Iphigenia in Aulis: A Tragic Study Guide on Euripides' Play, Study notes of Theatre

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STUDY GUIDE

Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides Translated by Nicholas Rudall Directed by Charles Newell SETTING The action takes place in east-central Greece at the port of Aulis, on the Euripus Strait. The time is approximately 1200 BCE. CHARACTERS Agamemnon father of Iphigenia, husband of Clytemnestra and King of Mycenae Menelaus brother of Agamemnon Clytemnestra mother of Iphigenia, wife of Agamemnon Iphigenia daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Achilles son of Peleus Chorus women of Chalcis who came to Aulis to see the Greek army Old Man servant of Agamemnon, was given as part of Clytemnestra’s dowry Messenger ABOUT THE PLAY Iphigenia in Aulis is the last existing work of the playwright Euripides. Written between 408 and 406 BCE, the year of Euripides’ death, the play was first produced the following year in a trilogy with The Bacchae and Alcmaeon in Corinth by his son, Euripides the Younger, and won the first place at the Athenian City Dionysia festival. Agamemnon Costume rendering by Jacqueline Firkins.^2

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THEMES

1) PRIDE

Agamemnon would rather sacrifice his daughter than suffer a blow to his pride. He prizes his position as general of the Greek armies, which makes him a king of kings, and knows that refusing to follow the advice of Calchas would lower his standing in the eyes of his men.

2. COURAGE AND COWARDICE Agamemnon yields to the will of Calchas and sacrifices his daughter to appease his army and preserve his ego. His cowardice contrasts sharply with the courage of his daughter, who willingly sacrifices herself for the good of Greece.
3. DECEIT Agamemnon lies about why he wants Iphigenia to come to Aulis. After she arrives with her mother and brother, Agamemnon continues to lie about his intentions.
4. REVENGE Revenge against the Trojans motivates the Greek soldiers. They wish to visit retribution upon the Trojans for an outrageous offense committed against the Greeks by Paris.
5. UNGODLY GOD The author sympathizes with Iphigenia. She is a young, innocent, noble girl who must be sacrificed to the goddess Artemis so that the latter will send favorable winds to fill the sails of the Greek fleet. Euripides appears to frown on a culture that places faith in such a goddess. Summarized from www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides9/Iphigenia.html 4

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Born in 480 BCE on Salamis Island to a merchant family, Euripides spent his life studying a vast array of disciplines including arts, religion, science, and philosophy. Recognized as the youngest of the three renowned Greek tragedy writers (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles), Euripides is thought to have composed 92 plays, with 17 still in existence. He first received the honor to compete in a dramatic festival of Dionysus in 455 and won his first of four, first prize awards in 441. Some defining qualities of his work include his sympathetic portrayal of women, focus on the individual human, realism and skepticism towards the gods and heroes. Euripides died in Macedonia in 406 BCE, and Iphigenia in Aulis was produced posthumously. Euripides

WRITING IPHIGENIA IN AULIS

It is important to note that though the three-year cycle of Greek plays including Iphigenia in Aulis, Agamemnon, and Electra discuss events during the mythological Trojan war (see the “Trojan War” section for more information), Euripides was writing in the midst of the all too real Peloponnesian war waged between Athens and Sparta. Because of the danger of the war, it is rumored Euripides left Athens in favor of Macedonia to finish his life, however his final plays reflect the violence and ethical dilemmas presented by the war surrounding him. Below is an excerpt of the article “The Peloponnesian War and its Connection to Iphigenia in Aulis ” written by Court dramaturg, Martine Kei Green-Rogers: So, why was the Peloponnesian war waged between Athens and Sparta? Athens and Sparta previously sparred during the First Peloponnesian War and had managed to maintain a tenuous truce, the Thirty Years Peace agreement. However in 433 BCE, the tensions between the two (re-opened due to some other smaller conflicts) came to a head when Athens allied with Corcyra, a strategically important colony of Corinth (which at the time was mostly controlled by Sparta). From this action, Sparta accused Athens of aggression and threatened to wage war. Pericles (a prominent Greek general) urged Athens not to back down and, resultantly, diplomatic measures failed. This opened the door for Thebes, a Spartan ally, to attack Plataea, an Athenian ally, and an all-out war raged from this moment (with a 6-year truce) until 404 B.C. As 406 BCE approached and a war continued on, the Athenian navy was at a crossroads. After the Battle of Arginusae in 406 B.C.E (a battle the Athenians won but because of weather conditions the Athenian generals thought it was best to leave rather than finish off the weakened Spartan army) the Athenians executed their best commanders leaving the Athenian navy struggling. Amongst this backdrop, Euripides chose to write about a turning point in a war that reflected very similar circumstances. Agamemnon is at a crossroads because a prophesy from Calchas states that he must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess Artemis in order to obtain the winds in Aulis to sail towards their battle against Troy. Agamemnon worries that if his soldiers discover his struggle with committing the sacrifice, mutiny will ensue. In this play, Agamemnon must weigh the sacrifice of his daughter against the honor of Greece and his brother, Menelaus, the King of Sparta. This play, and the events occurring as Euripides wrote the play, question the cost (economically and in personage) of war waged for the sake of honor. Luckily, in Euripides’ play, the gods “save the day,” which is not a luxury for those embroiled in the Peloponnesian War. See “Further Reading” for the full text of this article. 5

THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

Taken together, Court’s cycle of tragedies will look at how choices reverberate through a family: violence begets violence in Grecian mythology, perhaps nowhere more clearly than in the House of Atreus. The founder of the House of Atreus was Tantalus of Lydia, son of Zeus and the most highly honored of all of Zeus’s mortal children. Despite being so highly honored, he hated the Gods and doubted their omniscience. He invited the Gods to feast at his house, but secretly fed them the flesh of his own son, Pelops, in order to test the extent of their divine knowledge. All of the Gods immediately discovered his deception, except for Demeter, who absentmindedly took a bite while mourning her kidnapped daughter Persephone. Zeus punished him with the eternal torture of having both food and water just out of his reach — thus “tantalizing” him. The Gods also revived Tantalus’s son Pelops, who went on to lead a life of infamy. He decided to seek the hand of the Princess Hippodamia in marriage and agreed to a chariot race against her father. To ensure his success he had his friend Myrtilus rig his opponent’s chariot, causing a fatal accident. Afterwards, Pelops killed Myrtilus to prevent gossip that his victory had been unfair. As Myrtilus died he cursed Pelops and his descendants for the betrayal. Pelops and Hippodamia had two children, Atreus (the namesake of the House of Atreus), and Thyestes. Thyestes, the younger son, challenged Atreus’s inheritance and seduced Atreus’s wife. Atreus banished Thyestes, but later decided to give him a worse punishment and invited him back under the guise of friendship. When Thyestes returned, eager to make peace, Atreus secretly killed two of Theystes’ sons and served them to him in a banquet. When Thyestes discovered the deception, he fled with his only remaining son, Aegisthus. ZEUS

Father of Gods and men

TANTALUS

Cut up his son and served him up in a banquet for the gods

PELOPS + HIPPODAMIA

Pelops’s father boiled him

alive and fed him to the gods

NIOBE

Niobe’s fourteen children were

slain before her eyes

AEROPE + ATREUS

Atreus is exiled by his father

for killing his half-brother

THYESTES

In revenge, Atreus serves Thyestes

his own sons for dinner

**MENELAUS

• HELEN**

Helen of Troy also

bigamously weds Paris

**AGAMEMNON

• CLYTEMNESTRA**

Aegisthus and Clytemnestra

kill Agamemnon

**PELOPIA

• THYESTES**

Thyestes commits incest

with his daughter, Pelopia

HERMIONE

Marries Orestes

after Orestes kills

her husband

ORESTES

Murders both

his mother,

Clytemnestra,

and her lover,

Aegisthus

ELECTRA

Helps Orestes kill

Clytemnestra,

then goes mad

and tries to kill her

sister, Iphigenia

IPHIGENIA

Sacrificed by

her father,

Agamemnon,

in order to gain

favorable winds

AEGISTHUS

Kills Agamemnon

+ l l l l l l l l l l l l (^) l Atreus had two sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, who married two sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra. When the Trojan prince, Paris, abducted Helen, the Greeks banded together to bring her home, and appointed Agamemnon the general of the Greek Army. As the army was gathering at Aulis and preparing to leave, Agamemnon killed one of Artemis’ sacred deer and boasted that he was a better hunter than her. This infuriated the Goddess, and she caused all the wind to cease, stranding the Greek ships on the shores of Aulis. The Greek prophet Calchas told Agamemnon that the Artemis would not release the winds until he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia, so with a heavy heart, he lied to his wife Clytemnestra, telling her that Iphigenia was to be married to the warrior Achilles, and that they should come to Aulis for the wedding. At the opening of Iphigenia at Aulis, Agamemnon awaits their arrival and questions whether or not he had made a terrible mistake. by Jaime Weisbach (Dramaturgy Intern)

AUDIO/VISUAL RESOURCES

1. A series of videos surrounding the Trojan War by History.com www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/trojan-war/videos
2. An Introduction to Greek Theatre from the National Theatre in the U.K. www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/an-introduction-to- greek-theatre-
3. Greek Theatre – Tragedy and Comedy http://youtu.be/RK- dbLiaGvU
4. A series of Greek Mythology Videos from History.com www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/greek-mythology/videos

ACTIVITIES

1. Stage a Scene from the Play
2. Greek Mythology Photo Collage/6 Degrees of Separation: Ask the students to bring in a picture of a character from Greek mythology. Using the stories from Greek mythology, connect all of the pictures the students brought in.
3. Write a short scene using the conventional elements of tragedy structure. QUESTIONS
4. Do you think Agamemnon had a choice in whether or not to sacrifice Iphigenia? Why or Why not?
5. What do you think of Iphigenia sacrificing herself for the good of Greece and the War? Why?
6. What do you think are Euripides’ opinions on war as reflected in the play? Are they similar or conflicting opinions? Which characters present these opinions?
7. Identify 3 specific moments in the play when the Chorus members offer a specific opinion on the action of the play. Based on these moments who or what do you think the Chorus members represent in this play? 8