Iphigenia in Tauris
by Euripides
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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 show more 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.". show lessTags
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Member Reviews
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.
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:
The happy ending, though for us feels contrived, is still nice for a family who has been through so much between them. show less
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:show more
( .
. . )
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. show less
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 show more 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. show less
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. show less
Reading Anne Carson translate Iphigenia Among the Taurians is like seeing your favorite band live (finally!) and they open with your favorite song.
My favorite of Euripides' plays so far, mostly because of the complexity of Iphigeneia as a character.
Edition: // Descr: 164 p. : ill. 19 cm. // Series: Greek Series for Colleges and Schools Call No. { 882 E7 14 c. #1. } Series Edited under the Supervision of Herbert Weir Smyth Edited with an Introduction, Notes, and a Critical Appendix by William Nickerson Bates. // //
Edition: // Descr: xxxi, 260 p. 17 cm. // Series: Call No. { 882 E7 15 } Edited with Introduction and Critical and Explanatory Notes by E.B. England Contains Index. // //
Edition: // Descr: 197 p. : ill. (1) 20.5 cm. // Series: College Series of Greek Authors Call No. { 882 E7 17 } Series Edited under the Supervision of John Williams White and Thomas D. Seymour Edited by Isaac Flagg Contains Appendix and Greek and English Indexes. // //
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Author Information
Euripides was born in Attica, Greece probably in 480 B.C. He was the youngest of the three principal fifth-century tragic poets. In his youth he cultivated gymnastic pursuits and studied philosophy and rhetoric. Soon after he received recognition for a play that he had written, Euripides left Athens for the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia. show more Fragments of about fifty-five plays survive. Among his best-known plays are Alcestis, Medea and Philoctetes, Electra, Iphigenia in Tauris, The Trojan Women, and Iphigenia in Aulis Iphigenia. He died in Athens in 406 B.C. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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5 Plays: Bacchae / Heracles / Children of Heracles / Phoenician Women / Suppliant Women by Euripides
Great Books of The Western World: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect)
9 Plays: Cyclops / Ion / Iphigenia in Aulis / Iphigenia in Tauris / Medea / Orestes / Phoenician Women / Suppliant Women / Trojan Women by Euripides
Oxford Classical Texts: Euripidis fabulae Tomus II Supplices ; Electra ; Hercules ; Traodes ; Iphigenia in Tauris ; Ion by Euripides
Euripides : Scenes from Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris : Edited with introduction, notes and vocabulary by E. C. Kennedy
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- 882.01 — Literature & rhetoric Classical & modern Greek literatures Classical Greek dramatic poetry and drama standard subdivisions; collections; history, description, critical appraisal; Specific periods Ancient period to ca. 499
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- PA3975 .I8 .L3 — Language and Literature Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature Greek literature Individual authors Euripedes
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