In this relation we can only see the bare external command of Athene on the one side, and an equally futile submission of Thoas on the other. In Goethe's treatment of the subject, on the contrary, Iphigenia becomes herself exalted to the rank of a goddess, in reliance upon the truth she feels within herself, the truth of a human heart. In this sense she turns to Thoas and exclaims:
Is it then man alone who has the right
To accomplish things none ever heard before!
Shall he alone impress upon the strength
Of hearts heroic the impossible?
That which in the drama of Euripides the command of Athene effects, the change in the attitude of Thoas, Goethe's Iphigenia endeavours to bring about, and in fact does bring about, through the depth of the feelings and ideas with which she confronts him.
With motions strange
An enterprise audacious soars within me;
A vast reproach and ills yet graver still
Will break on me if the event miscarry;
But, see, I place it on your knees! Be true,
Be only true and worthy of your fame,
So your assistance shall declare it truth,
Truth glorified through me.
And to this reply of Thoas:
What! you believe
The Scythian wild and the barbarian
Hear the wise voice of Truth and hearts humane
When Atreus of Greece still failed to hear.
she answers with the gentlest, purest trust:
Nay, all thus hear
Beneath whatever sky their birth was laid;
All needs must hear for whom the springs of life
Flow without let and purely through the soul.
Then it is she makes the final call upon her greatness of soul, and the tenderness of her faith at its highest point of effort; her entreaty touches, then masters and wrings from him, in a way that must appeal to every heart, the permission to return to her own. This alone is necessary. She has no need of the statue of the goddess; she can depart on her journey without deceit or betrayal of trust. And it is with the finest sense of beauty that Goethe refers here to the oracular word of the god: