Stasimon 2
[Episode]
I do not know, dear father, I do not know of what you are speaking.This line is corrupt, though the sense, so far, is preserved. Dindorf suspects 11. 652-5, and it certainly is difficult to see the connection of 1. 652 with what precedes. Paley suggests that several lines have been lost.
Agamemnon
You are moving my pity all the more by speaking so sensibly.
Iphigenia
My words shall turn to senselessness if that will cheer you more.
Agamemnon
Alas! this silence is too much. You have my thanks.
655
Iphigenia
Stay with your children at home, father.
Agamemnon
My own wish!θέλω γε· τὸ θέλειν δ᾽ but the words are probably corrupt. But to my sorrow I may not
Iphigenia
Ruin seize their wars and the woes of Menelaus!
Agamemnon
First will that, which has been my life-long ruin, bring ruin to others.ἄλλους ὀλεῖ πρόσθ᾽ ἁμὲ διολέσαντ᾽ ἔχει. None of the various proposed emendations are great improvements on this reading of Porson’s, though it is hardly likely that this is what Euripides wrote.
Iphigenia
How long you were absent in the bays of Aulis!
660
Agamemnon
Yes, and there is still a hindrance to my sending the army forward.
Iphigenia
Where do men say the Phrygians live, father?
Agamemnon
In a land where I wish Paris, the son of Priam, never had dwelt.
Iphigenia
It is a long voyage you are bound on, father, after you leave me.
Agamemnon
You will meet your father again, my daughter.
665
Iphigenia
Ah! would it were seemly for you to take me as a fellow voyager!These two lines, 665-6 are corrupt, probably interpolated, in Paley’s opinion. Omitting them, 1. 667 comes in very properly. To obtain any sense in the first of them, Weil’s correction, ἐς ταὐτὸν αὗθις, ὦ θύγατερ ἥξεις πατρί has been adopted; the meaning being, we shall meet after death.
Agamemnon
You too haveReading ἀλλ᾽ ἔστι, Hermann’s correction for MSS. αἰτεῖς τι. a voyage to make to a haven where you will remember your father.
Iphigenia
Shall I sail there with my mother or alone?
Agamemnon
All alone, without father or mother.
Iphigenia
What! have you found me a new home, father?
670
Agamemnon
Enough of this! it is not for girls to know such things.
Iphigenia
Please hurry home from Troy, father, as soon as you have triumphed there.
Agamemnon
There is a sacrifice I have first to offer here.
Iphigenia
Yes, it is your duty to heed religion with aid of holy rites.Monk interprets in a matter of religion thou must consult the priests. Paley inclines to the view that ll. 674-7 are interpolated.
Agamemnon
You will witness it, for you will be standing near the libations.
675
Iphigenia
Am I to lead the dance then round the altar, father?
Agamemnon
I count you happier than myself because you know nothing. Go within—it is wrong for maidens to be seen—after you have given me your hand and a kiss,
on the eve of your lengthy sojourn far from your father’s side.
680
Breast, cheek, and golden hair! ah, how grievous you have found Helen and the Phrygians’ city! I can speak no more; the tears come welling to my eyes, the moment I touch you.
Go into the house. Exit Iphigenia.
685
Agamemnon turns to Clytemnestra. I beg your pardon, daughter of Leda, if I showed excessive grief at the thought of giving my daughter to Achilles; for though we are sending her to taste of bliss, still it wrings a parent’s heart, when he, the father who has toiled so hard for them,
685
