Euripides' IPHIGENIA AT AULIS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

80 pages - You are on Page 20

Menelaus: (Offering his hand) Thy hand, brother! let me grasp it.

Agamemnon: I give it; thine is the victory, mine the sorrow.

Menelaus: By Pelops our reputed grandsire and Atreus our father I
swear to tell thee the truth from my heart, without any covert purpose,
but only what I think. The sight of thee in tears made me pity thee,
and in return I shed a tear for thee myself; I withdraw from my former
proposals, ceasing to be a cause of fear to thee; yea, and I will
put myself in thy present position; and I counsel thee, slay not thy
child nor prefer my interests to thine; for it is not just that thou
shouldst grieve, while I am glad, or that thy children should die,
while mine still see the light of day. What is it, after all, I seek?
If I am set on marriage, could I not find a bride as choice elsewhere?
Was I to lose a brother-the last I should have lost-to win a Helen,
getting bad for good? I was mad, impetuous as a youth, till I perceived,
on closer view, what slaying children really meant. Moreover I am
filled with compassion for the hapless maiden, doomed to bleed that
I may wed, when I reflect that we are kin. What has thy daughter to
do with Helen? Let the army be disbanded and leave Aulis; dry those
streaming eyes, brother, and provoke me not to tears. Whatever concern
thou hast in oracles that affect thy child, let it be none of mine;
into thy hands I resign my share therein. A sudden change, thou'lt
say, from my fell proposals! A natural course for me; affection for
my brother caused the change. These are the ways of a man not void
of virtue, to pursue on each occasion what is best.

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