TH. Do what?
IPH. Purify the house with a torch.
TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?
IPH. But when the strangers come out,
TH. What must I do?
IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.
TH. Lest I contract contagion?
IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,
TH. What limit of this shall I have?
IPH. Wonder at nothing.
TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.
IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!
TH. I join in your prayer.
IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the adornments
of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash out foul
slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the other
things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and the
Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of this
pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for the Gods,
or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee, get out of
the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin daughter of
Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from these men, and
sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure house, and we shall
be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the rest, I nevertheless
signify my meaning to the Gods who know most things,[164] and to thee, O
Goddess.
CHORUS.[165] Of noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time
in the fruitful valleys of Delos, Phœbus with his golden locks, skilled on
the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore while
yet an infant[166] from the sea-side rock, leaving the renowned place of
her delivery, destitute of waters,[167] the Parnassian height haunted by
Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted back, † brazen †
beneath the shady laurel with its rich foliage, an enormous prodigy of the
earth, guarded the subterranean oracle. Him thou, O Phœbus, while yet an
infant, while yet leaping in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and
entered upon thy divine oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on
the throne that is ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the
divine adyts beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a
dwelling in the middle of the earth.[168] But when, having gone against
Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
couches of the dusky earth.[169] But † the earth † deprived Phœbus of the
honor of prophecies, through anger on her daughter's account, and the
swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus, stretched forth his little hand to
the throne of Jove.[170] [beseeching him] to take away the earth-born[171]
wrath of the Goddess, † and the nightly responses. † But he laughed,
because his son had come quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy
office, and he shook his hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,[172]
and took away nightly divination from mortals, and again conferred the
honor on Loxias, and confidence to mortals from the songs of oracles
[proclaimed] on this throne, thronged to by many strangers.[173]
[_Enter_ A MESSENGER.]
MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where in
this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates, call
the ruler of this land outside the house.
CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?
MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.
CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country, whom
you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.
MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.
CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
with him, thou mayest recount this news.
MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
has been done.
CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?
MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
gates, bearing a weight of evil news.
THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
hammering at the door, and sending fear within?
MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
that you were away, while you really were in the house.
TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?
MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.