Then from the golden tripod Phœbus' voice
Pealed, hither sending me to take the image
Heaven-fall'n, and set it up in Attica.
Now to this safety thus ordained of him
Help thou: for, so the image be but won, 980
My madness shall have end: thee will I speed
Back to Mycenæ in a swift-oared ship.
O well-belovèd one, O sister mine,
Save thou our father's house, deliver me.
For Pelops' line and I are all undone 985
Except I win that image fall'n from heaven.
Chorus.
Dread wrath of Gods hath burst upon the seed
Of Tantalus, and on through travail drives.
Iphigeneia.
Earnest my longing, ere thou earnest, was
To be in Argos, brother, and see thee. 990
Thy will is mine, to set thee free from woes,
And to restore my father's stricken house,
Nursing no wrath against my murderer.
So of thy slaughter shall mine hands be clean,
And I shall save our house. Yet how elude 995
The Goddess?—how the king, when he shall find
Void of its statue that stone pedestal?
How shall I not die? What should be my plea?
But if both ends in one may be achieved—
If, with the statue, on thy fair-prowed ship 1000
Thou bear me hence, the peril well is braved.
If I attain not liberty, I die;
Yet still mayst thou speed well, and win safe home.
