Euripides' IPHIGENIA AT AULIS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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80 pages - You are on Page 61

Chorus: Ah, wretched Helen! Awful the struggle that has come to the
sons of Atreus and their children, thanks to thee and those marriages
of thine.

Agamemnon: While loving my own children, I yet understand what should
move my pity and what should not; I were a madman else. 'Tis terrible
for me to bring myself to this, nor less terrible is it to refuse,
daughter; for I must fare the same. Ye see the vastness of von naval
host, and the numbers of bronze clad warriors from Hellas, who can
neither make their way to Ilium's towers nor raze the far-famed citadel
of Troy, unless I offer thee according to the word of Calchas the
seer. Some mad desire possesses the host of Hellas to sail forthwith
to the land of the barbarians, and put a stop to the rape of wives
from Hellas, and they will slay my daughters in Argos as well as you
and me, if I disregard the goddess's behests. It is not Menelaus who
hath enslaved me to him, child, nor have I followed wish of his; nay,
'tis Hellas, for whom I must sacrifice thee whether I will or no;
to this necessity I bow my head; for her freedom must be preserved,
as far as any help of thine, daughter, or mine can go; nor must they,
who are the sons Hellas, be pillaged of their wives by barbarian robbery.

Agamemnon: rushes from the stage

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