Chorus
The son of Atreus, encircling
Pergamus
, the Phrygians’ town, with murderous war
around her stone-built towers, dragging
Paris
’s head backward to cut his throat and sacking the city
1
from roof to base, shall be a cause of many tears to maids and
775
Priam’s wife. And Helen, the daughter of Zeus, shall
2
weep in bitter grief because she left her lord.
780
Never may there appear to me or to my children’s children
the prospect which the wealthy Lydian ladies and
Phrygia
’s brides will have
3
as at their looms they converse:
785
Tell me, who will pluck me away from my ruined country, tightening his grasp on lovely tresses till the tears flow? it is all through you, the offspring of the long-necked swan; if indeed it is a true report
790
that Leda bore
4
you to a winged bird, when Zeus transformed himself there, or whether, in the tablets of the poets, fables have carried these tales to men’s ears
795
idly, out of season.
800
Iphigenia in Aulis. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.