Hellas shall make atonement for thy death,
Yea, shall requite thy blood in Aulis spilt.
Chorus.
Strange tale thou tellest of the man new come,340
Whoe'er from Hellas yon drear sea hath reached.
Iphigeneia.
Enough: go thou, the strangers hither bring:
I will take thought for all that needeth here.
[Exit Herdman.
O hardened heart, to strangers in time past
Gentle wast thou and ever pitiful,345
To kinship meting out its due of tears,
When Greeks soever fell into thine hands.
But now, from dreams whereby mine heart is steeled,—
Who deem Orestes seëth light no more,—
Stern shall ye find me, who ye be soe'er.350
Ah, friends, true saw was this, I prove it now:—
The hapless, which, have known fair fortune once,
Are bitter-thoughted unto happier folk.
Ah, never yet a breeze from Zeus hath come,
Nor ship, that through the Clashing Rocks hath brought355
Hitherward Helen, her which ruined me,
And Menelaus, that I might requite
An Aulis here on them for that afar,
Where, like a calf, the sons of Danaus seized
And would have slain me—mine own sire the priest!360
Ah me! that hour's woe cannot I forget—
How oft unto my father's beard I strained
Mine hands, and clung unto my father's knees,
Crying, "O father, in a shameful bridal
I am joined of thee! My mother, in this hour365
