Stasimon 2
[Episode]
And those who are called wise divinities are not less false than winged dreams. These is much confusion, both in divine affairs and in human; but only this is a grief to the one who was not foolish, but trusted in the words of prophets
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Orestes
and died—as he died to those that know.
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Chorus Leader
Ah! What about me, and my parents? Are they alive? Are they not? Who can say?
Iphigenia
Listen to me; I have come to a subject which means benefit both to you, strangers,
and to me, by your efforts. A good action is especially so, if the same matter is pleasing to all. Would you, if I should save you, go to Argos and take a report of me to my friends there, and bring a tablet,
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which a captive wrote for me in pity? He did not think my hand murderous, but that the victims of the goddess, who holds these things just, die under the law. For I have had no one to go back to Argos with that message, who,
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being saved, would send my letter to one of my friends. But you—if, as it seems, you are not hostile to me, and you know Mycenae and those whom I want you to know—be rescued, and have this reward, not a shameful one, safety for the sake of this small letter.
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But let him, since the city exacts it, be the offering to the goddess, separated from you.
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Orestes
Stranger, you have spoken all well but this: to sacrifice him would be a heavy grief to me. I am the pilot of these misfortunes,
he sailed with me for the sake of my troubles. For it is not right for me to do you a favor and get out of danger, on condition of his death. But let it happen this way: give him the letter and he will take it to to Argos, for your well-being;
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let anyone who wishes kill me. It is most shameful for anyone to save himself by hurling his friends’ affairs into catastrophe. That man is my friend, and I wish him to live, no less than myself.
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Iphigenia
O brave spirit! How you were born from some noble
stock, and are rightly a friend to your friends! May that one of my relatives who is left be such as you! For I am not without a brother, strangers, except in so far as I do not see him.
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Since you wish it, I will send this man
with the tablet, and you will die; a great eagerness for this seems to possess you.
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Orestes
Who will sacrifice me and dare such a dreadful deed ?
Iphigenia
I will; for I hold the office of this goddess.
Orestes
It is not envied, lady, and not blessed.
Iphigenia
But I am dedicated to necessity, which must be kept.
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Orestes
Do you yourself, a woman, sacrifice men with the sword?
Iphigenia
No; but I sprinkle the holy water around your hair.
Orestes
Who is the slayer? If I may ask this.
Iphigenia
That charge belongs to those within this temple.
Orestes
What sort of tomb will receive me, when I die?
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Iphigenia
The sacred fire within and the wide hollow of a cave.
Orestes
Ah! Would that my sister’s hand might lay out my body!
Iphigenia
You have prayed in vain, unhappy youth, whoever you are; for she lives far from a barbarian land.
Yet indeed, since you happen to be an Argive, I too will not leave out any favor that I can do. I will set much ornament on the tomb and quench your body with yellow oil, and throw onto your funeral pyre the gleaming honey, that streams from flowers,
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of the tawny mountain bee.
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But I will go and bring the tablet from the temple of the goddess; take care not to bear me ill-will.
