"
"Hear the message, then," said the high-priestess. "And thou wilt keep
it by thee with thy life. To Orestes, son of Agamemnon, say Iphigenia,
his sister, is dead indeed unto her parents, but not to him. Say that
Diana has had charge over her these many years since she was snatched
away at Aulis, and that she waits until her brother shall come to
rescue her from this duty of bloodshed and take her home."
At these words their amazement knew no bounds. Orestes embraced his
lost sister and told her all his story, and the three, breathless with
eagerness, planned a way of escape.
The king of Tauris had already come to witness the sacrifice. But
Iphigenia took in her hands the sacred image of Diana, and went out to
tell him that the rites must be delayed. One of the strangers, said
she, was guilty of the murder of his mother, the other sharing his
crime; and these unworthy victims must be cleansed with pure sea-water
before they could be offered to Diana. The sacred image had been
desecrated by their touch, and that, too, must be solemnly purged by no
other hands than hers.
To this the king consented. He remained to burn lustral fires in the
temple; the people withdrew to their houses to escape pollution, and
the priestess with her victims reached the seaside in safety.
Once there, with the sacred image which was to bring them good fortune,
they hastened to the Grecian galley and put off from that desolate
shore.
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