l not remain idle.

[MINERVA _appears_.]

MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the fugitives,]
king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing, and stirring
on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of Loxias Orestes
came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in order to conduct his
sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred image into my land, by way
of respite from his present troubles. Thus are our words for thee, but as
to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having caught him in a tempest at
sea, Neptune has already, for my sake, rendered the surface of the sea
waveless, piloting him along in the ship. But do thou, Orestes, learning my
commands, (for thou hearest the voice of a Goddess, although not present,)
go, taking the image and thy sister. And when thou art come to heaven-built
Athens, there is a certain sacred district in the farthest bounds of
Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which my people call Aloe--here, having
built a temple, do thou enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and
thy toils, which thou hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under
the goad of the Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the
Tauric Goddess Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people
celebrate a feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from
slaughter,[188] let them apply the sword to the neck of a man, and let
blood flow on account of the holy Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O
Iphigenia, thou must needs be guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the
hallowed ascent of Brauron;[189] where also thou shalt be buried at thy
death, and they shall offer to you the honor of rich woven vestments, which
women, dying in childbed, may leave in their houses. But I command thee to
let these Grecian women depart from the land on account of their
disinterested disposition,[190] I, having saved thee also on a former
occasion, by determining the equal votes in the Field of Mars, Orestes, and
that, according to the same law, he should conquer, whoever receive equal
suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do thou remove thy sister from this
land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.

TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if he
has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his sister.
For what credit is there in contending with th