* * * *
Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.
* * * * *