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Iphigenia at Aulis · Tragedies

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  Iphigenia and Aulis Characters Agamemnon, an old man, a chorus of young women
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  of Chalchus, Menelaus, a messenger,
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  Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Orestes, and Achilles In front of Agamemnon's tent
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  in the Bay of Aulis Come here, old man, in front of my tent. I'm coming.
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  Is there something new, King Agamemnon?
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  Be quick about it. I am quick. There's no sleep in me. My eyes won't stay shut now they're old.
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  What star is that? What time crossing heaven?
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  Sirius, pursuing the seven pliades, still traveling high at this hour.
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  No birds down, no murmur from the sea. The winds are silent along these straits of Europos.
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  Then why are you up, pacing outside your tent, Agamon line?
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  There's not a voice stirring at notice. The watch is quiet up on the walls. Might we not go in?
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  I envy you, old man. I envy any man whose life passes quietly, unnoticed by fame.
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  I do not envy those in authority.
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  But it is they who have the good life. You call that good?
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  It's a trap. Great honors taste sweet, but they come bringing pain.
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  Something goes wrong between a man and a god, and his whole life is overturned.
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  At other times, the notions of man, all different and all insatiable,
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  catered away by themselves.
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  I don't like it, hearing a king talk that way.
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  Betrayers did not sire you, Agamemnon, into a world of pure happiness.
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  You must expect to suffer as well as rejoice, since you're a man,
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  and the gods will see to it that, whether you like it or not,
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  but you've lit your lamp, you've written some message.
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  It's what you have in your hand.
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  You keep putting on the seal and taking it off. You write, and you rub out what you've written.
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  You drop it to the ground, and tears stream down your face.
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  From what I can see, despair appears to be driving you out of your reason.
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  "'My king Agamemnon, tell me what it is. "'I am a man of goodwill.
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  "'I am loyal to you. "'You can trust me with it.
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  "'I was in your wedding procession, don't you remember? "'Back at the start?
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  "'Darius gave me to your wife as part of the dowry "'because I could be trusted.'.
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  Leta, the daughter of Thestios, had three girls of her own, Phoebe,
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  and my wife Clytemnestra, and Helen.
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  And the highest-born men in Greece came asking to marry Helen and threatened
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  each other looking for blood.
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  Each of them said that if he himself did not get to marry her,
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  he would murder whoever who did.
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  So her father, Chanderos, could not think of what he should do to avoid disaster.
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  Should he give her to one of them or not let her marry at all?
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  Then he thought of a way. The suitors would have to take an oath,
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  all of them together, a solemn oath, sealed with a burnt offering,
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  swearing to defend whichever of them should win Helen, Tyndarios' daughter, for his wife.
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  And if anyone should carry her off and keep her husband from her bed,
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  whether he came from Greece or somewhere else, they would all make more on this
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  city and bring it to the ground.
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  So this war, old Tyndarios was sharper than they were.
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  When it was over, he left the choice to his daughter. He said,
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  Now why shouldn't she marry as the sweet breath of Aphrodite directs her?
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  When her love fell, and it's the pity of it, on Menelaus, it was later that
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  this Paris who judged the beauty of the goddesses, as the Argives tell it,
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  came from Phrygia to Sparta.
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  There were gold flowers stitched onto his clothes.
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  He glittered with barbarian jewels. He loved her, and she returned it.
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  While Menelaus was away, he carried her off with him to the summer pastures of Ida.
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  Menelaus, stung by his fate, raged through all Greece, reminding everyone who
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  had sworn that oath that they were bound to come to his help now.
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  And the Greeks rushed to arms, and they came home to the Straits of Aulis.
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  With their fighting gear, their ships, their shields, their chariots, their horses.
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  Because Menelaus is my brother, they chose me to be the general.
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  I wish that they had saved the honor for someone else. And when the whole army
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  had mustered here at Aalus, the wind died, calm. We still cannot sail.
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  There is only one hope of our going, according to Calchis the prophet.
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  Iphigenia, my daughter, must be sacrificed to Artemis, the deity of this place.
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  Then the wind will take us to Troy, and the city will fall to us.
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  When I heard this, I called to Lipitheus, the herald, and said,
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  Sound the trumpet, sound it, and tell them all to go home.
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  I could never make myself kill my own daughter.
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  But at that, my brother started reasoning with me, arguing, urging me to commit
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  this horror, until I wrote a letter telling my wife to send our daughter here,
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  to be married to Achilles.
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  I told her what a great man he is, and I said he would not sail with us until
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  a bride from our own family had been sent to his home in Pythia.
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  The story I made up so that my wife would send the girl, among the Achaeans,
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  the only one who, no, are Calchas, Odysseus, and Menelaus.
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  What I have done is wrong, and I want to undo it. That is why I wrote this second
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  letter that you found me sealing and unseal. Take it.
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  Take it. Go to Argos. I will tell you what it says, since you are loyal to my wife and my house.
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  Clytemnestro, daughter of Lita, I mean this letter to rule out the first one.
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  But tell me the rest of it, read it, then I will be able to repeat the message
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  myself as it has been the letter.
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  Do not send your daughter to this folded harbor of Umea, Dallas,
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  the shore where no waves come in.
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  We will find some other time for her marriage.
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  But Achilles, when he learned that there was no bride for him after all,
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  will he not blaze up in raging arms against you and your wife?
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  That frightens me. How will you deal with that?
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  No, only his name has been used. Achilles himself knows nothing of our plans,
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  the marriage. What I said about giving him my daughter is his bride.
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  Then you promised her, the son of the goddess, simply to fetch her hair,
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  to be a victim for the Argyz?
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  My king, your daring, appalls me. I have lost the use of my reason,
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  my ruin is straight ahead of me.
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  No, go, start, run, never mind the age in your legs.
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  I will lose no time, my lord. Do not pause at the springs in the shade, do not stop to sleep.
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  The gods keep me from it. When you get to where the road's fork,
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  take a sharp look down all of them.
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  Make sure no chariot slips past you too fast or not noticed,
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  bringing my daughter here to the Greek ships. It shall be done.
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  She has left the palace, and you meet her and her escort. Take them back.
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  Take the reins yourself and shake them loose and urge on the horses to my scene
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  where the cyclops built the walls.
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  But one thing, what will make your wife and your daughter trust me when I tell them the message.
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  This seal on the letter. Take it and go now.
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  Day is breaking. Already the sun's chariot of fire sent up brightness into the sky.
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  Go, take up your task. We all must suffer.
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  No more will ever notice happiness and good fortune all the way to the end.
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  Each one was born with his bitterness waiting for him.
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  I have crossed the narrows of Eurypheus, I come sailing, and I beached at Alice on the sands.
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  I left Chalcas, my city, where the spring of Atreaso boils up and runs flashing down to the sea.
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  I came to see for myself this army of the Achaeans,
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  the oil-winged ships of the heroes, the thousand galleys, which blonde Vanillaeus
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  and Agamemnon of the same great lineage sent, as our husbands tell us, to fetch Helen again.
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  Helen, whom pierced the herdsmen seized from the reedy bank of the river Euryatos,
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  where Aphrodite had red-herd for him, after the goddess had bathed in a dewy
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  fountain and taken her place beside Hera and Pallas Athene for her beauty to be jive.
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  It was the grove where the victims die on the altar of Artemis.
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  I came running, and I blushed for shyness at my fever to see the pitched strength
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  of the Danians, tents hung with weapons, the claiming pressing on horsemen.
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  Now I set eyes on the two that are near Daes to see Oeolus's son,
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  and that son of Telamon, who is the hope of Salamis,
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  and with them Prostelius, and Palamedes, child of Poseidon's son,
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  hunched down, leaving their cunning into a game of draughts.
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  Near them is Diomedes, delighting in throwing the discus, and Merionos,
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  Sion of Ares, wonder of men.
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  Laotis' son has come there from his craggy island, and Nereos,
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  most handsome, I'd be a king's.
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  I have seen wing-footed Achilles in full armor racing over the sands.
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  That is his son, who Charion reared when he was racing against horses,
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  four of them, in a chariot on a curved track.
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  I saw the beauty of those horses, gold-worked to their bits and burbles.
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  The yoke-haired dappled gray with white in their manes, and the trace horses
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  beige and dappled with white fetlocks.
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  Melios, the grandson of fairies, driving them, shouting, goading them on fast,
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  and they hugged the turns.
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  But Peleus' son and all his armor stayed with them the whole way,
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  never falling behind the chariot rail and axle in one.
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  When I came to where the ships lie, even a guard would find no words for the
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  way that sight stirs a woman's eyes.
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  Pleasure took my breath away, the fleet of the Myrmidons from Pythia.
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  Fifty lean vessels laid to the right bearing statues of the sea god's daughters,
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  denariats in gold, high on their sterns to show that those ships were Achilles.
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  Next to them lay the galleys of the Argives, their admiral, Magistius's son
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  Talos brought up to manhood, and Stephanos, Capeneus's son was there.
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  Then the sixty ships from Attica, the son of Theseus as their commander,
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  and their ensign is Pallas Athenian, with her winged chair and its horses,
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  a sign which lightens the hearts of mariners.
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  Then the flotilla of fifty ships from Boeotia, and their ensign rising from each of the sterns.
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  Cadmos, holding a dragon of gold, or Letos, born of the earth, is their admiral.
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  And the same number of ships from Locris, commanded by the son of Willis,
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  who had come from the famous city of Throniom, to moor beside them.
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  The son of Atreus had brought a hundred vessels from Mycenae where the Cyclops built the walls.
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  The king, his brother and companion in command, sailed with him to bring vengeance
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  on the bride who had abandoned his house to lie with a barbarian.
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  I saw the ships from Pylos that Gerani and Nestor brought, and their sign is
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  the river Alphelios that flows by his country, shown on his sterns.
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  In the form of a bull. Then the twelve Aenian vessels that obeyed King Gunius,
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  and near the land the lords of Aelus, who are called the Apeans,
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  Eurytios, commands the ships that came with them.
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  Then the white-oared Taffian galleys followed King Meeges, Filius' son,
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  and the rocky islands of Eshenia that frightened sailors.
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  To the left the twelve sleek galleys of Aeas of Salamis Menelaus made up the end of the line.
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  They ran back down the beach without a break beside the old.
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  The barbarian who joins battle with thee should not cling to his hatch of sailing home.
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  I have seen the whole fleet. He went and is famous, and they tell of where I live I will remember.
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  Menelaus and the old man enter, quarreling. Menelaus, you have no right to do this. Get away.
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  You are too loyal to your master. Your approach does me honor.
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  You'll be sorry if you go on meddling. You had no right to open the letter I was carrying.
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  And you had no right to carry a letter that would harm the Greek calls.
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  Argue with others about that. Give me the letter. I will not. And I won't let go.
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  I'll bloody your head with my scepter. What clay of glory than to die for my
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  master? Let go. Your words are too big for a slave.
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  Master, help. This man snatched your letter out of my hand. Agamemnon, mutiny.
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  What is this, brawling and arguing outside my tent door? My voice takes precedence here, I believe.
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  How did you come to quarrel with this old man, Menelaus? And why were you so
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  violent with him? Look at me, Agamemnon. Then I will start to tell you.
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  Do you think I'm afraid to look you in the eye, Menelaus? I'm a son of Atreus.
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  Did you see this letter? It was meant to betray all of us. That letter,
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  in the first place, give it back to me.
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  Not until I have told the Greeks what it says. You mean you broke the seal?
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  So you know what you have no business knowing? Yes, I broke the seal.
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  And it's you who will suffer as a result for acting behind our backs.
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  How did you come to find him? Oh gods, what shamelessness. I was watching for
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  the arrival of your daughter from Orgos.
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  You see, shamelessness again. What right have you to spy on what concerns me?
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  I chose to. I'm not your slave. This is beyond endurance.
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  Am I allowed to be governed in my own house?
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  No, because you're not to be
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  trusted. You never were. You aren't to be trusted now. You never will be.
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  How smooth you are with your slanders, I despise a nimble tongue.
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  How do you feel about a mind true to nothing and to no one? It is you who must answer for yourself.
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  And don't try to shut down the truth just because you're angry.
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  I won't be too harsh with you.
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  Have you forgotten the fever of your ambition at the first thought of leading an army against Troy?
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  You pretended not to want the command, but really you'd have paid anything to be general.
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  You know how you humbled yourself at the time, touching hands,
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  keeping open house to the whole citizenry, making them all speak to you one
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  by one whether they wanted to or not anything to entice preferment out of the
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  crowd but once you've been given command chosen to command all that changed.
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  You dropped the friends you didn't need anymore. It was hard to get you to talk
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  with you. You shut yourself in.
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  Is one to admire a man who changes as soon as he gets what he wants and turns
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  from his friends the moment he's in a position to help them?
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  That's the first point in which I found you wanting, Agamemnon.
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  Next, you led the combined armies of the Hellenes here to Aulis.
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  And then at one stroke, all your importance collapsed just because the wind fell.
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  You were nothing if the gods would not fill your sails, and the Danians clamored
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  for the ships to be sent home and an end to these senseless efforts.
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  I haven't forgotten the sight of your face when you heard that.
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  What anguish would gloom with the thought that you might not sail after all.
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  Lord of a thousand ships flooding Priam's beaches with arms.
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  Then you asked me to help you. What shall I do? Isn't there something I can do?
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  Anything rather than lose the command and the glory. Then when Calchas said
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  yes, sacrifice your daughter to Artemis and the Greek ships would be able to sail.
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  How happy you were to promise. And no one admitted forced you to write to your
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  wife and tell her to send the girl here pretending that she would marry Achilles.
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  Then you change your mind. You unburden yourself of a different message and
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  it's discovered. At this point, you never murder your daughter.
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  Well, the same sky watched you speak otherwise.
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  It's true men find this happening to them all the time. They sweat and clamor
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  for power until it's theirs.
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  Then all at once, they fall back and amount to nothing again.
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  Sometimes it's the fault of the populace. Too stupid to know whose talking sense.
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  Other times it's richly deserved. The leaders turn out not to be able to keep the city safe.
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  I grieve above all for Greece and her mortification. She had set her heart on glory.
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  Now she'll have nothing to answer when the barbarian trash laugh at her.
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  Thanks to you and your daughter.
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  I would never put a man at the head of a country or an army just because of
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  his connections. A general needs to have a mind.
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  It is terrible when discord divides brothers and they fight each other with words.
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  It's my turn now, and I'll keep my reproach dignified, brief, restrained.
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  Not staring wide shamelessly, but with modesty remembering that you are my brother.
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  No man who amounts to anything is without a sense of shame. You come to me in
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  a passion, breathing hard, eyes suffused with blood.
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  Tell me, who has wronged you? What do you want? Are you pining for a virtuous wife?
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  I'm afraid I can't do much for you there. The one you had is no credit to your government.
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  Am I, then, supposed to suffer for your shortcomings?
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  When they're no fault of mine it's not
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  my ambition that is biting you you care about nothing nothing
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  but holding a beautiful woman in your arms you've abandoned
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  all decency all sense the passions of a degraded man are degraded and if i am
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  mistaken to start with and later was wise enough to change my mind is that madness
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  no you're the one who's mad the gods and their kindness took a bad wife off
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  your hands, and you're trying to get her back.
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  The suitors, it's true, were so misguided as to swear an oath to Tendarius while the lust was on them.
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  In my view, some goddess, hope, I imagine, accomplished that.
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  Not you, in any case. Still, lead them, by all means.
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  They fight your war for you. They're foolish enough to stick to their oaths,
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  but the gods will not be fooled.
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  They can recognize oaths that were set up as traps and sworn to you under duress.
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  I will not kill my children. There's
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  no justice in things turning out precisely the way you want them to.
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  You get your vengeance on a worthless wife, while my days and nights melt in
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  tears at the unholy crimes I've committed against my own children?
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  These are the few things I wanted to say to you once and for all.
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  You should be able to understand them. You can refuse to be sensible if you
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  want to, but for my part, I will set straight my own affairs.
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  I'm in misery and I see I have no friends when you have friends you try to destroy
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  them if there's no way that you will show that you are my father's son,
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  I will share your reason not your madness you would share my troubles if you
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  were a brother and a friend,
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  say that when you have behaved like a brother and a friend to me not when you
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  are doing me harm in Greece you mean you abandon her now to her struggle Grace
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  has been driven mad by the same God who drove you out of your senses.
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  Congratulate yourself on your scepter now that you've betrayed your own brother.
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  I'll find some other way, other friends.
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  Commander of all the Greek armies, King Aimanlan, I have brought you from home
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  your daughter, whom you call Iphigenia, and her mother, your Clytemnestra,
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  is with her, and the boy Orestes.
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  You've been away from home a long time, and the sight of them will be a joy to you.
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  It's been a tiring journey, and they are resting now, bathing their soft feet
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  at the flowering spring.
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  And the horses are resting, too.
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  We turned them loose to graze there in the good pasture. I came on ahead to
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  tell you, so that you would be ready.
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  But rumor travels faster. The army knows your daughter is here,
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  and they are running and crowding to get a look at the girl.
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  Everyone wants to catch a glimpse of those whom fortune has blessed.
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  They say, is there going to be a wedding, or did King Agamemnon miss this child
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  so much that he sent for her?
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  Others say, offerings are being made to consecrate the child to Artemis, goddess of Olus.
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  As though for a wedding, but who will be the bridegroom?
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  "'Come, do come what's next, Agamemnon. "'Bring the sacrificial basket and lead
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  the procession around the altar.
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  "'Set the garlands on your heads. "'King Menelaus, prepare the marriage feast.
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  "'Let the flute trill within doors and the floor resound with dancing.
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  "'For this is the day of the dawn to see your child made happy.'.
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  Thank you you may go inside what is left to do no doubt will turn out well in the course of fate,
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  miserable creature that i am now what can i say what can i begin in the face of this misery,
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  i have fallen into the snare of fate i laid out my plan but i was outwitted
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  from the start by the cunning of destiny how fortunate are the humbly born they
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  can shed tears when they need to,
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  They can tell all their grief.
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  But those of our station are not allowed to appear undignified.
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  We are the slaves of the mob we lead, molded by the pomp we must show in public.
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  I am ashamed of my tears. But as in the presence of this enormity,
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  I am ashamed not to weep. And my wife?
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  What words can I find when I see her? How will I greet her? With what eyes will
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  I welcome her? It was terrible enough.
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  Why did she have to come here too, when I never sent for her?
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  Well, it is natural for her to come here with her daughter, to be present with
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  the bride's mother, to give her child a marriage.
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  Not till she will learn of my treachery. But the unhappy girl,
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  girl, why do I call her a girl when it seems that Hades is about to make her his wife?
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  How I pity her. I can hear her calling out to me, Father, are you going to kill me?
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  I hope that you and everyone you love are married like this.
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  The Orestes will be there, too, scarcely old enough to walk,
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  and he will scream cries without words, but my heart will know what they mean.
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  Oh, what ruined Priam's son Paris has brought on me.
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  All this he called down by winning the love of Helen.
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  Grief lays hands on me, too, though I am a stranger and a woman,
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  and there are kings' troubles.
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  Brother, give me your hand. Here is my hand. You have won. I must bear the loss.
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  I swear by Pelops, whom our father called Father, and by Atreus himself,
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  who sired us both, that I will speak to you now openly as I feel,
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  without any hidden object in my mind, but speaking from my heart.
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  When I saw the tears running from your eyes, I felt tears of my own in pity.
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  I will not set myself against you any longer. I call back what I said before.
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  I am with you now, and I add my voice to yours.
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  Do not kill your child not for my sake it cannot be just for you to suffer so
• 23:11
  that i can be satisfied nor for your children to die while mine eyes while mine
• 23:16
  fill their eyes with the light.
• 23:20
  What do I need, after all? Could I not find a wife who would do me credit if I chose to marry again?
• 23:26
  Am I to lose a brother whom I should treasure merely to win back Helen, dying evil with good?
• 23:31
  I was rash. I behaved like a child until I came close to the thing itself and
• 23:36
  saw what it means to kill one's own child.
• 23:39
  Then pity overcame me. With a girl from my own family who was going to lose
• 23:43
  her life because of my marriage.
• 23:45
  What has your daughter to do with Helen, anyway? Let the army break up and leave
• 23:49
  Alice. Brother, no more tears now. Yours are the cause of mine.
• 23:53
  Whatever the oracles say of your daughter, from now on it concerns you, not me.
• 23:59
  I will give you my share image. You can see how long my threats lasted.
• 24:03
  I admit, I changed my mind, but that's natural if a man loves his brother.
• 24:09
  At every step I've tried to see the right way to act.
• 24:12
  That's not the vacillation of a weakling.
• 24:16
  Your words are noble, they are worthy of your ancestors, and Tantalus himself,
• 24:20
  the son of Zeus, might well have been proud of them.
• 24:23
  Well, I ask thank you. I could never have hoped that you would speak as you have spoken now.
• 24:29
  What you have said is right and worthy of you. Discord flares up between brothers
• 24:33
  over love with the family estate.
• 24:36
  It is poisonous to both sides. I hate
• 24:38
  it. But I have reached a point where circumstances leave me no choice.
• 24:42
  I shall be forced to shed her blood to kill my daughter.
• 24:45
  Of course, who can make you kill the girl?
• 24:48
  The blind armies of the Achaeans. Not if you sent her home to Argos.
• 24:53
  I might be able to do that without anyone knowing, but afterwards.
• 24:57
  What? You're wrong to go in such dread of the mob.
• 25:01
  Talcus will tell the whole army what was prophesied. Not if he's dead,
• 25:05
  and that's a simple matter.
• 25:07
  The tribe of prophets wants only to be important, the whole rotten crowd of him.
• 25:13
  And they don't prophesy and they're useless and when they do, it does no good.
• 25:18
  But aren't you afraid of something, something I've just remembered?
• 25:24
  Not unless you tell me what it is. Someone else knows everything.
• 25:29
  The son of Sisyphus, Odysseus.
• 25:32
  There's no reason for Odysseus to do anything to injure you or me.
• 25:37
  He's cunning, and it always turns out that he and the crowd are on the same side.
• 25:42
  He loves power, a terrible love. Can't you see him rising to his feet in the
• 25:47
  middle of the Argives and repeating the oracles that Calchas spelled out to
• 25:51
  us, telling how I promised the sacrifice to Artemis and then failed to keep my promise?
• 25:57
  Can't you see his words sweeping the whole army along with him when he tells
• 26:01
  them, kill you, kill me, and then sacrifice the girl themselves?
• 26:07
  Even if I could escape to Argos, they would follow me there.
• 26:09
  They'd tear the city to the ground, even the great walls that the Cyclops built.
• 26:14
  You see why I'm in despair. Almighty gods, how helpless you have made me now.
• 26:18
  There is nothing I can do. But you, Metaleus, when you go back to the camp,
• 26:23
  save me from one thing at least.
• 26:25
  Take care that Clytemnestra learns nothing of this until I take my child and give her to Hades.
• 26:31
  Let me suffer my ordeal with as few tears as possible. And you,
• 26:35
  women of Chalcas, you will do well to say nothing.
• 26:44
  Lest are they who share the delights of africanity and are not burned alive
• 26:48
  by them moderate and happy when the passion is not stung into madness at whom
• 26:55
  the archer with his golden hair arrows has not aimed desire in his two arrows
• 27:00
  one striking rapture the other devastation,
• 27:04
  those ciprian most beautiful of the goddesses keep
• 27:07
  such wild flights for me let me know love
• 27:10
  within reason and desire within marriage and feel your
• 27:13
  presence not your rage natures of
• 27:16
  humans are various and human ways of acting are different but everyone knows
• 27:21
  what is right and teaching inclines them at last to virtue humility is wisdom
• 27:26
  making us see the right way is something beautiful and from this beauty honor
• 27:31
  is born and life earns immortal fame it is a great thing Women is a pursuit of virtue,
• 27:37
  and women it is a stillness.
• 27:41
  In their love among men multiplied ten thousand times among citizens,
• 27:46
  what makes the city great?
• 27:48
  O Paris, they took you as a baby to grow up herding white heifers on Mount Ida,
• 27:53
  making it on reeds a barbarous music, a thin echo of the Phrygian pipes of Olympus.
• 27:59
  The milk-laden cattle never stopped grazing when the goddesses stood forth for
• 28:03
  you to judge their beauty.
• 28:05
  You chose madness, and madness brought you here to Greece, to the palace that
• 28:09
  inlaid with ivory into the eyes of Helen, that took your gaze full of love and returned to you.
• 28:15
  From that rose the dispute that sent the armed Greeks and their ships to sack Troy.
• 28:24
  Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, and Herestes, Antio. O great is the fortune of the great!
• 28:30
  See the king's daughter, Iphigenia, my queen, and Tyndarius's daughter, Clytemnestra.
• 28:35
  How great were their ancestors! How monumentous the occasion that brings them here!
• 28:40
  Those who excel in power and in wealth are gods, in the eyes of mortals less favored by fortune.
• 28:46
  Let us stand here, women of Chalcas, and hand the queen down from the chariot.
• 28:51
  Make sure she does not stumble, gently, carefully, help with our hands,
• 28:55
  let us help Agamemnon's noble child to descend unafraid for her first steps in Alice.
• 29:02
  We too are strangers here, gently, quietly, welcoming strangers from our girls.
• 29:07
  I think your kind greeting is a good old man. I have come here bringing this
• 29:11
  girl, as I hope, to a happy marriage.
• 29:13
  Take from the chariot the gifts I brought with her, her dowry,
• 29:17
  carry them in, and set them down carefully.
• 29:20
  Otter, come from the chariot, eye on your delicate feet.
• 29:24
  And you young women, give her your arms, help her down. Someone do the same
• 29:28
  for me as I step from the chariot.
• 29:30
  Someone stand in front of the horse's yoke. Colt's eye takes fright.
• 29:34
  If there is no one there to reassure it.
• 29:37
  This is Agamemnon's son, the baby Orestes. Take him. Are you still asleep,
• 29:42
  my child? Lulled by the rocking of the chariot.
• 29:47
  When you wake, wake happily. This is your sister's wedding day.
• 29:52
  You had noble forebearers.
• 29:55
  You will have a noble kinsman, a sea nymph's son, who was like his ancestors, the gods.
• 30:02
  Sit here by my feet child ifigenia come to your mother stand close and show
• 30:06
  these strangers what reason i have to be happy now here comes your dear father greet him,
• 30:13
  mother don't be angry if i run from you to be the first to embrace my father,
• 30:18
  oh most revered in my eyes adam i'm not king you commanded us to come and here
• 30:23
  we are i want to run and put my arms around you father after such a long time,
• 30:28
  how i have missed your face and don't be angry,
• 30:33
  It's as it should be, child, who were always all of all the children I bore
• 30:37
  him, the one who loved your father most.
• 30:39
  Father, how happy I am to see you. It's been so long. I am happy to see you, Iphidia.
• 30:45
  Same words rise to my lips.
• 30:48
  If you could be as happy as I am, father, what a wonderful thing to have brought me here to you.
• 30:54
  Perhaps, my child, perhaps. But how troubled your eyes look.
• 30:59
  Yet you say you are happy to see me.
• 31:01
  Oh, a king and a general has many burdens. Oh, forget them, forget them now.
• 31:06
  I am here. Put them aside and be with me.
• 31:08
  I am with you. I am nowhere else.
• 31:11
  And don't try anymore. I want those lines to leave your face.
• 31:16
  See how happy I am to look at you. But your eyes are overflowing with tears.
• 31:22
  You will be separated for so long. I don't understand what you mean,
• 31:27
  dear father. I don't understand.
• 31:30
  If you understood, I would feel even worse. Then we'll talk,
• 31:34
  and I won't understand if that will make you happier.
• 31:36
  Oh, I can't contain my suffering. Thank you.
• 31:42
  Stay home, father. Stay with your children. I want to, but I can't do what I
• 31:47
  want to, and it makes me unhappy.
• 31:49
  Oh, I wish there were no more spears, no more of this grievance that's come to my last.
• 31:55
  Before they are done they will destroy others and they have me father how long
• 32:00
  you've been shut away in our list even now something prevents me from sending the ariana's way,
• 32:07
  where do they say the trojans live father in the country where preamil is done
• 32:11
  with son named paris who i wish had never been born you're going all that way
• 32:17
  father leaving me behind Now you see what you did not understand before.
• 32:22
  Well, if only it were proper for me to go with you. You would think of your
• 32:26
  father on your own long ways.
• 32:28
  Will my mother come with me, or why may I be alone?".
• 32:33
  Neither father nor mother, or alone. We won't make you live somewhere else, will you, father?
• 32:40
  I said enough. Too much. Those are not meant to know about such things.
• 32:45
  When you have finished what you have to do with Troy, father,
• 32:49
  sail straight home to me.
• 32:52
  Before that, I must make a sacrifice here in Aulis.
• 32:56
  Sacrifices are to find out how we may please the dolls. You will see.
• 33:00
  You will stand by the font of purifying water.
• 33:03
  And we danced around the altar?
• 33:06
  Now I envy you, knowing nothing. Now go in, it's better for young girls not to be seen.
• 33:12
  Give me a kiss in your right hand. You will soon be far away from your father for a long time.
• 33:17
  Low breasts, cheeks, ill bloodhead. What a crushing weight Helen and the Trojan
• 33:22
  city have called down upon you.
• 33:24
  I must not touch you anymore, and it sits to tears flowing. Go in.
• 33:29
  I'll don't need to forgive me for this access and grief. and giving my child
• 33:33
  and marriage to Achilles.
• 33:35
  Partings such as these are happy, of course, but when a father must send his
• 33:39
  daughter to the house of another, after all his years of watching over her, it cuts into the heart.
• 33:46
  I feel it, too. I'm not so foolish as to reproach you for grieving.
• 33:49
  I will feel just the same, you know, when I lead the child out into the marriage
• 33:53
  hymns, so I don't blame you.
• 33:56
  But time will heal this sadness. It's the custom, and we will get used to it.
• 33:59
  Tell me about his ancestors and where he was born. All I know is his name.
• 34:04
  It was Sopos, a daughter who was born, named Eugenia, who married her, a mortal or a god.
• 34:10
  Zeus himself, and she bore him a son, Eacos, king of the island of a whimmy.
• 34:16
  And which of his children succeeded him?
• 34:19
  Peleus. He married one of the daughters of Nereus, the sea god.
• 34:23
  With her father's blessings, or did Peleus take her in defiance of the gods?
• 34:28
  Zeus made the betrothal and gave her a marriage. He asked the authority.
• 34:32
  Where were they married? Under the waves of the ocean?
• 34:36
  No, at the foot of Pelion, the sacred mountain where Chiron lives.
• 34:41
  In the country where they say centaurs live, there all the gods came to the
• 34:45
  marriage of Peleus in the wedding feast.
• 34:48
  And was it Thetis or his father Peleus who brought up Achilles?
• 34:52
  It was the Chiron, to keep him from learning the evil ways of men.
• 34:56
  Wise teacher, and Peleus still wiser of sending the boy to him.
• 35:01
  Such is the man who will be your daughter's husband.
• 35:04
  He sounds acceptable. Where in Greece is he from? from Pythia on the river Epidanos.
• 35:11
  And that is where he will take our daughter? Well, that is for him to decide.
• 35:16
  May it be a happy marriage. When will it take place? At the full moon?
• 35:20
  That is the most propitious time.
• 35:23
  Have you made our daughter a sacrifice to the goddess?
• 35:27
  I will. We had just come to that. And afterwards you will have the marriage feast?
• 35:36
  When I have offered the gods the sacrifice they require of me.
• 35:40
  And where shall I prepare the women's banquet?
• 35:43
  Here, by the highest turns of the ships from Argos. Here?
• 35:48
  There is no choice. I hope good fortune comes of it. You know what you should do?
• 35:53
  Please do it. What do you want? You know I'm not in the habit of disobeying you.
• 35:58
  And here, in the presence of the bridegroom, we men will. You?
• 36:02
  Why not be there for the thing the bride's mother must do?
• 36:05
  No, I will give away the child, the army and I. And where will I be when that happens?
• 36:11
  In Argos, taking care of your other daughters.
• 36:14
  Leaving my child here? And who will raise the bridal torch? I will provide the
• 36:19
  light, all the light, proper for the bridal pair.
• 36:21
  No, this is wrong, very wrong. And such things are important.
• 36:26
  It is not right for you to stay here, just among the soldiers.
• 36:30
  It is right that I should give my daughter in marriage. I am her mother.
• 36:33
  It is not right for our daughters at home to be left alone. They are well looked
• 36:38
  after, safe in their part of the palace.
• 36:41
  Please do it. Now, by the goddess who reigns in Argos, you see the things outside that concern you.
• 36:48
  I'll go on and see the preparations for my daughter's wedding.
• 36:53
  Oh, it was no use. I tried, but I failed to send my wife out of my sight.
• 36:57
  I contrive plots. I lay plans to deceive those dearest to me,
• 37:01
  and it all comes to nothing.
• 37:02
  Now I must arrange the Calchus who performs our sacrifices, the thing which
• 37:06
  the God demands, Goddess demands, and I hate the thought of it. I owe it to Greece.
• 37:12
  A wise man supports in his house a good and faithful wife, or no wife at all.
• 37:20
  Now they will sail to Simeos, where the waters spin silver, and the Greeks in
• 37:24
  pride of numbers, of ships, of weapons.
• 37:27
  They will come to Ilium, to the plains below Troy, shining in the blessings of Apollo.
• 37:33
  Or Cassandra, they say, flings like sunlight, the blonde falls of her hair.
• 37:39
  From under the green laurel, when the god grips her, and she shakes and sees what is to come.
• 37:45
  At Troy on the ramparts and the circling walls, drawn up, the Trojans will be
• 37:49
  waiting, as Ares in his bronze battle gear comes near with the fallen orals,
• 37:55
  the hanging prowess riffling through the eustuary mouths of Simeos.
• 37:59
  What he will want is Helen, the sister of the twin sons of Zeus, the Dioscoron,
• 38:06
  who are stars in heaven, to possess her again out of Priam's kingdom,
• 38:10
  who prize the Achaean spear with shields, labors, and battle,
• 38:13
  and bring her once more into Greece.
• 38:16
  God's old girl will slaughter the stone-cased stronghold of Pergamos, the Phrygian city.
• 38:22
  He will see Priam's head hewn from its shoulders, and every house in Troy is smashed and runoffed.
• 38:28
  Then what a crying from all the girls and from Priam's queen and Helen herself,
• 38:32
  the daughter of Zeus, will taste tears for the day she left her husband.
• 38:37
  Oh, may such anguish never befall us, women of Calchas, or our children's children.
• 38:42
  I shall then work through the Lydian women for all their gold and through the
• 38:46
  lives of Phrygios, who they stand by the loom, saying,
• 38:50
  Who now will wrap his wrist in my swaying hair and uproot me out of my ruined
• 38:54
  home, dragging me through my tears? It is all thanks to your daughter.
• 39:02
  Of the swan with the cineous neck, whose wings hid Zeus from Leta.
• 39:06
  If that is true, it is still you, even if that is no more than a story out of
• 39:12
  the books of the musils with no meaning.
• 39:14
  Center Achilles. Where is the commander of the Achaeans?
• 39:18
  Will one of his servants tell him that Peleus' son Achilles is standing at his
• 39:22
  door? It is not the same for all of us having to wait here by the straits.
• 39:26
  Some of us who have no wives sit here by the shore, having left empty houses
• 39:30
  at home. Others who are married still have no children.
• 39:33
  Such is the frenzy that has seized Greece for this wolf, not without the consent of the gods.
• 39:39
  With things that this passed, let me say what is due to me. Anyone else who
• 39:43
  wants to may speak on his behalf.
• 39:45
  I came away from Phrysalia. I left Peleus to be kept waiting for a wind beside
• 39:50
  the straits, trying to keep my men quiet, the Myrmidons.
• 39:54
  Day after day, they come up to me and say, Achilles, what is keeping us here?
• 39:58
  How much more time must we waste on this expedition to Troy?
• 40:02
  Do what you came here to do or else lead the army home. Don't wait for the sons of Atreus.
• 40:10
  Son of the Neread, I heard your voice and came to greet you.
• 40:13
  It was sacred modesty. Who is this beautiful woman? You could hardly expect
• 40:17
  to recognize me since you never saw me before, but your regard for modesty is commendable.
• 40:22
  And who are you? Why have you come to the camp of the Greek army,
• 40:25
  you woman, here and in the shields?
• 40:28
  I am the daughter of Lita, the light of Neshtra. I go around last, my husband.
• 40:33
  Reef and to the point, but it does not seemly for me to be seen talking with one.
• 40:38
  Wait, why do you run away? Give me your right hand. Here is mine.
• 40:41
  A happy beginning to this betrothal of ours.
• 40:45
  Do you know what you are saying? Touch your hand? How could I face Agamemnon
• 40:49
  if I touch what heaven forbids me to touch?
• 40:51
  What do you say heaven forbids it, son of fetus, when you are about to marry my daughter?
• 40:59
  Marry? Lady, who do you mean? I am left with no answer. Has some delusion led your mind astray?
• 41:10
  Thank you.
• 41:20
  I know it is natural for men to be shy, faced with new kin, in the talk of marriage.
• 41:25
  Lady, I have never courted your daughter, and the sons of betrayers have not
• 41:28
  spoken one word to me about marriage.
• 41:31
  What does this mean? Indeed, my words must be as shocking to you as your words are shocking to me.
• 41:37
  We must both find the explanation. There must be some truth under what we've both said.
• 41:42
  I have been deceived, it seems, and have been preparing marriage that exists
• 41:46
  only in my mind, and filled the shame.
• 41:50
  Perhaps someone is amusing himself with both of us. Ignore it. It doesn't matter.
• 41:54
  I will take my leave. I am humiliated. I have been made to lie.
• 41:57
  I can no longer look you in the face.
• 42:00
  Lady, goodbye. I shall go in to see your husband.
• 42:05
  Wait, stranger, grandson of Akaios, son of the goddess. You,
• 42:08
  I'm calling, and you, daughter of,
• 42:12
  Who is that, shouting through the doorway? How shaken he sounds.
• 42:16
  I am a slave, that's the truth, why not say it? Fate has given me no other choice.
• 42:22
  Whose slave? Not mine, certainly, here among Agamemnon's possessions.
• 42:26
  That lady is in front of the tent. I was given to her by Tyndarius, her father.
• 42:31
  Well, here I am. What did you want to say?
• 42:36
  Is there no one else here beside you and her? No, we are alone.
• 42:41
  Come out from the king's tent. Speak.
• 42:43
  What I most feared has come to pass. Oh, destiny, spare those I pray for.
• 42:48
  But your words sound ominous, and the message, it seems, is important.
• 42:52
  Don't wait to kiss my hand. What did you want to tell me?
• 42:56
  You know me, lady. You know my devotion to you and your children.
• 42:59
  I know you've been a servant of the palace for a long time.
• 43:02
  I came to King Agamemnon as part of your dowry.
• 43:05
  Yes, you came with us to Argos, and you've always belonged to me.
• 43:11
  I have, and I put your interests ahead of your husband's. Now tell us, what is your secret?
• 43:18
  Your daughter, her father, is going to kill her with his own hand.
• 43:24
  What? I spit against what you say, old man. You're out of your senses.
• 43:28
  Now you will plunge a blade into her white throat.
• 43:32
  Has he gone mad?
• 43:35
  No, he is sane about everything except you and your child, and there he's lost
• 43:39
  his reason. But why? What demon could prompt him to such a thing?
• 43:44
  Was the oracle, according to Calchus, saying what must happen before the fleet can sail.
• 43:49
  What horror is coming to me, and the child whose father will kill her? Sail where?
• 43:54
  To the country of Dardanelles, for Menelaus to bring back Helen.
• 43:59
  To the fates of woven Ephigenia's death into Helen's homecoming?
• 44:03
  Now you know it all. He intends to sacrifice your daughter's arjunus.
• 44:08
  And the talk of marriage, which brought me here...
• 44:15
  They knew you would bring her, and gladly, to marry Achilles.
• 44:20
  Our daughter, you have come here to your death, and your mother with you.
• 44:24
  The child's fate is terrible. So is yours. It is a monstrous decision, I go to my eyes.
• 44:30
  I am helpless. I am lost. Whatever I do, the tears come.
• 44:34
  Losing a child is painful. You have reason for tears. But where did you learn
• 44:38
  all this, old man? How did it come to your ears?
• 44:41
  I was sent to you with a second letter about the first one.
• 44:44
  Telling me again to bring the girl here? To die? Or warning me not to?
• 44:49
  Warning you not to. At that moment, your husband was in his right mind.
• 44:53
  If you had such a letter from me, why was it not delivered?
• 44:56
  Menelaus took it from me. All your troubles come from him.
• 44:59
  Son of Thetis and Peleus, have you heard this?
• 45:03
  I have heard the cause of your grief, and I do not take lightly the way I have
• 45:07
  been involved in the matter.
• 45:09
  They are going to kill my child, the Trictor, with this talk of marrying you.
• 45:13
  I blame Agamemnon, and not only for the reasons you speak of.
• 45:18
  Son of a goddess, I, a mortal, am ashamed, not ashamed to clasp your knees.
• 45:23
  What good would pride do me now? What matters more to me than my daughter's life?
• 45:27
  Son of a goddess, save us, me and my wretchedness, and Ifrageniah,
• 45:30
  who they said was your betrothed.
• 45:32
  Even though it was not true, I myself put the bryo-wreath on her head for you.
• 45:36
  I brought her here to be married, and now I am leading her to her death.
• 45:40
  You will be blamed if you do nothing to defend her.
• 45:43
  Even though you were never married to her, you were called her husband.
• 45:45
  I implored you by your beard, by your right hand, by your own mother, your name, Achilles.
• 45:50
  Destroyed me. Now you must clear it.
• 45:53
  There is no altar where I can take refuge. None except your knees.
• 45:57
  No friend smiles on me here. You have heard of Agamemnon's raw heartlessness.
• 46:01
  Nothing is sacred to him. And I am a woman coming to a camp of sailors. Hard to control.
• 46:10
  And ripe for any crime, though they can be useful enough when they want to be.
• 46:15
  If you can bring yourself to stretch out your hand over me, we are saved. If not, we are lost.
• 46:22
  Giving birth is a mystery. It casts a powerful spell over mothers.
• 46:26
  All, all of them without exception, will risk any suffering for the sake of one of their children.
• 46:34
  Pride rises up in me and draws me on, but I have learned to curb my grief and
• 46:38
  adversity and my joy in triumph.
• 46:40
  Mortals who have learned this can hope to live by reason. There are moments
• 46:44
  when it is good not to be too wise, but there are times too when taking thought is useful.
• 46:49
  I was brought up in the house of Chiron, the most righteous of men,
• 46:52
  and he taught me to act from a simple heart.
• 46:54
  If the commands of the sons of Atreus are just, I will obey them. If not, I will refuse.
• 47:02
  But whether here or in Troy, I will remain free, and in my fighting will bring
• 47:06
  credit on the god of war with my whole strength.
• 47:09
  As for you, you have been treated cruelly by those closest to you,
• 47:12
  and as far as it is proper for me, I shall extend my pity to cover you.
• 47:17
  Never shall your daughter, who has been called my betrothed,
• 47:19
  be slaughtered by her father. He shall not use me in this manipulation.
• 47:24
  That way my name would be her butcher, as surely as if it had drawn the sword.
• 47:30
  Your husband is the cause of this, but my own body would be defiled if through
• 47:35
  me that girl were to die, horribly, brutally used as she has been.
• 47:39
  It fills me with rage to think how she has been treated. I would be the lowest
• 47:43
  of the Argives and nothing, and Menelaus a hero.
• 47:46
  I would be no son of Peleus but some demon's offspring if I let my name do your
• 47:50
  husband's killing for him.
• 47:52
  I swear by Nereus in the waves cradled, father of Thetis who gave me birth,
• 47:57
  King Ion-Memnon shall not touch your daughter, nor so much as graze her gown with his fingertips,
• 48:03
  or that barbarous settlement in Lydia, Sibios, where his sires first saw the
• 48:09
  light, is a Grecian city, and no one has heard of Pythia.
• 48:13
  This Calchas, their prophet, will find a bitter taste in the barley of the lustral
• 48:17
  one before that sacrifice.
• 48:19
  What is a prophet? Someone who utters one truth in a flock of lies,
• 48:23
  if he's lucky, and if he's not, everybody forgets. I'm not saying this to earn a bribe.
• 48:28
  There are thousands I could marry, but I will not suffer this insult from King Agamemnon.
• 48:33
  He should have asked my permission if he wanted to use me to lure the girl here
• 48:36
  and hit to his snare, since it was to see her married to me that Clytemnestra
• 48:41
  would have brought her most willingly.
• 48:43
  I would have lent the use of my name.
• 48:47
  Says to the Greeks, so that the ships could sail to Iliang, I am here with the
• 48:52
  others. It is the same war.
• 48:54
  I would not have refused to help, but I have been treated by these commanders
• 48:57
  as though I were a nobody.
• 48:59
  They accord me their honor or they ignore me as they please.
• 49:02
  My sword may decide that. Blood will color it before we've sailed to Phrygia.
• 49:07
  Anyone thinks to take your daughter from me? Be calm. In your time of danger,
• 49:11
  suddenly, I appeared to you as if I were some great god.
• 49:14
  I am not, but to save the girl I will be.
• 49:19
  Son of peleus what you have said is worthy of you worthy of the proud sea goddess and her son,
• 49:24
  how can i find the right praise neither cloying with flattery nor so meager
• 49:28
  that it offends you men of worth have a way of hating those who praise them
• 49:32
  too much i am as shamed to enlarge on my sufferings they are mine they do not
• 49:37
  concern you still even if their afflictions.
• 49:41
  Or not his, a good man may help those in trouble. Take pity on us, our plight deserves it.
• 49:46
  First I thought you would be my son, an empty hope, as I learned.
• 49:50
  Now my child is threatened with death, a bad augury for your marriage one day,
• 49:54
  unless you take steps to protect yourself.
• 49:56
  But why do I urge you, from beginning to end you have spoken nobly.
• 50:00
  My child will be saved if you can save her. Would it please you if she came
• 50:03
  and embraced your knees as a suppliant?
• 50:05
  True, it is not seemly for a girl to do so, but if you wish, she would come.
• 50:10
  With dignity, and eyes cast down. If my supplication alone can move you,
• 50:15
  I'd rather she were not called.
• 50:16
  She is over-timid, perhaps, but all forms of modesty are worth respecting.
• 50:21
  Do not bring your daughter here for me to see. Why should we incur the comments of the ignorant?
• 50:26
  An army crowded together, loosed from work at home, will gossip and spread foul
• 50:30
  stories. Whether you supplicate me or not, you come to the same end.
• 50:33
  For me, the one thing of importance is to save you from disaster.
• 50:37
  And this you may count on. I never lie. May I die if I deceive you,
• 50:41
  and live only if she does.
• 50:44
  May you be blessed all your days for helping those who are unhappy.
• 50:48
  We must lay plans, listen, and go on, I need no urging to listen to you.
• 50:52
  Let us try to make her father see reason, he is too cowardly, he is afraid of the army.
• 50:57
  Arguments can be done, arguments, a cold hope, but what do you want me to do?
• 51:02
  First plead with him not to kill his daughter, if he refuses you, then you can come to me.
• 51:11
  But you may persuade him, by yourself.
• 51:13
  Then there would be no need for my help. You are safe in any case.
• 51:16
  There would be no breach then in my friendship with Agamemnon.
• 51:19
  No cause for the army to reproach me. No weapon to use to bring it about. Only reason.
• 51:24
  So it would turn out well for you and those dear to you, and I would not be forced to act.
• 51:28
  How wise you are. I will do as you say, but suppose something goes wrong.
• 51:32
  Where and how shall I see you again? Shall I come in my misery searching for your hand to rescue us?
• 51:37
  I will be watching in the right place. You will not have to be stared at,
• 51:43
  hunting through the troops, to find me.
• 51:46
  Do nothing that would disgrace your fathers. Tyndarius should not suffer shame.
• 51:49
  He was a great man in Greece.
• 51:51
  You are right. Lead me. I ask only to be your slave.
• 51:55
  If there are gods, the gods will reward your goodness. If there are none,
• 51:59
  what does it matter anyway?
• 52:01
  Oh, what a sound of Libyan flutes, of lyres leading the dance,
• 52:04
  of reeling reeds, raised the marriage hymn of Pelion, when the muses came rogue
• 52:09
  in their bright hair to the banquet with the gods.
• 52:12
  And their gold sandals stamped the ground on the way to the marriage of Peleus,
• 52:16
  and their voices carried over the centaur's slopes and through the woods of
• 52:20
  Pelion, praise of Thetis and Achaeus' son.
• 52:23
  There, Dardanus' child, Trojan Ganymede, the darling of Zeus,
• 52:27
  poured out mixed wine from the deep bowels of gold.
• 52:30
  And in celebration, the fifty daughters of Nereus turned their braided Danes
• 52:34
  on the white sand of the shore.
• 52:36
  And the centaurs came, riding with pine spears and crowned leaves,
• 52:40
  to the feast of the gods and the bold of Bacchus Phil.
• 52:43
  And they cried, Daughter of Nereus, great is this sun you will bear,
• 52:47
  a light and a splendor to Thessaly, as Chiron, who knows the oracles of Apollo, foretells.
• 52:52
  Saying that your child will sail with an army of myrmidons and
• 52:55
  their spears to the land of troy to burn king priam's glorious
• 52:59
  city his limbs
• 53:02
  traced in gold armor wrought for him by the god phacestus the gift of his mother
• 53:06
  that is the sea goddess said the god celebrated the marriage of peleus and the
• 53:11
  firstborn of the nereas but you ifhigenia on your lovely hair the argos were
• 53:16
  set a wreath as on the brows of a spotted heifer led down from caves in the
• 53:21
  mountains to the sacrifice,
• 53:23
  and the knife will open his throat.
• 53:31
  And let the blood of a girl, and you were not brought up to the sound of the
• 53:36
  shepherd's pipe, or the cries of the husband, but nurtured by your mother,
• 53:40
  to be a bride for one of the great Anarchus's sins.
• 53:44
  And where is the noble face of modesty, or the strength of virtue now that blasphemy
• 53:48
  is in power, and men have put justice behind them? and there is no law but lawlessness
• 53:53
  and none join in fear of the gods.
• 53:58
  I have come out looking for my husband. He has been away from here for some time.
• 54:02
  My daughter, poor child, has learned of the death her father plans for her.
• 54:06
  One minute she is shaken with sobbing, and the next the tears flow almost in silence.
• 54:12
  But it was Agamemnon I named. Here he is. He will soon stay unconvicted of planning
• 54:16
  a crime against his inner child.
• 54:19
  Daughter of Leta, I am glad that we meet out here, for I must speak to you now
• 54:22
  of things that her bride should not hear.
• 54:25
  It is a good moment for that. Call the child out to her father.
• 54:29
  The libations are ready and the barley grains.
• 54:32
  Ready to be thrown into the purifying flame. And the calves that must loose
• 54:37
  to Artemis their dark blood to bless the marriage.
• 54:40
  You find innocent words to describe it, but there are no words for what you have decided.
• 54:45
  Come, child. You know what your father means to do. Wrap the baby Orestes in
• 54:50
  your robe and bring him with you.
• 54:53
  Here she is, obedient to your command. and for the rest I will answer for a spell.
• 54:58
  Why are you crying, child? Aren't you still happy to see me?
• 55:02
  Why are you holding your robe in front of your eyes with your face turned to the ground?
• 55:08
  I cannot think where to start my bitter story, for its beginning is grief,
• 55:12
  its middle's grief, its end is grief.
• 55:15
  What is that? Why are all three of you afraid to look at me?
• 55:20
  My husband, find the honesty of a man and answer with me with it.
• 55:25
  There's no need for you to speak that way ask me your question do you intend to kill your daughter,
• 55:32
  What a horrible thing to ask. What a vile suspicion. Simply answer the question.
• 55:37
  Any reasonable question I would answer. This question. This is the only one I care about.
• 55:41
  Oh, immovable law of heaven. Oh, my anguish. My relentless fate.
• 55:47
  Yours. Mine. Hers. No relenting for any of us. Have you been wronged?
• 55:53
  How can you ask? What a question for a man of sense.
• 55:57
  I am lost. Someone has betrayed me. I know the whole story. I have found out
• 56:02
  what you meant to do. Your silence itself is a confession.
• 56:05
  So is your sighing. No need to waste words.
• 56:08
  Then I will say nothing. What good would it do to lie and add shamelessness to my troubles?
• 56:13
  Listen to me then, and I will use plain words and not talking riddles.
• 56:17
  In the first place, you took me by force. You married me against my will.
• 56:21
  You killed the husband I had, Tantalus.
• 56:23
  You ripped from my breast my baby, still living. You smashed it on the ground.
• 56:27
  Then when my brothers, the sons of Zeus on their shining horses,
• 56:30
  bore down on you, bringing war, you came on your knees to my old father,
• 56:34
  Tyndarius, and he saved you.
• 56:36
  So you got from me for your wife again. I came to love you.
• 56:40
  Admit that as your wife I have deserved no reproach. My demands in love have been modest.
• 56:45
  I have done what I could to increase your house so that you could be glad to come home.
• 56:49
  And you went out proud and at peace. It is not Not often that a man acquires a good wife.
• 56:53
  There is no end of the other kind, and I bore you this son and three daughters,
• 56:57
  and now you have the cruelty to take one of these from me.
• 57:01
  And if anyone asks you why you intend to kill her, what shall you say?
• 57:05
  Shall I answer for you, so that Menelaus can have Helen back?
• 57:08
  Strange bargain. You'll pay your child's life as the price for a worthless woman.
• 57:13
  We'll buy back our own harm with what is most dear to us.
• 57:16
  Now I want you to think of this. You'll sail to the war, and I'll be left in
• 57:20
  the house. She may be gone for years.
• 57:22
  There I'll be, and with what heart do you imagine I will pass my days in those
• 57:27
  halls, finding all her places in?
• 57:31
  Her girl's room empty of her forever, and finding myself alone with nothing
• 57:35
  but my tears and the endless grieving of her fate.
• 57:38
  My child, it was your own father who killed you, no one else.
• 57:41
  That was his hand and no one else's.
• 57:44
  That was his reward for love, and after that he will come home again.
• 57:48
  Then almost any occasion would serve. For my other children and me,
• 57:52
  to give you the welcome you will have earned.
• 57:54
  In the name of the gods, don't force me to turn against you.
• 57:56
  Don't wrong me yourself.
• 57:58
  As you kill our child, what prayers will you be saying? What blessing can you
• 58:02
  ask as you have cut her throat?
• 58:04
  A bad voyage home since you're setting out the consequences of a crime?
• 58:09
  Injustice, could I give you my blessing?
• 58:13
  We would have to think the gods had no minds to pray for murderers.
• 58:17
  And when you come back to Argos, will you kiss your children?
• 58:20
  It will be forbidden by the gods. And which of the children will dare even look at you?
• 58:25
  They will be afraid that you will kiss them only to kill them.
• 58:28
  Did any of this cross your mind, or do you think of nothing but waving scepters and leany armies?
• 58:33
  Would it not have been fair to say to the Achaeans, Men of Argos, you want to sail the dry?
• 58:38
  Draw lots. Let us see whose daughter will die. That way you would have had justice.
• 58:42
  There is none in your offering up your daughter as a victim for the army,
• 58:46
  or let Menelaus to whom the matters most, after all, cut his own daughter's
• 58:49
  throat, Hermione, for the sake of her mother.
• 58:52
  But it is my own child who is to be told from me.
• 58:56
  When I have been faithful to you, while she who dishonored her husband's bed
• 59:00
  will find her daughter safe at home in Sparta and be happy.
• 59:03
  Now answer me. Tell me one thing if I said is not true.
• 59:06
  But if there is justice and truth in what I say, do not kill your daughter in
• 59:10
  mine. Turn back. Be wise." It was yes, Sagamemnon.
• 59:14
  It is good when people help each other to save children. Who can deny that?
• 59:21
  If I had the tongue of Orpheus' father, whose song could charm the stones that
• 59:25
  they followed after him.
• 59:26
  If my words could persuade whoever I wished to whatever I wished,
• 59:30
  I would use all of my arts now.
• 59:32
  But all that I know how to do at this moment is cry.
• 59:36
  I offer you my tears. I press against your knees like a suppliant's tall branch,
• 59:41
  my body which my mother bore you.
• 59:43
  Do not send me into death before my time.
• 59:45
  It is sweet to see the light. do not make me look at what is under the earth.
• 59:50
  I was the first who called you father, the first who you called your child,
• 59:54
  the first to climb on your knees and we held each other, we loved each other.
• 59:58
  You said, will I see you living in your husband's house, enjoying the happiness
• 1:00:02
  that is my daughter's fright?
• 1:00:04
  And I answered, touching your beard as I do now.
• 1:00:07
  But now is the gesture of a suppliant. And what will I do for them,
• 1:00:11
  father? When you are old,
• 1:00:15
  Will you come to live with me, and let me nurse your age, and return for what you have done for me?
• 1:00:20
  I remember what we said, but you were forgotten, and now you want to kill me.
• 1:00:24
  I want the name of Pelops, of your father, Atreus, of my mother,
• 1:00:28
  suffering here again as at my birth. Do not let it happen.
• 1:00:34
  What have I to do with Paris and Helen, and what have they done?
• 1:00:40
  Why should Paris coming to Argos mean that I must die? Look at me,
• 1:00:44
  in my eyes, kiss me, so that at last I may remember that when I am dying,
• 1:00:48
  if you will not listen to what I say.
• 1:00:52
  Brother, you are so small to help your friends, but cry with me,
• 1:00:57
  cry to your father, beg him not to kill your sister.
• 1:01:00
  See, even baby swims the dread of evil to come. Even without being able to speak,
• 1:01:04
  he cries to you, begging, take pity on me, respect your daughter's life,
• 1:01:08
  both of us. Your own blood touched your beard, imploring you.
• 1:01:12
  A baby, a grown girl, in three words, I can say it all. The sweetest thing we
• 1:01:16
  ever see is this daylight.
• 1:01:18
  Under the ground there is nothing. Only the mad choose to be dead.
• 1:01:22
  The meanest life is better than the most glorious death.
• 1:01:28
  O reckless Helen, now from you and your marriage a deadly struggle begins between
• 1:01:33
  the sons of Maitreus and their children.
• 1:01:36
  I know when pity is due and when it is not. I love my children, only the mad do not.
• 1:01:41
  Wife, it is terrible to me to bring myself to do this, and terrible if I do not.
• 1:01:45
  For I am forced to do it. Look, how many ships the war fleet assembled here
• 1:01:49
  with the proud men of Greece in their bronze battle gear, and they cannot sail
• 1:01:53
  to the towers of Iliad and seize the famous citadel Troy, according to Calchas
• 1:01:57
  the prophet, unless I sacrifice here.
• 1:02:00
  Some strange aphrodite has crazed a whole Greek army with a passion to sail
• 1:02:04
  at once to the barbarian's own country and end this piracy of Greek marriage.
• 1:02:08
  If I disobey the goddess, if I ignore the oracle, then the army will sail to
• 1:02:13
  Argos. They will kill you and me and your sisters who are still at home.
• 1:02:16
  I have not become Menelaus's creature. I am not guided by him.
• 1:02:20
  It is Greece that compels me to sacrifice you, whatever I wish.
• 1:02:23
  We are in stronger hands than our own. Greece must be free if you and I can make her so.
• 1:02:29
  Being Greeks, we must not be subject to barbarians, we must not let them carry off our wives.
• 1:02:35
  O strangers, O my daughter, now I see your death. Your father is running away
• 1:02:39
  from you after giving you up to Hades.
• 1:02:41
  O mother, how can I bear it? Same lamenting song.
• 1:02:45
  Falls to us both. Our fate, I must say goodbye to the light.
• 1:02:49
  I will not see the sun anymore.
• 1:02:51
  O unlucky valley of Phrygia filled with snow.
• 1:02:54
  O high slopes of Ida, where Priya once left a baby, torn from its mother to die.
• 1:02:59
  Paris, his own child, known in the time as the son of Ida.
• 1:03:03
  Paris of Ida, among the Phrygians. If only the herdsmen had not brought him
• 1:03:08
  up with the flocks, not reared him, Paris, Alexander, to watch his flock on
• 1:03:12
  the clear springs where the wolf sprints, and the rich pastures starved with roses and hyacinths.
• 1:03:18
  For the goddesses to gather, it was there that Pallas came, and seductive Cyprus
• 1:03:22
  and Hera, and with them Hermes, the god's messenger.
• 1:03:26
  Cyprus, proud of the desire, she wakens. Pallas, proud of her spear.
• 1:03:30
  Hera, proud of the bed of Zeus.
• 1:03:32
  Came from the faith of the judgment buying in beauty whose issue is my death
• 1:03:36
  and my friends whatever glory it brings to the argives for i am the first sacrifice
• 1:03:42
  to artemis for the passage to ilion and he who begot me has betrayed me and
• 1:03:47
  left me and i curse in my despair i curse the day i ever saw you hell.
• 1:03:53
  For I am to be murdered, I am to fail, to my ungodly father's ungodly knife.
• 1:03:59
  Oh, if only Aulus had never opened her folded bay to the bronze-beaked galleys,
• 1:04:04
  the fur keels that will ferry them to Troy, where the breath of Zeus had not
• 1:04:09
  blown fair up the current of Eurybius.
• 1:04:12
  Sweetly that he blows on this man's sail and on that man's, making those men healthy.
• 1:04:17
  To others he'd bring bad luck, bitter compulsion. Some can set out on voyages
• 1:04:22
  and some can make port. Others must wait.
• 1:04:25
  Truly, we are creatures of labor and suffering, nothing for long.
• 1:04:29
  Labor and suffering in the plain sight of our destiny is the cruelest thing of all.
• 1:04:34
  O daughter of Tyndarios, what anguish, what bitter sorrows you've called down
• 1:04:39
  on Greece. I pity you, you do not deserve your fate.
• 1:04:44
  Mother, mother, I see men coming. Achilles too, child, the son of the goddess,
• 1:04:49
  and whose name you were brought here.
• 1:04:51
  Women, open the doors so that I can hide.
• 1:04:53
  Why, child, I would be ashamed to see him. Why? I'm ashamed of my unlucky marriage.
• 1:04:58
  There is no time for delicacy. Stay here, do not be shy. We must do what we can.
• 1:05:04
  Unhappy daughter of Leda. Unhappy is what I am. The Argives are shouting.
• 1:05:08
  They want a terrible thing. What are they shouting about your daughter?
• 1:05:13
  Your words have an unhappy beginning. They say she must be sacrificed.
• 1:05:17
  And will no one speak against them? They shouted about me, too.
• 1:05:20
  What did they say? Stone him to death. For trying to save my daughter?
• 1:05:25
  Yes, for that. Who would have dared to raise a hand against you? Every Greek there.
• 1:05:30
  But your own army of Myrbanam, surely they stood by your side.
• 1:05:33
  They were the first to threaten me.
• 1:05:35
  Oh, my child, we are lost. They said I was foolish about this marriage.
• 1:05:39
  What did you answer? that they were not to kill my bride. Good.
• 1:05:43
  Well, my father had promised to me and brought her from Argos.
• 1:05:48
  But their voices drowned me out. The mob, an infernal thing.
• 1:05:53
  But I will defend you. You alone against the whole army?
• 1:05:58
  See, these men are carrying my armor. May heaven reward your courage.
• 1:06:02
  Heaven will. And my daughter will not be sacrificed.
• 1:06:05
  Not if I can stop it. Will they come here to take the girl?
• 1:06:09
  Thousands of them, led by Odysseus. The son of Sisyphus? That one.
• 1:06:14
  Did he offer to do it, or did the army choose him? They chose him,
• 1:06:18
  but the choice pleased him.
• 1:06:20
  A vile choice to be the accomplice in a murder. I will stop him.
• 1:06:24
  Is he going to drag her away against her will? By her blonde hair.
• 1:06:28
  And what should I do then? Hold on to her. You mean that will stop them from killing her?
• 1:06:36
  That is what it will come to.
• 1:06:39
  Mother, both of you, listen to me. I see now that you are wrong to be angry with your husband.
• 1:06:45
  It is hard to hold out against the inevitable.
• 1:06:48
  The stranger deserves to be thanked for being willing to help us,
• 1:06:52
  but on no account must we let the army be stirred up against him.
• 1:06:55
  It will not help us, and he might come to harm.
• 1:06:58
  Now, Mother, listen to the conclusion that I have reached. I have made up my mind to die.
• 1:07:03
  I want to come to it with glory. I want to have thrown off all weak and base thoughts.
• 1:07:09
  Mother, look at it with my eyes and see how right it will. All the people,
• 1:07:14
  all the strength of Greece have turned to me.
• 1:07:17
  All those ships when they sail, when their Troy falls, depend on me.
• 1:07:21
  I will be the one to protect our women in the future, if ever the barbarians dare to come near.
• 1:07:26
  When they have paid for the ruin of Helen, whom Paris carried away,
• 1:07:29
  they will never again be so bold as to ravish well-born wives out of Greece.
• 1:07:34
  All these good things I can win by dying.
• 1:07:37
  Because of me, Greece will be free, and my name will be blessed there.
• 1:07:40
  I must not cling to life too dearly.
• 1:07:43
  You brought me into this world for the sake of everyone in my country,
• 1:07:47
  and not just for your own.
• 1:07:48
  Thousands of men have slung shield on shoulder. Thousands have taken hold of
• 1:07:53
  the oars when they saw their country wrong.
• 1:07:56
  And each of them will strike and, if need be, die for Greece.
• 1:08:01
  And shall my one life stand in the way of it all? What justice would there be
• 1:08:05
  in that? What answer can I make to those who are ready to die?
• 1:08:09
  And there is another thing. It would not be right for this man to join battle
• 1:08:12
  with the whole of the army and die for the sake of a woman.
• 1:08:15
  If it means that one man can see the sunlight, what are the lives of thousands of women in the balance?
• 1:08:20
  And if Artemis demands the offering of my body, I am immortal.
• 1:08:24
  Who am I to oppose the goddess?
• 1:08:26
  It is not to be considered. I give my life to Greece.
• 1:08:30
  Take me, kill me, and bring down Troy.
• 1:08:34
  That will be my monument for ages to come. That will be my wedding,
• 1:08:38
  my children, the meeting of my life.
• 1:08:41
  Mother, it is the Greeks who must rule the barbarians, not the barbarians of
• 1:08:45
  the Greeks. They are born to be slaves, we to be free.
• 1:08:49
  Young woman, what you have said is noble. It is the rule of destiny in this,
• 1:08:54
  the will of the goddess that are sick.
• 1:08:56
  Out of Agamemnon, if I could win you for my wife, it would prove that some god
• 1:09:02
  wanted me to be happy and be graced because you are hers and because she is yours.
• 1:09:08
  What you have said is beautiful and worthy of your country.
• 1:09:11
  You are no match for the gods and you have given up the struggle against them.
• 1:09:15
  You have reconciled what should be reconciled with.
• 1:09:18
  But as for me, the most clearly I see your spirit, the more I long to have,
• 1:09:23
  Sir Noble, a woman for my bride.
• 1:09:24
  Look, I want to save you, to take you home with me. I call Thetis my mother to witness.
• 1:09:29
  Now more than anything, it would grieve me not to pit myself against all the Danians and save you.
• 1:09:34
  Think, death is awesome, something terrible.
• 1:09:38
  I say what I'm about to say with no regard for anyone. Tindarius's daughter,
• 1:09:43
  Helen, will bring on enough fighting, enough death for the sake of her body.
• 1:09:47
  As for you, stranger, do not die for me and do not kill. Let me save Greece if that is what I can do.
• 1:09:54
  O noble spirit, after that, what is there for me to say?
• 1:09:58
  You have chosen, splendor in your soul has led you. Why should a man not say it?
• 1:10:03
  But later you may think differently. I want you to know how I keep my word.
• 1:10:07
  I will have these arms lying by the altar, ready not to join in your death, but to prevent it.
• 1:10:12
  Even when the knife is almost at your neck, it will not be too late to accept my offer.
• 1:10:17
  Turn, and I will not let you die because of a moment's recklessness.
• 1:10:20
  I will go now to the goddess's temple with these arms and wait for you to come.
• 1:10:28
  You are silent. Tears keep falling, mother. Why are these tears for me?
• 1:10:32
  I have reason enough that this ache in my heart. No more of that.
• 1:10:37
  Do not take my own courage from me.
• 1:10:40
  Will you do one thing for me? Speak, how could I fail you in anything, child?
• 1:10:44
  Do not cut off a lock of your hair as is done for the dead. Put no mourning on for me.
• 1:10:50
  What do you mean, child? I am losing you. No, I am saved. My name will be your glory.
• 1:10:57
  I don't understand. I am not to mourn for you? No, I shall have no grave.
• 1:11:02
  What of that? It is not the grave we mourn, but the dead.
• 1:11:06
  The altar of the goddess, the daughter of Zeus, will be my grave.
• 1:11:10
  Tears are forbidden there.
• 1:11:12
  My daughter, what you say is true, I will obey. For I am blessed by fortune.
• 1:11:17
  It was I who could bring help to Greece.
• 1:11:20
  And what shall I say to your sisters? Do not dress them in mourning either.
• 1:11:25
  Have you some message of love to send them? Say goodbye to them for me and bring
• 1:11:30
  up Arrestes to be a man for my sake.
• 1:11:32
  Put your arms around him since we were looking at him for the last time.
• 1:11:36
  Dear child, you did what you could for those you love.
• 1:11:39
  Is there something I can do in Argos? Something that will give you pleasure?
• 1:11:44
  Don't hate my father. He is your husband. He will not like the course he must face because of you.
• 1:11:50
  He destroyed me for the sake of Greece against his will.
• 1:11:53
  But he used lies, low schemes, unworthy of Atreus.
• 1:11:57
  Who will lead me to the place so that they don't need to touch my hair?
• 1:12:02
  I will go with you. No, that would not be right. Holding on to your gown, Mother, listen to me.
• 1:12:07
  It is better for both of us if you stay here.
• 1:12:10
  One of my father's servants can lead me to the meadow where I aim to die.
• 1:12:17
  My child, you are going, and I shall never come back, leaving your mother,
• 1:12:23
  as you see, not because I deserve it. But wait, don't leave me.
• 1:12:29
  Now there must be no tears, and you young women join in my hymn to Artemis the
• 1:12:34
  Virgin, and celebrate my fate.
• 1:12:36
  Let silence descend on the army of the Argives, let the basket be brought,
• 1:12:41
  light the fire of purification, bring the barley.
• 1:12:44
  Father must lead the procession around the altar, I am coming,
• 1:12:49
  bringing salvation for Greece and victory. Lead me.
• 1:12:55
  I, who will conquer Troy and bring down the city of Ilium, set the wreath on
• 1:13:00
  my head, bring the purifying waters around the temple of Artemis,
• 1:13:03
  around the altar of blessed Artemis, in honor of the goddess, begin the dance.
• 1:13:08
  I will wash away with my own blood the spell that the oracle will feel.
• 1:13:13
  O noble and revered mother, Why not shed our tears for you? The gods are not worshipped that way.
• 1:13:19
  Young women, sing with me now. Glory to Artemis the goddess,
• 1:13:23
  whose temple faces Chalpas.
• 1:13:25
  Through the ships wait and the passion for war is burning.
• 1:13:28
  Here in the narrows of Aulis because of me. O Pelesia, where I was born, Mycenae home.
• 1:13:35
  Are you invoking the city of Precious, which the Cyclops built?
• 1:13:39
  You brought me up to be the light of Greece. Dying, I can say it. Your glory will not die.
• 1:13:45
  O light that brings the day, splendor of Zeus, I am going from this world to
• 1:13:50
  another destiny, another home. Goodbye, light that I love.
• 1:13:56
  So she is going. She who will conquer Troy and bring down the city of Ilion.
• 1:14:01
  She leans her head for the victim's garland, for the sacred water.
• 1:14:05
  She goes to drench with her blood the altar of the divine goddess.
• 1:14:11
  To the sword that will cut her lovely throat. Your father is waiting with pure
• 1:14:15
  libations, and the Achaeans are waiting to sail to Troy.
• 1:14:18
  But let us raise our voice to Artemis, daughter of Zeus, to ask for a happy destiny.
• 1:14:24
  Awesome goddess, pleased by this human sacrifice, send now to Phrygia,
• 1:14:28
  to the land of deceitful Troy, and the armies of Greece.
• 1:14:32
  There let Agamemnon wreathe the Achaean weapons with garlands of victory,
• 1:14:36
  and himself win a crown of unfading glory.
• 1:14:39
  Daughter of Tundarius, Flatimnestra, come out and hear my message.
• 1:14:43
  I hear your voice. Here I am, distraught, shaking with terror,
• 1:14:46
  for fear that you have brought some new disaster to the grief I have.
• 1:14:50
  It is about your daughter. I have something miraculous to tell.
• 1:14:54
  Tell me, tell me at once. Beloved mistress, you shall hear everything as it
• 1:14:58
  happened, from the beginning, unless deceiving of my mind confuses my words.
• 1:15:03
  When we had come to the grove, sacred to the daughter of Zeus,
• 1:15:06
  in the flowered meadow of Artemis, leading her child to the place where the
• 1:15:10
  army was ordered to assemble.
• 1:15:12
  The Argives ran, all crowding to the spot, and King Agamemnon,
• 1:15:16
  when he saw his daughter coming through the grove to the place of sacrifice,
• 1:15:20
  groaned aloud and turned his head, hiding his eyes and their tears with his robe.
• 1:15:25
  But she came up to her father and said, Father, here I am, and I give my body
• 1:15:30
  willingly as a sacrifice for my country, for all of Greece.
• 1:15:33
  Lead me to the altar. if this is what destiny has decreed. For my part,
• 1:15:39
  I hope it turns out well for all of you.
• 1:15:41
  May the spoils of victory be yours and win the sight of your homes again.
• 1:15:46
  Let none of the Argives lay hands on me.
• 1:15:51
  I will offer my neck in silence. I will not finish. This is what she said,
• 1:15:57
  and everyone who heard marveled at the girl's bravery and nobility.
• 1:16:01
  Then the herald Telithibos, whose office it was,
• 1:16:06
  called out from among them to the armory, for the sacred silence and the prophet
• 1:16:10
  Calchas drew from his sheath the wedded knife and laid it in the basket worked
• 1:16:14
  with gold and set the crown upon her head.
• 1:16:18
  And Peleus' son took the basket and the lustral water and circled the altar,
• 1:16:23
  calling out, Daughter of Zeus, who bring death to the wild creatures,
• 1:16:27
  who turn your gleaming star through the darkness, accept this sacrifice offered
• 1:16:32
  to you by us, the army of the Achaeans, and King Agamemnon,
• 1:16:36
  this pure blood from the throat of a beautiful girl.
• 1:16:39
  Now let our war fleet embark on a sweet venerable.
• 1:16:45
  And our weapons bring down the walls of Troy. Then the sons of Atreus and the
• 1:16:49
  whole army stood with their eyes fixed on the ground, and the priest took up
• 1:16:53
  the knife, praying, and looked for the place to plunge it in.
• 1:16:56
  Pain welled up in me at that time, and I dropped my eyes, and a miracle happened.
• 1:17:03
  Everyone distinctly heard the sound of the needle striking into his arm,
• 1:17:07
  but no one could see the girl.
• 1:17:09
  She had vanished. The priest cried out, and the whole army echoed,
• 1:17:14
  seeing what some god had sent, a thing nobody could have prophesied.
• 1:17:18
  There it was. We could see it, but we could scarcely believe in.
• 1:17:22
  A deer lay there grasping, a large, beautiful animal, and its blood rain streaming
• 1:17:26
  over the altar of the goddess.
• 1:17:28
  Then Calchas, with such joy as you can imagine, shouted, Commanders of the assembled
• 1:17:33
  armies of Greece, look, the goddess has placed his victim on her altar,
• 1:17:36
  a deer from the mountains, and she accepts this instead of the girl.
• 1:17:39
  Rather than stain her altar with noble blood.
• 1:17:42
  With this she is happy, and now she blesses our voyage to attack Elion.
• 1:17:46
  Therefore let everyone who is to sail take heart and go down to his ship,
• 1:17:50
  for today we must leave the hollow gulf of Olos and cross the Aegean Sea.
• 1:17:55
  Then with Hephaestus' flame and had nothing left of the victim but ashes,
• 1:17:59
  he offered the customary prayer for the army's safe return.
• 1:18:03
  Agamemnon sent me to say this, to tell you all.
• 1:18:06
  Destiny which the gods have sent and of the glory which he has won among the Greeks.
• 1:18:11
  I saw it myself. I was there. It is plain that your daughter has been taken up into heaven.
• 1:18:15
  Let this quiet your grief and put an end to your anger against your husband.
• 1:18:21
  No man living could tell what the gods will do, but they save those whom they love.
• 1:18:26
  But they save those whom they love. This same day has seen your daughter dead
• 1:18:31
  and brought to life again.
• 1:18:34
  With what joy for your sake I hear the messenger's words, showing how the girl
• 1:18:38
  is alive in heaven with the gods.
• 1:18:41
  Oh, child, what deity has carried you off? How may I address you? How can I be sure?
• 1:18:45
  How can I know this is not all a lie made up to silence my bitter grieving?
• 1:18:49
  Here comes King Agamondon. He will tell you the same thing.
• 1:18:54
  Lady, as for your daughter, we have reason to be happy, for truly she has the gods for company.
• 1:18:59
  Now you must take this young calf here, Rusty's and travel home the army is
• 1:19:05
  preparing to sail goodbye my greetings will be slow in reaching you from Troy may you be happy,
• 1:19:12
  son of Atreus sail with a light heart to the land of Phrygia and return with
• 1:19:17
  a light heart and heavy spoils from Troy the end.