Iphigenia at Aulis (722-773)

But where am I to make ready the feast for the women?

Here beside our gallant Argive ships.

Finely here! but still I must;[*] good come of it for all that!

Do you know what to do, lady? Then obey me.

In what matter? for I was ever accustomed to obey you.

Here, where the bridegroom is, I will—

Which of my duties will you perform in the mother’s absence?

Give your child away with help of Danaids.

And where am I to be then?

Go to Argos, and take care of your unwedded daughters.

And leave my child? Then who will raise her bridal torch?

I will provide the proper wedding torch.

That is not the custom; but you think lightly of these things.

It is not good for you to be alone among a soldier-crowd.

It is good that a mother should give her own child away.

Yes, and that those maidens at home should not be left alone.

They are well guarded in their maiden bowers.

Obey.

No, by the goddess-queen of Argos!

Go, manage matters out of doors; but in the house it is my place to decide what is proper for maidens at their wedding.[*]

Woe is me! my efforts are baffled; I am disappointed in my hope, anxious as I was to get my wife out of sight; foiled at every point,

I form my plots and subtle schemes against my best-beloved. But I will go, in spite of all, with Calchas the priest, to inquire the goddess’s good pleasure, fraught with ill-luck as it is to me, and with trouble to Hellas.[*] He who is wise should keep in his house

a good and useful wife or none at all.