Euripides' IPHIGENIA AT AULIS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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80 pages - You are on Page 38

Chorus: They say the Hellenes' gathered host will come in arms aboard
their ships to Simois with its silver eddies, even to Ilium, the plain
of Troy beloved by Phoebus; where famed Cassandra, I am told, whene'er
the god's resistless prophecies inspire her, wildly tosses her golden
tresses, wreathed with crown of verdant bay. And on the towers of
Troy and round her walls shall Trojans stand, when sea-borne troops
with brazen shields row in on shapely ships to the channels of the
Simois, eager to take Helen, the sister of that heavenly pair whom
Zeus begat, from Priam, and bear her back to Hellas by toil of Achaea's
shields and spears; encircling Pergamus, the Phrygians' town, with
murderous war around her stone-built towers, dragging men's heads
backward to cut their throats, and sacking the citadel of Troy from
roof to base, a cause of many tears to maids and Priam's wife; and
Helen, the daughter of Zeus, shall weep in bitter grief, because she
left her lord.

Oh! ne'er may there appear to me or to my children's children the
prospect which the wealthy Lydian dames and Phrygia's brides will
have, as at their looms they hold converse: "Say who will pluck this
fair blossom from her ruined country, tightening his grasp on lovely
tresses till the tears flow? 'Tis all through thee, the offspring
of the long-necked swan; if indeed it be a true report that Leda bare
thee to a winged bird, when Zeus transformed himself thereto, or whether,
in the pages of the poets, fables have carried these tales to men's
ears idly, out of season." (Enter Achilles.)

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