Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/224

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196
EURIPIDES.

Ere Artemis receive thy daughter slain,
Iphigeneia: for, of one year's fruit,20
Thou vowedst the fairest to the Queen of Light.
Lo, thy wife Klytemnestra in thine halls
Bare thee a child"—so naming me most fair,—
"Whom thou must offer." By Odysseus' wiles[1]
From her they drew me, as to wed Achilles.25
I came to Aulis: o'er the pyre,—ah me!—
High raised was I, the sword in act to slay,—
When Artemis stole me, for the Achaians set[2]
There in my place a hind, and through clear air
Wafted me, in this Taurian land to dwell,30
Where a barbarian rules barbarians,
Thoas, who, since his feet be swift as wings
Of birds, hath of his fleetness won his name.
And in this fane her priestess made she me:
Wherefore the Goddess Artemis hath joy35
In festal rites, whose name alone is fair;[3]
The rest—for dread of her I hold my peace.
I sacrifice—'twas this land's ancient wont—
What Greek soever cometh to this shore.
Mine are the first rites;[4] in the Goddess' shrines40
The unspeakable slaughter is for others' hands.
Now the strange visions that the night hath brought

  1. So MSS. Al. τέχναι "And Odysseus' wiles From her side drew me."
  2. So MSS. Nauck reads Ἀχαιοὺς, "from the Achaians' hands, Set in my place, etc."
  3. The name, "Tauropolia," would not lead strangers to suspect that it differed from the festivals of Artemis with which they were familiar in Greece.
  4. She sprinkled the victim with holy water, then cut a lock of hair from his forehead and cast it on the fire.