Chorus Leader
Look, here comes a herdsman, who has left the shores of the sea to bring you some new message.
A Herdsman enters.
Herdsman
Daughter of Agamemnon, and of Clytemnestra, hear a strange report from me.
Iphigenia
[240]
And what is amazing in your news?
Herdsman
Two young men have come to this land, fleeing the dark Symplegades in their ship, an offering and sacrifice pleasing to the goddess Artemis. Be quick to prepare
[245]
the purifications and the first offerings.
Iphigenia
What country are the strangers from? How are they dressed?
Herdsman
They are Hellenes; I know this one thing, and nothing further.
Iphigenia
Can't you tell me their names? Did you hear them?
Herdsman
One was called Pylades by the other.
Iphigenia
[250]
What is the name of his companion?
Herdsman
No one knows; we didn't hear it.
Iphigenia
How did you see them? How did you come upon them and catch them?
Herdsman
At the edge of the breakers of the Black Sea—
Iphigenia
And what do herdsmen have to do with the sea?
Herdsman
[255]
We came to wash our cattle in the salt water.
Iphigenia
Go back to the earlier question, how did you take them, and in what way, for I want to know this. They have come after a long time; the altar of the goddess has not yet been reddened by streams of Hellene blood.
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Table of Contents:
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter. New York. Random House. 1938.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.