Iphigenia in Aulis
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Chorus
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The son of Atreus, encircling Pergamus, the Phrygians’ town, with murderous war
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around her stone-built towers, dragging Paris’s head backward to cut his throat and sacking the cityThe words πόλισμα Τροίας are omitted by Monk as a gloss on πόλιν. Hartung regards 11. 773-83 as interpolated, and there is certainly much in them that Euripides can scarcely have written; both Dindorf and Kirchhoff reject large portions of what follows 1. 773. from roof to base, shall be a cause of many tears to maids and
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Priam’s wife. And Helen, the daughter of Zeus, shallἐσεῖται. Hermann gives εἴσεται, shall know to her cost. weep in bitter grief because she left her lord.
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Never may there appear to me or to my children’s children
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the prospect which the wealthy Lydian ladies and Phrygia’s brides will havePerhaps Tyrrwhitt’s σχήσουσι should be read for στήσουσι. as at their looms they converse:
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Tell me, who will pluck me away from my ruined country, tightening his grasp on lovely tresses till the tears flow? it is all through you, the offspring of the long-necked swan; if indeed it is a true report
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that Leda boreReading ἔτεκεν with Musgrave for ἔτυχεν. you to a winged bird, when Zeus transformed himself there, or whether, in the tablets of the poets, fables have carried these tales to men’s ears
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idly, out of season.
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Achilles
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Where is Achaea’s general? Which of his servants will announce to him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is at his gates seeking him? For this delay at the Euripus is not the same for all of us;
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there are some, for instance, who, bing still unwed, have left their houses desolate and are idling here upon the beach, while others are married but without children;Reading καὶ παῖδας with Musgrave for ἄπαιδες. so strange the longing for this expedition that has fallen on their hearts by the will of the gods.τῆσδε στρατείας οὐκ ἄνευ θεῶν τινός. Hennig rejects 11. 805-9.
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My own just plea I must declare, and whoever else has any wish will speak for himself. Though I have left Pharsalia, and Peleus, still I lingerKirchhoff marks a lacuna of three lines after 1. 812 on the authority of one MS.; it is possible, however, that the passage is continuous, and an attempt has been made here to treat it as such. here by reason of these light breezes at the Euripus, restraining my Myrmidons, while they are always pressing on me,
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saying: Why do we tarry, Achilles? how much longer must we count the days to the start for Ilium? do something if you are so minded; or lead home your men, and do not wait for the tardy action of these Atridae.
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Clytemnestra
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Hail to you, son of the Nereid goddess! I heard your voice
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from within the tent and came forth.
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Achilles
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O modesty revered! who can this lady be whom I behold, so richly dowered with beauty’s gifts?
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Clytemnestra
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No wonder you do not know me, seeing I am one you have never before set eyes on; I praise your reverent address to modesty.
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Achilles
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Who are you, and why have you come to the mustering of the Danaids—you, a woman, to a fenced camp of men?
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Clytemnestra
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I am the daughter of Leda; my name is Clytemnestra; and my husband king Agamemnon.
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Achilles
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Well and shortly answered on all important points,
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but it is shameful for me to stand talking to women.
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Clytemnestra
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Stay; why seek to escape? give me your hand, a prelude to a happy marriage.
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Achilles
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What is it you say? I give you my hand? To lay a finger where I have no right, I could never meet Agamemnon’s eye.
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Clytemnestra
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The best of rights you have, seeing it is my child you will wed, O son of the sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus.
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Achilles
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What wedding do you speak of? Words fail me, lady; can your wits have gone astray and are you inventing this?
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Clytemnestra
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All men are naturally shy in the presence of new relations,
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when these remindμεμνημένους, so Hermann and Dindorf; if μεμνημένοις be retained from the MSS., the meaning must be when they call their marriage to mind; the latter is preferred by Kirchhoff and Monk. them of their wedding.
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Achilles
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Lady, I have never courted your daughter, nor have the sons of Atreus ever mentioned marriage to me.
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Clytemnestra
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What can it mean? Your turn now to marvel at my words, for yours are very strange to me.
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Achilles
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Hazard a guess; that we can both do in this matter; for it may be we are both correct in our statements.i.e., we may both be right, but at cross purposes. Markland proposes ἐφευδόμεθα, we may both have been deceived in what we say.
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Clytemnestra
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What! have I suffered such indignity? The marriage I am courting has no reality it seems; I am ashmed of it.
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Achilles
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Some one perhaps has made a mock of you and me;
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pay no heed to it; make light of it.
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Clytemnestra
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Farewell; I can no longer face you with unfaltering eyes, after being made a liar and suffering undeservedly.
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Achilles
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It is farewell I bid you too, lady; and I go within the tent to seek your husband.
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Old man
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Stranger of the race of Aeacus, stay awhile! Ho there! I mean you, O goddess-born, and you, daughter of Leda.
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Achilles
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Who is it calling through the half-opened door? What fear his voice betrays!
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Old man
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A slave; of that I am not proud, for fortune does not permit it.
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Achilles
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Whose slave are you? not mine; for mine and Agamemnon’s goods are separate.
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Old man
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I belong to this lady who stands before the tent, a gift to her from Tyndareus her father.
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Achilles
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I am waiting; tell me, if you are desirous, why you have stopped me.
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Old man
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Are you really all alone here at the door?
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Achilles
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To us alone will you address yourself; come forth from the king’s tent.
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Old man
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O Fortune and my own foresight, preserve whom I desire!
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Achilles
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That speech will saveReading σώσει, Monk’s correction for ἀν ὤση. Others read ἀνοίσε with Markland, or ὀνήσει with Böckh. them in the future; it has a certain pompous air.
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Clytemnestra
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Delay not for the sake of touching my right hand, if there is anything that you would say to me.
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Old man
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Well, you know my character and my devotion to you and your children.
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Clytemnestra
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I know you have grown old in the service of my house.
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Old man
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Likewise you know it was in your dowry king Agamemnon received me.
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Clytemnestra
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Yes, you came to Argos with me, and have been mine this long time past.
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Old man
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True; and I bear all goodwill to you, less to your husband.
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Clytemnestra
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Come, come, unfold whatever you have to say.
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Old man
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Her father, he that begot her, is on the point of slaying your daughter with his own hand.
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Clytemnestra
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How? That for your story, old man! you are mad.
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Old man
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Severing with a sword the hapless girl’s white throat.
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Clytemnestra
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Ah, alas for me! Does my husband happen to have gone mad?
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Old man
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No; he is sane, except where you and your daughter are concerned; there he is mad.
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Clytemnestra
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What is his reason? what vengeful fiend impels him?
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Old man
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Oracles, at least so Calchas says, in order that the army may start—
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Clytemnestra
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Where? Alas for me, and for the one her father is going to kill!
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Old man
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To the halls of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
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Clytemnestra
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So Helen’s return then was fated to affect Iphigenia?
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Old man
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You know all; her father is about to offer your child to Artemis.
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Clytemnestra
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But that marriage—what pretext had it for bringing me from home?
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Old man
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An inducement to you to bring your daughter cheerfully, to wed her to Achilles.
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Clytemnestra
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On a deadly errand have you come, my daughter, both you, and I, your mother.
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Old man
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Piteous the lot of both of you, and dreadful Agamemnon’s venture.
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Clytemnestra
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Alas, I am undone; my eyes can no longer hold their tears.
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Old man
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If the lossReading with Wecklein εἴπερ ἄλλ᾽ εἰκὸς. Paley retains the old reading εἴπερ ἀλγεινὸν. Hartung gives οὐ γὰρ ἄλογόν ἐστι. Kirchhoff οὐ γὰρ ἀλλ᾽ εἰκὸς. of children is painful, shed your tears.
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Clytemnestra
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From where, old man, do you say you had this news?
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Old man
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I had started to carry you a letter referring to the former writing.
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Clytemnestra
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Forbidding or combining to urge my bringing the child to her death?
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Old man
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No, forbidding it, for your lord was then in his sober senses.
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Clytemnestra
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How comes it then, if you were really bringing me a letter, that you do not now deliver it into my hands?
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Old man
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Menelaus snatched it from me, he who caused this trouble.
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Clytemnestra
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Do you hear that, son of Peleus, the Nereid’s child?
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Achilles
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I have been listening to the tale of your sufferings, and I do not bear my own lightly.
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Clytemnestra
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They will slay my child; they have tricked her with your marriage.
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Achilles
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Like you I blame your lord, nor do I view it with mere indifference.
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Clytemnestra
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No longer will I let shameReading οὐκέτ᾽ αἰδεσθησόμεσθα, a conjecture of Nauck and Hermann’s. Paley regards 11. 900-2 as spurious. prevent my kneeling to you, a mortal to one goddess-born; why do I affect reserve? whose interests should I consult before my child’s? Throwing herself before Achilles. Oh! help me, goddess-born, in my sore distress, and her that was called your bride, in vain, it is true, yet called she was.
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For you it was I wreathed her head and led her forth as if to marriage, but now it is to slaughter I am bringing her. On you will come reproach because you did not help her; for though not wedded to her, yet were you the loving husband of my hapless girl in name at any rate. By your beard, your right hand, and mother too I do implore you;
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for your name it was that worked my ruin, and you are bound to stand by that. Except your knees I have no altar to fly to; and not a friend standsReading πέλας with Markland for MSS. γελᾷ, a conjecture adopted by Hermann and Monk. at my side. You have heard the cruel abandoned scheme of Agamemnon; and I, a woman, have come, as you see, to a camp of lawless sailor-folk, bold in evil’s cause,
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though useful when they wish; Now if you boldly stretch forth your arm in my behalf, our safety is assured; but if not, we are lost.
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Chorus Leader
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A strange thing is motherhood, carrying with it a potent spell, in which all share, so that for their children’s sake they will endure affliction.
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Achilles
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On the following speech Paley has this remark: there are very grave reasons for doubting whether the genuine speech of Achilles has not been superseded, either wholly or in part, by the verses of a cunning imitator. The reasoning throughout is extremely difficult to follow, if indeed possible, and there are numerous exceptional phrases. Dindorf incloses large portions of this speech in brackets, but it is hard to see why he decides one part to be more suspicious than another.My proud spirit is stirred to range aloft, butI have learned to grieve in misfortune
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and rejoice in high prosperity with equal moderation. For these are the men who can count on ordering all their life rightly by wisdom’s rules. True, there are cases where it is pleasant not to be too wise,
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but there are others, where some store of wisdom helps. Brought up in godly Chiron’s halls myself, I learned to keep a single heart; and provided the Atridae lead well, I will obey them; but when they cease from that, no more will I obey;
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no, but here and in Troy I will show the freedom of my nature, and, as far as in me lies, do honor to Ares with my spear. You, lady, who have suffered so cruelly from your nearest and dearest, I will, by every effort in a young man’s power, set right, investing you with that amount of pity
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and never shall your daughter, after being once called my bride, die by her father’s hand; for I will not lend myself to your husband’s subtle tricks; no! for it will be my name that kills your child, although it does not wield the sword. Your own husband
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is the actual cause, but I shall no longer be guiltless, if, because of me and my marriage, this maiden perishes, she that has suffered past endurance and been the victim of affronts most strangely undeserved.
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So am I made the poorest wretch in Argos;
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I a thing of nothing, and Menelaus counting for a man! No son of Peleus I, but the issue of a vengeful fiend, if my name shallReading φονεύσει with Schäfer. serve your husband for the murder. No! by Nereus, who begot my mother Thetis, in his home amid the flowing waves,
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never shall king Agamemnon touch your daughter, no! not even to the laying of a finger-tip upon her robe; or SipylusA mountain in Lycia, near which was shown the grave of Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atridae; the town of the same name was swallowed up in very early times by an earthquake., that frontier town of barbarism, the cradle of those chieftains’ line, will be henceforth a city indeed, while Phthia’s name will nowhere find mention.
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Calchas, the seer, shall rue beginning the sacrifice with his barley-meal and lustral water. Why, what is a seer? A man who with luck tells the truth sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there.
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It is not to secure a bride that I have spoken thus—there are maids unnumbered
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eager to have my loveReading οὐ for ἧ, and regarding μυρίαι—τοὐμὸν as parenthetical, which in the main is the view taken by Nauck and Klotz of this very nnsatisfactory passage. Paley, regarding it as an interpolation, disdains to emend it.—no! but king Agamemnon has put an insult on me; he should have asked my leave to use my name as a means to catch the child, for it was Ii.e., it was my rank, etc., as described by Agamemnon, that carried the day, and, such being the case, I ought to have had some voice in the matter. (Paley.) chiefly who induced Clytemnestra to betroth her daughter to me;
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I would had yielded this to Hellas, if that was where our going to Ilium broke down; I would never have refused to further my fellow soldiers’ common interest. But as it is, I am as nothing in the eyes of those chieftains, and little they care of treating me well or ill.
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My sword shall soon know if any one is to snatch your daughter from me, for then will I make it reek with the bloody stains of slaughter, before it reach Phrygia.Porson, whom Monk follows, corrects this passage thus: ὃν, πρὶν εἰσ᾽ Φρύγας | ἐλθεῖν φόνον, κλῖσιν αἵματος χρανῶ, an ingenious but not absolutely necessary emendation. Calm yourself then; as a god in his might I appeared to you, without being so, but such will I show myself for all that.
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Chorus Leader
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Son of Peleus, your words are alike worthy of you and that sea-born deity, the holy goddess.
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Clytemnestra
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Ah! would I could find words to utter your praise without excess, and yet not lose the graciousness of it by stinting it; for when the good are praised, they have some sort of feeling
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of hatred for those who in their praise exceed the mean. But I am ashamed of intruding a tale of woe, since my affliction touches myself alone and you are not affected by troubles of mine; but still it looks well for the man of worth to assist the unfortunate, even when he is not connected with then.