Stasimon 2
[Episode]
O dearest, you are bending your course near to my heart!
815
Orestes
And the image of the sun in the middle of the loom?
Iphigenia
I wove that shape also, in fine threads.
Orestes
And you received a ceremonial bath from your mother, for Aulis?
Iphigenia
I know; for no happy marriage has taken that memory from me.
Orestes
What about this? You gave locks of your hair to be brought to your mother?
820
Iphigenia
As a memorial, in place of my body, in the tomb.
Orestes
What I myself have seen, I will say for proof: an old spear of Pelops, in my father’s house, which he brandished in his hand when he won Hippodamia,
the maiden of Pisa, and killed Oenomaus; it was hung up in your rooms.
825
Iphigenia
O dearest, for you are my dearest, none other, I have you, Orestes,
far from our country of Argos, my darling.
830
Orestes
And I have you, who were thought to be dead. Tears, and laments mixed with joy, fill your eyes and also mine.
Iphigenia
I left you still a baby,
young in the arms of your nurse, young in the house. O my soul, you have been more fortunate than words can say.
835
I have come upon things that are beyond wonder, far from speech.
840
Orestes
For the rest of time, may we be fortunate with each other!
Iphigenia
O my friends, I have found an extraordinary joy; I am afraid that he will fly from my hands into the air.
O Cyclopean hearths; o my country, dear Mycenae, I thank you for his life, for his nourishment, because you brought up this light of the house, my brother.
845
Orestes
We are fortunate in our family, but in our circumstances, my sister, we were born to be unfortunate in life.
850
Iphigenia
I was unhappy, I know, when my wretched father put the sword to my throat.
Orestes
Alas! Though I was not present, I seem to see you there.
855
Iphigenia
O brother, when I was brought, not a bride, to the treacherous bed of Achilles;
but beside the altar there were tears and wails. Alas for the libations there!
860
Orestes
I also mourned for the daring act of our father.
Iphigenia
Fatherless was the fate I received, fatherless.
One thing comes from another, by divine fortune.
865
Orestes
Yes, if you had killed your brother, unhappy one!
Iphigenia
O wretched, in my dreadful daring!
How dreadful were the things I endured, alas, my brother! By only a little you escaped an unholy death, slain by my hands. But how will these things end? What fortune will assist me?
870
What way will I find to send you from this city, from slaughter, to your native Argos,
875
