Iphigenia Among the Taurians

by Euripides, Anne Carson (Translator)

The modern reader may have difficulty conceiving of Iphigeneia in Tauris as tragedy, for the term in our sense is associated with downfall, death, and disaster. But to the ancient Greeks, the use of heroic legend, the tragic diction and meters, and the tragic actors would have defined it as pure tragedy, the happy ending notwithstanding. While not one of his "deep" dramatic works, the play is Euripidean in many respects, above all in its recurrent theme of escape, symbolized in the rescue of Iphigeneia by Artemis, to whom she was about to be sacrificed. Richmond Lattimore--who has been called the dean of American translators--has translated Iphigeneia in Tauris with skill and subtlety, revealing it as one of the most delicately written and beautifully contrived of the Euripidean "romances."

Genres: Plays, Classics, Drama, Mythology, Theatre, Fiction, Poetry

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 415

About the author

Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.
Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of ... that cage which is the theatre of William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.

Reviews

[withdrawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Magic of Anne Carson

Anne Carson and Euripides were made for each other. I read all of Euripides’s tragedies many years ago and am always happy to re-encounter them through the translations of Carson. She has the ability to bring out a humanity and a humour that I do not recall from past translations.

These same two qualities seem to mark everything that she writes, whether her translations, her poetry or her wonderful revisiting of Greek mythology to invent her own stories, as in Autobiography of Red. There is a magic in her writing that always leaves me feeling deeply in touch with myself.

[Stratos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η διαχρονική σοφία των αρχαίων συγγραφέων αλλά και η θαυμαστή περιγραφή συναισθημάτων των ηρώων της κάθε τραγωδίας. Κάθε τραγωδία έχει κατά βάση τους δικούς της ήρωες ς οι οποίοι όμως στην ουσία εμπλέκονται και σε κάθε άλλη τραγωδία συγκροτώντας αυτή την απίστευτη ομάδα χαρακτήρων της αρχαίας τραγωδίας. Κάθε βιβλίο σε ωθεί να διαβάσεις και το επόμενο. Και συνήθως να το ξαναδιαβάσεις. ΄Η έστω να προστρέξεις σε φράσεις ή έννοιες. Δυστυχώς οι τραγωδίες δεν αντιμετωπίστηκαν όπως θα έπρεπε στα σχολικά μας χρόνια.
Και να κάνω μια αναφορά στον εκδοτικό οίκο ΚΑΚΤΟΣ. Τα βιβλία αυτά άρχισαν να γεμίζουν ράφια της βιβλιοθήκης με την προσφορά της τότε αξέχαστης εφημερίδας Ελευθεροτυπίας, εκεί κάπου αρχές δεκαετίας του 90. Είναι κι αυτό ένα στοίχημα. Πόσα θα προμηθευτούμε, πόσα θα διαβάσουμε, πόσο θα πλησιάσουμε το πνεύμα και τη φιλοσοφία των αρχαίων συγγραφέων....

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Μακάρι να'μουν από πάντα
δυστυχισμένη· γιατί όταν
σύντροφος είσαι με τις συμφορές,
αντέχεις· είναι δυστυχία
ν'αλλάζει η τύχη σου· για τους θνητούς
αβάσταχτο στη θλίψη να βουλιάζουν
ύστερα από χαρούμενη ζωή."


"[...]Είναι ντροπή μεγάλη
σε συμφορές τους φίλους σου να ρίχνεις
για να σωθείς εσύ.Κι ετούτος είναι
φίλος μου κι αγαπάω τη ζωή του
όχι λιγότερο από τη δικιά μου."

[Alp Turgut · Rating 3 out of 5]

"İphigenia Aulis’te / Iphigenia in Aulis" oyunundan sonrasını anlatan "İphigenia Tauris’te / Iphigenia in Tauris", annesi tarafından öldürülen babası Agammemnon’u intikamını alan Orestes’in günahlarından arınması için Tauris’e gelmesini ve kardeşi Iphigenia’yla oradan kaçışını anlatıyor. İntikam hikayesi daha önce "Electra" adlı eserde anlatıldığı için eseri okuyacak olanların öncelikli olarak bu oyunu okumalarını tavsiye ederim. Euripides’in diğer oyunlarına nazaran oldukça hafif kalan eseri trajedi olarak tanımlamak açıkçası çok zor. Seksist diliyle zaman zaman rahatsız edici bir okuma sunsa da mitolojiyi merak edenlerin mutlaka okumasını öneririm. Notum 3.5 / 5.

24.07.2017
İstanbul, Türkiye

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...

Alp Turgut

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 4 out of 5]

44. Iphigeneia in Tauris by Euripides, translated by Richmond Lattimore
with editor’s foreward by William Arrowsmith
first performed: circa ~412 bce
translation 1973
format: 90 page hardcover
acquired: borrowed from library
read: July 16
rating: 4 stars

The library said that because of a hold it was due in only two weeks, instead of the usual six. So, I decided to read it right away.

This was a nice change from Euripides earlier plays. This play has a more dynamic feel. Prolonged brooding or angry monologues are reduced, and a lot of fast paced and very entertaining dialogue is added in, lightening the whole play. There are curiosities, like a shepherd's description of Orestes getting hounded by Fates, which the shepherd can't see. This is a tragicomedy, and there is a surprising scent of charm here, even if the end seems to fall apart.

As for the plot, Iphigeneia survived being sacrificed to Atremis, rescued by the goddess herself. She now runs a barbaric temple for the goddess in the Black Sea, in Tauris where Atremis is worshiped under a different name. This community visited, in secret, by her brother Orestes, hounded by the Fates for killing his mother. Neither suspects the other to be there, especially as Orestes knows Iphigeneia has long been dead.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading Canadian poet Anne Carson's translations from the Greek. They are so different from the standard translations -- and yet at least equally authoritative -- and they tend to be more interesting. Iphigenia among the Taurians tells a different story than the legends of Troy. Instead of being slaughtered as a sacrifice at Aulis, Iphigenia is spirited by Artemis to the Crimean peninsula, where she dwells among the Taurians and officiates over sacrifices to Artemis of Greeks who stray into Taurian land.

When Orestes, her brother, and her brother-in-law Pylades show up, Iphigenia prepares to sacrifice them. Questioning them, she learns that Orestes is her brother. The three conspire to take the statue of Artemis back to Greece and set it up in Athens.

[Nikola Jankovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ifigenija nije mrtva! Evo je, spašena od očeve oštrice u poslednjem trenutku (Iphigenia in Aulis), živi u Tauridi i sad ona sprema ljudske žrtve (Grke) da ih prikolju za bogove. Mi joj se pridružujemo u trenutku kad u Tauridu dolazi njen rođeni brat, Orest, nakon što je na sudu bio oslobođen za ubistvo majke (oslobodila ga Atena i usput osnovala slobodan sud u Atini), ali ga eumenide mu i dalje ne daju mira (Eumenides).
"Otkad oca svog osvetih krv
i majku smakoh. Bez prestanka Srde me
na bijegu gonile, daleko od doma."

Ifigenija ga prepoznaje, ali jedva. Žele da pobegnu zajedno, nekako uspevaju, u tome im (ponovo) pomaže Atena. Nema krvi, nema tragedije?

Ovo je priča o Grcima i varvarima.
Grci: Ljudske žrtve samo u vanrednim okolnostima (kad treba da se otplovi za Troju, gde će izginuti još desetine hiljada).
Varvari: Stranci nisu ljudi, mogu se žrtvovati. Ali, Grci ubijaju svoju decu, skuvaju ih i posluže bogovima ili rođacima, ubijaju roditelje. Zašto se čude divljaštvu varvara? Da li je to Euripidova poruka atinskom gledalištu?

Festival grčke tragedije (za jednog gledaoca)
Mlak aplauz.

1. Car Edip (Sofokle)
2. Iphigenia in Aulis (Euripid)
3. Agamemnon (Eshil)
4. Antigona (Sofokle)
5. Eumenides (Eshil)
6. Bahantkinje (Euripid)
7. The Libation Bearers (Pokajnice - Eshil)
8. Ifigenija na Tauridi (Euripid)
9. Oedipus at Colonus (Sofokle)

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Anne Carson translate Iphigenia Among the Taurians is like seeing your favorite band live (finally!) and they open with your favorite song.

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

El Aira de ellos.

[Giorgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un po’ meno d’impatto di Ifigenia in Aulide perché manca tutto il conflitto interiore tra profezia che si autoavvera e autodeterminazione della protagonista. Tuttavia i consueti equivoci del teatro greco mettono in scena un bel ricongiungimento tra Ifigenia e suo fratello Oreste.

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5*)
When I read this 6 years ago, I felt I was missing the point of the play. Since then, I have come to this play to look at parts but this time I’ve read it from cover to cover.

This isn’t a violent play like some of the others but there are some gruesome descriptions of ‘barbarian’ activities, as the play gives a bias view towards the civilised world. These were my least favourite parts, the pitting between the ‘them’ and ‘us’, but I tried to put this to one side to focus on the wonderful poetry, the translation I read is by Anne Carson.

This story comes after Aeschylus’s Oresteia, and is the last part, if I wasn’t familiar with this, I still could have got by with there being enough of a backstory here.

IPHIGENIA:
( . . . )
I am Iphigenia, daughter of the daughter of Tyndareus. 5
My father killed me—
at Euripus where stiff breezes
spin the salt-blue sea in spirals,
for Helen’s sake
a sacrifice to Artemis in famous Aulis—
or so people think.

For at Aulis Agamemnon 10
had assembled a thousand ships,
a Greek expedition to take the crown of Troy.
( . . . )

quote from: Iphigenia among the Taurians by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson. Page 9.

I like how the story unfolds and builds suspense, and it’s a wonderful moment when Iphigenia and Orestes recognise each other. And then realising the perilous situation they are in need to escape, once again Iphigenia (like Euripides’s Helen) comes up with a plan. By today’s story terms it’s not a huge action scene, and it needs the other characters to be more gullible for them to getaway with it, but this play was first performed (it’s speculated) 414 BCE – that’s almost 3 millennia ago. What this has going for it are the themes of suffering, grief and loss, as Iphigenia mourns the life she once had and the family she has lost:

IPHIGENIA:
( . . . )
Now I live as a stranger in a barren house by the Hostile Sea. 220
I've no marriage, no children, no city, no loved ones. 208
Once the Greeks wooed me. 221
I no longer sing songs for Hera at Argos,
I no longer weave Athenas and Titans
to the hum of the loom.
( . . . )

quote from: Iphigenia among the Taurians by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson. Page 14.

The happy ending, though for us feels contrived, is still nice for a family who has been through so much between them.

[Viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iphigenia and Orestes my favourite sibling duo <3

+ finally justice for my boy Pylades, he barely got any lines before but now we truly know he’s the goat

+ what’s a Greek tragedy without a good ole dea ex machina

to all those interested in reading the tragedies, i highly recommend Gilbert Murray’s translations!!

[Köksal KÖK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Euripides (M.Ö. 480 - M.Ö. 406)

Çeviren: Prof. Dr. Suat Sinanoğlu
Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı,
Ankara, 1963
84 s.
-----------------
mutlu sonla biten bir hikaye, gerçek hayat.

Atreusoğulları üzerinde bir lanet vardır.

kral agememnon, truva seferine çıkmak için, tanrılara kızını kurban adar. fakat artemis, kızın yerine sunağa bir geyik koyar. iphigena kırıma sürgün gider. athena rahibesi olur.

Agamemnon'u, karısı Klitaimestra öldürür. Orestes de, annesini öldürür.

iphigena, kırımda tapınakta, yabancıları athenaya kurban etmektedir.

kardeşi orestes, annesini öldürmüş, sürgüne yollanmış, lanetlenmiştir, laneti kaldırmak için kutsal heykeli vatana getirmesi gerektir.

kardeşi orestes, kırıma gelir, arkadaşı pylades ve kızkardeşi iphigenia ile bir plan yaparlar, athena heykeli ile beraber yunanistana dönmeyi düşünürler.

kral troas, bu planı duyar, fakat tanrıça artemis, buna göz yummasını, izin vermesini ister. poseidon da onlara denizde yardımcı olur.

güzel bir planla, kardeşler ve athena kutsal heykeli kırımdan kurtulurlar.

(hikayenin birkç versiyonu var, bu kitapta hikaye mutlu sonla bittiği için, en sevdiğim versiyon bu.).
21.11.2017

[Ангелина · Rating 4 out of 5]

Једна од најљепших грчких драма са одлично изграђеним ликовима... Али крај???

[sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘then sorrow upon sorrow came to the house of the golden lamb, killing on killing, grief on grief.’

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orestes rescues another sister
7 August 2013

This does not really sit at the top of the list of Euripides' great plays, but then I suspect that this appeared in the volume of other playes (that is plays that weren't the seven great plays) that ended up surviving. In a way it seemed similar to some of the other plays of Euripides that I have read, particularly Helen. It appears that the plot and the theme in this play and in Helen are almost identical. Both plays are set in a foreign land, both involve a drastic change in accepted mythology (Helen was never kidnapped by Paris, she was only a apparition, whereas here Iphigenia was never sacrified at Aulis but spirited away by Artemis). They also both involve a hostile king that endeavours to prevent the Greeks from escaping.

I should mention about the concept of tragedy from the Greek view, though I must admit that this comes from the blurb on Goodreads. I believe that tragedy, when applied to Greek plays, is a misnomer. In a way it is like the difference between a comedy and an action movie (though it is possible for both styles to overlap, such as with Quentin Tarrantino). A Greek tragedy is not the same as a Shakespearian tragedy, but rather is based on how the audience would react to the play. It is suggested that the meter and the actors that participate in a tragedy differs from that of a comedy. I am not going to dispute that, however I am more inclined to look at it from an audience's point of view. A comedy is designed to interact with the audience to make them laugh whereas a tragedy is designed to evoke a completely different reaction, and in a sense I would probably move it from that of an action movie to more of a suspense, sort of like one of our spy thrillers.

This play has a happy ending, namely Orestes and Iphigenia escape, however once again there are elements of another Euripidean play – Electra. When Orestes arrives in Taurus a game is played between the two characters where they interact and drop hints as to who they are, but never actually reveal their identity until later on in the play. In fact, both this play and Electra involve children of Agamemnon reuniting. One could consider that Agamemnon's family is quite dysfunctional: the father kills the daughter, and the mother kills the father, and then the son kills the mother. Not only that, but the family is divided and scattered across the known world. It seems that a lot of the plays that focus on Agamemnon's family seem to revolve around reunion even though not all of the reunions have a happy ending.

I'm not going to knock this play namely because I do enjoy the work of Euripides. Once again the familiar theme of the plight of women comes to the forefront. Iphigenia is looked upon with sympathy and we mourn her plight. Not only was she sacrificed by her father (great guy he was) but she is also imprisoned in a foreign land at the whim of an alien king who pretty much hates the Greeks. Oh, I will also finish off by indicating that the play is set in the Crimean Peninsula, where I suspect the Greeks did have a colony.

The other thing about this play is the problem that arises with the story of the Trojan war and its aftermath. We must remember that the play is set after the death of Agamemnon, though I suspect before the murder of Clytemnestra (since it does not appear that Orestes is being pursued by the Furies). Maybe it is because of this, suggests Euripides, that the act of Clytemnestra killing her husband had no unselfish (or revenge motivated) basis, and was really only an attempt by her lover to gain power - in particular control of Agamemnon's empire. By bringing Iphigeneia back from the dead Eurpides puts paid to any motivation of revenge (however misguided the motivation was) and exposes Clytemnestra, and her lover, as the evil schemers that they really are.

[Bruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Euripides works I've read in addition to his other work, Electra.Although more like a drama than tragedy, in a true sense, it's not without it's tragic elements. This work serves as a follow up to an earlier work, Iphigenia in Aulis, as well as the true conclusion to Atreus's cycle,since the events took place after the plot described in Aeschylus's Eumenides. The setting revolves around two parallel stories,which intertwine with one another. One is about Iphigenia,the daughter of Agamemnon ,who serves as a priestess to the king and the people of an island of Taurus, whose traditional ways disgusts her so much that she wishes to escape,while contemplating her faith and the past. The other is focused around Orestes, who seeks a way to appease Furies,after his trial,since they were not pleased by the jury's decision.What I like in this work is a revelation between the main characters and their emotions towards one another,as well as the outcome,since this is about a family which was torn apart and divided for so long,that it really needed a break.Of course, it's not on the same level as Oedipus and his family, but is one of the well known stories, giving the fact how much the ancient Greeks paid their attention to their families and lineages. It's worth your time and interests of the ancient Greece.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't consider this play to be the best of Euripides, but more along the lines of what is typical for him. Compared to Iphigenia at Aulis, this play is inferior to me. Once again, not a bad play, but not a good play either. Just kind of.... there, I guess.

Similar to Helen, Iphigenia Among the Tauri follows a "what-if?" kind of plot, this time focusing on the supposedly-sacrificed Iphigenia. In this version, Iphigenia is not dead, but sort of exiled instead; however, everyone still thinks that she is dead. Orestes ends up in the same place as her, eventually discovering that she is, in fact, still alive and well. That's about it- sort of a happy ending for a usually tragic playwright.

While I think that this idea is interesting, I have a hard time actually believing that Iphigenia could ever survive because her death has been drilled into my head time and time again. So while I see how this play could be good, it just doesn't work the right way for me.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Qué le sucede a la abnegada hija de Agamenón que fue víctima de un sacrificio para favorecer la partida de los griegos y que aparentemente fue la causa de la infidelidad de su madre Clitemnestra? Aquí está el desenlace final de Ifigenia y también de Orestes y su amigo inseparable Pílades.
Ambos van por Ifigenia de manera casual al país de los Tauros donde algunas adversidades se les presentan. No es en verdad una tragedia.

[Jdamaskinos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Διάβασα το έργο όχι από την έκδοση του Κάκτου αλλά από αυτήν του Gutenberg στην μετάφραση του Ν. Μανουσάκη. Για να μην πολυλογώ, το έργο, όπως άλλωστε κάθε αττική τραγωδία, είναι ένα αριστούργημα. Μέσα σε 1500 στίχους υπάρχουν τα πάντα! Η δε μετάφραση είναι έμμετρη και διατηρεί ανέπαφη την υψηλή μουσικότητα του πρωτοτύπου.

[B. Rule · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carson's translation is clean, crisp, and at times, funny. I only wish she had drafted an introduction or some explanatory notes to get more of her thoughts on the play.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euripides' Iphigeneia, unlike many Greek tragedies, has a happy ending. The theme of long-lost siblings recognizing each other had more in common with comedy than tragedy. And the Athenian audience knew the stories, in any case . But Euripides still manages to create tension and suspense; when will they recognize each other? how will they escape Thoas and the savage Taurians? The dialogue between Orestes and Iphigeneia dances with irony as we wonder how long it will take for the truth to come out. There is some fine poetry in the choruses whether in Greek or a good translation. It is a fun play to read. The ending is a bit disappointing. After all the tension and build up, Athena just drops in and resolves everything. Deus ex machina is rarely satisfying.

Anne Carson's version of the IT replaced that of Witter Bynner in the third edition of the Chicago Greek tragedies. Bynner first translated it for performance by Isadora Duncan in 1915; it was an abridged version and his knowledge of Greek was far from perfect. His 1955 Chicago version translated the whole play and Lattimore revised the translation. Lattimore himself published a translation in 1973 in an Oxford series (hence not available for Chicago). Carson, like Lattimore, has excellent Greek and is a poet. There is much I like in her version; she does an exceptional job rendering the choruses. In the speeches and dialogues, she sometimes hits a flat note with modern colloquialisms. Some examples:

"This made sense to most of us.
We decided to take them for the goddess to sacrifice
as per usual." (279-280, Carson)

"And he persuaded most
Of us, and we were thinking what to do." (Bynner 1955)

"This man was right, most of us thought, and we resolved
to seize and offer them to the god, as is our rule." (Lattimore 1973)

Bynner is a paraphrase at best; Lattimore most captures the spirit of the lines. Carson is somewhat prosaic and her "as per usual" (for the Greek τἀπιχωρία) strikes a sour chord; it sounds like something from an insurance contract.

Another example:

"I'll punish you later at my leisure.
Right now I'm busy, can't linger." (1432-1434, Carson)

"That punishment can wait-
With this to do. But oh when this is done!" (Bynner, 1955)

"at sometime later, when I find leisure to spare,
I'll punish you, but now the urgent task at hand
has occupied us, and we have no time to rest." (Lattimore, 1973)

Carson's Thoas here sounds like a corporate hatchet man; Bynner's Thoas sounds rather affected. Lattimore again best captures the Greek and keeps the slightly elevated tone needed.

Carson's version overall is quite good and the Chicago editors were right to replace Bynner with it. I still prefer Lattimore.

[Kahveci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Troya Savaşı sonrasını anlatan bu tragedya, İphigenia Aulis'te’yi okumayanlar için spoiler içerir.

İphigenia, geçmişte babası Agamemnon tarafından kurban edilmek istenmiş ama son anda yerine bir geyik gönderilerek tanrıça Artemis tarafından kurtarılmış ve Tauris’te bulunan Artemis tapınağına getirilmişti. Helen'lerin bu şekilde İphigenia'yı öldürmek istemesi nedeniyle Tauris'e gelen Helenler, Artemis'in emriyle bu tapınağa getirilip İphigenia tarafından temizlenip öldürülüyor.

Tauris’e iki Helen daha gelir, biri yıllardır görmediği kardeşi Orestes'tir. Orestes, kurban edilmek üzere tapınağa getirilir ve İphigenia, onu tanıyıp kurtarmak için sınırlı bir zamana sahiptir.

[Miba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Euripides's best but Anne Carson is on it as always

[Ercan Yüksel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Babasının öcünü almak için anasını katlederek en büyük günahı işleyen Orestes'in Athena'nın isteğiyle affedilmesini ve peşine takılan intikamcı Erinyslerin bağışlayıcı Eumenideslere dönüşmesi ile anaerkilliğin ataerkillik karşısındaki düşüşünü anlatıyor Euripides...

[zakariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don't remember

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orestes: How could the happiness we both were born for
Become unhappiness?

Iphigenia:Unhappiness
Began for me when my unhappy father
Lifted a knife and drew it toward my throat.

You remember when they released Star Wars: Rogue One? You had watched the original trilogy dozens of times, yet suddenly you were thrilled that there was one more corner of the story to illuminate? Remember when Marvel Studios released Captain Marvel and Black Widow, inserting and expounding on characters and deeds which provided more depth to the other films?

Well, here in the Greek Drama Continuity Universe, Euripides pulls a stunt to turn much of Aeschylus's Oresteia on its head: What if Iphigenia didn't die at Aulis? What if Iphigenia, instead of being sacrificed by her father to get the ships sailing for Troy, had been secretly switched by Artemis and put in a temple in Tauris where she serves the goddess by preparing strangers for sacrifice on her bloody altar? And, hell, while we're pleasing Greek drama fan boys, what if Orestes, fresh from his actions in The Oresteia, shows up with Electra's husband to steal a statue of Artemis at the very temple where Iphigenia works in order to rid himself of Furies still tormenting him for killing his mother? And now he's slated to be slaughtered on Artemis's altar because he's been captured? Action-packed, Peewee! That's what Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides is--action-packed.

This particular play is odd in how the action is old-fashioned swashbuckling entertainment. This play proceeds quickly. Of course, Euripides examines some deep concepts here--especially the perpetual conundrum of free will and Fate--, but the play isn't really a tragedy or an expounded argument to ponder. While things do get tense, the resolution is absolutely bonkers in that it works.

I enjoyed this play quite a bit, though the sudden intrusion of Athena in the end reminded me of the sudden appearance of Heracles in Philoctetes. The complaint about "deus ex machina" is real, of course. Yet: When you finish The Oresteia and believe there's nothing left, pull this thin play off the shelf. No serious work of art is over until there's an elaborate chase scene.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Aeschylus’s Oresteia a chain of events that begins with Agamemnon’s murderous sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia leads to his own murder by his wife Clytemnestra, and her murder by their son Orestes. In Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris Iphigenia does NOT die, instead Artemis whisks her away from the sacrificial alter at the last moment and installs her as a priestess at the goddess’ temple in Tauris, while everyone back in Greece believes she is dead. It is the practice in Tauris to sacrifice to Artemis any foreigners who land on its shores, and Iphigenia’s role there is to ritually cleanse victims before they meet their doom.

Orestes, in an attempt to escape the Furies, lands on Tauris, is captured, and brought to the temple to be sacrificed. The central portion of the play is brother and sister coming to recognize own another and plotting their escape. Iphigenia’s cunning and bravery make it seem possible. Their escape is aided by Apollo but thwarted by Artemis and Poseidon. Just when all seems lost, Athene, as deus ex machina, appears from above to set all to right.

We may scoff at deus ex machina as a stage gimmick, but Iphigenia in Tauris is astoundingly theatrical. When I imagine it performed on a classic Greek stage as part of a larger religious festival, I experience compassion, suspense, foreboding, irritation, and catharsis. This is wonderful drama. It is about friendship, family, fate, chance, hope, fear, bravery, and the gods. Iphigenia in Tauris is not Greek tragedy narrowly defined as a tale of hubris and a resulting fall. Rather, I see Iphigenia and Orestes as victims of their parents’ hubris.

In addition to amplifying and commenting on the action, the Chorus in Iphigenia in Tauris is itself a character playing an active role. The play includes a sidebar on Apollo's infancy in Delphi. To read the description of that awe-some place written some 2,500 years ago, and to have experienced it in person myself just two years ago was stirring.

I used Gilbert Murray’s 1911 translation in rhymed couplets, and was somewhat surprised to find it quite readable, and without the distraction of too-obvious rhyming. His introductory essay on Euripides was very much worthwhile.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tragedy that is not altogether tragic. This forcuses on Iphigenia (in this version saved from sacrifice by Artemis) being reunited with her brother. Iphigeneia is an interesting but not wholly sypathetic character. There are some inconsitencies and in some cases direct contradictions. Where past Greeks sacrificed or not, did A tragedy that is not altogether tragic. This focuses on Iphigeneia (in this version saved from sacrifice by Artemis) being reunited with her brother. Iphigeneia is an interesting but not wholly sympathetic character. There are some inconsistencies in the text and in some cases direct contradictions. Where past Greeks sacrificed or not? Did Iphigeneia sacrifice some herself or not? The text is not entirely clear. Also, Iphigeneia is just not as captivating as some of the Euripides other women such as Hecuba, Electra, and Medea. This is probably because her situation is not nearly as dire as the others. I recommend this for other Greek play enthusiasts but for the casual reader.

[Cymru Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

"No god is evil, I do not believe it."

Da fuq? Is this Euripides speaking? And to have Iphigenia say something like this? Very strange. Equally strange is the need for this one-off edition. I'm not mad at them for doing it, but I'm left to wonder why. Anne Carson's translation is fine, but it isn't like her translations in Grief Lessons. It isn't noticeably Carsonian. Also missing is an introduction by Carson, which I would have relished. I'd love to hear her thoughts on the myth of Iphigenia.

As far as Euripides goes, he is the most volatile of the three extant playwrights in a sense. This seems like an attempt by him to write a Sophoclean play, or an Aeschylean, just to prove that he could. It works fine, but lacks the grandeur of either of the two it is imitating. It also lacks the panache found in his own best work.

Not a waste by any means, but nothing too amazing either.