Iphigenia among the Taurians
Also known as: Iphigenia in Tauris, Iphigeneia en Taurois
Iphigenia, saved by Artemis from sacrifice at Aulis, serves as the goddess’s priestess among the Taurians, where strangers are slain. When Orestes and Pylades arrive to seize Artemis’s image, a recognition between siblings leads to a ruse, escape by sea, and divine resolution.
Description
Set on the remote Taurian shore (often identified with Crimea), the play follows Iphigenia, long thought sacrificed at Aulis but translated by Artemis to serve as her priestess where human sacrifice is practiced. Apollo has commanded Orestes to steal the image of Artemis to end his divinely sent afflictions, so he and his companion Pylades land in Tauris and are captured. A recognition scene reunites Iphigenia and Orestes, and together they devise a stratagem: under the pretext of purifying polluted victims and the statue at the sea, they make for a ship and flee. Pursued by King Thoas, they are finally protected by Athena, who ordains the statue’s translation to Attica and institutes new rites. The drama blends peril, sibling devotion, and clever deception, standing as a paradigmatic “escape tragedy” with aetiological closure in cult foundation.
Historiography
The text survives through the medieval manuscript tradition of Euripidean plays, with scholia illuminating staging and mythographic background. Ancient critics admired its intricate recognition scene; Aristotle cites its letter device in discussions of anagnorisis. Hellenistic and Roman readers treated it as exemplary of adventurous, quasi-romance tragedy. The play influenced later adaptations and informed cult-aetiological narratives about Artemis Tauropolos in Attica.
Date Notes
Likely produced in Athens between 414 and 412 BCE; exact festival year is uncertain.
Major Characters
- Iphigenia
- Orestes
- Pylades
- Thoas
- Athena
- Artemis
Myths
- Iphigenia’s Priesthood in Tauris
- Recognition of Orestes and Iphigenia
- Theft of Artemis’ Image
- Flight from Tauris
Facts
- The setting is the land of the Taurians, conventionally located in the Crimean region.
- Iphigenia serves as Artemis’s priestess, presiding over the sacrifice of foreign captives.
- Apollo commands Orestes to seize Artemis’s image to end his madness and pollution.
- The recognition hinges on Iphigenia’s proposed letter to Argos and shared family details.
- The escape plot uses a feigned sea purification of victims and statue to deceive Thoas.
- Athena appears ex machina, ordering Thoas to cease pursuit and directing the cult transfer.
- The play provides an aetiology for the Artemis Tauropolos cult and rites at Halae in Attica.
- Genre scholars classify it as an escape tragedy with romantic-adventure elements.
- The chorus consists of Greek women taken captive and longing for homecoming.
- Aristotle references its recognition-by-letter as a model of anagnorisis in later criticism.