Iphigénie

Tragedy by Racine, first performed at Versailles in 1674. Inspired by Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, it was presented by Racine in his preface as a witness to the supremacy of the Ancients [see Querelle]. It centres on Agamemnon, who is ordered by an oracle to sacrifice his daughter Iphigénie so as to obtain favourable winds to sail to Troy. He lures her and her mother Clytemnestre to the camp on the pretext of her marriage to Achille. When the secret comes out, Achille and Clytemnestre defy Agamemnon, but urged on by the army he proceeds with the sacrifice. To avoid the unacceptably miraculous denouement of the Greek play, Racine invents a captive princess, Ériphile, Iphigénie's unhappy rival in love; her real name is finally revealed to be Iphigénie, and her death by suicide satisfies the oracle (if not the spectators), and opens the seas to the Greek army.

[Peter France]