Iphigenia in Aulis: A Classic Greek Tragedy of War and Sacrifice - Paperback

by Euripides (Author)

Iphigenia in Aulis is Euripides' great late tragedy of war, sacrifice, political command, and family betrayal. At Aulis, the Greek fleet waits to sail for Troy, but no wind will come until Agamemnon offers his daughter Iphigenia as a sacrifice to Artemis. To bring her to the camp, he deceives his wife Clytemnestra with the promise of a marriage to Achilles, setting in motion one of Greek drama's most devastating conflicts between public duty and private love.

Written near the end of Euripides' life and first produced in 405 BCE, Iphigenia in Aulis stands at the threshold of the Trojan War while looking forward to the ruin that will follow the house of Atreus. The play gives unusual dramatic force to Clytemnestra's grief and fury, Agamemnon's moral collapse, Achilles' compromised honour, and Iphigenia's own terrible transformation before the demands of glory, obedience, and legend. It remains one of the essential works of ancient Greek tragedy: severe, humane, politically alert, and unflinching in its view of what war asks families to surrender.

For readers of classical drama, Greek tragedy, mythology, Trojan War literature, and Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis is indispensable: a tragedy of command and innocence, where the language of honour conceals the machinery of violence.