This law ordain: when folk keep festival,
In quittance for thy slaughter one must hold
To a man's throat the sword, and spill the blood 1460
For hallowing and the Goddess' honour's sake.
Thou, Iphigeneia, by the holy stairs
Of Brauron must this Goddess' warden be.
There shalt thou die, and be entombed, and webs
Of all fair vesture shall they offer thee 1465
Which wives who perish in their travail-tide
Leave in their homes. I charge thee, King, to send
Homeward these maids of Hellas from thy land
For their true hearts' sake. I delivered thee
Erstwhile, Orestes, balancing the votes 1470
On Ares' mount; and this shall be a law—
The equal tale of votes acquits the accused.
Now from this land thy sister bear o'ersea,
Agamemnon's son: Thoas, be wroth no more.
Thoas.
Athena, Queen, who hears the words of Gods, 1475
And disobeyeth them, is sense-bereft.
Lo, I against Orestes and his sister
Chafe not, that he hath borne the image hence.
What boots it to defy the mighty Gods?
Let them with Artemis' statue to thy land 1480
Depart, and with fair fortune set it up.
I unto happy Greece will send withal
These maids, according as thine hest enjoins;
Will stay the spear against the strangers raised,
And the ships, Goddess, since it is thy will. 1485
Athena.
'Tis well: for thee, for Gods, is Fate too strong.
