My tongue shall say, that thou mayst tell my friends.
So is all safe: if thou lose not the script,
Itself shall voiceless tell its written tale:
But if this writing in the sea be lost,
Then thy life saved shall save my words for me. 765
Pylades.
Well hast thou said, both for thy need,[1] and me.
Now say to whom this letter I must bear
To Argos, and from thee what message speak.
Iphigeneia.
Say to Orestes, Agamemnon's son—
"This Iphigeneia, slain in Aulis, sends, 770
Who liveth, yet for those at home lives not—"
Orestes.
Where is she? Hath she risen from the dead?
Iphigeneia.
She whom thou seest—confuse me not with speech:—
"Bear me to Argos, brother, ere I die:
From this wild land, these sacrifices, save, 775
Wherein mine office is to slay the stranger; "—
Orestes.
What shall I say?—Now dream we, Pylades?
Iphigeneia.
"Else to thine house will I become a curse,
Orestes "—so, twice heard, hold fast the name.
- ↑ Reading τῶν τε σῶν, for MS. τῶν θεῶν "for the Gods."
