"
_Freely_; as the messenger afterwards recounts it.
* * * * *
"Imperial Agamemnon, when he saw
His daughter, as a victim to the grave,
Advancing, groaned, and, bursting into tears,
Turned from the sight his head, before his eyes,
Holding his robe. The virgin near him stood,
And thus addressed him: 'Father, I to thee
Am present; for my country, and for all
The land of Greece, I freely give myself
A victim: to the altar let them lead me,
Since such the oracle. If aught on me
Depends, be happy, and obtain the prize
Of glorious conquest, and revisit safe
Your country. Of the Grecians, for this cause,
Let no one touch me; with intrepid spirit
Silent will I present my neck.' She spoke,
And all that heard revered the noble soul
And virtue of the virgin."
How quickly had the fair bud bloomed up into its perfection! Had she
lived a thousand years, she could not have surpassed this. Goethe's
Iphigenia, the mature Woman, with its myriad delicate traits, never
surpasses, scarcely equals, what we know of her in Euripides.
Can I appreciate this work in a translation? I think so, impossible as
it may seem to one who can enjoy the thousand melodies, and words in
exactly the right place, and cadence of the original.
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