Abstract
In the IA, Iphigenia accepts to be sacrificed. This voluntary sacrifice can be interpreted as a result of her threefold motivation: personal, love for life; paternal, love for her father Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army which is about to sail to Troy; and patriotic, love for her country, the great Hellas, whose dignity and freedom Agamemnon and the army intend to defend. These three motives are interconnected and should not be considered separately. This is the principal Euripidean innovation, with regard to the mythical and Aeschylean tradition of Iphigenia's sacrifice. It allows us to reconsider the Aristotelian criticism concerning Iphigenia's change of mind, and to restore the unity of the character.
Highlights
In the IA, Iphigenia accepts to be sacrificed. This voluntary sacrifice must be interpreted as a result of her threefold motivation: personal, love for life; paternal, love for her father Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army which is about to sail to Troy; and patriotic, love for her country, the great Hellas, whose dignity and freedom Agamemnon and the army intend to defend
There is a literary and mostly Euripidean motif, self-sacrifice; a context, the imminent Trojan war; men and women aiming at the right thing to do according to their status in the right place and at the right time; a young man, Achilles, and a young girl, Iphigenia, who are supposed to be married; a chorus of strangers, women of Chalkis, visiting Aulis and assisting at the events
As a daughter and a young girl, it is quite natural for Iphigenia to be influenced by her parents’ opinion; but it appears less natural that a girl prefers the paternal to the maternal motivation and arguments
Summary
Before Iphigenia appears on stage, what do we know about her? Almost everything, in other words almost nothing. There are at least two previous Iphigenia-plays, by Aeschylus and Sophocles The latter seems to give a place to Ulysses, who is not on stage in the IA, in order to focus on Iphigenia’s marriage and to present some thematic similarities with Philoctetes. The latter seems to give a place to Ulysses, who is not on stage in the IA, in order to focus on Iphigenia’s marriage and to present some thematic similarities with Philoctetes3 She is already known as the heroine of Euripides’ IT, the priestess of Artemis in charge of the consecration of the Greek victims to be sacrificed according to the laws of the “barbaric” Tauris (IT 30-41). In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Iphigenia’s sacrifice is referred to as a necessity (Ag. 218); Agamemnon’s words The most important thing about this sacrifice is Artemis’ wrath because of Agamemnon’s fault (one version) or Artemis’ demand because of Agamemnon’s imprudent promise: IT 20-1, ὅ,τι γὰρ ἐνιαυτὸς τέκοι κάλλιστον ηὔξω φωσφόρῳ θύσειν θεᾷ, “you vowed to the light-bearing goddess that you would sacrifice the fairest thing the year brought forth”,
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