But feeling that human weakness may conquer yet, he goes to wait at the alter, resolved to keep his promise of protection thoroughly.
In the next beautiful scene she shows that a few tears might overwhelm her in his absence. She raises her mother beyond weeping them, yet her soft purity she cannot impart.
"Iphi. My father, and my husband do not hate;
Cly. For thy dear sake fierce contest must he bear.
Iphi. For Greece reluctant me to death he yields;
Cly. Basely, with guile unworthy Atreus' son."
This is truth incapable of an answer, and Iphigenia attempts none.
She begins the hymn which is to sustain her:
"Lead me; mine the glorious fate,
To o'erturn the Phrygian state."
After the sublime flow of lyric heroism, she suddenly sinks back into the tenderer feeling of her dreadful fate.
"O my country, where these eyes
Opened on Pelasgic skies!
O ye virgins, once my pride,
In Mycenæ who abide!
CHORUS.
Why of Perseus, name the town,
Which Cyclopean ramparts crown?
IPHIGENIA
Me you reared a beam of light,
Freely now I sink in night."
Freely; as the messenger afterwards recounts it.