EURIPIDES
As you have chosen then, so let it be.
Your friend shall take the letter, and you prove 615
Your loyalty by giving him your life.
Orestes
Whose hand is it that brings the touch of death?
Iphigenia
My hand—condemned to it by Artemis.
Orestes
Your hand is still too young a hand for that.
Iphigenia
It is the law. 620
Orestes
That a woman shall stab men?
Iphigenia
Not that! Oh not the knife! Only the water,
The marking on the forehead—only the water!
Orestes
Whose hand then does the deed, uses the knife?
Iphigenia
Inside the temple—there are men for it.
Orestes
When I am burnt, what happens to my body? 625
Iphigenia
They seal the ashes in a rocky gorge.
Orestes
I wish my sister's hand might tend my body.
Iphigenia
Since she is far away and cannot hear you