Iphigenia in Aulis
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Clytemnestra
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Hail! my honored lord, king Agamemnon! we have obeyed your commands and have come.These two lines were placed here by Porson instead of after the next distich; the same critic read προσβαλῶ and περιβαλεῖν instead of περιβαλῶ and προσβαλεῖν; both of which changes are followed in the translation, though Paley, while mentioning the second, has not actually adopted it in his text.
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Iphigenia
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O my father! I long to outrun others and embrace you after this long while; for I yearn to see your face; do not be angry with me.
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Clytemnestra
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You may do so, daughter; for of all the children I have borne, you have always loved your father best.
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Iphigenia
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I see you, father, joyfully after a long time.
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Agamemnon
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And I, your father, see you; your words do equal duty for both of us.
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Iphigenia
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All hail, father! you did well in bringing me here to you.
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Agamemnon
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I know not how I am to say yes or no to that, my child.
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Iphigenia
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Ah! how wildly you are looking, spite of your joy at seeing me.
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Agamemnon
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A man has many cares when he is king and general too.
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Iphigenia
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Be mine, all mine today; do not turn to moody thoughts.
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Agamemnon
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Why so I am, all yours today; I have no other thought.
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Iphigenia
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Then smooth your knitted brow, unbend and smile.
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Agamemnon
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See! my child, my joy at seeing you is even as it is.
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Iphigenia
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And do you then have tears streaming from your eyes?
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Agamemnon
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Yes, for long is the absence from each other, that awaits us.
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Iphigenia
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I do not know, dear father, I do not know of what you are speaking.This line is corrupt, though the sense, so far, is preserved. Dindorf suspects 11. 652-5, and it certainly is difficult to see the connection of 1. 652 with what precedes. Paley suggests that several lines have been lost.
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Agamemnon
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You are moving my pity all the more by speaking so sensibly.
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Iphigenia
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My words shall turn to senselessness if that will cheer you more.
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Agamemnon
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Alas! this silence is too much. You have my thanks.
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Iphigenia
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Stay with your children at home, father.
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Agamemnon
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My own wish!θέλω γε· τὸ θέλειν δ᾽ but the words are probably corrupt. But to my sorrow I may not
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Iphigenia
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Ruin seize their wars and the woes of Menelaus!
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Agamemnon
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First will that, which has been my life-long ruin, bring ruin to others.ἄλλους ὀλεῖ πρόσθ᾽ ἁμὲ διολέσαντ᾽ ἔχει. None of the various proposed emendations are great improvements on this reading of Porson’s, though it is hardly likely that this is what Euripides wrote.
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Iphigenia
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How long you were absent in the bays of Aulis!
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Agamemnon
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Yes, and there is still a hindrance to my sending the army forward.
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Iphigenia
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Where do men say the Phrygians live, father?
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Agamemnon
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In a land where I wish Paris, the son of Priam, never had dwelt.
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Iphigenia
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It is a long voyage you are bound on, father, after you leave me.
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Agamemnon
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You will meet your father again, my daughter.
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Iphigenia
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Ah! would it were seemly for you to take me as a fellow voyager!These two lines, 665-6 are corrupt, probably interpolated, in Paley’s opinion. Omitting them, 1. 667 comes in very properly. To obtain any sense in the first of them, Weil’s correction, ἐς ταὐτὸν αὗθις, ὦ θύγατερ ἥξεις πατρί has been adopted; the meaning being, we shall meet after death.
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Agamemnon
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You too haveReading ἀλλ᾽ ἔστι, Hermann’s correction for MSS. αἰτεῖς τι. a voyage to make to a haven where you will remember your father.
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Iphigenia
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Shall I sail there with my mother or alone?
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Agamemnon
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All alone, without father or mother.
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Iphigenia
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What! have you found me a new home, father?
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Agamemnon
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Enough of this! it is not for girls to know such things.
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Iphigenia
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Please hurry home from Troy, father, as soon as you have triumphed there.
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Agamemnon
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There is a sacrifice I have first to offer here.
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Iphigenia
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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.
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Agamemnon
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You will witness it, for you will be standing near the libations.
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Iphigenia
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Am I to lead the dance then round the altar, father?
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Agamemnon
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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,
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on the eve of your lengthy sojourn far from your father’s side.
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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.
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Go into the house. Exit Iphigenia.
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commits his children to the homes of strangers.
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Clytemnestra
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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.
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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.
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Agamemnon
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There was one Aegina, the daughter of Asopus.
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Clytemnestra
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Who wedded her? Some mortal or a god?
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Agamemnon
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Zeus, and she bore Aeacus, the prince of Oenone.The old name of Aegina.
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Clytemnestra
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What son of Aeacus secured his father’s halls?
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Agamemnon
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Peleus, who wedded the daughter of Nereus.
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Clytemnestra
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With the god’s consent, or when he had taken her in spite of gods?
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Agamemnon
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Zeus betrothed her, and her guardian gave consent.
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Clytemnestra
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Where did he marry her? in the billows of the sea?
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Agamemnon
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In Chiron’s home, at sacred Pelion’s foot.
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Clytemnestra
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What! the abode ascribed to the race of Centaurs?
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Agamemnon
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It was there the gods celebrated the marriage feast of Peleus.
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Clytemnestra
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Did Thetis or his father train Achilles?
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Agamemnon
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Chiron brought him up, to prevent his learning the ways of the wicked.
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Clytemnestra
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Ah! wise the teacher, still wiser the one who gave his son.
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Agamemnon
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Such is the future husband of your daughter.
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Clytemnestra
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A blameless lord; but what city in Hellas is his?
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Agamemnon
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He dwells on the banks of the river Apidanus, in the borders of Phthia.
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Clytemnestra
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Will you conveyἀπάξεις, so Dobree for ἀπάξει. our daughter there?
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Agamemnon
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He who takes her to himself will see to that.
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Clytemnestra
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Happiness attend the pair! Which day will he marry her?
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Agamemnon
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As soon as the full moon comes to give its blessing
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Clytemnestra
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Have you already offered the goddess a sacrifice to usher in the maiden’s marriage?
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Agamemnon
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I am about to do so; that is the very thing I was engaged in.
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Clytemnestra
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And then will you celebrate the marriage feast afterwards?
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Agamemnon
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Yes, when I have offered a sacrifice required by the gods of me.
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Clytemnestra
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But where am I to make ready the feast for the women?
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Agamemnon
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Here beside our gallant Argive ships.
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Clytemnestra
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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!
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Agamemnon
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Do you know what to do, lady? Then obey me.
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Clytemnestra
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In what matter? for I was ever accustomed to obey you.
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Agamemnon
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Here, where the bridegroom is, I will—
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Clytemnestra
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Which of my duties will you perform in the mother’s absence?
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Agamemnon
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Give your child away with help of Danaids.
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Clytemnestra
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And where am I to be then?
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Agamemnon
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Go to Argos, and take care of your unwedded daughters.
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Clytemnestra
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And leave my child? Then who will raise her bridal torch?
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Agamemnon
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I will provide the proper wedding torch.
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Clytemnestra
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That is not the custom; but you think lightly of these things.
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Agamemnon
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It is not good for you to be alone among a soldier-crowd.
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Clytemnestra
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It is good that a mother should give her own child away.
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Agamemnon
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Yes, and that those maidens at home should not be left alone.
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Clytemnestra
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They are well guarded in their maiden bowers.
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Agamemnon
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Obey.
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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.
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Agamemnon
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Woe is me! my efforts are baffled; I am disappointed in my hope, anxious as I was to get my wife out of sight; foiled at every point,
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I form my plots and subtle schemes against my best-beloved. But I will go, in spite of all, with Calchas the priest, to inquire the goddess’s good pleasure, fraught with ill-luck as it is to me, and with trouble to Hellas.Lines 746-8 are rejected by Monk, whom most editors follow. He who is wise should keep in his house
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a good and useful wife or none at all.
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Chorus
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The Hellenes’ gathered army will come in arms aboard their ships to Simois with its silver eddies,
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to Ilium, the plain of Troy beloved by Phoebus; where Cassandra, I am told, wildly tosses her golden tresses, wreathed with crown of green laurel,
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whenever the god’s resistless prophecies inspire her.
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Chorus
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And on the towers of Troy and round her walls shall Trojans stand, when sea-borne troops
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with brazen shields row in on shapely ships to the channels of the Simois, eager to take Helen, the sister of that heavenly pair whom Zeus begot, from Priam, and bear her back to Hellas by toil
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of Achaean shields and spears.