(to Pylades.) Swear; begin a pious oath.Iphigenia(to Pylades.) You must say: I will give this to your friends.PyladesI will give this letter to your friends.IphigeniaAnd I will see you safely outside the dark rocks.PyladesWhat god do you do you swear by, as witness to your oath?IphigeniaArtemis, in whose temple I hold office.PyladesAnd I swear by the king of heaven, revered Zeus.IphigeniaBut if you leave off your oath, and wrong me?PyladesMay I not return. What about you, if you do not save me?IphigeniaMay I never set foot in Argos alive.PyladesNow listen to a consideration we have passed over.IphigeniaBut it will be something new, if it is good.PyladesGive me this exception: if the ship suffers and the tablet is lost with its cargo in the waves, and I rescue myself only, may this oath not hinder me.IphigeniaDo you know what I will do? For many attempts hit many targets. I will tell you what is written in the folds of this tablet for you to report to my friends. For this is secure: if you preserve the writing, itself, though silent, will speak its message; if the writing is lost in the sea, when you save yourself, you will save my words.PyladesYou have spoken well, on behalf of the gods and me. Make clear to whom I must bring this letter in Argos, and what I must say when I have heard it from you.IphigeniaReport to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon: the one slain at Aulis sends you this, Iphigenia, who is alive, though no longer alive to those there—OrestesWhere is she? Has she come back from the dead??IphigeniaThe one you are looking at; don’t confuse me by your talk. Bring me to Argos, my brother, before I die. Take me away from the barbarian land and the sacrifices of the goddess, where I hold the office of killing foreigners.OrestesPylades, what shall I say? Where have we found ourselves?IphigeniaOr I will be a curse to your house.PyladesOrestes?Assigned to Iphigenia in the Coleridge translation.Iphigenia(stopping to address Pylades.) So that you may know the name, hearing it twice.PyladesO gods!IphigeniaWhy do you invoke the gods in my affairs?PyladesNo reason; finish your words; my thoughts were elsewhere. Perhaps, if I question you, I will not arrive at things I cannot believe.IphigeniaTell him that Artemis saved me, by giving a deer in exchange for me; my father sacrificed it,