Stasimon 2
[Episode]
be slaughtered with you and consumed on the pyre; because I am your friend and I fear reproach.
685
Orestes
Hush! I must bear my own ills, and when the grief is single, I will not bear it double. What you call vile and infamous,
would be mine, if I cause you, who have toiled with me, to die; for it is not a hardship for me, suffering as I do at the hands of the gods, to give up my life. But you are prosperous, and you have a house that is pure, not afflicted, while mine is impious and unfortunate.
690
If you are saved and get sons from my sister, whom I gave to you for wife, my name would remain and the whole house of my father would not be wiped out in childlessness. But go, and live, and dwell in my father’s house.
695
And when you come to Hellas and to Argos of the horses, I charge you, by this right hand: heap up a tomb and build a memorial for me, and let my sister give her hair and tears to the tomb. Report that I died at the hand of an Argive
700
woman, at an altar, purified for death. Do not ever betray my sister, when you see how lonely is my father’s house that you have joined by marriage. And now farewell; I have found you the dearest of my friends, you who have hunted with me, grown up with me,
705
and borne with me many miseries. Phoebus, though a prophet, has deceived me; creating his plot, he drove me far away from Hellas, ashamed of his earlier prophecies. I gave him my all and trusted in his words,
710
killed my mother, and myself perish in turn.
715
Pylades
You will have a tomb, and I will never betray your sister’s bed, unhappy youth, since I will hold you dearer when dead than when alive. But the prophecy of the god has not destroyed you yet;
although you stand near to slaughter. Great misfortune can offer great reversals, when it is fated; it can indeed.
720
Orestes
Silence; the words of Phoebus are no benefit to me; here comes the woman out of the temple.
Iphigenia
(to the guard.) Go away and make the preparations within for those who attend to the sacrifice.
725
Here are the many folds of the tablet, strangers. Hear what I want in addition. No man is the same when he is in troubles
and when he falls out of fear into courage. I am afraid that when the one who is going to take this tablet to Argos leaves this land, he will put aside my letter as worth nothing.
730
Orestes
What do you want, then? What are you perplexed about?
Iphigenia
Let him give me an oath that he will convey this letter to Argos, to the friends to whom I wish to send it.
735
Orestes
And will you give in return the same words to him?
Iphigenia
To do what, or refrain from doing? Tell me.
Orestes
To send him from this barbarous land alive.
Iphigenia
What you say is right; how else could he deliver it?
740
