Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/224

196 Ere Artemis receive thy daughter slain,

Iphigeneia: for, of one year's fruit,

Thou vowedst the fairest to the Queen of Light.

Lo, thy wife Klytemnestra in thine halls

Bare thee a child"—so naming me most fair,—

"Whom thou must offer." By Odysseus' wiles

From her they drew me, as to wed Achilles.

I came to Aulis: o'er the pyre,—ah me!—

High raised was I, the sword in act to slay,—

When Artemis stole me, for the Achaians set

There in my place a hind, and through clear air

Wafted me, in this Taurian land to dwell,

Where a barbarian rules barbarians,

Thoas, who, since his feet be swift as wings

Of birds, hath of his fleetness won his name.

And in this fane her priestess made she me:

Wherefore the Goddess Artemis hath joy

In festal rites, whose name alone is fair;

The rest—for dread of her I hold my peace.

I sacrifice—'twas this land's ancient wont—

What Greek soever cometh to this shore.

Mine are the first rites; in the Goddess' shrines

The unspeakable slaughter is for others' hands.

Now the strange visions that the night hath brought