Iphigenea at Aulis
Iphigenea at Aulis
Iphigenea at Aulis
by Euripides
Notes:
This text was prepared for a particular production and contains omissions from the received
text. It is not a translation but a conversion of academically sound translations into my own
words. Some of the omissions are of passages that scholars posit are not written by Euripides.
The main omission is a deux ex machina ending where a messenger explains that Iphigenia
did not die but was replaced by a fawn on the altar. There is also omission of text written by
Euripides. The received text contains two opening scenes which are concatenated in
translation. One is a long explanatory speech which I have omitted. The other is a dynamic
dialogue between Agamemnon and the Old Servant. I think Euripides would have preferred
this as it was an important dramatic innovation. It was his last play and it is possible that he
died before he tidied up his papers.
Iphigenia at Aulis. -
PROLOGUE
OLD: That’s Sirius, next to the seven Pleiades. It sails right through the middle of the
heavens
AG: (Aside)
No voice yet of waking bird nor of the seas whisper.
Deep is the hush of winds asleep on River Euripus.
OLD: Why have you been pacing up and down outside your tent my Lord Agamemnon?
Everything’s quiet over at Aulis. There’s no activity from the guards on the ramparts
of the fort. Can’t we go inside’?
AG: I envy you old man. I envy anyone who is able to pass without peril through life,
obscure and unknown. Least of all I envy the mighty.
AG: That glory is snared with danger. The rewards of office might be sweet but they are
friends to dismay. An enterprise can clash with the will of the gods and life is
overturned, or the greed of malignant men can rend the web of your desire.
OLD: Yes tell me, so what I say shall agree with what is written.
AG: (Reads)
Dear Clytemnestra, Child of Leda,
I write subsequent to my previous,
Do not sent your daughter to the calm shore of Aulis enfolded in the wing of the Gulf
of Euboea. Our daughter’s wedding feast must wait another season.
OLD: But when Achilles hears that he has lost his betrothed won’t his anger well up fierce
against you and your wife. There is danger here don’t you think?
AG: Achilles has only lent his name to our plans without his knowledge. He knows
nothing of a marriage nor that I have told my wife that I would give my daughter as
his bride
AG: When you come to the fork in the road look carefully both ways in case you miss a
carriage passing that would bring Iphigenia down to the Greek ships.
And if you meet her and her escort make them turn back. Take the reins and shake
them, send them back to Argos and the walls built by gigantic Cyclops.
OLD: But when I tell them these things what will make your wife and daughter believe what
I say?
AG: This seal. Keep it. It made the seal on the letter.
Now go, the four horsed chariot of the sun shines to light the dawn.
Go, and save me from these troubles.
Exit Agamemnon
PARADOS.
CHORUS
MEN: If you don’t keep your place I’ll make you pay for it.
MEN: And you had no right to carry a letter which betrayed all Greece.
OLD: You can argue the toss with the others. Give me the letter back.
OLD: Help, master, help, this man’s got your letter. He’s taken it from me by force.
Agamemnon, he doesn’t know what is right.
ENTER AGAMEMNON
AG: Hey what’s all this shouting and brawling right, outside my door?
AG: All right then Menelaus, what’s this quarrel all about and why do you have so hold
him like that?
AG: Our father was called Atreus, the fearless, do you think I’m afraid of facing you?
.
AG: What? Did you dare to break the seal and read what you had no right to?
MEN: Yes I did, to your great sorrow. Now I know your secret plot.
AG: Where did you find him? Oh God do you have no honour?
MEN: On the road from Argos. I was watching to see if your child was coining to the camp.
AG: You certainly have no honour . Why would you spy on my affairs?
MEN: No, your mind is too shifty. You vacillate between one plan and another, hour by
hour.
AG: How carefully you frame your lies. I despise your smooth snake tongue.
MEN: Now Agamemnon, an untrue heart is false to friends and a thing of wrong.
I want to ask you a few guest ions but don’t get angry and turn you face from the
truth, I won’t press you too hard.
Have you forgotten the time when you were eager to command the Greek armies for
the congest of Troy? You pretended to be indifferent but you desired it greatly.
Do you remember how humble you were, clasping hands with the motley, holding
open house, allowing even the lowest to speak t o you by name?
You used these tricks and stratagems to purchase favour in the market, but when at
last you won power, you changed, you were no longer at home to your friends. A man
of worth should not change his face when power comes. He should use his fortune to
help his allies. That’s my first criticism.
And then, when you caste here to Aulis with the host of the Greek army, you were
suddenly confounded by an unfavourable wind sent by the gods.
The Greeks were impatient to disband the ships and go home.
How sad and bewildered you were, afraid that you might not captain the thousand
ships nor fill Troy’s plain with spears.
So you called me and asked me to find a way to avoid losing your command and the
glory attached to it.
Then the High Priest Calchas said that if you sacrificed your daughter on the alter in
Artemis Grove then the Greek ships would sail.
At that you were glad and happily promised to slaughter the child. You straightaway
sent a letter to your wife, without being compelled by us. You said bring the child
here to marry Achilles. That was your pretext. You can’t deny it, this sky witnessed
your words. Now turning jour thoughts around in secret you have changed the
message saying that you will not kill your daughter.
Thousands of men go like you, struggle mightily up the pinnacle of power and then
fall to disgrace either by the stupid will of others or by their own incompetence. It’s
Greece I feel sorry for, sad Greece.
After all this high ambition she shall be mocked by a tribe of effete barbarians,
because of you and your daughter. .
In the army noble breeding doesn’t make a leader. In politics a leader must be astute,
but a general needs a mind.
CHORUS: It’s terrible to watch two brothers quarrelling. A battle of their angry words.
AG: Now I have hard words for you, not many, but I won’t raise my brows in contempt
and I’ll be moderate in what I say since you are my brother.
Noblemen should show proper respect.
But tell me, why do you breathe so heavily, why are your eyes bloodshot, and why do
you make these threats? Who has wronged you?
What do you want?
Do you desire a virtuous wife?
I can’t give you that, you had one, but you ruled her badly.
I am innocent, why should I pay wages for your sins? Or are you jealous of my
advancement?
No, you want to hold a beautiful woman in your arms, and for that you’ll throw
reason and honour to the wind. False pleasures are vile.
I made a bad decision, does it mean I’m crazy if I make a wise one?
The gods did you a favour by ridding you of a wicked wife, and now you want her
back. That’s crazy.
And all those other cast off infatuated suitors for her hand who made an oath to
Tyrndareus, they are ready to join you in. this folly, hut you are not in control of
them, they were lead on-by the goddess Hope.
But in heaven there is a light that can see oaths bound in evil, sworn under
compulsion.
So 1 shall not slay my children. .
And you shall not succeed in punishing your wanton wife against Justice.
If I were to commit this indecent act, against the child I fathered I would weep all
night and pass all day in misery.
There you are, a few words but easy to understand. You may chose insanity but I shall
order my affairs with decency. . . . .
MEN: Then how do you know you are our father’s son?
AG: I say that some god has driven you and Greece mad.
MEN: Boast of your sceptre then, you are a traitor to me. I shall find other means and
other friends.
ENTER A MESSENGER
EXIT MESSENGER .
.
What can I say? Where can I start?
I’ve fallen into the pit.
Fate has won, she is far too cunning for all my schemes. Men of low birth are
fortunate, they may weep freely and speak out of their grief.
Kings feel the same but are ruled by convention; they must obey the whims of the
masses.
So I am ashamed to .weep in the depth of my grief, but also I am ashamed not to.
And what am I going to say to my wife, how can I look her in the eye?
After all I did tell her to come to give the bride away. She’ll find out what I’ve done,
she’ll know she brought the virgin here to marry death.
And the girl, I can hear her cry ‘Father, will you kill me, is this my dowry? Is this the
fate for all you love?’
Oh Paris, it is your sin with Helen that caused this grief.
CHORUS: I come from another world, but I can understand the misfortune of a king.
MEN: My brother, let me hold your hand.
MEN: No, I’ll swear by our grandfather Pelops and our father Atreus, I’ll tell you the truth in
my heart.
I saw the tears streaming from your eyes and my pity brought tears from mine.
I withdraw what I said. I don’t hate you anymore. I ask you not to kill the child, or
put my interests before yours.
It wouldn’t be tight that you should weep and .I should be happy or that your child
should die so that mine would see the sun.
What do I want?
Couldn’t I find a perfect marriage elsewhere if I wanted it?
Could I cast aside a well loved brother to win, back Helen?
That would be throwing good money after bad.
I was stupid and childish ‘until was brought down to earth and saw what it meant to
kill a child.
I thought of our kinship and I felt sorry for the girl, doomed to death for the sake of
my marriage.
But what has Helen got to do with her?
Disband the host brother, let it go from Aulis, and so stop drowning your eyes in
tears or asking me to weep. I want no part in the oracles concerning her fate, I’ll give
you my share of those.
And so I’ve turned around my words, given them the opposite sense, and I’ve
changed because I love you, brother.
It’s not the way of a bad man to find the better part.
AG: Thank you Menelaus, you have spoken the truth worthily, more than I could hope for.
Brothers may quarrel, over a woman, or for an inheritance, something to be abhorred,
for kinship heightens bitterness.
But now we are tangled in the net of fate which inevitably leads to the death of the
child.
MEN: What do you mean? Who will force you to kill her?
AG: Don’t you think he will stand up before the assembly of the Greeks and tell them
of Kalchas’ prophecies? Of how I promised Artemis her victory and then reneged.
He’ll arouse then in anger and urge them to kill us both, and Iphigenia.
Even if I escape to Argos they will come there, destroy the walls and raze the city to
the ground.
This is my despair, I-am caught in a web woven by the gods.
But do one thing for me Menelaus, go to the army and make sure that Clytemnestra
hears nothing of this until after I have sent my child to hell that I may commit this
crime amidst fewest tears.
And you, ladies from Chalcis, hold your peace also.
EXEUNT.
CHORUS 1
We are strangers here and welcome you who are strangers also,
ENTER AGAMEMNON
IPH: Mother, don’t be angry if I run from you. I want to be the first to hug him.
CLY: My reverend Lord Agamemnon. You asked us to come and here we are.
IPH: I wanted to be the first to put my arms around you father after such a long time. I have
missed not seeing you. Don’t be angry mother.
CLY: That’s all right child. Of all the children I bore your father you were always the one
that loved him most.
IHP: What a wonderful thing for you to have brought me here to you.
IPH: But your eyes look worried. Are you really happy to see me?
IPH: Oh forget them for now, forget them, I am here, put them aside and be with me.
AG: I’m all yours now. I’m nowhere else.
IPH: Don’t frown then, and don’t look so serious if you love me.
IPH: Then I’ll speak foolish words, if that makes you happy.
AG: I want to, but I can’t always do what I want. That’s what makes me unhappy;
IPH: I wish there were no more spears, and none of this trouble with Menelaus.
AG: (ASIDE) Those wrongs, they will destroy others, and then me.
IPH: Father you’ve been here a long time in this Gulf of Aulis.
AG: I can’t send the army on its way, there’s something that’s stopping me.
AG: In a country where Priam has a son called Paris. I wish he’d never been born.
IPH: And you are going all that way there father, and leaving me behind?
AG: And so are you daughter, a long voyage, leaving your father.
AG: You must think of your father on your own long voyage.
AG: Peleus. He married Thetis, one of the daughters of Peleus, the sea god.
CLY: Did the gods bless this marriage or did he take her against their will.
AG: Zeus made the betrothal and Peleus gave her away.
CLY: Where did they marry? Was it under the heaving waves?
AG: All the gods came to the marriage and the wedding breakfast.
AG: It was Chiron, to prevent him from learning the evil ways of men.
CLY: A wise teacher, and Peleus was wise in sending the boy to him..
CLY: Have you killed the goddesses sacrifice for the child?
CLY: Here? Well I suppose there’s no other choice. I hope good comes of it.
CLY: Leaving the child behind? Who will raise the bridal torch?
CLY : That’s not the custom. You see nothing wrong in that’?
AG: It’s not right for you to stray hero, mingling with common soldiers
EXIT CLYTEMNESTRA
ENTER CLYTEMNESTRA
CLY: Son of the Nereid goddess, I heard your voice from inside the tent so I’ve come out to
greet you.
CLY: It’s not surprising that you don’t know me, we’ve never met. But I praise your respect
for modesty.
ACH: Who are you? Why have you come to the Greek camp? You are a woman among
armed men.
ACH: Brief and to the point. But I shouldn’t be seen talking to a woman.
CLY: Wait, don’t run away. Give me your hand and let this be the beginning of a happy
betrothal.
CLY: It is perfectly all right, son of Thetis, since you are about to marry my daughter.
ACH: Marry your daughter? What are you talking about? I don’t know what to say. Have
you gone crazy?
CLY: I know, it’s natural for men to be shy when faced with talk of marriage, and new
relatives.
ACH: Dear lady, I have never courted your daughter. The Sons of Atreus have never
spoken to me of marriage.
ACH: We must both find out the explanation. There must be .some truth beneath all this.
CLY: I have been deceived. I have been preparing for a marriage that doesn’t exist. I am
crushed with shame.
ACH: Perhaps someone is fooling us. I wouldn’t take any notice of it.
CLY: I will go. I’ve been humiliated. Someone’s made me a liar. I can’t look you in the face
any more.
OLD: (AT THE DOOR) Wait there stranger. Grandson of Aikos, and son of the goddess. I
want to talk to you, and you too, daughter of Leda.
ACH: Whose slave? You’re not one of mine. I have no part of Agamemnon’s possessions.
OLD: I belong to that lady in front of the tent. I was given to her by her father.
OLD: Those that I pray for, may fate and my foresight save you.
ACH: You words sound ominous, and the message seems important.
CLY: Don’t wait to kiss my hand. What have you got to say?
OLD: You know me lady. You know of my devotion to you and your children.
CLY: I know you’ve been a servant, in the palace for a long time.
OLD: I came to King Agamemnon as part of your dowry.
CLY: Yes, you came with us to Argos and you’ve been with me till now.
OLD: (PAUSE) Your daughter. Her father intends to kill her ‘with his own hand.
CLY: What? You spit out stupid words. You’re out of your mind.
OLD: It’s true. He will slit her white throat with a knife.
OLD: No. He’s sane about everything except you and your child. He’s lost his reason
there.
OLD: The oracle of Kalchas is the demon. It must happen before the ships may sail.
CLY: What terror is coming for me and the child whose father would kill her? Sail where?
CLY: So the fates have woven Iphigenia’s death into Helen’s homecoming.
OLD: Now you know it all. He intends to sacrifice your daughter to Artemis.
CLY: And the marriage, that was a pretext which brought me here?
OLD: Yes. The king knew that you would bring her gladly to marry Achilles.
CLY: Oh daughter, you have come here with your mother to your death.
OLD: The child’s fate is terrible. So is yours. Agamemnon has done a monstrous thing.
CLY: Where did you learn this old man? How did you find out about these things?
OLD: I was sent to you with a second letter, subsequent to the first one.
CLY: Was that telling me again to bring the girl here to die or asking me not to?
OLD: Telling you not to. At that moment he was in his right mind.
CLY : If you had such a letter why did you not deliver it?
OLD: Menelaus took it from me. All your troubles come from him.
CLY: Son of Thetis and Peleus have you heard all this?
ACH: I hear the story of your grief. I do not take lightly the way I have been involved in the
matter.
CLY: They are going to kill my child. They tricked us with this talk of marriage
CLY: Son of a goddess, I not immortal but I am not ashamed to clasp your knees.
What good would pride do me now?
I would do anything to save my daughter.
Son of a goddess, save us in our despair.
Protect the maiden that was betrothed to you even though falsely.
I put a bridal garland on her head for you, I brought her here to be married and now I
am leading her to her death.
You will be shamed if you do not protect her.
Even though you were never married to her you were called her husband.
I implore you by your beard, by your right hand, by your own mother.
Achilles, it was your name that has brought my undoing now you must clear it.
There is no altar where I can take refuge except your knees.
No friend to help me here.
You have heard of Agamemnon savagery
I am a woman ii a camp of sailors who are undisciplined and ready for crime
If you can bring yourself to stretch out your hand we are saved, if not our life is
ended.
CLY: How can I find the right praise, neither full of flattery or so meagre you are offended.
Men of worth hate those who flatter.
I am ashamed to thrust my woes on you, they are my concern, not yours.
Still a good man will help those in trouble even though free from affliction himself.
Take pity on us, our plight deserves it.
At first I thought you would be my son, an empty dream. But now that my child is
threatened with death it would be a bad omen for any marriage of yours ff you did not
protect yourself.
But why do I implore you, you have spoken well from start to finish.
My child will be saved if you can save her.
Would you like her to come and clasp your knees?
True, it is not seemly for a maiden, but if you wish she shall come and lift her
innocent eyes to you.
If I could convince you without her coming I would refer her to remain inside yet
modesty bows to necessity.
CLY: May you be blessed all your days .f or helping those in distress.
CLY: I have come from the pavilion looking for my husband. He left our tent and has been
away for a long time.
My unhappy child now weeps her heart out, first moaning soft, then crying out loud,
for she has heard of the death her father plans for her.
I talk of Agamemnon, here he comes now.
Soon he will be found guilty of this terrible crime against his daughter.
ENTER AGAMEMNON
AG: I am pleased to find you now outside our tent, Daughter of Leda. I want to talk to you.
Things that it is better a young bride should not hear.
AG: Send for the child to join me here, but first listen: the purified waters are prepared
and the barley to throw in the cleansing fire; and victims ready to sacrifice their dark
blood to Artemis before the marriage rite.
CLY: You give these thing fair names but I can find nothing good to say about what you
intend to do.
(CALLS) Come out here daughter, you know what your father intends.
ENTER IPHIGENIA
Here she is, she does what you tell her but as far as I am concerned I shall speak for
her as well as me.
AG: Why are you crying child? Why do you look at the ground and hide your eyes from
me?
AG: What has happened? Why do you both look at me in so much trouble and terror?
AG: If you ask a fair question you will get a fair a answer.
CLY: This is the only question I ask. Answer it.
CLY: And mine, and hers. One destiny for the three of us.
AG: I shall be silent. Why should I lie and add shame to my misfortune?
CLY: Listen carefully then, I shall tell you clearly without prevarication.
My first reproach is that you wed me by force, you killed my husband, Tantalus. You
tore my baby from my breast and dashed him against the stony ground.
And when my two brothers, sons of Zeus, came on horseback in white armour to
make war on you, you went down on your knees to my father, Old Tyndareus, and he
saved you life.
So you kept me for your bed.
After this I became reconciled to you and your house, you will acknowledge that, I
became a chaste and modest wife seeking to increase your family so that your home-
comings had gladness and your journeys joy.
It is rare for a man to win such a good wife, there are many unworthy women.
I gave you a son and three daughters, and now you would tear one from me.
If any man ask you why do you kill your own daughter what answer will you give? Or
must I speak for you?
I kill her, you must say, so that Menelaus can have Helen back.
Our child of beauty is the price of that wanton bitch, and so we shall buy the things
we loath with the things we love most. . .
But think, if you leave me and go to war and your absence is stretched over the years
how do you think I shall keep your house when I see always her empty chair, her
empty room and, mourn her absence in lonely tears;
I shall cry out ‘Child, he that fathered you killed you, he and no other, by no other
hand.’. .
This is the crime and vendetta you bestow upon your house. . .
There needs little excuse now for I and the children left to give you what you deserve
when you return home. No, by the gods, do not force me to betray you and do not
betray me.
If you sacrifice her what prayer can you utter?
What blessing can you ask if you kill the child?
If you leave the house in shame won’t the return be evil? How can I ask heaven to
bless you, the gods would be fools to bless the killers of children.
And when you come home after the war will you embrace your children?
God forbid.
Do you think that any child of yours would look you in the face knowing you had sent
a sister to her death?
Talk to me. Have you taken these things into account?
Or do you want want to brandish spears and lead armies?
Why don’t you ask your Greeks if they wish to murder the child and sail for Troy.
Let them vote on whose daughter it is that should die or let Menelaus kill his daughter
for his mother’s sake
You wish to take the child of a loyal wife while the child of the whore lives.
Tell me, have I spoken well and to the point?
If so then don’t be crazy any more, be wise and repent.
Do not kill the girl, she is your daughter, and mine.
IPH: Father, I wish I had the tongue of Orpheus so I could charm with song the stones to
follow me, or beguile with eloquence anyone I wished.
But my tears are my only argument.
I can offer my body, which my mother bore, as the garland of a worshipper twined
around your knees.
Do not take my life before its time.
The light is sweet, do not lead me to the dark..
I was the first person to call you father and the first to be called child, the first to sit
on your knee.
We kissed each other: and you told me that one day you would see me happy in my
husband’s home, a flower blooming for you and your prestige.
And I twined my fingers in your heard arid said ‘Father, when you are old you can
come and live with me as repayment for all your care arid love.’
I can remember that conversation now, but you have forgotten and have decided you
want to kill me.
Think of your forebears, and this mother who suffered labour at birth for me, and now
a deeper pain.
What have I to do with the marriage of Paris arid Helen?
Father, look at me, look me in the eyes, give me a kiss, so that if you don’t hear what I
say, I may have one sweet memory of you in death.
These words are my plea, 1 must win life from you. This life is light for all to see and death
below is shadows
Those who wish for death are mad, a miserable life is better than a glorious death.
CHORUS: Oh guilty Helen, the agony on this family comes from your wanton love.
EXIT AGAMEMNON
CHORUS: I pity you for your fate, it should never have found you out.
CLY: Achilles son of the goddess, in whose name you were brought here?
CLY: Why?
CLY: It’s no time for delicate feelings. Stay here. Don’t be shy, If we may…
ENTER ACHILLES
CLY: But you have your own division, the Myrmidons. Didn’t they take your side?
CLY: Odysseus?
ACH: Yes.
IPH: Mother, listen to me, you are wrong to be angry with father.
It’s hard not to accept what is inevitable.
We should thank this stranger-friend for his willingness to help us, but we should not
let the army be stirred up against him.
It wouldn’t help us and he might come to harm.
Now listen to the thought that has caught my mind.
I am resolved to die.
And having decided to do this I want to do it with glory putting aside all weak
thoughts.
Look me in the eyes mother and see how right I am.
All the strength and all the people of Greece have turned to me.
Whether these ships sail and whether Troy falls depends on me.
I will be the one that protects our women if ever the barbarians come near.
When they’ve paid for the corruption of having Helen. who Paris carried away, they
will never be bold enough to rape the well-born wives of Greece.
I can win all these good things by dying.
Because of me Greece will be free and I will be famous.
You brought me into the world for the sake of everyone in the country not just for
yourself.
Thousands of warriors have picked up shields, thousands more have taken hold of
oars in their ships when they saw their country wronged and each of them will
fight and die for Greece.
Should my one little life stand in the way of all Greece?
Would there be any Justice in that?
What could I say to those who are ready to die?
There is another thing, it would not be right for this man here to fight the whole army
for the sake of one woman.
It would be better if a thousand women die so that one man could see the sun.
And if Artemis demands my body as offertory, I am a mortal, how can I oppose the
goddess?
I give my life to Greece.
Take me, kill me and bring down Troy.
That will be my memorial, that will be my wedding, my children and the meaning to
my life.
Mother it is the Greeks who must rule the barbarians. They were born to be slaves, we
were born to be free.
CHORUS: Young woman, what you have said is noble, it is the goddess and it is Destiny
that are corrupt.
ACH: Daughter of Agamemnon, if 1 could win you for my wife it would prove a god
wanted me to be happy.
I envy Greece because you belong to her, not me.
What you have said is worthy of our country.
You have renounced conflict with the will of the gods and have chosen the path that
must be.
As for me, the more clearly I see your noble nature, the more I desire you as a bride.
I want to save you, I want to take you home with me, I call my mother, Thetis, as a
witness.
It would grieve me more than anything if I could not pit myself against the Greeks to
save you.
Think, death is a fearful thing.
EXIT ACHILLES
IPH: Don’t do it, don’t take my courage from me. Will you...
IPH: Say good-bye to them, and bring my brother Orestes up to be a man, for my sake.
IPH: Mother, listen to me. It would be better for both of us if you stay here. One of my
father’s servants can lead me to the meadow where I am to be killed.