Romantic plays with happy endings are almost of necessity
inferior in artistic value to true tragedies.
Not, one would hope, simply because they end happily;
happiness in itself is certainly not less beautiful
than grief; but because a tragedy in its great moments
can generally afford to be sincere, while romantic
plays live in an atmosphere of ingenuity and make-believe.
The Iphigenia is not of the same order as The Trojan
Women. Yet it is a delightful play; subtle,
ever-changing, full of movement and poignancy.
The recognition scene became to Aristotle a model of
what such a scene should be; and the long passage
before it, from the entrance of the two princes onward,
seems to me one of the most skilful and fascinating
in Greek drama.
And after all the adventure of Euripides is not quite
like that of the average romantic writer. It
is shot through by reflection, by reality and by
sadness. There is a shadow that broods over the
Iphigenia, though it is not the shadow of death.
It is exile, homesickness. Iphigenia, Orestes,
the Women of the Chorus, are all exiles, all away
from their heart’s home, among savage people
and cruel gods. They wait on the shore while
the sea-birds take wing for Hellas, out beyond the
barrier of the Dark-Blue Rocks and the great stretches
of magical and ‘unfriended’ sea. Nearly
all the lyrics are full of sea-light and the clash
of waters, and the lyrics are usually the very soul
of Euripidean tragedy.
G. M.
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
Iphigenia, eldest daughter of Agamemnon, King of Argos;
supposed to have been sacrificed by him to Artemis
at Aulis.
Orestes, her brother; pursued by Furies for killing
his mother, Clytemnestra, who had murdered Agamemnon.
Pylades, Prince of Phocis, friend to Orestes.
Thoas, King of Tauris, a savage country beyond
the Symplegades.
A herdsman.
A messenger.
Chorus of Captive Greek Women, handmaids to Iphigenia.
The Goddess PallasAthena.
The play was first performed between the years 414
and 412 B.C.
THE IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
[The Scene shows a great and barbaric Temple on a
desolate sea-coast. An altar is visible stained
with blood. There are spoils of slain men hanging
from the roof. Iphigenia, in the dress of
a Priestess, comes out from the Temple.]
Iphigenia.
Child of the man of torment and of pride
Tantalid Pelops bore a royal bride
On flying steeds from Pisa. Thence did spring
Atreus: from Atreus, linked king with king,
Menelaus, Agamemnon. His am I
And Clytemnestra’s child: whom cruelly
At Aulis, where the strait of shifting blue
Frets with quick winds, for Helen’s sake he
slew,
Copyrights
The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
