Ere Artemis receive thy daughter slain,
Iphigeneia: for, of one year's fruit,20
Thou vowedst the fairest to the Queen of Light.
Lo, thy wife Klytemnestra in thine halls
Bare thee a child"—so naming me most fair,—
"Whom thou must offer." By Odysseus' wiles[1]
From her they drew me, as to wed Achilles.25
I came to Aulis: o'er the pyre,—ah me!—
High raised was I, the sword in act to slay,—
When Artemis stole me, for the Achaians set[2]
There in my place a hind, and through clear air
Wafted me, in this Taurian land to dwell,30
Where a barbarian rules barbarians,
Thoas, who, since his feet be swift as wings
Of birds, hath of his fleetness won his name.
And in this fane her priestess made she me:
Wherefore the Goddess Artemis hath joy35
In festal rites, whose name alone is fair;[3]
The rest—for dread of her I hold my peace.
I sacrifice—'twas this land's ancient wont—
What Greek soever cometh to this shore.
Mine are the first rites;[4] in the Goddess' shrines40
The unspeakable slaughter is for others' hands.
Now the strange visions that the night hath brought
- ↑ So MSS. Al. τέχναι "And Odysseus' wiles From her side drew me."
- ↑ So MSS. Nauck reads Ἀχαιοὺς, "from the Achaians' hands, Set in my place, etc."
- ↑ The name, "Tauropolia," would not lead strangers to suspect that it differed from the festivals of Artemis with which they were familiar in Greece.
- ↑ She sprinkled the victim with holy water, then cut a lock of hair from his forehead and cast it on the fire.
