I might tread[60] in mine home and ancestral city, enjoying the hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous.  But hither they come, bound as to their two[61] hands with chains, a new sacrifice for the Goddess.  Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale.  O reverend Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place presents as a public offering.[62]

IPH.  Be it so.  I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess are as they should be.  Let go the hands of the strangers, that being consecrated they may no longer be in bonds.  And, going within the temple, make ready the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions.  Alas!  Who is the mother who once bore you?  And who your father, and your sister, if there be any born?  Of what a pair of youths deprived will she be brotherless!  For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into obscurity, and no one [absent] knows misfortune,[63] for fortune leads astray to what is hardly known.  Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers?  After how long a time have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home, ever among the shades![64]

OR.  Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us[65] concerning our future ills, whoever thou art, O lady?  In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to die, with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who deplores death now near at hand,[66] when he has no hope of safety, in that he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and dies none the less.  But one must needs let fortune take its course.  But mourn us not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites of this place.

IPH.  Which of ye twain here is named Pylades?  This I would fain know first.

OR.  This man, if indeed ’tis any pleasure for thee to know this.

IPH.  Born citizen of what Grecian state?

OR.  And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?

IPH.  Are ye brothers from one mother?

OR.  In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.

IPH.  But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?

OR.  In truth we might be styled the unhappy.

IPH.  I ask not this.  Leave this to fortune.

OR.  Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.

IPH.  Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?

OR.  My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.

IPH.  Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?

OR.  No.  For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.

IPH.  But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?

OR.  I boast renowned Argos for my country.

IPH.  In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence born?

OR.  From Mycenae,[67] that was once prosperous.