An unexpected pleasure,O my friends,Have I received;yet fear I from my hands Lest to the air it fly.O sacred hearths Raised by the Cyclops!O my country,loved Mycenae!Now that thou didst give me birth,T thank thee;now I thank thee,that my youth Thou trainedst,since my brother thou has train'd,A beam of light,the glory of his house.
ORESTES
We in our race are happy;but our life,My sister,by misfortunes is unhappy.
IPHIGENIA
I was,I know,unhappy,when the sword My father,frantic,pointed at my neck.
ORESTES
Ah me!methinks ev'n now I see thee there.
IPHIGENIA
When to Achilles,brother,not a bride,I to the sacrifice by guile was led,And tears and groans the altar compass'd round.
ORESTES
Alas,the lavers there!
IPHIGENIA
I mourn'd the deed My father dared;unlike a father's love;Cruel,unlike a father's love,to me.
ORESTES
Ill deeds succeed to ill:if thou hadst slain Thy brother,by some god impell'd,what griefs Must have been thine at such a dreadful deed!
IPHIGENIA (chanting)
Dreadful my brother,O how dreadful!scarce Hast thou escaped a foul,unhallow'd death,Slain by my hands.But how will these things end?
What Fortune will assist me?What safe means Shall I devise to send thee from this state,From slaughter,to thy native land,to Argos,Ere with thy blood the cruel sword be stain'd?
This to devise,O my unhappy soul!
This to devise is thine.Wilt thou by land,Thy bark deserted,speed thy flight on foot?
Perils await thee mid these barbarous tribes,Through pathless wilds;and 'twixt the clashing rocks,Narrow the passage for the flying bark,And long.Unhappy,ah,unhappy me!
What god,what mortal,what unlook'd-for chance Will expedite our dangerous way,and show Two sprung from Atreus a release from ills?
LEADER
What having seen and heard I shall relate,Is marvellous,and passes fabling tales.
PYLADES
When after absence long,Orestes,friend Meets friend,embraces will express their joy.
Behooves us now,bidding farewell to grief,And heedful to obtain the glorious name Of safety,from this barbarous land to fly.
The wise,of fortune not regardless,seize The occasion,and to happiness advance.
ORESTES
Well hast thou said;and Fortune here,I ween,Will aid us;to the firm and strenuous mind More potent works the influence divine.
IPHIGENIA
Nothing shall check,nothing restrain my speech:
First will I question thee what fortune waits Electra:this to know would yield me joy.
ORESTES
With him (pointing to Pylades)she dwells,and happy is her life,IPHIGENIAWhence then is he?and from what father sprung?
ORESTES
From Phocis:Strophius is his father named.
IPHIGENIA
By Atreus'daughter to my blood allied?
ORESTES
Nearly allied:my only faithful friend.
IPHIGENIA
He was not then,me when my father slew.
ORESTES
Childless was Strophius for some length of time.
IPHIGENIA
O thou,the husband of my sister,hail ORESTESMore than relation,my preserver too.
IPHIGENIA
But to thy mother why that dreadful deed?
ORESTES
Of that no more:to avenge my father's death.
IPHIGENIA
But for what cause did she her husband slay?
ORESTES
Of her inquire not:thou wouldst blush to hear.
IPHIGENIA
The eyes of Argos now are raised to thee.
ORESTES
There Menelaus is lord;I,outcast,fly.
IPHIGENIA
Hath he then wrong'd his brother's ruin'd house?
ORESTES
Not so:the Furies fright me from the land.
IPHIGENIA
The madness this,which seized thee on the shore?
ORESTES
I was not first beheld unhappy there.
IPHIGENIA
Stern powers!they haunt thee for thy mother's blood.
ORESTES
And ruthless make me champ the bloody bit.
IPHIGENIA
Why to this region has thou steer'd thy course?
ORESTES
Commanded by Apollo's voice,I come.
IPHIGENIA
With what intent?if that may be disclosed.
ORESTES
I will inform thee,though to length of speech This leads.When vengeance from my hands o'ertook My mother's deeds-foul deeds,which let me pass In silence-by the Furies'fierce assaults To flight I was impell'd:to Athens then Apollo sent me,that,my cause there heard,I might appease the vengeful powers,whose names May not be utter'd:the tribunal there Is holy,which for Mars,when stain'd with blood,Jove in old times establish'd.There arrived,None willingly received me,by the gods As one abhorr'd;and they,who felt the touch Of shame,the hospitable board alone Yielded;and though one common roof beneath,Their silence showing they disdain'd to hold Converse with me,I took from them apart A lone repast;to each was placed a bowl Of the same measure;this they filled with wine,And bathed their spirits in delight.Unmeet I deem'd it to express offence at those Who entertain'd me,but in silence grieved,Showing a cheer as though I mark'd it not,And sigh'd for that I shed my mother's blood.
A feast,I hear,at Athens is ordain'd From this my evil plight,ev'n yet observed,In which the equal-measured bowl then used Is by that people held in honour high.
But when to the tribunal on the mount Of Mars I came,one stand I took,and one The eldest of the Furies opposite:
The cause was heard touching my mother's blood,And Phoebus saved me by his evidence: