Iphigeneia in Tauris
Written by	Euripides
Chorus	Greek Slave Women
Characters	Iphigeneia Orestes Pylades King Thoas Athena herdsman servant
Mute	{{{mute}}}
Setting	Tauris, a region of Scythia in the northern Black Sea

Iphigeneia in Tauris (in Greek: Iφιγένεια ἡ ἐν Ταύροις) is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written sometime between 414 BC and 412 BC. It bears much in common with another of Euripides' plays, Helen, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, or an escape play. Image File history File links Strutt_Iphigenia. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... The sacrifice of Iphigenia by the Illioupersis Painter Iphigeneia (gr. ... Orestes Ορεστης is a Greek name, literally he who stands on the mountain, or mountain-dweller. Orestes can refer to: In Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon. ... Pylades and Orestes by Francois Bouchot In Greek mythology, Pylades is the son of King Strophius of Phocis and is mostly known for his strong friendship with Orestes. ... Thoas, son of Andraimon, was one of the heroes who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War. ... Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... Tauris is a peninsula on the Black Sea. ... Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the KulOba kurgan burial near Kerch. ... Map of the Black Sea. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC - 410s BC - 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC Years: 419 BC 418 BC 417 BC 416 BC 415 BC - 414 BC - 413 BC 412 BC... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC - 410s BC - 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 417 BC 416 BC 415 BC 414 BC 413 BC - 412 BC - 411 BC 410 BC 409... Helen is a drama by Euripides, probably first produced in 412 BC for the Dionysia. ... As a literary genre, romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Poster for The Perils of Pauline (1914). ...

Background

Years before, the young princess Iphigeneia narrowly averted death by sacrifice at the hands of her father, Agamemnon (see plot of Iphigeneia at Aulis). At the last moment, the goddess Artemis (to whom the sacrifice was to be made) intervened and replaced Iphigeneia on the altar with a deer, saving the girl and sweeping her off to Tauris. She has been made a priestess at the temple of Artemis in Tauris, a position in which she has the gruesome task of ritually sacrificing foreigners who land on King Thoas' shores. Princess is the feminine form of prince (Latin princeps, meaning principal citizen), using the ess ending as in waitress or actress. Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or her daughters, women whose station in life depended on their relationship to a prince and... Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning to make sacred, from Old Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome French, from Latin sacrificium : sacer, sacred; sacred + facere, to make) is commonly known as the... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... Iphigeneia at Aulis, written in 410 BC, is the last surviving work of the playwright Euripides. ... Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases... The Artemis of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture, now at the Louvre Museum. ... Tauris is a peninsula on the Black Sea. ... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ...

Iphigeneia hates her forced religious servitude in Tauris, and she is desperate to contact her family in Greece, inform them that she is still alive, thanks to the miraculous swap performed by Artemis, and return to her homeland, leaving the role of high priestess to someone else. Furthermore, she has had a prophetic dream about her younger brother Orestes and believes, based on it, that he is dead.

Meanwhile, Orestes has killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge his father Agamemnon with assistance from his friend Pylades. He becomes haunted by the Eumenides for committing the crime, and goes through periodic fits of madness. He is told by Apollo to go to Athens to be brought to trial (portrayed in Eumenides by Aeschylus). The trail ends in his favor, however the Eumenides continue to haunt him. So Apollo sends him to steal a sacred statue of Artemis to bring back to Athens, and then he would be set free. Clytemnestra (Greek: Κλυταιμνήστρα Klytaimnéstra, praiseworthy wooing) was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... In Greek mythology the Erinyes (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. ... Statue of Apollo at the British Museum Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα Athína IPA ) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world. ... The Oresteia is a trilogy of tragedies about the end of the curse on the House of Atreus, written by Aeschylus. ... Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... The Artemis of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture, now at the Louvre Museum. ...

Plot

Contrary to Iphigeneia's dream, Orestes is alive and well and on his way to Tauris with Pylades to steal the sacred statue. They have no idea that Iphigeneia is there. Not surprisingly, they are captured by Taurian guards and brought to the temple to be killed, as is customary.

Iphigeneia and Orestes discover each other's identities, and together they devise a plan to escape. Iphigeneia tells King Thoas that the statue of Artemis has been spiritually polluted because of the stain on her being due to her brother's matricide. She advises Thoas to let the two foreigners cleanse the sacred idol in the sea to remove the dishonor she has brought upon it as its keeper. The three Greeks use this as an opportunity to escape on Orestes' and Pylades' ship, bringing the statue with them. Thoas vows to pursue and kill the three escapees, but he is stopped by the goddess Athena, who appears at the end to give instructions to the characters. Matricide is the act of killing ones mother. ...

External links

• Iphigenia in Tauris translated by Gilbert Murray (Gutenberg)
• Iphigenia in Tauris translated by Robert Potter (Adelaide)