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Great gods, extend to us your aid;
avert your avenging thunderbolts!
Let them fall on guilty heads:
innocence dwells in our hearts.
Great gods, extend to us your aid;
avert your avenging thunderbolts!
Let them fall on guilty heads:
innocence dwells in our hearts.
If these cruel, grim shores
are the object of your wrath,
deign to offer your unworthy ministers
some gentler refuge.
Great gods, extend to us your aid;
avert your avenging thunderbolts!
Let them fall on guilty heads:
innocence dwells in our hearts.
Let our hands in sanctified barbarism
no more stain your altars with blood:
make this people more sparing
of the blood of unfortunate mortals.
Great gods, extend to us your aid;
avert your avenging thunderbolts!
Let them fall on guilty heads:
innocence dwells in our hearts.
These gods to whom our voices plead
at last abate their severity!
Calm reappears.
But deep in my heart,
alas, the storm still rages.
O heaven! Does Iphigenia fear some misfortune?
Whence comes the fearful dread that has seized your soul?
Righteous heaven!
Oh speak, divine Iphigenia!
Our misfortunes are common to us all: led far from our homeland
with you to this fatal shore,
have we not always shared your lot?
Last night I saw again my father's palace;
I was about to enjoy his embrace.
In those sweet moments I forgot
his former harshness and fifteen years of misery.
The earth trembled beneath my feet;
the angry sun fled this region he abhors,
fire glowed in the air, and shafts of lightning
struck the palace, set it ablaze and devoured it!
From amid the smoking ruins
came a plaintive, tender voice
which penetrated to the depths of my heart!
I fled to these sad sounds, and at once
my father appeared before my eyes,
bleeding, pierced with wounds,
and fleeing the murderous rage
of an inhuman spectre.
This dreadful spectre was my mother!
She armed me with a sword and disappeared at once;
I wanted to fly, but heard a cry,
"Stop! It is Orestes!"
I saw an unhappy wretch and held out to him my hand;
I wanted to help him, but a fatal power
forced me to pierce his breast!
O dreadful dream!
Fearful night!
O grief!
O mortal terror!
Is your wrath implacable?
Heaven, hear our cries! Turn away your wrath!
O race of Pelops,
race forever doomed!
Unto the furthest generation
heaven still pursues the crime of Tantalus!
The king of kings, the blood of the gods,
Agamemnon goes down into infernal night.
His son alone was left me in my grief:
from him alone I awaited the end of my misery.
O Orestes,
my dear brother,
never will you dry your sister's tears.
Calm this despair which has possessed your soul;
the gods will preserve his sacred head.
Dare to hope for everything.
No, I have no more hope.
Since I have lived as the butt of their anger,
all my days are woven of shame and misfortune.
To crown all,
they have carried off my brother!
O thou who prolonged my days,
take back a boon I detest!
Diana,
I implore thee,
halt their course!
I implore thee,
halt their course!
Rejoin Iphigenia to the unfortunate Orestes!
Alas, I am the plaything of fate!
Death has become my need.
I have seen rise against me
the gods, my country, and my father!
O thou who prolonged my days,
take back a boon I detest!
Diana,
I implore thee,
halt their course!
I implore thee,
halt their course!
When shall we see our tears run dry?
Is their source unending?
Ah, heaven marks the course of our life
in a ring of sorrows!
Ye gods! Misfortune everywhere dogs my steps.
These vaults resound with cries of despair!
Priestess, dispel Thoas' terrors:
intermediary of the gods, let your tears move them!
To my groans heaven is deaf, alas!
It is not tears but blood that it asks.
How hideous an offering!
Are the gods appeased by ***?
Heaven has, by dazzling miracles,
deigned to explain itself to you.
My days are threatened, say the oracles,
if the blood of a single stranger
sent among us escapes their wrath!
My affrighted soul is endlessly obsessed
with black forebodings, with sinister terrors:
daylight hurts my eyes and seems to grow dark:
I feel the terror of the guilty!
I seem to see the earth gape beneath my feet
and Hell ready to engulf me
in its hideous abysses!
I know not what voice cries in the depths of my heart:
¤"Tremble! Your punishment is being prepared! "
Darkness redoubles the horror of these torments.
And the thunderbolts of a vengeful god
seem suspended over my head!
And the thunderbolts of a vengeful god
seem suspended over my head!
The gods allay their wrath;
they bring us victims;
the gods allay their wrath;
they bring us victims;
let their blood be offered for us
to the just avengers of crimes!
Woe is me!
Great gods, receive our offerings!
The greater are your favours for being less expected!
Two young Greeks cast upon these shores
have long tried to resist us:
after arduous efforts they have finally surrendered.
One of them was filled with a fierce despair.
The words "crime" and '"remorse" were endlessly on his lips:
he hated life and called for death!
The gods allay their wrath;
they bring us victims;
let their blood be offered for us
to the just avengers of crimes!
the gods allay their wrath;
they bring us victims;
let their blood be offered for us
to the just avengers of crimes!
Ye gods, stifle the cry of Nature within me!
Although my duty is sacred, alas, how cruel it is!
Go, and the captives will follow you to the altar.
As for me, whom a too baleful augury
threatens with the ire of the gods,
my presence could harm your sacred mysteries.
And you, raise warlike hymns
to the gods who protect us!
Let your rightful raptures rise to the skies!
We had need of blood to expiate our crimes:
the captives are in irons, the altars are prepared!
The gods themselves have delivered us the victims:
let our gratitude equal their bounty!
Let their blood gush forth beneath the sacred knife,
and their tainted presence no more infect this region!
We offer their blood in sacrifice it is an incense worthy of the gods!
Wretched men, what purpose, so injurious to yourselves,
brought you to my realm?
Our project is a secret:
It is known only to the gods. You shall not discover it!
Death shall be the reward for your haughty arrogance. Guards,
take them away!
Dear friend, I am the cause of your death!
We had need of blood to expiate our crimes:
the captives are in irons, the altars are prepared!
The gods themselves have delivered us the victims:
let our gratitude equal their bounty!
Let their blood gush forth beneath the sacred knife,
and their tainted presence no more infect this region!
We offer their blood in sacrifice; it is an incense worthy of the gods!
How fearful a silence!
What mortal sorrow!
What? You reply only by long sobbing?
What power has death over the souls of heroes?
Am I no longer Pylades?
Are you no longer Orestes?
Ye gods, what horrors have you in store for me?
A pitiable victim of a blind destiny,
forever wandering and everywhere rejected,
my fate is sealed: I was born for crime!
What are you saying? What is this self-reproach?
What new crime, in fact?
I have brought about your death.
It was not enough that my murderous hand
plunged the dagger into the heart of a mother.
The gods reserved for me a new enormity:
I had but one friend, and I become his executioner!
Ye gods who pursue me,
instigators of my crimes,
open beneath my feet the abysses of Hell!
Its torments will still be too mild for me!
I have betrayed friendship, betrayed Nature.
I have gone to the extreme of blackest deeds.
Ye gods, strike the offender and vindicate yourselves!
I have betrayed friendship, betrayed Nature.
I have gone to the extreme of blackest deeds.
Ye gods who pursue me, instigators of my crimes,
open beneath my feet the abysses of Hell!
Its torments will still be too mild for me!
What agonising words for a friend who loves you!
Come to yourself, let us die worthily!
In your utter frenzy, cease reviling
the gods, Pylades and yourself!
If death is inevitable for us,
what vain terror makes you blanch for me?
I am not so wretched,
since at least I die with you!
United since our tenderest childhood,
we had but one and the same desire.
Ah! my heart applauds in advance
the stroke that will reunite us!
Ah! my heart applauds in advance
the stroke that will reunite us!
Fate decrees that we shall perish together:
do not reprove its harshness.
Death is itself a favour,
since the grave unites us.
Death is itself a favour,
since the grave unites us.
Fate decrees that we shall perish together:
do not reprove its harshness.
Death is itself a favour,
since the grave unites us.
Death is itself a favour,
since the grave unites us.
Hapless strangers, you must be separated.
You, follow me!
Great gods, what order is this, monster?
No, do not leave me, faithful and sole friend!
Ruthless men, must we implore you?
Hasten the death that awaits us,
but let us receive it both together!
Your swords and your altars affright us a hundred times less
than the moment of our separation.
I am obeying our laws, obeying our gods!
Lead him away!
Stop!
Alas!
Savage monsters!
Alas, they have taken you away!
Pylades has died for me!
Ye gods who protect these fearful shores,
gods who thirst for blood, strike me. Crush me!
Where am I?
What peace is this
that succeeds the horror that haunts me?
Calm has returned to my heart!
Have my woes then exhausted heaven's ire?
I have reached the limits of adversity!
Are you letting the parricide Orestes live?
Just gods,
vengeful heaven,
Yes, calm has returned to my heart.
Let us avenge both Nature and the wrathful gods!
Let us devise torments. He killed his mother!
Ah! Ah! Ah!
No mercy! He killed his mother!
Let us avenge both Nature and the wrathful gods!
Ah, what torments!
They are still too mild.
Let us avenge both Nature and the wrathful gods!
He killed his mother!
A spectre! Ah! Ah!
No mercy! He killed his mother!
Have pity!
Pity? The monster! He killed his mother!
Let us avenge both Nature and the wrathful gods!
Have pity!
Ah, what torments!
Let us match, if possible, his murderous rage:
his hideous crime cannot be expiated!
Have pity, ruthless gods!
My mother! O heaven!
I perceive all the horror with which my presence fills you.
But in the depths of my heart,
hapless stranger, could your eyes but see
how much I pity you, you would pity my lot.
Those looks! What an astonishing likeness!
Take off his fetters.
What country saw your birth?
What did you come to seek in these savage regions?
What vain desire impels you to know about me?
Speak!
What shall I answer? O heavens!
Why these sighs from your heart?
What are you?
Wretched! That is enough to tell you.
I beg you to answer. From what place do you come,
what blood gave you being?
You wish to know? I was born in Mycenae.
Ye gods, what do I hear?
Go on; speak! tell me the fate of Agamemnon
and that of Greece!
Agamemnon?
Whence comes this grief that afflicts you?
Agamemnon...
I see your tears flowing!
... fell under a murderer's knife!
I am dying!
But who is this woman?
And what accursed monster dared
raise a hand against so great a king?
By all the gods, do not question me!
By all the gods, speak!
This abominable monster was...
Go on! You make me shudder!
... his wife!
Great gods! Clytemnestra?
She herself!
Heavens!
And did the supreme justice of the avenging gods
see this atrocious crime?
The gods punished it! Her son...
– O heaven! – ... avenged his father!
How hideous this piling of crime upon crime!
And this son who was the agent of heaven's anger,
this fatal instrument of the gods' vengeance?
He found the death he had long sought.
Electra remains alone in Mycenae.
It is all over! All your kindred have perished.
Forebodings of woe, you did not deceive me!
Now go: I have heard enough.
O heaven, cause and witness of my torments,
rejoice in the misery to which you have reduced me:
it could not go further!
Ill-fated homeland
to which our souls are still bound
by such sweet knots,
you are lost to us!
O wretched Iphigenia!
Your country is destroyed.
You have no more kings, I have no more kindred:
join your plaintive cries to my laments!
You have no more kings, I have no more kindred.
O wretched Iphigenia!
Your family is destroyed!
You have no more kings, I have no more kindred:
join your plaintive cries to my laments!
You have no more kings, I have no more kindred:
– join your plaintive cries – Let us join our plaintive cries
– to my laments! – to her laments!
You have no more kings, I have no more kindred.
We had no hope, alas, but in Orestes!
We have lost everything, no hope is left to us.
We have lost everything, no hope is left us!
Honour with me this hero who is no more!
Let the last respects, at least, be paid to my brother's spirit.
Bring me the funeral bowl:
let us offer his dear shade
the chill honours due to him.
Behold these sad offerings,
sacred spirit, mournful shade;
may our tears and our sorrow
reach the shores of Hades.
O my brother, deign to hear
the expression of my grief;
may your sister's sorrow
descend to you!
Behold these sad offerings,
sacred spirit, mournful shade;
may our tears and our sorrow
reach the shores of Hades.
I yield to your wishes: let us tell my sister
Electra, of the fate which oppresses us!
I will *** a victim from the horrors of death
and so at the same time serve Nature and my heart.
Alas! I cannot resist it.
For one of these unfortunates,
condemned to death by our barbarous laws,
I feel the most tender pity.
My heart is drawn to him by some secret bond...
Orestes would be his age...
this unfortunate captive's face reminds me of his,
and his noble pride recalls its features.
I love still to speak, alas,
of his dear presence.
My soul finds pleasure in cherishing
the hope of which I am bereft.
Useless and dear raptures!
We vainly pursue a chimera!
Ah! It is only beyond the grave
that I shall find my brother again!
Useless and dear raptures!
We vainly pursue a chimera!
Ah! It is only beyond the grave
that I shall find my brother again!
Here are the unfortunate captives.
Go, leave me alone a moment with them!
O unhoped-for joy!
I can now embrace you for the last time!
My fate is less harsh, since I see you again!
How I feel my soul moved by this touching sight!
You have seen my tears, I cannot restrain them.
Alas! Who could not shed them
at the tale I have just heard?
Though heaven has set our feet on these bloody shores,
we were born in gentler regions,
and Greece is our homeland.
What? Are we to lose our lives at the hands of a Greek?
Ah! To save your life I would give mine.
But Thoas will have blood: were I to break
the bonds binding both of you, his savage piety
would add to the ordeal he is preparing for you.
I could cheat the tyrant's savagery
of one of you, at least, and preserve his life.
My friend, you shall live: your life shall be saved.
Could I ask a service of whichever of you
will owe me his life?
Go on: I will answer for his gratitude!
Like you, I was born in Argos:
I still have friends there:
swear to me that you will faithfully carry a note...
I call the gods to witness, your wishes shall be fulfilled!
Then a victim must be chosen between you!
Alas that, in the solicitude I feel,
I cannot render an equal service to you both!
One of the two must perish!
My heart is rent asunder!
But since the fatal choice must finally be made...
it is you who shall escape!
I go! He die? O heaven!
Respect my wishes:
be ready to leave. I go to hasten the time of your departure.
O moment of happiness!
My death, then, will save my friend's life!
And I would agree that yours be taken?
Do you love me? Tell me!
– Ye gods! You dare to ask that? – Do you love me?
What a question! What madness possesses you?
Renounce the priestess's choice!
No, that choice is too dear to me to relinquish it.
And you still claim that you love me
when, despite the gods, you sacrifice your life...
They watch over yours and protect its course:
I will fulfil their supreme decree!
Do you seek to join with these gods you cite
to add to the torments I suffer?
– What are you asking of me? – To let me die!
– There is no hope of that. – Orestes entreats you!
Cruel man!
Ye gods, move his heart!
Give me back my friend, that in pity
he may agree that all my blood may satisfy you
and suffice your severity.
Ye gods, move his heart!
Give me back my friend, that in pity
he may agree that all my blood may satisfy you
and suffice your severity.
He may agree that all my blood may satisfy you
and suffice your severity.
What! Can I not overcome your fatal resolution?
Does you heart still oppose my wishes?
Do you not know that for Orestes
life is a hideous torment?
Do you not know that these murderous hands
still reek with the blood I have shed?
Do you not know that enraged Hades
gathers round me its black Furies,
who haunt me everywhere?
They are here, still with serpents in their hands!
Whither can I fly? What?
Pylades recoils from me in horror?
He abandons me to their blows.
Stay! Ah, mighty gods!
What?
Do you misunderstand Pylades' pleas?
So, Pylades,
it is you who will die?
Ye gods, can he not soften your wrath?
In death is the sole remission of my torments.
I gained it: now Pylades snatches it from me!
O my friend, I beg you for pity!
Alas, can Orestes misunderstand me?
Let him be moved by friendship's tears.
Your heart is surely not closed to mine?
This friend who was so dear to you, Pylades, is at your feet:
he beseeches you, he urges you:
let me tear you from these frenzies,
agree to the choice prescribed by the priestess!
Agree, agree!
Pylades!
O my friend, I beg you for pity!
Alas, can Orestes misunderstand me?
Great heavens!
Let him be moved by friendship's tears.
Your heart is surely not closed to mine?
Despite you, I will save you from death!
How I grieve for you!
Lead him forth!
No, priestess, forbear!
Your pity misleads you!
– What are you saying? – It is I who should die:
my friend could serve you.
Let him be the worthy object of so rare a service.
Do not heed his wild ravings!
Live, and serve me!
I cannot, without a crime.
Heartless man, what frenzy rules you?
Ah! I feel my choice is dictated by the gods!
No more. Here and now I declare...
– Stop! – Then know...
Stop! Ye righteous gods!
What sudden horror has seized your soul?
Declare that my death...
No, do not expect that.
An unknown power, mighty and irresistible,
would stay my arm at the very altar of the gods!
What? You still remain deaf to my pleas?
But I call the gods to witness, it is in vain
if my friend does not escape the fate awaiting him.
I will slay myself before your eyes
and spill all the blood for which heaven thirsts.
Ye gods!
Then, unfeeling man, have your way!
Live, my friend, and serve the priestess.
Comfort the sorrow of a sister who is dear to me
and take to her my last sighs.
Adieu!
Since heaven concerns itself with your life,
lend me the aid you promised me.
Take this letter to Greece,
and yourself give it into the hands of Electra.
What do I hear?
What is the link that binds her to you?
I have respected your secret: demand no further.
You shall be obeyed.
I will carry out your wishes, if heaven permits.
Friendship, deity of great souls,
Friendship, come strengthen my arm!
Fill my heart with your divine flames.
I will save Orestes or seek death!
Friendship, come strengthen my arm!
Fill my heart with your divine flames.
I will save Orestes or seek death!
No, I cannot carry out this dreadful duty.
Without question a god speaks in favour of this Greek.
No, I could not agree to this hideous sacrifice
from which my soul shrinks!
Implacable goddess, trembling I implore thee
to set ferocity deep in my heart.
Stifle the woeful and pitiable
voice of humanity!
Alas!
how harsh is my lot,
to be the unwilling victim
of a bloody office!
I obey!
But my heart is a prey to remorse.
Implacable goddess, trembling I implore thee
to set ferocity deep in my heart.
Stifle the woeful and pitiable
voice of humanity!
Set ferocity deep in my heart.
Alas!
how harsh is my lot,
to be the unwilling victim
of a bloody office!
I obey!
But my heart is a prey to remorse.
O Diana, grant us thy favour.
The victim is prepared
and will be sacrificed!
O Diana, grant us thy favour.
The victim is prepared
and will be sacrificed!
May the blood which will flow,
and our tears, appease thy justice.
May the blood which will flow,
and our tears, appease thy justice.
My strength fails me. O moment of woe!
Now is the happy end of my long suffering.
May it also be the end, great gods, of your vengeance!
O heaven!
Dry the tears that stream from your eyes.
Do not bewail my fate: death is what I long for!
Strike!
Ah! hide from me this appalling virtue!
The gods were protecting your life.
But you are to die, and you have willed it so!
The gods made it a necessary duty for me.
In wishing to prolong my lot
you were committing an involuntary crime!
A crime? Ah!
It is one to put you to death!
How these moving regrets touch my heart!
How they soothe my torments!
Since that fatal moment long ago, alas,
no one has shed tears for my misfortunes.
Alas!
Chaste daughter of Latona,
lend thine ear to our hymn!
May our prayers and our incense rise to thy throne.
In heaven and on earth
everything is subject to thy law.
All that Erebus encloses pales with dread at thy name!
At all times thou art consulted, in peace and in combat;
and to thee is offered the only worship honoured in these regions.
Chaste daughter of Latona,
lend thine ear to our hymn!
May our prayers and our incense rise to thy throne.
What a moment! Mighty gods, give me aid!
Approach, sovereign priestess,
perform your lofty office!
Barbarians, forbear! Respect my weakness!
Heavens!
All my blood freezes in my heart...
I tremble... and my enfeebled arm...
Strike!
Thus also did you perish in Aulis,
– O Iphigenia, my sister! – My brother! ...
– Orestes! – Orestes! Our king!
Where am I? What do I see?
O my dear brother!
My sister, Iphigenia, o heaven! Is it you I see?
Yes, it is she whom Diana saved
from the fury of a father, from the rage of the Greeks!
Yes, it is Iphigenia!
O my brother!
O my sister! Yes, it is you!
My whole heart vouches for it!
O my brother! O my dear Orestes!
What, you can love me?
You are not horrified?
Ah! Let us put aside this deadly memory:
let me feel the intoxication of my happiness!
Without yet recognising you, I had you in my heart:
I was asking heaven and the world for my brother!
He is here!
I am holding him in my arms!
The plot of your crimes is discovered:
you deceived the gods and planned my doom!
It is time to punish your black perfidy,
it is time that heaven was satisfied at last!
Sacrifice this captive; let all his blood expiate
your audacity and your heinous crime!
What do you dare suggest, barbarous man?
Save us, righteous gods! Avert the horrors that are upon us!
Obey the Gods, heaven has spoken, that is enough!
Guards,
support me! Seize him!
– What are you daring to do? – Drag him to the altar!
Ruthless man, he is my brother!
Your brother?
– Yes, I am he! – He is my brother and my king,
the son of Agamemnon!
Strike, whoever he may be!
Stand back! And you, defend your master!
Cowards! Do you shrink with fear?
I myself will sacrifice, before the eyes of the goddess,
both the victim and the priestess!
Slay her? Who, my sister?
Yes, I must punish her and all her kin!
It is you who shall die!
Let us avenge the blood of our king!
– Great gods, save her brother! – Courage, friends, and follow me!
– Pylades! Just protecting god! – O my only friend!
Great gods, help us!
Great gods, save her brother!
Let us exterminate this odious people down to the last vestige,
and serve heaven's vengeance!
Let us purify this region in the name of Pylades and Orestes!
Desist!
Hear my eternal decree!
Scythians,
restore to the Greeks my statues!
For too long, in these savage regions,
you have dishonoured my laws and my altars.
Unhappy son of an unhappier father,
the gods are appeased at last.
From this day forth you will hear no longer
the plaintive cries of your mother's Manes,
your remorse has wiped out your guilt.
I will watch over your destiny:
Mycenae awaits its king: go and reign in peace there,
and restore Iphigenia to an astonished Greece.
Your sister!
What do I hear?
Share my joy!
In this compassionate being to whom I owe my life,
and whose gentle fondness rendered her dear to my heart,
know my sister Iphigenia!
The gods, for long angered,
have fulfilled their oracles.
Let us dread no further obstacles; a brighter day shines upon us!
The gods, for long angered,
have fulfilled their oracles.
Let us dread no further obstacles; a brighter day shines upon us!
A gentle, profound peace
reigns on the *** of the waves.
Sea, earth, and heaven
all smile upon our prayers!
A gentle, profound peace
reigns on the *** of the waves.
Sea, earth, and heaven
all smile upon our prayers!
Sea, earth, and heaven all smile upon our prayers! �