EURIPIDES
Iphigenia
May Heaven reward the hearts behind those words!
(To. Orestes and Pylades.)
Now for your part—and yours—inside the temple.
The king will soon arrive and will be asking 1080
Whether the strangers have been sacrificed.
(Orestes and Pylades enter the temple.)
O gallant Goddess, having saved me once
At Aulis from my father's deadly hand,
Save with me now my brother and his friend,
Lest Phoebus be disproved because of Thee
And men forsake His oracle. O come 1085
In gracious might away from this bleak place,
Away from gloom, to the lovely light of Athens.
(She follows into the temple.)
The First Maiden
0 sad-voiced ocean-bird, heard in the foam
Low by the rocky ledge 1090
Singing a note unhappy hearts can hear,
The song of separation from your mate,
The moan of separation,
1 have no wings to seek like you, but I
Can sing a song like you, 1095
A song of separation from my mate.
The Second Maiden
At home in Hellas now my kinsmen gather
Where Artemis is due
To bless the new-born from her Cynthian hill
And soothe the mothers with the cooling palm
And bay and olive-tree, 1100
Where once Latona loved the winding streams
And watched the rounded pools
White with the song-like motion of the swans. 1105
420