Euripides' IPHIGENIA AT AULIS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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80 pages - You are on Page 70

Chorus: Thou playest a noble part, maiden; but sickly are the whims
of Fate and the goddess.

Achilles: Daughter of Agamemnon I some god was bent on blessing me,
could I but have won thee for my wife. In thee I reckon Hellas happy,
and thee in Hellas; for this that thou hast said is good and worthy
of thy fatherland; since thou, abandoning a strife with heavenly powers,
which are too strong for thee, has fairly weighed advantages and needs.
But now that I have looked into thy noble nature, I feel still more
a fond desire to win thee for my bride. Look to it; for I would fain
serve thee and receive thee in my halls; and witness Thetis, how I
grieve to think I shall not save thy life by doing battle with the
Danai. Reflect, I say; a dreadful ill is death.

Iphigenia: This I say, without regard to anyone. Enough that the daughter
of Tyndareus is causing wars and bloodshed by her beauty; then be
not slain thyself, sir stranger, nor seek to slay another on my account;
but let me, if I can, save Hellas.

Achilles: Heroic spirit! I can say no more to this, since thou art
so minded; for thine is a noble resolve; why should not one avow the
truth? Yet will I speak, for thou wilt haply change thy mind; that
thou mayst know then what my offer is, I will go and place these arms
of mine near the altar, resolved not to permit thy death but to prevent
it; for brave as thou art, at sight of the knife held at thy throat,
thou wilt soon avail thyself of what I said. So I will not let thee
perish through any thoughtlessness of thine, but will go to the temple
of the goddess with these arms and await thy arrival there. (Exit
Achilles.)

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