IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Buckley, Theodore Alois
CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?
AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.
CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?
AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.
CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.
AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.
CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he inhabit?
AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.
CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.
AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.
CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?
AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.
CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy daughter to the Goddess?
AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.
CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?
AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to sacrifice to the Gods.
CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?
AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.
CLY. Well, and poorly,[58] forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn out well.
AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.
CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.
AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is—
CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it behooves me to do?
AG. —will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.
CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?
AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.
CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?
AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.
CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.
AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the army.
CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own daughter.
AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be alone.
CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.
AG. Obey me.
CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to matters abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things which should be present to virgins at their wedding.[59]
AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,[60] and have been frustrated in my hope, wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points. But nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure of the Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.[61] But it behooves a wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to marry at all.[62]
CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to the silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the Phœbeian plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a green-blossoming crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the prophetic influence of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will stand upon the towers of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded Mars, borne over the sea in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of Simois by rowing, seeking to bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain sons of Jove in heaven, into the land of Greece, by the war-toiling shields and spears of the Greeks. But having surrounded Pergamus,[63] the city of the Phrygians, around its towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn off the heads [of the citizens] cut from their necks, having completely ravaged the city of Troy, he will make the daughters and wife of Priam shed many tears. But Helen, the daughter of Jove, will sit† in sad lamentation, having left her husband. Never upon me or upon my children's children may this expectation come, such as the wealthy Lydian and Phrygian wives possess while at their spinning, conversing thus with each other. Who,[64] dragging out my fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite my tears, while my country is perishing?
Through thee [forsooth,] the offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda † met with[65] a winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these reports among men, inopportunely, and in vain.
[Enter ACHILLES.]
ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him at the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for some of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit here upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:[66] so violent a passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will of the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns me, and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving the Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of Euripus,[67] restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me, and saying, "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament against Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any thing, or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."