iphigenia in tauris-第1章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
410 BC
IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
by Euripides
translated by Robert Potter
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
IPHIGENIA; daughter of Agamemnon
ORESTES; brother of IPHIGENIA
PYLADES; friend Of ORESTES
THOAS; King of the Taurians
HERDSMAN
MESSENGER
MINERVA
CHORUS OF GREEK WOMEN; captives; attendants on IPHIGENIA in the
temple
IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
(SCENE:…Before the great temple of Diana of the Taurians。 A blood…
stained altar is prominently in view。 IPHIGENIA; clad as a
priestess; enters from the temple。)
IPHIGENIA
To Pisa; by the fleetest coursers borne;
Comes Pelops; son of Tantalus; and weds
The virgin daughter of Oenomaus:
From her sprung Atreus; Menelaus from him;
And Agamemnon; I from him derive
My birth; his Iphigenia; by his queen;
Daughter of Tyndarus。 Where frequent winds
Swell the vex'd Euripus with eddying blasts;
And roll the darkening waves; my father slew me;
A victim to Diana; so he thought;
For Helen's sake; its bay where Aulis winds;
To fame well known; for there his thousand ships;
The armament of Greece; the imperial chief
Convened; desirous that his Greeks should snatch
The glorious crown of victory from Troy;
And punish the base insult to the bed
Of Helen; vengeance grateful to the soul
Of Menelaus。 But 'gainst his ships the sea
Long barr'd; and not one favouring breeze to swell
His flagging sails; the hallow'd flames the chief
Consults; and Calchas thus disclosed the fates:…
〃Imperial leader of the Grecian host;
Hence shalt thou not unmoor thy vessels; ere
Diana as a victim shall receive
Thy daughter Iphigenia: what the year
Most beauteous should produce; thou to the queen
Dispensing light didst vow to sacrifice:
A daughter Clytemnestra in thy house
Then bore (the peerless grace of beauty thus
To me assigning); her must thou devote
The victim。〃 Then Ulysses by his arts;
Me; to Achilles as design'd a bride;
Won from my mother。 My unhappy fate
To Aulis brought me; on the altar there
High was I placed; and o'er me gleam'd the sword;
Aiming the fatal wound: but from the stroke
Diana snatch'd me; in exchange a hind
Giving the Grecians; through the lucid air
Me she conveyed to Tauris; here to dwell;
Where o'er barbarians a barbaric king
Holds his rude sway; named Thoas; whose swift foot
Equals the rapid wing: me he appoints
The priestess of this temple; where such rites
Are pleasing to Diana; that the name
Alone claims honour; for I sacrifice
(Such; ere I came; the custom of the state)
Whatever Grecian to this savage shore
Is driven: the previous rites are mine; the deed
Of blood; too horrid to be told; devolves
On others in the temple: but the rest;
In reverence to the goddess; I forbear。
But the strange visions which the night now past
Brought with it; to the air; if that may soothe
My troubled thought; I will relate。 I seem'd;
As I lay sleeping; from this land removed;
To dwell at Argos; resting on my couch
Mid the apartments of the virgin train。
Sudden the firm earth shook: I fled; and stood
Without; the battlements I saw; and all
The rocking roof fall from its lofty height
In ruins to the ground: of all the house;
My father's house; one pillar; as I thought;
Alone was left; which from its cornice waved
A length of auburn locks; and human voice
Assumed: the bloody office; which is mine
To strangers here; respecting; I to death;
Sprinkling the lustral drops; devoted it
With many tears。 My dream I thus expound:…
Orestes; whom I hallow'd by my rites;
Is dead: for sons are pillars of the house;
They; whom my lustral lavers sprinkle; die。
I cannot to my friends apply my dream;
For Strophius; when I perish'd; had no son。
Now; to my brother; absent though he be;
Libations will I offer: this; at least;
With the attendants given me by the king;
Virgins of Greece; I can: but what the cause
They yet attend me not within the house;
The temple of the goddess; where I dwell?
(She goes into the temple。 ORESTES and PYLADES enter cautiously。)
ORESTES
Keep careful watch; lest some one come this way。
PYLADES
I watch; and turn mine eye to every part。
ORESTES
And dost thou; Pylades; imagine this
The temple of the goddess; which we seek;
Our sails from Argos sweeping o'er the main?
PYLADES
Orestes; such my thought; and must be thine。
ORESTES
And this the altar wet with Grecian blood?
PYLADES
Crimson'd with gore behold its sculptured wreaths。
ORESTES
See; from the battlements what trophies hang!
PYLADES
The spoils of strangers that have here been slain。
ORESTES
Behooves us then to watch with careful eye。
O Phoebus; by thy oracles again
Why hast thou led me to these toils? E'er since;
In vengeance for my father's blood; I slew
My mother; ceaseless by the Furies driven;
Vagrant; an outcast; many a bending course
My feet have trod: to thee I came; of the
Inquired this whirling frenzy by what means;
And by what means my labours I might end。
Thy voice commanded me to speed my course
To this wild coast of Tauris; where a shrine
Thy sister hath; Diana; thence to take
The statue of the goddess; which from heaven
(So say the natives) to this temple fell:
This image; or by fraud or fortune won;
The dangerous toil achieved; to place the prize
In the Athenian land: no more was said;
But that; performing this; I should obtain
Rest from my toils。 Obedient to thy words;
On this unknown; inhospitable coast
Am I arrived。 Now; Pylades (for thou
Art my associate in this dangerous task);
Of thee I ask; What shall we do? for high
The walls; thou seest; which fence the temple round。
Shall we ascend their height? But how escape
Observing eyes? Or burst the brazen bars?
Of these we nothing know: in the attempt
To force the gates; or meditating means
To enter; if detected; we shall die。
Shall we then; ere we die; by flight regain
The ship in which we hither plough'd the sea?
PYLADES
Of flight we brook no thought; nor such hath been
Our wont; nor may the god's commanding voice
Be disobey'd; but from the temple now
Retiring; in some cave; which the black sea
Beats with its billows; we may lie conceal'd
At distance from our bark; lest some; whose eyes
May note it; bear the tidings to the king;
And we be seized by force。 But when the eye
Of night comes darkling on; then must we dare;
And take the polish'd image from the shrine;
Attempting all things: and the vacant space
Between the triglyphs (mark it well) enough
Is open to admit us; by that way
Attempt we to descend: in toils the brave
Are daring; of no worth the abject soul。
ORESTES
This length of sea we plough'd not; from this coast;
Nothing effected; to return: but well
Hast thou advised; the god must be obey'd。
Retire we then where we may lie conceal'd;
For never from the god will come the cause;
That what his sacred voice commands should fall
Effectless。 We must dare。 No toil to youth
Excuse; which justifies inaction; brings。
(They go out。 IPHIGENIA and the CHORUS enter from the temple。)
IPHIGENIA (singing)
You; who your savage dwellings hold
Nigh this inhospitable main;
'Gainst clashing rocks