Stasimon 2
[Episode]
My dearest friends, I look to you; I am in your hands, whether I am to succeed, or come to nothing and lose my country, and my dear brother and dearest sister.
Iphigenia
And first of all, I begin my speech with this: we are women, and have hearts naturally formed to love each other, and keep our common interests most secure. Be silent for us and assist us in our flight. It is good to have trustworthy speech.
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You see how one fortune holds us three, most dear to each other, either to return to our native land, or to die. If I am saved, I will bring you safe to Hellas, so that you may share my fortune. By your right hand, I entreat you, and you, and you; (addressing different members of the Chorus.) you by your dear face,
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by your knees, by all that is dearest to you in your home: father, mother, child, if you have children. What do you reply? Who agrees with us, or is not willing to do this—speak! For if you do not acquiesce in my words, both I and my unhappy brother must die.
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Chorus Leader
Have courage, dear mistress, only see to your safety; I will be silent on all that you have charged me with—great Zeus be my witness.
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Iphigenia
Bless you for your words, may you be happy! It is your work now, and yours, To Orestes and Pylades to enter the temple;
for soon the ruler of this land will come, inquiring if the sacrifice of the strangers has been carried out.
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Lady Artemis, you who saved me from my father’s slaughtering hand by the clefts of Aulis, save me now also, and these men; or through you Loxias’
prophetic voice will no longer be held true by mortals But leave this barbarian land for Athens with good will; it is not fitting for you to dwell here, when you could have so fortunate a city. Exeunt Iphigenia, Orestes, and Pylades.
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[Choral 1]
Halcyon bird, you that sing your fate as a lament
Chorus
beside the rocky ridges of the sea, a cry easily understood by the wise, that you are always chanting for your husband; I, wingless bird that I am, compare
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my laments with yours, in my longing for the festivals of Hellas, and for Artemis of childbirth, who dwells beside the Cynthian mountain and the palm with delicate leaves
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and the well-grown laurel and the holy shoot of gray-green olive, Leto’s dear child, and the lake that rolls about its ripples, where the melodious swan
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O streams of tears that fell onto my cheeks, when my city was destroyed and the enemy forced me to sail,
by their oars, by their spears! Purchased by gold, I came to a barbarian home, where I serve Agamemnon’s daughter,
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the attendant maid of the deer-killing goddess, and the altars where no sheep are sacrificed; and I envy ruin that is wretched throughout, for when you are brought up in harsh necessity, you do not suffer.
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Misery changes; life is hard for mortals, when they are treated badly after happiness.
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[Choral 2]
And you, lady, the Argive penteconter will bear you home;
Chorus
the wax-bound reed of the mountain god Pan, piping, will shout to the oars, and Phoebus the prophet, with the ring of his seven-stringed lyre,
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singing, will guide you well to the gleaming land of the Athenians. Leaving me here, you will go with splashing oars. In the breeze, the forestays of the ship that carries you swiftly
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will spread out over the front beyond the prow.
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May I come to the bright race-course, where the sun’s fire goes;
over the chambers of my home, may I cease to flutter the wings on my back. May I take my stand in the dances of glorious marriages, where I stood as a maiden,
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twirling about in the dancing bands of other girls, away from my dear mother; rushing on to the contest of charms, the luxuriant strife of hair, I covered my cheeks with the multi-colored veil
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and shadowed them with the locks of my hair.
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