Performances

Iphigeneia in Aulis - Euripides

One of Euripides’ late plays, it was written between 408 and 406 BC and presented posthumously at the Great Dionysia, where it won first prize. The tragedy focuses on the fateful decision of Agamemnon, commander of the Greek forces, to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. In the beginning of the play, the Greek fleet plans to sail to Troy, but remains stuck in Aulis as the wind has lulled. The seer Calchas reveals that the wind has died down due to Artemis being furious with Agamemnon after being insulted by him. The goddess will only be appeased if Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon invites Iphigenia to Aulis, on the pretext of marrying her to Achilles, the most admired warrior among the Greeks, prior to their departure for the war. Faced with a horrific dilemma, torn between his daughter and his people, Agamemnon nevertheless decides to proceed to the sacrifice, dismissing the pleas of Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, Achilles, the army threatening him with mutiny, even his own brother, Menelaus. The noble Iphigenia ultimately reconciles herself with her tragic fate and her heroic death for her people’s sake. In the denouement, a messenger announces to Clytemnestra that Iphigenia’s body disappeared from the sacrificial altar shortly before receiving the final blow.


Director's note

Written near the end of his life, Euripides’ play is full of twists and dilemmas, replete with irony and startling moments of comedy; an oft-performed text that even nowadays raises a number of questions on literature, drama and theatre.
Similar to the other plays tackling the Atreides family, the characters in Iphigenia in Aulis are burdened with an ancestral curse. We know from the first that things are not likely to turn out very well.
Imbued with the atmosphere of its time, with the Athenian democracy on the brink of collapse and the imminent defeat at the Peloponnesian War looming large, the tragedy conveys a crumbling world where faith to heroics and patriotic values has been shaken; a world in which the mob takes matters into their own hands, whereas the weak, petty, cowardly, unstable and temperamental heroes begin to disintegrate. The pursuit of power remains the only constant, each time assuming a different form. The tension between the public and the private, the male and the female, the polis and the family generates characters who will not hesitate to cross the line.
This subversive tale of twists and turns is neither one of romantic self-sacrifice nor is it one of patriotic drama; rather, it addresses a constant struggle and an upset of balance.
In Aulis, it is not just the wind that has abated; life itself has died down. Everybody is eagerly waiting for something to happen. Very soon, something will indeed ensue: the abolition of logic.