Then said Pylades, “My oath is easy to keep.  Orestes, take thou this tablet from thy sister.”

Then Orestes embraced his sister, crying—­for she turned from him, not knowing what she should think—­“O my sister, turn not from me; for I am thy brother whom thou didst not think to see.”

And when she yet doubted, he told her of certain things by which she might know him to be Orestes—­how that she had woven a tapestry wherein was set forth the strife between Atreus and Thyestes concerning the golden lamb; and that she had given a lock of her hair at Aulis to be a memorial of her; and that there was laid in her chamber at Argos the ancient spear of Pelops, her father’s grandsire, with which he slew Oenomaues, and won Hippodamia to be his wife.

And when she heard this, she knew that he was indeed Orestes, whom, being an infant and the latest born of his mother, she had in time past held in her arms.  But when the two had talked together for a space, rejoicing over each other, and telling the things that had befallen them, Pylades said, “Greetings of friends after long parting are well; but we must needs consider how best we shall escape from this land of the barbarians.”

But Iphigenia answered, “Yet nothing shall hinder me from knowing how fareth my sister Electra.”

“She is married,” said Orestes, “to this Pylades, whom thou seest.”

“And of what country is he, and who is his father?”

“His father is Strophius the Phocian; and he is a kinsman, for his mother was the daughter of Atreus, and a friend also such as none other is to me.”

Then Orestes set forth to his sister the cause of his coming to the land of the Taurians.  And he said, “Now help me in this, my sister, that we may bear away the image of the goddess; for so doing I shall be quit of my madness, and thou wilt be brought to thy native country, and the house of thy father shall prosper.  But if we do it not, then shall we perish altogether.”

And Iphigenia doubted much how this thing might be done.  But at the last she said, “I have a device whereby I shall compass the matter.  I will say that thou art come hither, having murdered thy mother, and that thou canst not be offered for a sacrifice till thou art purified with the water of the sea.  Also that thou hast touched the image, and that this also must be purified in like manner.  And the image I myself will bear to the sea; for, indeed, I only may touch it with my hands.  And of this Pylades also I will say that he is polluted in like manner with thee.  So shall we three win our way to the ship.  And that this be ready it will be thy care to provide.”

And when she had so said, she prayed to Artemis:  “Great goddess, that didst bring me safe in days past from Aulis, bring me now also, and these that are with me, safe to the land of Greece, so that men may count thy brother Apollo to be a true prophet.  Nor shouldst thou be unwilling to depart from this barbarous land, and to dwell in the fair city of Athens.”