The Bacchae and Other Plays (Penguin Classics) by Euripides

Author:Euripides
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780141964119
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2006-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Her entreaties and appeals to her father,

and her maiden’s years – in their love for battle

the officers set this at naught;

her father after praying gave an order

for the servers to come and lift her like a goat-kid

over the altar, when she had fallen forward

about his robes to plead with all her heart;

the lips in her beautiful face

were curbed to suppress

any word making the house accursed,

violently and with a bridle’s muting power.

(Agamemnon 224–38, tr. C. Collard)

As early as the Cypria, there was a tradition that Iphigenia did not die at Aulis but was miraculously rescued by Artemis, to whom she was being offered in sacrifice. According to the surviving summary of the Cypria, Artemis carried her off to the land of the Tauri (the modern Crimea) and made her immortal. In some versions she is replaced by a deer or a bear, beasts associated with the goddess. But in Aeschylus it is taken for granted by all, including the audience, that she died at the altar; nor would the ferocity of Clytemnestra’s vengeance be easy even for her to justify were this not believed to be the case. Euripides in his earlier play Iphigenia among the Taurians (see volume 3 of this translation) had taken this as the premiss and dramatized the novel chain of events whereby Orestes finds his sister and brings her home. In the present play, the last which survives from his pen, he returns to the beginnings of the tale and the prelude to the Trojan war.

Aeschylus’ narrative in the Agamemnon, though austere and selective, had made clear that Agamemnon struggled over the decision: patriotic duty (and his obligations to his brother) prevailed over natural father-feeling. Euripides develops this hint in a number of ways, characteristically exploring the emotional impact of the divine command on the different members of the family. At the start of the play the king has already sent a message summoning his daughter to Aulis, ostensibly in order for her to be married to Achilles. Agamemnon now thinks better of this, and paternal love takes first place over patriotism (the reverse of Aeschylus’s sequence). But Menelaus’ interests must also be taken into account: whereas Aeschylus had spoken of the two brothers acting in unison, Euripides sets them in conflict. While Agamemnon wants to call off the expedition, Menelaus is determined that it should go ahead: his motive, it seems, is purely personal, the hope of recovering Helen, although he attempts to put a fine gloss on this by high-sounding words about the glory of Greece. Further complications ensue: not only Iphigenia arrives but also Clytemnestra: how can the plan be executed with the girl’s mother present? Agamemnon is in despair, and his grief-stricken speech finally moves Menelaus to a change of heart: he will help his brother and forget his worthless wife. Immediately still further problems arise: even if the two brothers are at one, how can they achieve their goal against the connivances of Calchas and Odysseus? The whole army will soon be up in arms against them and force them to sacrifice the girl.

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