The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides Part 11

I think I dimly see One chance.

ORESTES.

What chance? Speak out thy fantasy.

IPHIGENIA'.

On thine affliction I would build my way.

ORESTES.

Women have strange devices.

IPHIGENIA.

I would say Thou com'st from h.e.l.las with thy mother's blood Upon thee.

ORESTES.

Use my shame, if any good Will follow.

IPHIGENIA.

Therefore, an offence most high It were to slay thee to the G.o.ddess!

ORESTES.

Why?

Though I half guess.

IPHIGENIA.

Thy body is unclean.-- Oh, I will fill them with the fear of sin!

ORESTES.

What help is that for the Image?

IPHIGENIA.

I will crave To cleanse thee in the breaking of the wave.

ORESTES.

That leaves the G.o.ddess still inside her shrine, And'tis for her we sailed.

IPHIGENIA.

A touch of thine Defiled her. She too must be purified.

ORESTES.

Where shall it be? Thou knowest where the tide Sweeps up in a long channel?

IPHIGENIA.

Yes! And where Your s.h.i.+p, I guess, lies moored.

ORESTES.

Whose hand will bear-- Should it be thine?--the image from her throne?

IPHIGENIA.

No hand of man may touch it save mine own.

ORESTES.

And Pylades--what part hath he herein?

IPHIGENIA.

The same as thine. He bears the self-same sin.

ORESTES.

How wilt thou work the plan--hid from the king Or known?

IPHIGENIA.

To hide it were a hopeless thing..

Oh, I will face him, make him yield to me.

ORESTES.

Well, fifty oars lie waiting on the sea.

IPHIGENIA.

Aye, there comes thy work, till an end be made.

ORESTES.

Good. It needs only that these women aid Our secret. Do thou speak with them, and find Words of persuasion. Power is in the mind Of woman to wake pity.--For the rest, G.o.d knoweth: may it all end for the best!

IPHIGENIA.

O women, you my comrades, in your eyes I look to read my fate. In you it lies, That either I find peace, or be cast down To nothing, robbed for ever of mine own-- Brother, and home, and sister pricelessly Beloved.--Are we not women, you and I, A broken race, to one another true, And strong in our shared secrets? Help me through This strait; keep hid the secret of our flight, And share our peril! Honour s.h.i.+neth bright On her whose lips are steadfast ... Heaven above!

Three souls, but one in fortune, one in love, Thou seest us go--is it to death or home?

If home, then surely, surely, there shall come Part of our joy to thee. I swear, I swear To aid thee also home ...

[she goes to one after another, and presently kneels embracing the knees of the LEADER.]

I make my prayer By that right hand; to thee, too, by that dear Cheek; by thy knees; by all that is not here Of things beloved, by mother, father, child-- Thou hadst a child!--How say ye? Have ye smiled Or turned from me? For if ye turn away, I and my brother are lost things this day.

LEADER.

Be of good heart, sweet mistress. Only go To happiness. No child of man shall know From us thy secret. Hear me, Zeus on high!

IPHIGENIA (rising).

G.o.d bless you for that word, and fill your eye With light!--

[turning to ORESTES and PYLADES.]

But now, to work! Go thou, and thou, In to the deeper shrine. King Thoas now Should soon be here to question if the price Be yet paid of the strangers' sacrifice.

[ORESTES and PYLADES go in.]

Thou Holy One, that on the shrouded sand Of Aulis saved me from a father's hand Blood-maddened, save me now, and save these twain.

Else shall Apollo's lips, through thy disdain, Be no more true nor trusted in men's eyes.

Come from the friendless sh.o.r.e, the cruel skies, Come back: what mak'st thou here, when o'er the sea A clean and joyous land doth call for thee?

[she follows the men into the temple.]