What Price War? Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis

“Thousands of men have slung shield on shoulder,
when they saw their country wronged.
And each of them will strike and, if need be, die
for Greece. And shall my one life stand in the way of it all?”

Our political decisions are often taken based on abstract ideology or satisfying rhetoric, without directly confronting the real costs to the individuals who will bear the burden of those choices. Euripides’ drama Iphigenia at Aulis was written in 5th-century-BCE Athens after three decades of a costly, and ultimately disastrous, war. In it, Euripides calls his fellow Athenians—and anyone who is part of a political community—to take an unflinching look at the choices, and sacrifices, that we make to achieve our ends in the world.

Iphigenia at Aulis is set at the very beginning of the legendary Trojan War, as the Greek army prepares to sail to Troy to recover Helen, the famously stolen bride of King Menelaus of Sparta. His brother, the great King Agamemnon of Mycenae has taken leadership of the Greek forces, tempted by the glory and gain that will come with victory. The gods, however, have declared that Agamemnon can only fulfil his ambition if he will sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

The choice is appalling, and Agamemnon recoils at the idea. Yet, by the end of the play Iphigenia has been led to the altar. The chain of events that brings her there and the justifications for Iphigenia’s sacrifice are, in Euripides’ hands, disturbingly ambiguous. One spectator to the sacrifice, though, is clear about the implications: Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, will hold her husband accountable when the war is over—a story told by Aeschylus at the beginning of his Oresteia trilogy.

 If you have any questions about this study, please contact facilitator Mark Cwik.

SALON DETAILS:

• Two-week online study (via Zoom) led by Mark Cwik
• Wednesday evenings, 6.00 – 8.15 pm (UK), 5 and 12 April 2023
• £65 for two meetings
• Recommended edition: The Complete Euripides, Volume 2: Iphigenia in Tauris and Other Plays (Greek Tragedy in New Translations); edited by Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0195388695