Iphigenia in Tauris [11]
First let me mention things which I have heard Electra speak: to thee is known the strife Which fierce 'twixt Atreus and Thyestes rose. IPHIGENIA Yes, I have heard it; for the golden ram,- ORESTES In the rich texture didst thou not inweave it? IPHIGENIA O thou most dear! Thou windest near my heart. ORESTES And image in the web the averted sun? IPHIGENIA In the fine threads that figure did I work. ORESTES For Aulis did thy mother bathe thy limbs? IPHIGENIA I know it, to unlucky spousals led. ORESTES Why to thy mother didst thou send thy locks? IPHIGENIA Devoted for my body to the tomb. ORESTES What I myself have seen I now as proofs Will mention. In thy father's house, hung high Within thy virgin chambers, the old spear Of Pelops, which he brandish'd when he slew Oenomaus, and won his beauteous bride, The virgin Hippodamia, Pisa's boast. IPHIGENIA O thou most dear (for thou art he), most dear Acknowledged, thee, Orestes, do I hold, From Argos, from thy country distant far? ORESTES And hold I thee, my sister, long deem'd dead? Grief mix'd with joy, and tears, not taught by woe To rise, stand melting in thy eyes and mine. IPHIGENIA Thee yet an infant in thy nurse's arms I left, a babe I left thee in the house. Thou art more happy, O my soul, than speech Knows to express. What shall I say? 'tis all Surpassing wonder and the power of words. ORESTES May we together from this hour be bless'd! IPHIGENIA 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