Iphigenia in Aulis

Clytemnestra is Agamemnon’s wife as well as the sister of Helen, the wife of Menelaus and the catalyst for the Trojan War. Clytemnestra, like most of the other characters, transforms over the course of the play. At first, she is presented as a dutiful wife and mother. She accompanies Iphigenia to Aulis to prepare her for her marriage (believing this to be the reason she is summoned there). She is also deferential to Agamemnon, greeting him respectfully and instructing Iphigenia to do the same. But even before Clytemnestra learns about the sacrifice, she begins to resist Agamemnon. When Agamemnon tells Clytemnestra that she is not to take part in Iphigenia’s wedding, for instance, Clytemnestra refuses to obey him. After all, she argues, what Agamemnon is asking her to do is a violation of her rights as a mother.

When Clytemnestra learns that Agamemnon intends to sacrifice Iphigenia, it becomes even clearer that Clytemnestra sees her role as a mother as more important than her role as a wife. Clytemnestra pleads with Agamemnon to spare Iphigenia and cannot condone his justification for the sacrifice. Clytemnestra simply cannot see the Trojan War as anything but a petty war for Helen, while Agamemnon (and Iphigenia) view it as a noble war for the sake of all of Greece. By the end of the play, Clytemnestra completely turns against her husband, and it becomes clear that she intends to punish him for killing her daughter. This foreshadows the part of the myth that takes place after the end of the play, in which Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon when he comes home from Troy.

Iphigenia is the eldest daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Before the play begins, the Greek prophet Calchas announced that the goddess Artemis demands the sacrifice of Iphigenia in exchange for a wind to blow the Greek fleet to Troy. Iphigenia is represented as a gentle girl and a dutiful daughter. She is overjoyed to see her father when she arrives, eagerly embracing him when he comes to greet her. Clytemnestra even remarks that Iphigenia has always loved her father the “most” (639) of all her siblings. Though Iphigenia is at first angry with Agamemnon when she discovers his intentions for her—she speaks of him preparing to sacrifice her with his “unholy hands” (1318)—she ultimately comes around to his point of view, and even begs her mother to forgive him for killing her.

Though Iphigenia at first does all that is in her power to avoid her fate, even saying that people who long for a glorious death as “mad” (1251), she completely reverses her position by the end of the play. Indeed, the Iphigenia who exits the stage to be sacrificed by her father—as Aristotle had observed in his Poetics—could hardly be more different than the girl who first begged her father for her life. Underlying this external change, however, there is an underlying consistency in Iphigenia’s character. Iphigenia never loses her gentleness of her dutifulness, and even when she begs Agamemnon for her life, she never expresses rage or threatens retaliation the way that her mother does. Rather, Iphigenia reminds Agamemnon of her filial love and asks him to pity her. In a way, Iphigenia’s change of opinion simply reasserts a sense of duty that was always present. Iphigenia ‘s actions evince the belief that just as it is her duty to love her father, it is also her duty to die for Greece.

Achilles is an important Greek mythical figure, indeed one of the greatest of all Greek mythical heroes. The son of a goddess and a mortal king, he said to have been confronted with a choice between living a long but mundane life or a short but glorious one. He chose the latter, and later died young while fighting at Troy after already distinguishing himself as a great hero. Achilles’ short but glorious life thus mirrors, in some ways, the short but glorious life of Iphigenia.

When Achilles first enters the play, he is represented as respectful and dutiful but also very proud. He is deferential towards Clytemnestra even though he does not understand at first why she believes he is marrying her daughter. Later, when he discovers that Agamemnon used his name to lure Iphigenia to Aulis, he resolves to help her not because he is disturbed by the idea of the sacrifice but because he views Agamemnon’s use of his name as a grievous insult to his honor. Only later in the play, when confronted with Iphigenia’s courage in the face of death, does Achilles become upset about the sacrifice that is to take place. Achilles even vows to fight for Iphigenia against the entire Greek army if Iphigenia asks him to. This promise shows that he is not as level-headed and restrained as he claims to be.

Indeed, Achilles is famous for his anger and rage in Homer’s Iliad, and Iphigenia in Aulis establishes the foundation for future conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in that epic. As Achilles says to Clytemnestra,

Our generals, the Atreidae, I obey

When their command is righteous, but

When evil, I shall not obey, and here

As in Troy I shall show my nature free

To fight my enemy with honor. (Lines 928-31)

Both Achilles and Agamemnon want glory, but they pursue this goal in different ways. While Agamemnon seeks glory by bowing to the will of those around him, Achilles remains firmly—even recklessly—committed to his own principles and values. In the end, Achilles is ready to fight all the Greeks for the sake of his name and of a girl he barely knows, while Agamemnon is unable to risk the anger of his men even for the sake of his daughter’s life. 

The Old Man is Agamemnon’s servant, originally given to him as part of his wife Clytemnestra’s dowry. He takes pride in his loyalty to his masters, which to him represents the highest virtue. The Old Man thus tries to prevent Menelaus from confiscating the letter that Agamemnon had entrusted to him, and when Menelaus reproaches him for being “too loyal to your master” (304), the Old Man promptly responds by saying, “The reproach you’ve given me—it is an honor” (305).

Yet the Old Man is also firmly set against the sacrifice of Iphigenia. He supports Agamemnon when he tries to prevent the sacrifice at the beginning of the play, but when Agamemnon’s effort fails, the Old Man violates his master’s trust by telling Clytemnestra about the sacrifice. He justifies his indiscretion on the grounds that he originally belonged to Clytemnestra’s household, not Agamemnon’s. Though the Old Man is loyal to his masters, then, his values and perspectives are not necessarily aligned with theirs.

The Chorus of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis is made up of young married women from Chalcis, a city on the island of Euboea just across the strait from the Greek military encampment at Aulis. The Chorus is not a single, unified character, but they do explore many of the play’s central themes through their songs as well as their interactions with the characters. On the whole, the Chorus is sympathetic to Iphigenia and is consistently horrified by the sacrifice. At the same time, they are eager for the war with the Trojans to take place, and indeed what brings them to Aulis in the first place is a desire to see for themselves the mighty heroes who have assembled to sail to Troy. The Chorus enter the stage after the prologue (as was standard in Attic tragedies, and remain on stage for the remainder of the play, leaving only briefly before the epilogue.