arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor?  Evil pleasures belong to an evil man.  But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed to good counsel, am I mad?  Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune.  The nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy strength.  Whom taking[27] make thou the expedition, but I think thou wilt know [that it is] through the folly of their hearts, for the divinity is not ignorant, but is capable of discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce.  But I will not slay my children, so that thy state will in justice be well, revenge upon the worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in tears, having wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I begat.  These words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if thou art unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.

CHOR.  These words are different from those before spoken, but they are to a good effect, that the children be spared.

MEN.  Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?

AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your friends.

MEN.  But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with me?

AG.  I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.[28]

MEN.  It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.

AG.  Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.

MEN.  Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with Greece?

AG.  But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.

MEN.  Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother.  But I will seek some other schemes, and other friends.

[Enter a Messenger.[29]]

MESSENGER.  O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing thy daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace.  But her mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clytaemnestra, and the boy Orestes, that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine home a long season.  But as they have come a long way, they and their mares are refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and we let loose the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder.  But I am come before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a swift report passed through the army, that thy daughter had arrived.  And all the multitude comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may behold thy child.  For prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among all mortals.  And they say, “Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going on?” Or, “Has king Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter, brought his child hither?” But from some you would have heard this:  “They are initiating[30] the damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her.”  But come, get ready the baskets,[31] which come next, crown thine head.  And do thou, king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let the pipe sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed upon the virgin.