ation, which, however, I do not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567
were away, we should be less at a loss, but the same may be said of the
whole scene.

* * * * * *

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.

* * * *

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

IPHIGENIA.
ORESTES.
PYLADES.
HERDSMAN.
THOAS.
MESSENGER.
MINERVA.
CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.

* * * * *

THE ARGUMENT.

* * * *

Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.

* * * * *

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.

* * * *

IPHIGENIA.

Pelops,[1] the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds,
weds the daughter of Oenomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his
sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia,
child of [Clytaemnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he
imagined, sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which
Euripus continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with
frequent blasts, in the famed[2] recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,[3] and
avenge the outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus.
But, there being great difficulty of sailing,[4] and meeting with no winds,
he came to [the consi