Your father who? Your sister, if perchance
Ye have a sister, of what youths deprived?

For brother she shall have no more. Who knows
Whom such misfortunes may attend? For dark

What the gods will creeps on; and none can tell
The ills to come: this fortune from the sight

Obscures. But, O unhappy strangers, say,
Whence came you? Sail'd you long since for this land?

But long will be your absence from your homes,
For ever, in the dreary realms below.

ORESTES
Lady, whoe'er thou art, why for these things

Dost thou lament? why mourn for ills, which soon
Will fall on us? Him I esteemunwise,

Who, when he sees death near, tries to o'ercome
Its terrors with bewailings, without hope

Of safety: ill he adds to ill, and makes
His folly known, yet dies. We must give way

To fortune; therefore mourn not thou for us:
We know, we are acquainted with your rites.

IPHIGENIA
Which of you by the name of Pylades

Is call'd? This first it is my wish to know.
ORESTES

If aught of pleasure that may give thee, he.
IPHIGENIA

A native of what Grecian state, declare.
ORESTES

What profit knowing this wouldst thou obtain?
IPHIGENIA

And are you brothers, of one mother born?
ORESTES

Brothers by friendship, lady, not by birth.
IPHIGENIA

To thee what name was by thy father given?
ORESTES

With just cause I Unhappy might be call'd.
IPHIGENIA

I ask not that; to fortune that ascribe.
ORESTES

Dying unknown, rude scoffs I shall avoid.
IPHIGENIA

Wilt thou refuse? Why are thy thoughts so high?
ORESTES

My body thou mayst kill, but not my name.
IPHIGENIA

Wilt thou not say a native of what state?
ORESTES

The question naught avails, since I must die.
IPHIGENIA

What hinders thee from granting me this grace?
ORESTES

The illustrious Argos I my country boast.
IPHIGENIA

By the gods, stranger, is thy birth from thence?
ORESTES

My birth is from Mycenae, once the bless'd.
IPHIGENIA

Dost thou an exile fly, or by what fate?
ORESTES

Of my free will, in part not free, I fly.
IPHIGENIA

Wilt thou then tell me what I wish to know?
ORESTES

Whate'er is foreign to my private griefs.
IPHIGENIA

To my dear wish from Argos art thou come.
ORESTES

Not to my wish; but if to thine, enjoy it.
IPHIGENIA

Troy, whose fame spreads so wide, perchance thou know'st.
ORESTES

O that I ne'er had known her, ev'n in dreams!
IPHIGENIA

They say she is no more, by war destroy'd.
ORESTES

It is so: you have heard no false reports.
IPHIGENIA

Is Helena with Menelaus return'd?
ORESTES

She is; and one I love her coming rues.
IPHIGENIA

Where is she? Me too she of old hath wrong'd.
ORESTES

At Sparta with her former lord she dwells.
IPHIGENIA

By Greece, and not by me alone abhorr'd!
ORESTES

I from her nuptials have my share of grief.
IPHIGENIA

And are the Greeks, as Fame reports, return'd?
ORESTES

How briefly all things dost thou ask at once!
IPHIGENIA

This favour, ere thou die, I wish to obtain.
ORESTES

Ask, then: since such thy wish, I will inform thee.
IPHIGENIA

Calchas, a prophet,-came he back from Troy?
ORESTES

He perish'd at Mycenae such the fame.
IPHIGENIA

Goddess revered! But doth Ulysses live?
ORESTES

He lives, they say, but is not yet return'd.
IPHIGENIA

Perish the wretch, nor see his country more!
ORESTES

Wish him not ill, for all with him is ill.
IPHIGENIA

But doth the son of sea-born Thetis live?
ORESTES

He lives not: vain his nuptial rites at Aulis.
IPHIGENIA

That all was fraud, as those who felt it say.
ORESTES

But who art thou, inquiring thus of Greece?
IPHIGENIA

I am from thence, in early youth undone.
ORESTES

Thou hast a right to inquire what there hath pass'd.
IPHIGENIA

What know'st thou of the chief, men call the bless'd?
ORESTES

Who? Of the bless'd was not the chief I knew.
IPHIGENIA

The royal Agamemnon, son of Atreus.
ORESTES

Of him I know not, lady; cease to ask.
IPHIGENIA

Nay, by the gods, tell me, and cheer my soul.
ORESTES

He's dead, the unhappy chief: no single ill.
IPHIGENIA

Dead! By what adverse fate? O wretched me!
ORESTES

Why mourn for this? How doth it touch thy breast?
IPHIGENIA

The glories of his former state I mourn.
ORESTES

Dreadfully murdered by a woman's hand.
IPHIGENIA

How wretched she that slew him, he thus slain!
ORESTES

Now then forbear: of him inquire no more.
IPHIGENIA

This only: lives the unhappy monarch's wife?
ORESTES

She, lady, is no more, slain by her son.
IPHIGENIA

Alas, the ruin'd house! What his intent?
ORESTES

To avenge on her his noble father slain.
IPHIGENIA

An ill, but righteous deed, how justly done!
ORESTES

Though righteous, by the gods be is not bless'd.
IPHIGENIA

Hath Agamemnon other offspring left?
ORESTES

He left one virgin daughter, named Electra.
IPHIGENIA

Of her that died a victim is aught said?
ORESTES

This only, dead, she sees the light no more.
IPHIGENIA

Unhappy she! the father too who slew her!
ORESTES

For a bad woman she unseemly died.
IPHIGENIA

At Argos lives the murdered father's son?
ORESTES

Nowhere he lives, poor wretch! and everywhere.
IPHIGENIA

False dreams, farewell; for nothing you import.
ORESTES

Nor are those gods, that have the name of wise,
Less false than fleeting dreams. In things divine,

And in things human, great confusion reigns.
One thing is left; that, not unwise of soul,

Obedient to the prophet's voice he perish'd;
For that he perish'd, they who know report.

LEADER
What shall we know, what of our parents know?

If yet they live or not, who can inform us?
IPHIGENIA

Hear me: this converse prompts a thought, which gives
Promise of good, ye youths of Greece, to you,

To these, and me: thus may it well be done,
If, willing to my purpose, all assent.

Wilt thou, if I shall save thee, go for me
A messenger to Argos, to my friends

Charged with a letter, which a captive wrote,
Who pitied me, nor murderous thought my hand,

But that he died beneath the law, these rites
The goddess deeming just? for from that hour

I have not found who might to Argos bear
Himself my message, back with life return'd,

Or send to any of my friends my letter.
Thou, therefore, since it seems thou dost not bear

Ill-will to me, and dost Mycenae know,

• unhappy [ʌn´hæpi] a.不幸的；不快乐的 (初中英语单词)
• absence [´æbsəns] n.不在，缺席；缺乏 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
• greece [gri:s] n.希腊 (初中英语单词)
• briefly [´bri:fli] ad.简短地；简略地 (初中英语单词)
• thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
• wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
• victim [´viktim] n.牺牲者；受害者 (初中英语单词)
• farewell [feə´wel] int.再见 n.&a.告别 (初中英语单词)
• confusion [kən´fju:ʒən] n.混乱(状态)；骚乱 (初中英语单词)
• willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
• messenger [´mesindʒə] n.使者；送信人 (初中英语单词)
• captive [´kæptiv] n.俘虏；捕获物 (初中英语单词)
• goddess [´gɔdis] n.女神 (初中英语单词)
• dreary [´driəri] a.阴郁的；枯燥无味的 (高中英语单词)
• lament [lə´ment] v.哀悼 n.哀悼；恸哭 (高中英语单词)
• esteem [i´sti:m] n.尊重 vt.认为；感到 (高中英语单词)
• naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
• illustrious [i´lʌstriəs] a.杰出的，显赫的 (高中英语单词)
• avenge [ə´vendʒ] vt.替...报仇 (高中英语单词)
• virgin [´və:dʒin] a.处女(般)的 n.处女 (高中英语单词)
• converse [´kɔnvə:s] n.交谈 a.相反的 (高中英语单词)
• perchance [pə´tʃɑ:ns] ad.偶然；可能 (英语四级单词)
• wretch [retʃ] n.不幸的人；卑鄙的人 (英语四级单词)
• adverse [´ædvə:s] a.不利的；反对的 (英语四级单词)
• forbear [fɔ:´beə, fə-] v.容忍；克制 n.祖先 (英语四级单词)
• righteous [´raitʃəs] a.正直的；正当的 (英语四级单词)
• justly [´dʒʌstli] ad.公正地，正当地 (英语四级单词)
• murderous [´mə:dərəs] a.行凶的；势不可挡的 (英语四级单词)
• grecian [´gri:ʃən] a.古希腊的 n.希腊人 (英语六级单词)
• nuptial [´nʌpʃəl] a.婚姻的 n.婚礼 (英语六级单词)
• fleeting [´fli:tiŋ] a.飞逝的，疾驰的 (英语六级单词)
• unwise [ʌn´waiz] a.不聪明的，愚笨的 (英语六级单词)