Complete Works of Euripides

by Euripides

  IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?

  OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!

  IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.

  OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.

  IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?

  OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycenæ.

  IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of Laertes?

  OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report goes.

  IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!

  OR. Invoke nothing — all his affairs are in a sickly state.

  IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?

  OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.

  IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.

  OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!

  IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.

  OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.

  IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.

  OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.

  IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.

  OR. I know not — cease from these words, O lady.

  IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O stranger.

  OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.

  IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!

  OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?

  IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.

  OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a woman.

  IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!

  OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.

  IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?

  OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.

  IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?

  OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.

  IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.

  OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.

  IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?

  OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.

  IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?

  OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.

  IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!

  OR. She perished, a thankless offering because of a bad woman.

  IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?

  OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.

  IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!

  OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged dreams. There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among mortals. But one thing alone is left, when a man not being foolish, persuaded by the words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man’s knowledge.

  CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are they not in being, who can tell?

  IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is at once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly produced thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if I were to save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my friends there, and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying me, nor deeming my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through custom, as the Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one who would go and bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved, would send my letters to some one of my friends. But do thou, for thou art, as thou seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycenæ and the persons I wish, do thou, I say, be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety for the sake of trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels it, be a sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.

  OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady, for ’tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was steersman of the vessel to these ills, but he is a fellow-sailor because of mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do thee a favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting his friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend, who I fain should see the light no less that myself.

  IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root, thou truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my brothers! For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I behold him not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing the letter, but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to possess thee?

  OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?

  IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty from the Goddess.

  OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.

  IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.

  OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?

  IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral stream.

  OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?

  IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.

  OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?

  IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.

  OR. Alas! Would that a sister’s hand might lay me out.

  IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger, for she dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art an Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For on thy tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I cause thy body to be soon consumed, and on thy pyre will I pour the flower-sucked riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the letter from the shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will against me. Guard them, ye servants, [but] without fetters. Perchance I shall send unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I chiefly love, and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he thinks dead, will announce a faithful pleasure.

  CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral waters.

  OR. ’Tis piteous, truly; but fare ye well, stranger ladies.

  CHOR. But thee, (to Pylades) O youth, we honor for thy happy fortune, that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.

  PYL. Not to be coveted by friends, when friends are to die.

  CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe! which is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves twain doubtful [ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (to Orestes) or thee (to Pylades) first.

  OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as myself?

  PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.

  OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us concerning the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas wise in augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched Agamemnon, and asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is some Greek by race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.

  PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in saying the same things, save in one respect — for all, with whom there is any communication, know the fate of the king. But I was considering another subject.

  OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.

  PYL. ’Tis base that I should behold the light,
while you perish; and, having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian land with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are evil, to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee, or even to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of thine house, and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in order that, forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress. These things, then, I dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe my last with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and dreading reproach.

  OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I [have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from my sister, whom I gave thee to have as a wife, and my name might exist, nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell in my father’s house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos, by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman’s hand, sacrificed as an offering by the altar’s side. And do thou never desert my sister, seeing my father’s connections and home bereaved. And fare thee well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my sorrows! But Phœbus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words, having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.

  PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy sister’s bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.

  OR. Be silent — the words of Phœbus avail me naught, for the lady is coming hither without the temple.

  IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear, lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account, who is about to bear this letter to Argos.

  OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?

  IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos, to those friends to whom I wish to send them.

  OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?

  IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.

  OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.

  IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?

  OR. But will the ruler also grant this?

  IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the ship’s hull.

  OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.

  IPH. Thou must say “I will give this [letter] to my friends.”

  PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.

  IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.

  PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these words?

  IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.

  PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.

  IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me —

  PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not —

  IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.

  PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.

  IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.

  PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and the letter be lost in the storm, together with the goods, and I save my person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.

  IPH. Knowest thou what I will do? for the many things contained in the folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things. I will tell you in words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe. If indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body, thou wilt preserve my message.

  PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods and of myself. But tell me to whom at Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing from thee, I must tell.

  IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (reading) “she that was sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no longer alive as far as those in Argos are concerned.”

  OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?

  IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (Continues reading) “Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from this barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have the office of slaying strangers.”

  OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?

  IPH. (still reading) “Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine house, Orestes,” (with great stress upon the name and turning to Pylades,) “that thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it.”

  PYL. O Gods!

  IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?

  PYL. ’Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject. Perchance, inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.

  IPH. (continues reading) “Say that the Goddess Diana saved me, giving in exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking that it was upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to dwell in this land.” This is the burden of my message, these are the words written in my letter.

  PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the oath I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O Orestes, from this thy sister.

  OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will first seize a delight not in words (attempts to embrace her). O dearest sister mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a doubting arm, I go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to me.

  CHOR. Stranger, thou dost not rightly pollute the servant of the Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should ne’er be touched.

  OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me, possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.

  IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos and Nauplia are frequented by him.

  OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.

  IPH. But did the Lacedæmonian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?

  OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.

  IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?

  OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.

  IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.

  OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this. Thou knowest the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?

  IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.

  OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the deftly-wrought web?

  IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own thoughts.

  OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the sun?

 
IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.

  OR. And didst thou receive a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?

  IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my recollection.

  OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried to thy mother?

  IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb in place of my body.

  OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the ancient spear of Pelops in my father’s house, which brandishing in his hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain Ænomaus, which is hidden in thy virgin chamber.

  IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes, one darling son far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear one!

  OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet tearless, and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids, and mine in like manner.

  IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay, young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words can tell, what shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.

  OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!

  IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I fear lest it flit from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenæ, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this brother light in my home.

  OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life is by nature unhappy.

  IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the sword upon my neck.

  OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.

  IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations. Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!

  OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.

  IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows upon another.

  OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the intervention of some demon.

  IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy blood? This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over the land, not in a ship, but by the gust of your feet thou wilt approach death, passing through barbarian hordes, and through ways not to be traversed? Or [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or mortal, or [unexpected event,] having accomplished a way out of inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a release from ills?