Iphigenia monologue — Iphigenia in Tauris

How blest is he who his progenitors With pride remembers, to the list'ner tells The story of their greatness, of their deeds, And, silently rejoicing, sees himself Link'd to this goodly chain! For the same stock Bears not the monster and the demigod: A line, or good or evil, ushers in The glory or the terror of the world.-- After the death of Pelops, his two sons Rul'd o'er the city with divided sway. But such an union could not long endure. His brother's honour first Thyestes wounds. In vengeance Atreus drove him from the realm. Thyestes, planning horrors, long before Had stealthily procur'd his brother's son, Whom he in secret nurtur'd as his own. Revenge and fury in his breast he pour'd, Then to the royal city sent him forth, That in his uncle he might slay his sire, The meditated murder was disclos'd, And by the king most cruelly aveng'd, Who slaughter'd, as he thought, his brother's son. Too late he learn'd whose dying tortures met His drunken gaze; and seeking to assuage The insatiate vengeance that possess'd his soul, He plann'd a deed unheard of. He assum'd A friendly tone, seem'd reconcil'd, appeas'd. And lur'd his brother, with his children twain, Back to his kingdom; these he seiz'd and slew; Then plac'd the loathsome and abhorrent food At his first meal before the unconscious sire. And when Thyestes had his hunger still'd With his own flesh, a sadness seiz'd his soul; He for his children ask'd,--their steps, their voice, Fancied he heard already at the door; And Atreus, grinning with malicious joy, Threw in the members of the slaughter'd boys.-- Shudd'ring, O king, thou dost avert thy face: So did the sun his radiant visage hide, And swerve his chariot from the eternal path. These, monarch, are thy priestess' ancestors, And many a dreadful fate of mortal doom, And many a deed of the bewilder'd brain, Dark night doth cover with her sable wing, Or shroud in gloomy twilight.