Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 944

Edward P. Coleridge (Translator)

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So am I made the poorest wretch in Argos ;
I a thing of nothing, and Menelaus counting for a man! No son of Peleus I, but the issue of a vengeful fiend, if my name shall 1 serve your husband for the murder. No! by Nereus, who begot my mother Thetis, in his home amid the flowing waves,
945
never shall king Agamemnon touch your daughter, no! not even to the laying of a finger-tip upon her robe; or Sipylus 2 , that frontier town of barbarism, the cradle of those chieftains’ line, will be henceforth a city indeed, while Phthia ’s name will nowhere find mention.
950
Calchas, the seer, shall rue beginning the sacrifice with his barley-meal and lustral water. Why, what is a seer? A man who with luck tells the truth sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him, collapses then and there.
955
It is not to secure a bride that I have spoken thus—there are maids unnumbered
eager to have my love 3 —no! but king Agamemnon has put an insult on me; he should have asked my leave to use my name as a means to catch the child, for it was I 4 chiefly who induced Clytemnestra to betroth her daughter to me;
960
I would had yielded this to Hellas , if that was where our going to Ilium broke down; I would never have refused to further my fellow soldiers’ common interest. But as it is, I am as nothing in the eyes of those chieftains, and little they care of treating me well or ill.
965
My sword shall soon know if any one is to snatch your daughter from me, for then will I make it reek with the bloody stains of slaughter, before it reach Phrygia . 5 Calm yourself then; as a god in his might I appeared to you, without being so, but such will I show myself for all that.
970

Iphigenia in Aulis. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.

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Current edition Perseus

Iphigenia at Aulis (English) (Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891. (Modernized by Perseus.))

Editions (1)
Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Αὐλίδι Perseus (Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. III. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1920-1978)) — 944 focus
ἐγὼ κάκιστος ἦν ἄρʼ Ἀργείων ἀνήρ,
ἐγὼ τὸ μηδέν, Μενέλεως δʼ ἐν ἀνδράσιν,
945
ὡς οὐχὶ Πηλέως, ἀλλʼ ἀλάστορος γεγώς,
εἴπερ φονεύει τοὐμὸν ὄνομα σῷ πόσει.
μὰ τὸν διʼ ὑγρῶν κυμάτων τεθραμμένον
Νηρέα, φυτουργὸν Θέτιδος ἥ μʼ ἐγείνατο,
οὐχ ἅψεται σῆς θυγατρὸς Ἀγαμέμνων ἄναξ,
950
οὐδʼ εἰς ἄκραν χεῖρʼ, ὥστε προσβαλεῖν πέπλοις·
ἢ Σίπυλος ἔσται πόλις, ὅρισμα βαρβάρων,
ὅθεν πεφύκασʼ οἱ στρατηλάται γένος,
Φθίας δὲ τοὔνομʼ οὐδαμοῦ κεκλήσεται.
πικροὺς δὲ προχύτας χέρνιβάς τʼ ἀνάξεται
955
Κάλχας ὁ μάντις. τίς δὲ μάντις ἔστʼ ἀνήρ,
ὃς ὀλίγʼ ἀληθῆ, πολλὰ δὲ ψευδῆ λέγει
τυχών, ὅταν δὲ μὴ τύχῃ, διοίχεται;
οὐ τῶν γάμων ἕκατι — μυρίαι κόραι
θηρῶσι λέκτρον τοὐμόν — εἴρηται τόδε·
960
ἀλλʼ ὕβριν ἐς ἡμᾶς ὕβρισʼ Ἀγαμέμνων ἄναξ.
χρῆν δʼ αὐτὸν αἰτεῖν τοὐμὸν ὄνομʼ ἐμοῦ πάρα,
θήραμα παιδός· ἡ Κλυταιμήστρα δʼ ἐμοὶ
μάλιστʼ ἐπείσθη θυγατέρʼ ἐκδοῦναι πόσει.
ἔδωκά τἂν Ἕλλησιν, εἰ πρὸς Ἴλιον
965
ἐν τῷδʼ ἔκαμνε νόστος· οὐκ ἠρνούμεθʼ ἂν
τὸ κοινὸν αὔξειν ὧν μέτʼ ἐστρατευόμην.
νῦν δʼ οὐδέν εἰμι, παρὰ δὲ τοῖς στρατηλάταις
ἐν εὐμαρεῖ με δρᾶν τε καὶ μὴ δρᾶν κακῶς.
τάχʼ εἴσεται σίδηρος, ὃν πρὶν ἐς Φρύγας
970
ἐλθεῖν, φόνου κηλῖσιν αἵματι χρανῶ,
εἴ τίς με τὴν σὴν θυγατέρʼ ἐξαιρήσεται.
ἀλλʼ ἡσύχαζε· θεὸς ἐγὼ πέφηνά σοι
μέγιστος, οὐκ ὤν· ἀλλʼ ὅμως γενήσομαι.
Translations (2)
Iphigenia in Aulis (OCR draft) Experimental (Iphigenia in Aulis. Robert Potter's English verse translation, first published in 1781–1783; text from the 1808 Oxford printing.)

No corresponding passage available

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1845; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (Euripides. Deutsch in den Versmaßen der Urschrift. Volume 2, Heidelberg: C. F. Winter, 1845. Harvard OCR compared with an independent BSB copy. Native Donner verse citations, Murray reference cards, explicitly located notes and page facsimiles. Unresolved OCR, verse divisions, unlocated notes and printed errata are documented in the source review.) — 944 focus
Ich wår' in Argos' Heere wohl der feigste Mensch,
Ich wåre Nichts und Menelaos hieß ein Mann,
935
Mich hatt' ein Unheilsdamon, nicht Pcleus, gezeugt,
Wollt' ich zum Mord dem König meinen Namen leihn.
Bei Jenem, der in feuchtem Wellengrunde wohnt,
Nereus, der Thetis Vater, welche mich gebar,
Anrühren soll Agamemnon deine Tochter nicht,
940
Nicht ihr Gewand mit seines Fingers Spize nur;
Sonst hicße Sipylos eine Stadt, dies Fleckchen im 1
Barbarenlande, wo der Feldherrn Ahn gewohnt,
Und meine Phthia wurde nirgendwo genannt!
Herb soll das Salzschrot werden und die Weiheflut 2
945
Dem Seher Kalchas! Was denn ist ein Seher auch,
Der wenig Wahres unter viel Unwahrem sagt
Im guten Falle? Trifft er fehl, ihm geht es hin.
Nicht dieser Hochzeit wegen (denn nach meiner Hand 3
Sind tausend Jungfraun lustern) hab' ich das gesagt,
950
Nein, weil der Fürst Agamemnon Schmach auf uns gehår
Erbitten mußt' er meinen Namen sich von mir,
Sein Kind hieher zu locken. Wenn die Mutter dann, 4
Sie mir zu geben vom Gemahl sich stimmen ließ,
So gab ich sie für Hellas, wenn nur so die Fahrt
955
Nach Troja möglich wurde; nicht verweigert' ich's
Dem Wohl des Volkes, das mit mir zu Felde zog.
Nun aber bin ich diesen Heergebietern Nichts;
Gleich gilt es ihnen, ob sie recht thun oder schlecht.
Bald soll das Schwert entscheiden, das ich råthen will
960
Mit Blut, des Mordes Flecken, eh's nach Troja kommt,
Wenn deine Tochter Einer mir entreißen will. 5
Doch ruhig! Sichtbar kam ich dir ein starker Gott;
Und bin ich kein Gott, werd' ich doch für dich es sein.

Notes on the current edition

Iphigenia in Aulis

1. Reading φονεύσει with Schäfer.
2. A mountain in Lycia , near which was shown the grave of Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atridae; the town of the same name was swallowed up in very early times by an earthquake.
3. Reading οὐ for ἧ, and regarding μυρίαι—τοὐμὸν as parenthetical, which in the main is the view taken by Nauck and Klotz of this very nnsatisfactory passage. Paley, regarding it as an interpolation, disdains to emend it.
4. i.e., it was my rank, etc., as described by Agamemnon, that carried the day, and, such being the case, I ought to have had some voice in the matter. (Paley.)
5. Porson, whom Monk follows, corrects this passage thus: ὃν, πρὶν εἰσ᾽ Φρύγας | ἐλθεῖν φόνον, κλῖσιν αἵματος χρανῶ, an ingenious but not absolutely necessary emendation.