Stasimon 2
[Episode]
Who are you? How well you ask about Hellas!
540
Iphigenia
I am from there; while still a child I was lost.
Orestes
Then rightly you desire to know what has happened there, lady.
Iphigenia
What about the general, who is said to be happy?
Orestes
Who? The one I knew was not happy.
Iphigenia
There was said to be a certain lord, Agamemnon, son of Atreus.
545
Orestes
I do not know; leave this subject, lady.
Iphigenia
No, by the gods, but tell me, stranger, to delight me.
Orestes
The wretched man is dead, and in addition he destroyed another.
Iphigenia
Dead? By what fate? I am unhappy!
Orestes
Why do you mourn for this? It doesn’t concern you, does it?
550
Iphigenia
I grieve for his former prosperity.
Orestes
Yes, for he was dreadfully murdered by a woman.
Iphigenia
O miserable the slayer . . . and the slain!
Orestes
Stop now, and do not ask further.
Iphigenia
Only this much, if the wife of the wretched man is alive.
555
Orestes
She is not; she was killed by the son that she bore.
Iphigenia
O house thrown into confusion! What was his intent?
Orestes
To avenge on her the death of his father.
Iphigenia
Ah! How well he exacted an evil justice!
Orestes
Though he is just, he does not have good fortune from the gods.
560
Iphigenia
Did Agamemnon leave any other children in his house?
Orestes
He left one virgin daughter, Electra.
Iphigenia
What else? Is there any report of the daughter who was sacrificed?
Orestes
None, except that she is dead and does not see the light.
Iphigenia
Unhappy girl, and also the father that killed her!
565
Orestes
As a thankless favor to an evil woman, she died.
Iphigenia
Does the dead father’s son live at Argos?
Orestes
He lives, the miserable one, both nowhere and everywhere.
Iphigenia
False dreams, farewell; after all, you were nothing.
