The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 21

The t.i.tan's mighty breast and nervous frame Was his descendants' certain heritage; But round their brow Jove forg'd a band of bra.s.s.

Wisdom and patience, prudence and restraint, He from their gloomy, fearful eye conceal'd; In them each pa.s.sion grew to savage rage, And headlong rush'd with violence uncheck'd.

Already Pelops, Tantalus' loved son, Mighty of will, obtained his beauteous bride, Hippodamia, child of Oenomaus, Through treachery and murder; she ere long, To glad her consort's heart, bare him two sons, Thyest and Atreus. They with envy marked The ever-growing love their father bare To his first-born, sprung from another union.

Hate leagued the pair, and secretly they wrought, In fratricide, the first dread crime. The sire Hippodamia held as murderess, With savage rage he claim'd from her his son, And she in terror did destroy herself--

THOAS

Thou'rt silent? Pause not in thy narrative; Repent not of thy confidence--say on!

IPHIGENIA

How blest is he who his progenitors With pride remembers, to the listener tells The story of their greatness, of their deeds, And, silently rejoicing, sees himself The latest link of this ill.u.s.trious chain!

For seldom does the selfsame stock produce The monster and the demiG.o.d: a line Of good or evil ushers in, at last, The glory or the terror of the world.-- After the death of Pelops, his two sons Rul'd o'er the city with divided sway.

But such an union could not long endure.

His brother's honor first Thyestes wounds.

In vengeance Atreus drove him from the realm.

Thyestes, planning horrors, long before Had stealthily procur'd his brother's son, Whom he in secret nurtur'd as his own.

Revenge and fury in his breast he pour'd, Then to the royal city sent him forth, That in his uncle he might slay his sire.

The meditated murder was disclos'd, And by the king most cruelly aveng'd, Who slaughter'd as he thought, his brother's son.

Too late he learn'd whose dying tortures met His drunken gaze; and seeking to a.s.suage The insatiate vengeance that possess'd his soul, He plann'd a deed unheard of. He a.s.sum'd A friendly tone, seem'd reconcil'd, appeas'd, And lur'd his brother, with his children twain, Back to his kingdom; these he seiz'd and slew; Then plac'd the loathsome and abhorrent food At his first meal before the unconscious sire.

And when Thyestes had his hunger still'd With his own flesh, a sadness seiz'd his soul; He for his children ask'd,--their steps, their voice Fancied he heard already at the door; And Atreus, grinning with malicious joy, Threw in the members of the slaughter'd boys.-- Shudd'ring, O king, thou dost avert thy face: So did the sun his radiant visage hide, And swerve his chariot from the eternal path.

These, monarch, are thy priestess' ancestors, And many a dreadful fate of mortal doom, And many a deed of the bewilder'd brain, Dark night doth cover with her sable wing, Or shroud in gloomy twilight.

THOAS

Hidden there Let them abide. A truce to horror now, And tell me by what miracle thou sprangest From race so savage.

IPHIGENIA

Atreus' eldest son Was Agamemnon; he, O king, my sire: But I may say with truth, that, from a child, In him the model of a perfect man I witness'd ever. Clytemnestra bore To him, myself, the firstling of their love, Electra then. Peaceful the monarch rul'd, And to the house of Tantalus was given A long-withheld repose. A son alone Was wanting to complete my parents' bliss; Scarce was this wish fulfill'd, and young Orestes, The household's darling, with his sisters grew, When new misfortunes vex'd our ancient house.

To you hath come the rumor of the war, Which, to avenge the fairest woman's wrongs, The force united of the Grecian kings Round Ilion's walls encamp'd. Whether the town Was humbled, and achieved their great revenge, I have not heard. My father led the host.

In Aulis vainly for a favoring gale They waited; for, enrag'd against their chief, Diana stay'd their progress, and requir'd, Through Chalcas' voice, the monarch's eldest daughter.

They lured me with my mother to the camp, They dragged me to the altar, and this head There to the G.o.ddess doomed.--She was appeased; She did not wish my blood, and shrouded me In a protecting cloud; within this temple I first awakened from the dream of death; Yes, I myself am she, Iphigenia, Grandchild of Atreus, Agamemnon's child, Diana's priestess, I who speak with thee.

THOAS

I yield no higher honor or regard To the king's daughter than the maid unknown; Once more my first proposal I repeat; Come follow me, and share what I possess.

IPHIGENIA

How dare I venture such a step, O king?

Hath not the G.o.ddess who protected me Alone a right to my devoted head?

'Twas she who chose for me this sanctuary, Where she perchance reserves me for my sire, By my apparent death enough chastis'd.

To be the joy and solace of his age.

Perchance my glad return is near; and how, If I, unmindful of her purposes, Had here attach'd myself against her will?

I ask'd a signal, did she wish my stay.

THOAS

The signal is that still thou tarriest here.

Seek not evasively such vain pretexts.

Not many words are needed to refuse, The _no_ alone is heard by the refused.

IPHIGENIA

Mine are not words meant only to deceive; I have to thee my inmost heart reveal'd.

And doth no inward voice suggest to thee, How I with yearning soul must pine to see My father, mother, and my long-lost home?

Oh let thy vessels bear me thither, king?

That in the ancient halls, where sorrow still In accents low doth fondly breathe my name, Joy, as in welcome of a new-born child, May round the columns twine the fairest wreath.

New life thou wouldst to me and mine impart.

THOAS

Then go! Obey the promptings of thy heart; And to the voice of reason and good counsel, Close thou thine ear. Be quite the woman, give To every wish the rein, that brideless May seize on thee, and whirl thee here and there.

When burns the fire of pa.s.sion in her breast, No sacred tie withholds her from the wretch Who would allure her to forsake for him A husband's or a father's guardian arms; Extinct within her heart its fiery glow, The golden tongue of eloquence in vain With words of truth and power a.s.sails her ear.

IPHIGENIA

Remember now, O king, thy n.o.ble words!

My trust and candor wilt thou thus repay?

Thou seem'st, methinks, prepar'd to hear the truth.

THOAS

For this unlook'd-for answer not prepar'd.

Yet 'twas to be expected; knew I not That with a woman I had now to deal?

IPHIGENIA

Upbraid not thus, O king, our feeble s.e.x!

Though not in dignity to match with yours, The weapons woman wields are not ign.o.ble.

And trust me, Thoas, in thy happiness I have a deeper insight than thyself.

Thou thinkest, ignorant alike of both, A closer union would augment our bliss; Inspir'd with confidence and honest zeal Thou strongly urgest me to yield consent; And here I thank the G.o.ds, who give me strength To shun a doom unratified by them.

THOAS

'Tis not a G.o.d, 'tis thine own heart that speaks.

IPHIGENIA

'Tis through the heart alone they speak to us.

THOAS

To hear them have I not an equal right?

IPHIGENIA

The raging tempest drowns the still small voice.