THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

IPHIGENIA
The eyes of Argos now are raised to thee.
ORESTES
There Menelaus is lord; I, outcast, fly.
IPHIGENIA
Hath he then wrong'd his brother's ruin'd house?
ORESTES
Not so: the Furies fright me from the land.
IPHIGENIA
The madness this, which seized thee on the shore?
ORESTES
I was not first beheld unhappy there.
IPHIGENIA
Stern powers! they haunt thee for thy mother's blood.
ORESTES
And ruthless make me champ the bloody bit.
IPHIGENIA
Why to this region has thou steer'd thy course?
ORESTES
Commanded by Apollo's voice, I come.
IPHIGENIA
With what intent? if that may be disclosed.
ORESTES
I will inform thee, though to length of speech
This leads. When vengeance from my hands o'ertook
My mother's deeds—foul deeds, which let me pass
In silence—by the Furies' fierce assaults
To flight I was impell'd: to Athens then
Apollo sent me, that, my cause there heard,
I might appease the vengeful powers, whose names
May not be utter'd: the tribunal there
Is holy, which for Mars, when stain'd with blood,
Jove in old times establish'd. There arrived,
None willingly received me, by the gods
.As one abhorr'd; and they, who felt the touch
Of shame, the hospitable board alone