bleed that I may wed, when I reflect that we are kin. What has your daughter to do with Helen?
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Let the army be disbanded and leave Aulis; dry those streaming eyes, brother, and do not provoke me to tears. Whatever concern you have in oracles that affect your child, let it be none of mine; into your hands I resign my share.
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A sudden change, you’ll say, from my dread proposals? A natural course for me; affection for my brother caused the change. These are the ways of a man not devoid of virtue, to pursue on each occasion what is best.
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Chorus Leader
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A generous speech, worthy of Tantalus, the son of Zeus;
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you do not shame your ancestry.
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Agamemnon
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I thank you, Menelaus, for this unexpected suggestion; it is an honorable proposal, worthy of you. Sometimes love, sometimes the selfishness of their families, causes a quarrel between brothers; I loathe
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a relationship of this kind which is bitterness to both.Lines 508-10 are rejected by most editors as an interpolation; omitting them, Agamemnon’s speech goes on naturally at 1. 511. Hernann, retaining them, replaces γε by δὲ and continues them to Agamemnon. But it is useless, for circumstances compel me to carry out the murderous sacrifice of my daughter.
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Menelaus
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How so? who will compel you to slay your own?
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Agamemnon
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The whole Achaean army here assembled.
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Menelaus
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Not if you send her back to Argos.
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Agamemnon
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I might do that unnoticed, but there will be another thing I cannot.
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Menelaus
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What is that? You must not fear the mob too much.
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Agamemnon
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Calchas will tell the Argive army his oracles.
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Menelaus
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Not if he should die before that—an easy matter.
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Agamemnon
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The whole tribe of seers is a curse with its ambition.
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Menelaus
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Yes, and good for nothing and useless, when among us.
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Agamemnon
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Has the thought, which is rising in my mind, no terrors for you?
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Menelaus
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How can I understand your meaning, unless you declare it?
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Agamemnon
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The son of Sisyphus knows all.
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Menelaus
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Odysseus cannot possibly hurt us.
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Agamemnon
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He was ever shifty by nature, siding with the mob.
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Menelaus
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True, he is enslaved by the love of popularity, a fearful evil.
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Agamemnon
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Don’t you think, then, he will arise among the Argives and tell them the oracles that Calchas delivered,
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saying of me that I undertook to offer Artemis a victim, and after all am proving false? Then, when he has carried the army away with him, he will bid the Argives slay us and sacrifice the girl; and if I escape to Argos, they will come and destroy the place,
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razing it to the ground, Cyclopean walls and all. That is my trouble. Woe is me! to what perplexities the gods have brought me at this pass! Take one precaution for me, Menelaus, as you go through the army, that Clytemnestra does not learn this,
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till I have taken my child and devoted her to death, that my affliction may be attended with the fewest tears. Turning to the Chorus. And you, foreign women, keep silence. Exit Menelaus.
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Chorus
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Happy are they who find the goddess come in moderate might, sharing with self-restraint
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in Aphrodite’s gift of marriage and enjoying calm and rest from frenzied passions, where the Love-god, golden-haired, stretches his charmed bow with twin arrows,
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and one is aimed at happiness, the other at life’s confusion. O lady Cypris, queen of beauty! far from my bridal bower I ban the last. Be mine delight in moderation
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and pure desires, and may I have a share in love, but shun excess!
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Chorus
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Men’s natures vary, and their habits differ,
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but virtue is always manifest. Likewise the training that come of education conduces greatly to virtue; for not only is modesty wisdom, but it has also the rare graceἐξαλλάσσουσαν χάριν. Liddell and Scott render as above. Paley follows Hermann in rendering a compensating pleasure. The whole of this chorus is so full, however, of corruption, and possibly interpolation, that it is not unlikely that this phrase was not of Euripides’ coining.
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of seeing by its better judgment what is right; whereby a glory, ever young, is shed over life by reputation. A great thing it is to hunt virtue, for women when they love
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secretly; while in men, an inborn sense of order, shown in countless ways,Reading κόσμος ἐνὼν ὁ μυριπληθὴς with Markland, but here again it is hopeless to recover the true reading. adds to a city’s greatness.
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Chorus
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You came, O Paris, to the place where you were reared to herd the cows
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among the white heifers of Ida, piping in foreign strain and breathing on your reeds an echo of the Phrygian airs Olympus played. Full-uddered cows were browsing at the spot
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whereReading ὄθι with Hartung. that verdict between goddesses was awaiting you—the cause of your going to Hellas to stand before the ivory palace, kindling love in Helen’s
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entranced eyes and feeling its flutter in your own breast; from which the fiend of strife brought Hellas with her spear and ships to the towers of Troy.
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Chorus of Argive men
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Oh! great is the bliss the great enjoy. Behold Iphigenia, the king’s child, my lady, and Clytemnestra, the daughter of Tyndareus; how proud their lineage!
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how high their pinnacle of fortune! These mighty ones, whom wealth attends, are very gods in the eyes of less favored folk.
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Chorus
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Let us stand here, maidens of Chalcis, and lift the queen from her chariot
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to the ground without stumbling, supporting her gently in our arms, with kind intent, that the renowned daughter of Agamemnon, just arrived, may feel no fear; strangers ourselves, let us avoid anything that may disturb
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or frighten the strangers from Argos.The whole passage from l. 574-606 is regarded by Paley and Dindorf as an interpolation; while most editors concur in regarding 11. 599-606 as undoubtedly spurious.
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Clytemnestra
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I take this as a lucky omen, your kindness and auspicious greeting, and have good hope that it is to a happy marriage
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I conduct the bride. To attendants. Take from the chariot the dowry I am bringing for my daughter and convey it within with careful heed.
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My daughter, leave the horse-drawn chariot, planting your faltering footstep delicately.κῶλον ἀσθενές θ’ ἅμα, but Hermann’s κῶλον ἀσφαλῶς χαμαί is tempting. To the Chorus.
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Young women,νεάνιδές, νίν so Pierson for νεανίδασιν. take her in your arms and lift her from the chariot, and let one of you give me the support of her hand, that I may quit my seat in the carriage with fitting grace.
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Some of you stand at the horses’ heads;
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for the horse has a timid eye, easily frightened; here, take this child Orestes, son of Agamemnon, baby as he still is.
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What! sleeping, little one, tired out by your ride in the chariot? Awake to bless your sister’s wedding; for you, my gallant boy,
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shall get by this marriage a kinsman gallant as yourself, the Nereid’s godlike offspring. Come here to your mother, my daughter, Iphigenia, and seat yourself beside me, and stationed near show my happiness to these strangers;
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yes, come here and welcome the father you love so dearly.The passages indosed in brackets are regarded by Paley and Dindorf, and, in the main, by Kirchhoff, as spurious. Monk only oraits 11. 627-30, and 11.635-7.
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Iphigenia
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Do not be angry with me, mother, if I run from your side and throw myself on my father’s breast.