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Iphigenia
Listen to me; I have come to a subject which means benefit both to you, strangers,
and to me, by your efforts. A good action is especially so, if the same matter is pleasing to all. Would you, if I should save you, go to
Argos
and take a report of me to my friends there, and bring a tablet,
580
which a captive wrote for me in pity? He did not think my hand murderous, but that the victims of the goddess, who holds these things just, die under the law. For I have had no one to go back to
Argos
with that message, who,
585
being saved, would send my letter to one of my friends. But you—if, as it seems, you are not hostile to me, and you know
Mycenae
and those whom I want you to know—be rescued, and have this reward, not a shameful one, safety for the sake of this small letter.
590
But let him, since the city exacts it, be the offering to the goddess, separated from you.
595
Listen to me; I have come to a subject which means benefit both to you, strangers,
and to me, by your efforts. A good action is especially so, if the same matter is pleasing to all. Would you, if I should save you, go to
Argos
and take a report of me to my friends there, and bring a tablet,
580
which a captive wrote for me in pity? He did not think my hand murderous, but that the victims of the goddess, who holds these things just, die under the law. For I have had no one to go back to
Argos
with that message, who,
585
being saved, would send my letter to one of my friends. But you—if, as it seems, you are not hostile to me, and you know
Mycenae
and those whom I want you to know—be rescued, and have this reward, not a shameful one, safety for the sake of this small letter.
590
But let him, since the city exacts it, be the offering to the goddess, separated from you.
595
Orestes
Stranger, you have spoken all well but this: to sacrifice him would be a heavy grief to me. I am the pilot of these misfortunes,
he sailed with me for the sake of my troubles. For it is not right for me to do you a favor and get out of danger, on condition of his death. But let it happen this way: give him the letter and he will take it to to
Argos
, for your well-being;
600
let anyone who wishes kill me. It is most shameful for anyone to save himself by hurling his friends’ affairs into catastrophe. That man is my friend, and I wish him to live, no less than myself.
605
Stranger, you have spoken all well but this: to sacrifice him would be a heavy grief to me. I am the pilot of these misfortunes,
he sailed with me for the sake of my troubles. For it is not right for me to do you a favor and get out of danger, on condition of his death. But let it happen this way: give him the letter and he will take it to to
Argos
, for your well-being;
600
let anyone who wishes kill me. It is most shameful for anyone to save himself by hurling his friends’ affairs into catastrophe. That man is my friend, and I wish him to live, no less than myself.
605
Iphigenia
O brave spirit! How you were born from some noble
stock, and are rightly a friend to your friends! May that one of my relatives who is left be such as you! For I am not without a brother, strangers, except in so far as I do not see him.
610
Since you wish it, I will send this man
with the tablet, and you will die; a great eagerness for this seems to possess you.
615
O brave spirit! How you were born from some noble
stock, and are rightly a friend to your friends! May that one of my relatives who is left be such as you! For I am not without a brother, strangers, except in so far as I do not see him.
610
Since you wish it, I will send this man
with the tablet, and you will die; a great eagerness for this seems to possess you.
615
Iphigenia in Tauris. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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