Difference between revisions of "Ifigenia in Aulide (Antonio Caldara)"

Questa terza opinione, che è sostenuta da Euforione Calcidense, da Alessandro Pleuronio e da Stesicoro Imereo, riportati da Pausania nel libro II. è stata seguitata da me nell’ordimento del Dramma: poiché la prima menava la favola a un fine troppo tragico, e la seconda ad uno scioglimento troppo incredibile. Nelle prime maniere l’argomento è stato maneggiato dall’incomparabile Euripide, e nella terza dal famoso Racine. Confesso di aver tolto assai dall’uno, e dall’altro, ad oggetto di render meno imperfetto che per me fosse possibile, il mio componimento, dove gli amori di Achille, e di Ifigenia, l’andata di quello a Lesbo, donde ne condusse Elisena prigione, ed altre circostanze della favola non sono senza istorico fondamento.}}

Questa terza opinione, che è sostenuta da Euforione Calcidense, da Alessandro Pleuronio e da Stesicoro Imereo, riportati da Pausania nel libro II. è stata seguitata da me nell’ordimento del Dramma: poiché la prima menava la favola a un fine troppo tragico, e la seconda ad uno scioglimento troppo incredibile. Nelle prime maniere l’argomento è stato maneggiato dall’incomparabile Euripide, e nella terza dal famoso Racine. Confesso di aver tolto assai dall’uno, e dall’altro, ad oggetto di render meno imperfetto che per me fosse possibile, il mio componimento, dove gli amori di Achille, e di Ifigenia, l’andata di quello a Lesbo, donde ne condusse Elisena prigione, ed altre circostanze della favola non sono senza istorico fondamento.}}

===English===

===English===

Of the many sons that Priam, King of Troy, had by his wife Hecuba, one was Alexander. As soon as he was born, he handed him over to Agelaus, his faithful servant, with orders to leave him exposed to the beasts in the forests of Mount Ida; and this because the Queen had a dream that the child would be the destroyer of her entire kingdom. The child was then abandoned by Agelaus, who after five days returned to see what had happened to it and found that a bear had been breastfeeding it. This caused him to secretly take the child back to his home and raise him under the name of Paris, concealing his true status from everyone except his daughter Egle, who had fallen in love with him. After many years, Paris, distinguishing himself among the other shepherds by his wisdom and valour, had the government of that country. He fell in love with the nymph Enone, daughter of the river Cybrene, by whom he was loved in turn, but secretly, for fear of the prophecies of her father, who had foretold that she would be the most miserable woman in the world if she ever married Paris. Now it came to pass that Niso, brother of Oenon, having killed the shepherd Alceus in a fight, was condemned to death by Paris; and on the morning of the following day the sentence was to be carried out. Oenon went to throw herself at his feet in order to get him to pardon her, but she did not succeed in obtaining the pardon, unless she married him the same night. What happens, therefore, becomes clear in the continuation of the Drama, to which the friendship of Nisus and Euryalus, in the verses of Virgil so famous, give reason for greater development: the going of King Priam to Ida to solemnise the funeral of Alexander, believed dead; and the recognition of this. A large part of these events can be found in Book III of Apollodorus, whose narration I have liked to follow, rather than that of Hyginus, and others who speak of them in a different way; and many other things have been taken from the Epitia of Giovanni Batista Giraldi.

Of the many sons that Priam, King of Troy, had by his wife Hecuba, one was Alexander. As soon as he was born, he handed him over to Agelaus, his faithful servant, with orders to leave him exposed to the beasts in the forests of Mount Ida; and this because the Queen had a dream that the child would be the destroyer of her entire kingdom. The child was then abandoned by Agelaus, who after five days returned to see what had happened to it and found that a bear had been breastfeeding it. This caused him to secretly take the child back to his home and raise him under the name of Paris, concealing his true status from everyone except his daughter Egle, who had fallen in love with him. After many years, Paris, distinguishing himself among the other shepherds by his wisdom and valour, had the government of that country. He fell in love with the nymph Enone, daughter of the river Cybrene, by whom he was loved in turn, but secretly, for fear of the prophecies of her father, who had foretold that she would be the most miserable woman in the world if she ever married Paris. Now it came to pass that Niso, brother of Oenon, having killed the shepherd Alceus in a fight, was condemned to death by Paris; and on the morning of the following day the sentence was to be carried out. Oenon went to throw herself at his feet in order to get him to pardon her, but she did not succeed in obtaining the pardon, unless she married him the same night. What happens, therefore, becomes clear in the continuation of the Drama, to which the friendship of Nisus and Euryalus, in the verses of Virgil so famous, give reason for greater development: the going of King Priam to Ida to solemnise the funeral of Alexander, believed dead; and the recognition of this. A large part of these events can be found in Book III of Apollodorus, whose narration I have liked to follow, rather than that of Hyginus, and others who speak of them in a different way; and many other things have been taken from the Epitia of Giovanni Batista Giraldi.