| Iphigenia at Aulis |
|
Anger of Achilles by Jacques-Louis David
|
| Written by |
Euripides |
| Chorus |
Greek Women |
| Characters |
Agamemnon
Menelaus
Clytemnestra
Iphigenia
Achilles
attendant |
| Setting |
Port of Aulis |
Iphigenia at Aulis, written in 410 BC, is the last surviving work of the
playwright Euripides. First produced four years after his death, the play won first place at
the Dionysia.
The play revolves around Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek coalition during the
Trojan War, and his decision to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to allow his troops to set sail and preserve their honor by doing battle against Troy. It should be noted that the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles over the fate of a young woman presages a
similar conflict between the two at the start of the Iliad.
Background
The Greek force is waiting at Aulis with their ships ready to advance to Troy, but they are unable to sail due to a strange
lack of wind. After consulting the seer Calchas, the Greek
leaders learn that this is no mere meteorological abnormality but is, in fact, the will of the goddess Artemis, who has stopped the winds because Agamemnon has caused her offense. Calchas informs the general that to
placate the goddess he must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon, despite his horror at this stipulation, must
consider it seriously because his assembled troops, who have been waiting at port and are getting increasingly anxious to move
forward, may rebel against him if their bloodlust is not satisfied. Therefore, he sends a message to his wife, Clytemnestra,
telling her to bring Iphigenia to Aulis on the pretense that the girl is to be married to the Greek warrior Achilles before he
sets off to war.
Plot
At the start of the play, Agamemnon is having second thoughts about whether he can go through with the sacrifice of his
daughter, and he sends a second message to his wife, telling her to ignore the first missive. However, Clytemnestra never
receives this message because it is intercepted by Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, who is enraged that his brother has changed his
mind.
To Menelaus, this is not only a personal blow (it is his wife, Helen, with whom the Trojan
prince Paris ran off, and retrieving her is a main pretext for the war), but it also
may lead to mutiny and the downfall of the Greek leaders if the rank and file discover Calchas' prophecy and realize that their
general put his family above their pride as soldiers.
The brothers debate, and eventually, each changes the other's mind: Agamemnon is now ready to carry out the sacrifice, and
Menelaus is convinced that it would be better to disband the Greek army than to have his niece killed. But by this time,
Clytemnestra is already en route to Aulis with Iphigenia and her baby brother, Orestes, making the decision of how to proceed all the more difficult.
Iphigenia is thrilled at the prospect of marrying one of the great heroes of the Greek army, but she, her mother, and the
groom-to-be in the supposed marriage soon discover the truth. Achilles is furious at having been used as a prop in Agamemnon's
plan to lure his family to Aulis, and he vows to protect Iphigenia - as much to save the innocent girl as to take revenge on her
father for besmirching his own honor.
Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try in vain to persuade Agamemnon to change his mind, but the general believes he has no choice.
But as Achilles prepares to defend the young woman by force, Iphigenia has a sudden change of heart and decides that the heroic
thing to do is to let herself be sacrificed. She is led off to die, with her mother Clytemnestra distraught over the
decision.
However, in an addition to the play, a messenger arrives in the end to inform Clytemnestra that at the last minute, just as
Agamemnon was about to kill their daughter, Artemis, apparently appeased, switched the body of Iphigenia with that of a deer,
which was sacrificed in the girl's stead. Iphigenia was swept off by the gods, thus paving the way for the plot of another of
Euripides' plays, Iphigeneia in Tauris.
Influence
The story of Iphigenia at Aulis has had a significant influence on later art. Greek director Michael Cacoyannis based his 1977 film Iphigenia
(starring Irene Papas as Clytemnestra) on Euripides' script.
The story also served as the basis for the 2003 novel The Songs of Kings by
Barry Unsworth.
The story served as a pretext for the P.D.Q. Bach cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn.
(Of course, Brooklyn didn't exist until the 17th century C.E., over three thousand years after
the Trojan War.)
Translations
- Jane Lumley (1537–1578), ca. 1555
- Robert Potter, 1781 - verse
- Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 - prose: full text
- Arthur S. Way, 1912 - verse
- Florence M. Stawell, 1929 - verse
- Charles R. Walker, 1958 - verse
- Paul Roche, 1998 - verse (Euripides: Ten Plays (Signet))
- James Morwood, 2002 - verse
- T.A.Buckley 1892 [1] full text
External links
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