Iphigenia in Aulis
by Euripides
'Iphigenia in Aulis' Summary
At the start of the play, Agamemnon has second thoughts about going through with the sacrifice and sends a second message to his wife, telling her to ignore the first. Clytemnestra never receives it, however, because it is intercepted by Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, who is enraged over his change of heart.
To Menelaus, this is not only a personal blow (for it is his wife, Helen, with whom the Trojan prince Paris ran off, and whose retrieval is the main pretext for the war), it may also lead to mutiny and the downfall of the Greek leaders should the rank and file discover the prophecy and realise that their general has put his family above their pride as soldiers.
The brothers debate the matter and, eventually, each seemingly changes the other's mind. Menelaus is apparently convinced that it would be better to disband the Greek army than to have his niece killed, but Agamemnon is now ready to carry out the sacrifice, claiming that the army will storm his palace at Argos and kill his entire family if he does not. By this time, Clytemnestra is already on her way 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 ostensible groom-to-be soon discover the truth. Furious at having been used as a prop in Agamemnon's plan, Achilles vows to defend Iphigenia, initially more for the purposes of his own honour than to save the innocent girl. However, when he tries to rally the Greeks against the sacrifice, he finds out that "the entirety of Greece"—including the Myrmidons under his personal command—demand that Agamemnon's wishes be carried out, and he barely escapes being stoned.
Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try in vain to persuade Agamemnon to change his mind, but the general believes that he has no choice. As Achilles prepares to defend Iphigenia by force, Iphigenia, realizing that she has no hope of escape, begs Achilles not to throw his life away in a lost cause. Over her mother's protests and to Achilles's admiration, she consents to her sacrifice, declaring that she would rather die heroically, winning renown as the savior of Greece, than be dragged unwilling to the altar. Leading the chorus in a hymn to Artemis, she goes to her death, with her mother Clytemnestra so distraught as to presage her murder of her husband and Orestes's matricide years later.
The play as it exists in the manuscripts ends with a messenger reporting that Iphigenia has been replaced on the altar by a deer. It is, however, generally considered that this is not an authentic part of Euripides' original text. "Paley agrees with Porson in regarding the rest of the play after Iphigenia's exit [lines 1510 to the end of the play] as the work of an interpolator". A fragment of the play may indicate that Artemis appeared to console Clytemnestra and assure her that her daughter had not been sacrificed after all, but this Euripidean end, if it existed, is not extant.
Book Details
Author
Euripides
Greece
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attri...
More on EuripidesDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books
Allan's Wife by H. Rider Haggard
We begin with young (age 9-ish) Allan at home in England meeting young Stella; then, Stella's mother abandons her husband (more than a whiff of scanda...
The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret by Susanna Centlivre
Donna Isabella does not want to marry Don Guzman, her father's choice. Donna Violante's father wants her to become a nun. Isabella is attacked on the...
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the h...
Philoctetes by Sophocles
Philoctetes or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonassa or Methone. He was a Gree...
Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen
Rosmersholm is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in Danish—the common written language of Denmark and Norway at the time—and origina...
Hindle Wakes by Stanley Houghton
Hindle Wakes is a stage play by Stanley Houghton written in 1910. It was first performed in 1912.
The Nō Plays of Japan by Various
Embark on a journey into the captivating world of Noh, Japan's oldest surviving theatrical tradition, with this comprehensive anthology of classic pla...
The Wind in the Rose-Bush, and Other Stories of the Supernatural by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
The wind in the rose-bush is not just the sound of the breeze. It is the voice of the past, calling to us from beyond the grave. The Wind in the Rose...
Julia by Rhijnvis Feith
Betreed de betoverende wereld van "Julia" geschreven door Rhijnvis Feith, waar liefde en rebellie samenkomen in een 18e-eeuwse maatschappij doordrenkt...
The Vortex by Noël Coward
It focuses on an ageing beauty who uses affairs with younger men to keep her feeling relevant, and her son (originally played by Coward himself) who...
Reviews for Iphigenia in Aulis
No reviews posted or approved, yet...