The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides Part 12

CHORUS.

[STROPHE I.]

Bird of the sea rocks, of the bursting spray, O halcyon bird, That wheelest crying, crying, on thy way; Who knoweth grief can read the tale of thee: One love long lost, one song for ever heard And wings that sweep the sea.

Sister, I too beside the sea complain, A bird that hath no wing.

Oh, for a kind Greek market-place again, For Artemis that healeth woman's pain; '

Here I stand hungering.

Give me the little hill above the sea, The palm of Delos fringed delicately, The young sweet laurel and the olive-tree Grey-leaved and glimmering; O Isle of Leto, Isle of pain and love; The Orbed Water and the spell thereof; Where still the Swan, minstrel of things to be, Doth serve the Muse and sing!

[ANTISTROPHE I.]

Ah, the old tears, the old and blinding tears I gave G.o.d then, When my town fell, and noise was in mine ears Of crashing towers, and forth they guided me Through spears and lifted oars and angry men Out to an unknown sea.

They bought my flesh with gold, and sore afraid I came to this dark East To serve, in thrall to Agamemnon's maid, This Huntress Artemis, to whom is paid The blood of no slain beast; Yet all is b.l.o.o.d.y where I dwell, Ah me!

Envying, envying that misery That through all life hath endured changelessly.

For hard things borne from birth Make iron of man's heart, and hurt the less.

'Tis change that paineth; and the bitterness Of life's decay when joy hath ceased to be That makes dark all the earth.

Behold, [STROPHE 2.]

Two score and ten there be Rowers that row for thee, And a wild hill air, as if Pan were there, Shall sound on the Argive sea, Piping to set thee free.

Or is it the stricken string Of Apollo's lyre doth sing Joyously, as he guideth thee To Athens, the land of spring; While I wait wearying?

Oh, the wind and the oar, When the great sail swells before, With sheets astrain, like a horse on the rein; And on, through the race and roar, She feels for the farther sh.o.r.e.

Ah me, [ANTISTROPHE 2.]

To rise upon wings and hold Straight on up the steeps of gold Where the joyous Sun in fire doth run, Till the wings should faint and fold O'er the house that was mine of old:

Or watch where the glade below With a marriage dance doth glow, And a child will glide from her mother's side Out, out, where the dancers flow: As I did, long ago.

Oh, battles of gold and rare Raiment and starred hair, And bright veils crossed amid tresses tossed In a dusk of dancing air!

O Youth and the days that were!

[enter KING THOAS, with soldiers.]

THOAS.

Where is the warden of this sacred gate, The Greek woman? Is her work ended yet With those two strangers? Do their bodies lie Aflame now in the rock-cleft sanctuary?

LEADER.

Here is herself, O King, to give thee word.

enter, from the temple, IPHIGENIA, carrying the image on high.

THOAS.

How, child of Agamemnon! Hast thou stirred From her eternal base, and to the sun Bearest in thine own arms, the Holy One?

IPHIGENIA.

Back Lord! No step beyond the pillared way.

THOAS.

But how? Some rule is broken?

IPHIGENIA.

I unsay That word. Be all unspoken and unwrought!

THOAS.

What means this greeting strange? Disclose thy thought.

IPHIGENIA.

Unclean the prey was that ye caught, O King.

THOAS.

Who showed thee so? Thine own imagining?

IPHIGENIA.

The Image stirred and shuddered from its seat.

THOAS.

Itself? ... Some shock of earthquake loosened it.

IPHIGENIA.

Itself. And the eyes closed one breathing s.p.a.ce.

THOAS.

But why? For those two men's bloodguiltiness?

IPHIGENIA.

That, nothing else. For, Oh, their guilt is sore.

THOAS.

They killed some of my herdsmen on the sh.o.r.e?

IPHIGENIA.

Their sin was brought from home, not gathered here.

THOAS.

What? I must know this.--Make thy story clear.

IPHIGENIA. (she puts the image down and moves nearer to thoas.) The men have slain their mother.

THOAS.

G.o.d! And these Be Greeks!

IPHIGENIA They both are hunted out of Greece.

THOAS.