The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides

by Euripides

[enter KING THOAS, with soldiers.]

THOAS.
Where is the warden of this sacred gate,
The Greek woman? Is her work ended yet
With those two strangers? Do their bodies lie
Aflame now in the rock-cleft sanctuary?

LEADER. Here is herself, O King, to give thee word. enter, from the temple, IPHIGENIA, carrying the image on high.

THOAS.
How, child of Agamemnon! Hast thou stirred
From her eternal base, and to the sun
Bearest in thine own arms, the Holy One?

IPHIGENIA.
Back Lord! No step beyond the pillared way.

THOAS.
But how? Some rule is broken?

IPHIGENIA.
I unsay
That word. Be all unspoken and unwrought!

THOAS.
What means this greeting strange? Disclose thy thought.

IPHIGENIA.
Unclean the prey was that ye caught, O King.

THOAS.
Who showed thee so? Thine own imagining?