The Sacrifice Of Iphigenia

A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ )

Now long and long from wintry Strymon blew

The weary, hungry, anchor-straining blasts,

The winds that wandering seamen dearly rue,

Nor spared the cables worn and groaning masts;

And, lingering on, in indolent delay,

Slow wasted all the strength of Greece away.

But when the shrill-voiced prophet ‘gan proclaim

That remedy more dismal and more dread

Than the drear weather blackening overhead,

And spoke in Artemis’ most awful name,

The sons of Atreus, ‘mid their armed peers,

Their sceptres dashed to earth, and each broke out in tears,

And thus the elder king began to say:

“Dire doom! to disobey the gods’ commands!

More dire, my child, mine house’s pride, to slay,

Dabbling in virgin blood a father’s hands.

Alas! alas! which way to fly?

As base deserter quit the host,

The pride and strength of our great league all lost?

Should I the storm-appeasing rite deny,

Will not their wrathfullest wrath rage up and swell?

Exact the virgin’s blood?-oh, would ‘t were o’er and well!”

So, ‘neath Necessity’s stern yoke he passed,

And his lost soul, with impious impulse veering,

Surrendered to the accursed unholy blast,

Warped to the dire extreme of human daring.

The frenzy of affliction still

Maddens, dire counselor, man’s soul to ill.

So he endured to be the priest

In that child-slaughtering rite unblest,

The first full offering of that host

In fatal war for a bad woman lost.

The prayers, the mute appeal to her hard sire,

Her youth, her virgin beauty,

Naught heeded they, the chiefs for war on fire.

So to the ministers of that dire duty

(First having prayed) the father gave the sign,

Like some soft kid, to lift her to the shrine.

There lay she prone,

Her graceful garments round her thrown;

But first her beauteous mouth around

Their violent bonds they wound,

With their rude inarticulate might,

Lest her dread curse the fatal house should smite.

But she her saffron robe to earth let fall:

The shaft of pity from her eye

Transpierced that awful priesthood-one and all.

Lovely as in a picture stood she by

As she would speak. Thus at her father’s feasts

The virgin, ‘mid the reveling guests,

Was wont with her chaste voice to supplicate

For her dear father an auspicious fate.

I saw no more! to speak more is not mine;

Not unfulfilled was Calchas’ lore divine.

Eternal justice still will bring

Wisdom out of suffering.

So to the fond desire farewell,

The inevitable future to foretell;

‘Tis but our woe to antedate;

Joint knit with joint, expands the full-formed fate.

Yet at the end of these dark days

May prospering weal return at length;

Thus in his spirit prays

He of the Apian land the sole remaining strength.

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Poems in English 

• Английская поэзия. Редьярд Киплинг. «Расходы и поступления». (1919-1926). 9. Джейн выходит замуж. Rudyard Kipling. «Debits and Credits». (1919-1926). 9. Jane’s Marriage by Poetry In English
• Английская поэзия. Уильям Шекспир. Сонет 139. Оправдывать меня не принуждай. William Shakespeare. Sonnet 139. o call not me to justify the wrong by Poetry In English
• Английская поэзия. Перси Биши Шелли. К Мэри Шелли. Percy Bysshe Shelley. To Mary Shelley by Poetry In English
• Английская поэзия. Айзек Розенберг. Дочери войны. Isaac Rosenberg. Daughters of War by Poetry In English
• Английская поэзия. Перси Биши Шелли. Тень Ада. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Satan Broken Loose by Poetry In English
• Английская поэзия. Редьярд Киплинг. «Эпитафии Войны». 1914-1918. 1. Убытки поровну. Rudyard Kipling. «Epitaphs of the War». 1914-1918. 1. «Equality of Sacrifice» by Poetry In English
• Lament For The Makers By William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• Done is a battle by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• Robert Burns: Inscription To Miss Jessy Lewars: On a copy of the Scots Musical Museum, in four volumes, presented to her by Burns. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: A Health To Ane I Loe Dear: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: O Lay Thy Loof In Mine, Lass: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: On Her Recovery by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: Jessie’s illness by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: The Menagerie by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: The Toast by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Trogger.: Heron Election Ballad, No. IV. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: A Lass Wi’ A Tocher: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Epistle To Colonel De Peyster: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Dean Of Faculty: A New Ballad by Robert Burns

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