Iphigenia in Tauris [12]
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, IPHIGENIA Whence 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 ORESTES More 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: Equal, by Pallas number'd, were the votes And I from doom of blood victorious freed Such of the Furies as there sat, appeased By the just sentence, nigh the court resolved To fix their seat; but others, whom the law Appeased not, with relentless tortures still Pursued me, till I reach'd the hallow'd soil Of Phoebus: stretch'd before his shrine, I swore Foodless to waste my wretched life away, Unless the god, by whom I was undone, Would save me: from the golden tripod burst The voice divine, and sent me to this shore, Commanding me to bear the image hence, Which fell from Jove, and in the Athenian land To fix it. What the oracular voice assign'd My safety, do thou aid: if we obtain The statue of the goddess, I no more With madness shall be tortured, but this arm Shall place thee in my bark, which ploughs the waves With many an oar, and to Mycenae safe Bear thee again. Show