Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2012Type
.......Iphigenia at Aulis is a tragedy
centering on an army general who is deciding whether to
sacrifice his daughter to a goddess in order to gain
favorable winds for a sea voyage to Troy.
.......The play debuted in Athens in 405 BC, a
year after the author's death. The occasion was the
annual spring festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of
drama, wine, and revelry. The festival was called the
.......The action takes place in east-central
Greece at the port of Aulis, on the Euripus Strait. The
strait separates mainland Greece from the island of
Euboea. The time is approximately 1200 BC, just before
the start of the Trojan War.
.......In the ancient Mediterranean world of
the second millennium BC, feminine beauty reaches its
zenith in Helen, wife of Menelaus, the king of the
Grecian state of Sparta. Her wondrous face and body
are without flaw. She is perfect. Even the goddess of
love, Aphrodite, admires her. One day, Aphrodite
competes with other goddesses in a beauty contest in
which the winner is to receive a golden apple. The
judge is a young Trojan named Paris. Aphrodite tells
him that if he selects her she will award him the most ravishing woman in the world.
After Paris chooses Aphrodite, she tells him about
Helen, who lives in Greece with her husband, Menelaus,
the king of Sparta. Forthwith, Paris goes to Greece,
woos Helen, and absconds with her to Troy, a walled
city in Asia Minor (in present-day Turkey).
elopement of Helen and Paris is an affront to all the
Greeks. How dare an upstart Trojan invade their land!
How dare he steal the wife of one of their kings!
Which Greek family would be next to fall victim to a
Trojan machination? Infuriated, King Menelaus and his
brother, Agamemnon, king of the state of Mycenae,
assemble mighty armies of brother Greeks who include
the finest warriors in the land. The soldiers gather
at the port of Aulis to debark for Troy in a gigantic
fleet of ships.
....... While at Aulis, Agamemnon goes
hunting and kills a deer. But the deer was a favorite
of Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the moon. In
retaliation against Agamemnon, Artemis causes the
winds to die down, making it impossible for the Greeks
to launch their sailing vessels. A seer named Calchas
tells Agamemnon the winds will not resume until he
appeases Artemis. The only way he can do that, Calchas
says, is to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the
goddess. Euripides picks up the story from there.
However, he makes no reference to Agamemnon's killing
of a deer.
Agamemnon: King of Argos, Greece, and general of
the Greek armies.
King of Sparta, Greece, and leader of the Spartan army.
He is the brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen (See
Wife of Agamemnon and sister of Helen.
daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Calchas: Seer who advises Agamemnon to sacrifice
Achilles: Greatest of the Greek warriors.
of Women: Residents of Chalcis (on the Greek
island of Euboea) who come to Aulis to see the renowned
Greek warriors and the wondrous sight of a thousand
ships that will take them to Troy. The chorus comments
on the action, usually attempting to promote harmony and
tone of the play is grim and ominous. Plot
.......It is dawn at the port of Aulis,
Greece. King Agamemnon and his armies have gathered
there to prepare for their sea voyage to Troy to wage
war. When Agamemnon's elderly attendant notices that his
master seems troubled, he asks why. Agamemnon replies
that the seer Calchas has told him that he must
sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess
Artemis to gain favorable winds for his fleet of sailing
ships. If he fails to follow this advice, no winds will
.......Agamemnon says he at first refused to
consider killing his own daughter. However, his brother,
King Menelaus, convinced him that he must sacrifice her
for the general good of Greece. Agamemnon the dispatched
a message to his wife, Clytemnestra, telling her to send
Iphigenia to Aulis immediately. In the message, he
pretended that he had betrothed Iphigenia to the great
Greek warrior Achilles and that the wedding was to take
place at Aulis. Now, conscience-stricken, Agamemnon
regrets sending the message and has composed a new one
saying that the wedding will be held at another time. He
directs the old man to bear the message to his home in
Argos. Agamemnon and the old man exit.
.......The chorus of women enters and reviews
events that provoked the Greeks to declare war (as
explained under Mythological
The chorus members also tell of the great warriors they
saw in the Greek camp and of the wonder of the gigantic
Greek fleet, with a thousand ships ready to sail.
.......Menelaus enters with Agamemnon's
elderly attendant. The former has intercepted the scroll
on which Agamemnon wrote his second message. While the
old man attempts to retrieve the scroll, Agamemnon
enters and discovers what has happened. Angry, he tells
his brother that he has no right to interfere in his
private matters. Menelaus replies that Agamemnon has a
duty to Greece and his soldiers to wage war against Troy
in order to teach them a lesson. However, he says,
Agamemnon—previously eager to lead the Greeks—is now
proving himself too weak to do so.
.......In return, Agamemnon criticizes his
brother, saying he was unable to control his own wife,
Helen. Now he is willing to
make Agamemnon suffer because he wants his wife back.
Agamemnon also hints that Menelaus is jealous of him
because he is the leader of the Greek armies. Then he
says that if Menelaus wishes to go to war to fight over
his wife, that is his privilege. But, says Agamemnon, he
will not sacrifice his daughter and burden his
conscience with such a foul deed.
.......A messenger enters with news that he
has brought Agamemnon's wife, his daughter Iphigenia,
and his son Orestes to the Greek camp. They are
refreshing themselves at a spring after their long
journey. The messenger says the Greek soldiers are abuzz
with questions about why their commander's family is in
the camp. Some wonder whether there is to be a wedding.
Agamemnon thanks him for the news and dismisses him.
.......The news unnerves Agamemnon. He had
not expected his wife to come, only Iphigenia. What will
he tell her? What will he say to Iphigenia?
.......Menelaus, now sympathetic toward his
brother, attempts to comfort him and offers him his
hand. Agamemnon takes it and says it appears that he
will have to sacrifice his daughter after all. But
Menelaus takes back what he previously advised, now
saying that Agamemnon should spare his daughter and
dismiss the army. The chorus commends Menelaus for his
conciliatory words. But Agamemnon now says that if he
does not revert to his earlier plan, Calchas will inform
the entire Greek army of his divination. Menelaus
suggests that they kill Calchas, but Agamemnon tells him
that one other man already knows of the seer's
pronouncement: the supremely clever Greek warrior
Odysseus. Ever eager to increase his popularity with the
soldiers, he would probably tell them that Agamemnon
went back on his word to carry out Calchas's decree.
Odysseus then might undertake to sacrifice Iphigenia
himself. Therefore, Agamemnon says, he must do the
unthinkable: forfeit the life of his daughter. To avoid
a confrontation with his wife, Agamemnon tells Menelaus
to keep her occupied when Agamemnon presides at the
.......Agamemnon and Menelaus exit. The
chorus then welcomes Clytemnestra and Iphigenia when
they enter with the baby, Orestes. Clytemnestra is in
good spirits, believing that her daughter is about to
embark on a happy marriage. She has brought a dowry.
When Agamemnon returns, Iphigenia rushes into his arms
to embrace him. She commends him for summoning her to
the Greek camp, then calls attention to the uneasy look
on his face and the tears in his eyes. He explains that
he has many concerns as a king and a general and is sad
because he and she will soon be separated by a long
absence. Before he leaves for Troy, he says, he must
make a sacrifice that she will witness.
.......After Iphigenia exits, Clytemnestra
asks Agamemnon to tell her about Achilles and his family
tree. Her husband then presents a brief outline of the
lineage of Achilles, pointing out that he is the son of
the king of the Myrmidons, Peleus, and the sea nymph
Thetis. Iphigenia and Achilles are to be married when
the moon is full. In a sacrificial rite that he is about
to conduct, he will solicit the blessing of the virgin
moon goddess, Artemis, on the marriage. When
Clytemnestra inquires about preparations for the wedding
feast, Agamemnon tells her that he wants her to return
home to take care of their two other girls. Besides, he
says, it is not proper for her to sojourn in the Greek
camp with so many men. Clytemnestra, however, refuses to
leave, saying a mother should be with her daughter at
her wedding. She then exits.
.......Achilles, meanwhile, is looking for
Agamemnon to inquire about the delay in embarking for
Troy. His men are eager to make war. But he happens upon
Clytemnestra and Iphigenia. Clytemnestra extends her
hand in greeting, addressing him as the future husband
of her daughter. Dumbfounded, Achilles says he was never
pledged to anyone—not by Agamemnon or anyone else.
Clytemnestra, now embarrassed, realizes that no wedding
is to take place. Agamemnon's elderly attendant and
message bearer enters at that moment to inform
Clytemnestra that Agamemnon plans to sacrifice Iphigenia
with his own sword so that Artemis will send winds that
will take the Greek armies to Troy. He reviews for her
details concerning the messages and Menelaus's
interception of the second one. Achilles is angry that
he has been used as a tool in Agamemnon's scheme. He
decides that he will indeed marry Iphigenia and then
protect her from harm. Clytemnestra commends him for his
gallantry but says he is under no obligation to
intervene on behalf of her daughter. But Achilles
insists on helping. He tells her to try to persuade her
husband to spare Iphigenia. However, if her
remonstrations fail, Achilles says, he will intervene.
.......Achilles exits. Taking Iphigenia and
Orestes with her, Clytemnestra then confronts her
husband. Is it true, she asks, that he plans to kill
Iphigenia? Agamemnon says she presents a cruel question.
But when she persists in her questioning, he realizes
that she is aware of his intentions. Clytemnestra then
asks what she is to reply when someone inquires why he
killed their daughter. Should she say that he did so in
order that Menelaus could retrieve Helen? In other
words, is he going to sacrifice Iphigenia for an
unfaithful, devious woman? Furthermore, she says, what
will her life be like when he is at war and Clytemnestra
must look at the empty chair where Iphigenia would be
sitting? What blessing from the gods will he ask for
himself as he is killing Iphigenia? When he returns from
Troy, how will he face his other children?
.......The chorus urges him to heed her
words. Iphigenia then addresses her father tenderly in a
moving plea for her life. She says she was the first of
his children to call him father and the first to sit
upon his knee. And he told her that he would see to it
that one day she would be happy in a home of her own.
She holds up Orestes, just a baby, and asks him to plead
for her in his own way; for even a baby can sense when
something is wrong.
.......If he refuses to follow the advice of
Calchas, Agamemnon says, the Greek soldiers—mad for war
with Troy—will turn on him and kill him, Iphigenia, and
his daughters at home. For the sake of Greece, he says,
he must do as Calchas advises. Agamemnon leaves the
scene in a hurry.
.......Iphigenia laments her fate, and the
chorus sympathizes with her. Achilles enters and reports
that the Greek army believes that the sacrifice of
Iphigenia is necessary. However, he says, he will do his
best to protect her. But Iphigenia speaks up, saying she
realizes that she is doomed and accepts her fate. If she
lives, the Trojans might conduct raids on Greece and
carry off its women, as Paris did with Helen. Greece was
wronged, she says, and she does not wish to stand in the
way of an army seeking retribution. Finally, she says,
she—a mere mortal—cannot prevail against the goddess
Artemis. If Artemis wants her as a sacrifice, then
Artemis will get her. She urges her mother not to hate
Agamemnon, saying he has no choice but to conduct the
.......Iphigenia exits and goes to her death.
.......A messenger later tells Clytemnestra
about the sacrificial rite. As Agamemnon saw Iphigenia
entering the grove of Artemis, he began to cry before
the soldiers who had come to observe. But Iphigenia
comforted him, saying she was willingly surrendering her
life to support Greece and to satisfy the gods. She
wished her father good fortune in leading the Greeks to
war. When a priest slit her throat, the messenger says,
she disappeared and a deer appeared in her place,
spilling its blood. Calchas then said that the sacrifice
of a deer was more pleasing to Artemis than the
sacrifice of a young girl. What is more, says the
messenger, Artemis accepted the sacrifice and decreed a
resumption of the winds. The messenger says Agamemnon
then sent him to Clytemnestra to report on these
happenings and to say that the king will become famous
throughout Greece for displaying courage in a desperate
hour. As for Iphigenia, he says, she has apparently been
taken up into the abode of the gods.
.......Clytemnestra is suspicious. Has she
been deceived still another time? Agamemnon enters and tells his wife
all is well, for their daughter enjoys the company of
the gods. He bids farewell to his wife before embarking
on the sea voyage to Troy.
main conflict centers on the opposing forces in
Agamemnon's mind. On the one hand, his conscience
urges him to ignore the decree of Calchas. On the
other, his ego urges him to carry out the decree to
appease his men and thereby maintain his lofty
position as general of the Greek armies.Pride
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
well knows that refusing to follow the advice of
Calchas would lower his standing in the eyes of his
war-hungry men. The thousands of soldiers gathered at
Aulis from around the country would regard him as weak
and spineless. He might even lose the generalship.
When he has second thoughts about sending for
Iphigenia, he does the right thing when he dispatches
a message directing his wife to keep Iphigenia home.
But after intercepting the message, Menelaus rebukes
his brother as a weakling and plays on his ego when he
When thou camest to Aulis with all the
gathered hosts of Hellas [Greece] . . . the want of
a favourable breeze filled thee with consternation
at the chance dealt out by Heaven. Anon the Danai
[Greeks from Argos] began demanding that thou
shouldst send the fleet away instead of vainly
toiling on at Aulis; what dismay and confusion was
then depicted in thy looks, to think that thou, with
a thousand ships at thy command, hadst not occupied
the plains of Priam [King of Troy] with thy armies!
And thou wouldst ask my counsel, “What am I to do?
what scheme can I devise? where find one?” to save
thyself being stripped of thy command and losing thy
by Edward P. Coleridge (1863-1936)........ At
that moment, Agamemnon realizes that his august status
and his reputation as a leader are in jeopardy.
Nevertheless, he still holds out against the demands
of his brother. However, after Clytemnestra arrives
with Iphigenia and Orestes, he changes his mind. He
knows that the soldiers will likely discover why
Iphigenia is in camp. To avoid their wrath—and the
loss of his dignity—he resolves to go through with his
plan to sacrifice his daughter.
Courage and Cowardice
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. Although she at first pleads for her life—as
anyone in her place surely would—she eventually
accepts her death sentence but exhibits no bitterness
toward her father. She is noble, gracious, and brave
to the end. After she dies, her father attempts to
assuage his guilt and pacify his wife by promoting the
story that Iphigenia enjoys a privileged and happy
life among the gods.
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.
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, a Trojan prince. He ran
off to Troy with the wife of Menelaus, Helen.
Ungodly god: Clearly 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.
Climax .......The climax
occurs when Iphigenia learns of her ill fate
and—after briefly pleading for her life—accepts
it without bitterness or reproof against her
prologue, or introduction, of the play consists
of the dialogue between Agamemnon and his
elderly attendant. This dialogue provides
important background information. The prologue
ends when the chorus enters.
.......The lines that chorus members sing when they
first appear make up what is called a parode
(or parados). In Iphigenia at Aulis,
the parode takes place when the chorus of women enters
and and sings of the wondrous sight of the Greek camp
with its multitude of warriors and its fleet of a
.......The lines that the characters speak as the
plot unfolds make up what are called episodes. The
first episode begins when Menelaus and Agamemnon's
elderly attendant struggle with each other for
possession of the second message that Agamemnon wrote
.......The lines that the chorus sings between
episodes of action make up what are called stasimons.The
first stasimon takes place between the first episode
and the episode in which Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, and
Orestes arrive in the Greek camp. The play continues
to alternate between stasimons and episodes until the
making up the final events of a Greek play are called
the exodos. The exodos begins when Agamemnon defends his
position that Iphigenia should be sacrificed. The exodos
ends with the last lines of the play.
Greek Theater: Structure
Definition and Background
........The Greek theater was an open-air
stone structure with tiered seating, a stage, and a
ground-level orchestra. It was an outgrowth of
festivals honoring the god Dionysus. In these
festivals, called Dionysia, the Greeks danced
and sang hymns called dithyrambs that sometimes told
stories. One day, Thespis, a choral director in
Athens, used spoken words, or dialogue, to accompany
the singing and dancing in imitation of poets who had
done so before. Soon, the dialogues of Thespis became
plays, and he began staging them in a theater.
......."A contest of plays in 535 [B.C.]
arose when Pisistratus, the ‘tyrant' whom the common
people of Athens invested with power, brought a rustic
festival into the city [Athens]," drama critic John
Gassner writes in Masters of Drama. Such
contests became regular features of the festivals, and
the theaters in which they were held were specially
built to accommodate them.
Sections of the Theater......(1)
A tiered, horshoe-shaped seating area
called a theatron. The theatron faced the
east to allow the audience to view plays—usually staged
later in the day—without
A stage called a proscenium. The
staged faced the west to allow the midday sun to
illuminate the faces of the actors.
An orchestra in front of the proscenium to
accommodate the chorus.
Building behind the stage. First used as a dressing area
for actors (and sometimes an entrance or exit area for
actors), the skene eventually became a background
showing appropriate scenery.
Extensions or annexes on the sides of the skene.
Passage on the left or right through which the chorus
entered the orchestra.
Altar in the center of the orchestra used to make
sacrifices to Dionysus.
Armlike device on the skene that could lower a "god"
onto the stage from the heavens.
Study Questions and Essay
- Write an essay
explaining the extent to which the ancient Greeks
relied on prophecies to make decisions. Use library
and Internet research. Include in your essay a
discussion of the Oracle
- What is the
purpose of the lines the chorus sings when it first
- Early in the play,
Calchas, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Agamemnon's elderly
attendant, and one other person are aware of the
plan to sacrifice Iphigenia. Who is that other
- In your opinion, which
character in the play is the strongest emotionally?
- Iphigenia was one of three
daughters of Agamemnon. Who were the other two? Use
an encyclopedia if you do not know the answer.