Zoe's Iphigenia Lines Flashcards
CHORUS: Agamemnon Comes!
(Enter Agamemnon)
CLYTEMNESTRA: Most honored lord, we arrive at your command.
IPHIGENIA: Seeing you again, dear father, I am happy.
AGAMEMNON: You speak for both of us, Iphigenia, beloved daughter.
IPHIGENIA: It was a wonderful thing you did bringing us here. Your brow is worried, your eyes have no quiet within them . . . they are full of tears. Are you not glad to see us?
AGAMEMNON: Soon, Iphigenia, there will be a long parting to come for both of us.
IPHIGENIA: You speak in riddles, father. We just arrived. What is this long parting you speak of?
AGAMEMNON: Iphigenia, you will be leaving me to go on a long journey.
IPHIGENIA: Shall I go on this long journey alone, or will my mother and young brother accompany me?
AGAMEMNON: You will go alone, daughter.
IPHIGENIA: Where will my new home be, beloved father?
AGAMEMNON: You ask too many questions, now go get some rest.
EXIT IPHIGENIA.
CLYTEMNESTRA: Iphigenia, come! Your father wills you to come. Bring Orestes with you.
CHORUS: Iphigenia, come! Your father wills it so.
(Enter IPHIGENIA carrying Orestes.)
CLYTEMNESTRA: Behold, Agamemnon, she is here. She is obedient.
AGAMEMNON: Why are you crying, Iphigenia? Why do you not look at me? Why do your eyes search the ground? Why is there terror in your face?
Many lines where IPHIGENIA doesn’t have a line but has to act.
CHORUS: Yield, Agamemnon, yield. Together save your child!
(Iphigenia hands Orestes to a servant.)
IPHIGENIA: Do not take away my life, father. The sweetness of life is too precious to me. Father, look into my eyes and see my heart. See, even little Orestes begs you to spare my life. I beseech you.
CLYTEMNESTRA: Iphigenia, your father has betrayed you and now has fled.
IPHIGENIA: Oh mother, Artemis has chosen me for sacrifice, and I shall be slain by my father’s hands.
CLYTEMNESTRA: The mob is a terrible, frightening thing.
ACHILLES: However, I will defend you both.
CLYTEMNESTRA: You, fight thousands of soldiers alone?
IPHIGENIA: Mother, listen carefully to my words. Something has seized my heart and overwhelmed me. Mother, I want to die! I want to die for Greece gloriously! All Greece turns her eyes to me, and to me only. Through my sacrifice, the Greek fleet will sail, for Artemis will make the winds blow. Through my sacrifice, Greece will devastate Troy! Through me, the barbarians will no longer exist. As the savior of Greece, I will win honor, and my name will be blessed throughout the country. Mother, you gave birth to me not only for yourself, but for all Greece. Oh mother, if the goddess Artemis seeks my death, who am I to disagree? Who am I to oppose her divine will? It is right that I be sacrificed!
CHORUS: Oh child, you play a noble role!
ACHILLES: Oh daughter of Agamemnon, I envy you! I envy you because Greece has chosen you and has ignored me. Your soul is noble, Iphigenia! If you change your mind, call my name, and I will rescue you.
(Exits.)
IPHIGENIA: Mother, do not weep for me. Do not make a coward of me.
CLYTEMNESTRA: What must I do but cry?
IPHIGENIA: After I am dead, do not mourn for me.
CLYTEMNESTRA: Is not losing a daughter reason for mourning?
IPHIGENIA: Mother, I am not lost, but saved! I say good-bye to all now, and my wish for Orestes, my little brother, is that he grow into a strong man. And mother, do not hate my father, your husband. Against his will he sends me to be sacrificed. It is the will of the gods.
CLYTEMNESTRA: He is unworthy of the title King! (Iphigenia starts toward the steps.) Iphigenia, daughter, do not leave me!
IPHIGENIA: Stop! I forbid you to have tears! (She climbs the steps. Clytemnestra exits.) Lift up your voices, people. Let us sing in honor of Artemis!
