by Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Associate Professor of Classics, Temple University
References are to page numbers in the translation by Philip Vellacott (Penguin)
As with Sophocles' Electra, you should keep attuned to the alterations the poet makes in the myth received from Aeschylus' Oresteia. This play tends to be popular with people who find the verdict in the Eumenides hard to accept.
Throughout the play you should keep track of statements Iphigenia makes about her father and his attempted sacrifice of her.
There is an ancient Greek painting of the substitution of the deer for Iphigenia you can view.
There are many references to Tauris as a "savage land." Is there any irony here? Why should this place be considered any more savage than Argos? Note, for example, the reaction of Thoas (167) to the news about why one of the strangers cannot be sacrificed. And consider that the play carefully alludes to the full range of myths surrounding the House of Atreus.
The choral odes in Euripidean dramas of this period have often been criticized for their disconnectedness from the play's action. Does that charge apply here?
Is this play a tragedy? or a comedy? or both?
What do you make of the gods in this play? and their relations with mortals? Does Apollo come off any better than before? Isn't Iphigenia betraying the goddess who saved her from her murderous father?
131 How does Iphigenia's explanation of her father's sacrifice of her differ from Aeschylus?
Why does Iphigenia have to offer visiting Greeks up as sacrifices to Artemis? Note her attitude to her tasks on 142. This is, in general, an important speech.
133-4 Why should Orestes follow Apollo's orders about the statue? Doesn't he have more important things to worry about?
Compare this Orestes to the other two we have met so far.
139-40 Does the description of Orestes fighting off the Furies remind you of a scene in another play we have read? What does this description contribute to your understanding of Orestes in this play?
154-55 Read carefully the recitation of the message Iphigenia gives to the "stranger". Do her implied threats undermine the joy of the immediate reconciliation?
Remember throughout that Iphigenia is saving a man who avenged the father who had tried to kill her. Isn't this a bit strange?
160-61 Note Orestes's account of the split among the Furies after his trial. Is this credible? Also, the "Feast of the Pitchers" was an actual event in Athens
163 Is their willingness to use ritual as part of a ruse acceptable?
164 Consider Iphigenia's speech to the Chorus, wherein she asks them for secrecy on the grounds that "we are women". Can you compare this female conspiracy with one in any other play? How do you think the audience would react to the reasoning in such a speech? Remember that she is appealing to them to betray their own country in order to help her. To what does she appeal in them?
167-9 Study the behavior of Thoas carefully. Is he what you have been led to expect? Is he a good king?
Also, could Iphigenia be in some way telling the truth, that Orestes is too impure to be a sacrificial victim?
170-71 Can you relate the content of this choral ode to the action surrounding it? Why sing about Apollo's early life at this point? How do these stories resonate in the themes of this play?
175-76 Study carefully the messenger's description of their escape. Why are their prayer's to Apollo so seemingly ineffectual? Is Artemis more powerful? Does the messenger's condemnation of them rung true?
176 Is Athena's appearance an effective or convincing ending? Why do you think Euripides chose this approach to resolving the action?
The references to a temple to Artemis in Athens provide an explanation for a real building.
Note also that Euripides seems to be trying to clear up ambiguities left over from the verdict in Aeschylus. Why?
And what about the Furies and Orestes?