1080. But, alas, the road was long, my lord and so the women are now having a rest by the refreshing waters of a spring. Are these amazing words the words of a delirious woman? 919. You know very well how humble you were during the days you wanted to be the leader of the Trojan expedition. We your children and I- will give you the return that an evil man deserves. Towards this now, mother turn your thoughts, and with me weigh how well I speak; to me the whole of mighty. Klytaimestra So, who raised the young Achilles, Thetis or his father? Gluck's 'Iphigenia in Aulis,' Marriage or Murder? : NPR The Old Man fearfully pokes his head through the flaps of the tent. I envy the man with the quiet life, the safe life. iphigenia in aulis monologue mother listen to me Not a sound to be heard anywhere, old man! So, calm yourself now, Klytaimestra. Shelley Dean Milman. Introduction. Indicating the skyLook up there! CineMan-8 20 April 1999. 490. Youre the one, after all, who, even though the gods have helped you rid yourself of a bad wife, there you are, still intent on getting her back! Dont bother making a long speech about it, husband! You have chosen logic and good intentions to that of continuing a war against Fate and against Necessity. Amazon.com: Iphigenia in Aulis: 9781534322158: Euripides, Einhorn Old man, come out here! Iphigenia in Aulis on the Stage and in Art | Getty Iris Klytaimestra What? Menelaos I was waiting to see if your daughter would leaveArgosto come to the army camp. My Mycenae! I accepted my fortune and youll admit that I have always been a good wife to you. Iphigeneia rushes and embraces Agamemnon. Agamemnon A king, darling, a General is always worried. She goes to the door of the tent and opens it so that the servant may hear her. 680. Then, without anyone forcing you, totally of your accord and dont claim it wasnt- you had sent a letter to your wife to bring Iphigenia here, in the pretence that shed be marrying Achilles. Id rather live a life full of misery than die a heros death! Theyd love to go precisely because they are mad. Old Man He tricked you about the marriage with Achilles, my lady, so that youd be willing to come here. She was the Queen of the gods. Iphigeneia Make your worries go away, daddy. Klytaimestra No, what hes done to you will cost him a great deal of trouble! Here I am. Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try to Its young Orestes, a baby still. 890, Old Man He had sent me off to bring you a letter, madam about the first message. Chorus Oh, I hope Ill never see the day, nor should my children nor my grand children, should see the day when I suffer the torture that the golden Lydian women will suffer, the wives of those Trojan men, who will be suffering when, years later, working at their looms theyd be talking of this! Paristook it and carried her off back to his own home, in Ida, a place where the cows graze in luxurious pastures. And help me, too. If the oracle has given me some say into your daughters fate then I pass that say over to you. Agamemnon Curse Calchas and his whole horde of glory-loving prophets! IPHIGENIA IN AULIS A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. A city built by the Cyclopes! First Chorus This is the naval force I saw with my own eyes and about which I had heard earlier. After a while, Calchas, our prophet, came up to us and suggested much to our dismay- that we should sacrifice my own daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess Artemis, whose shrine is in these parts! Chorus There goes the girl wholl soon stain the altar of the murderous goddess with the gushing blood of her beautiful throat! He is afraid of his own soldiers. London. Dont look at me for that, I cant give you one! Listen! I offer my body to my country and to the rest of Greece, willingly. I acted like a stupid child before but now I thought more deeply about what its really like to kill your own children. Youll soon hear it all. Up there is my final argument. 100. Achilles Whos that? Where is the leader of the Greek army? And, they should also swear that they would attack and destroy the land of the wrongdoer by the force of arms, whether his land is Greek or foreign. A god or a mortal? The looks your face took up at that suggestion! Well, old man, Menelaos was outraged by this! Let no Greek touch my body with his hand. It is improper for tears to be shed during holy rites. Listen to their words: 790, Who will it be, I wonder, who will bring tears to my eyes, drag me by my beautiful hair and pluck me from my ruined land?. It is what a mother must do! Agamemnon Neither. Iphigeneia is crying. What a disgraceful behaviour! What star could that be, that one, gliding across the sky up there? I no longer want to be your enemy. Achilles! 543. This is very dangerous indeed, my lord! George Bell and Sons. Rather, I have an amazing story to tell you about your daughter. Whats going on? some of them ask. Youll be standing right there at the altar. Once you see the knife approaching your neck you might well call for my help. Then, you arrived here, inAulis, with the whole of the Greek army and immediately you lost every virtue you had. First Chorus Oh, Lady, goddess of love, Aphrodite! Anger and impatience which I must control. Summary of Iphigenia in Aulis Prologue The play opens with a prologue which starts with a dubitable, suspiciously non-Euripidean discussion between Agamemnon and a loyal Servant of his, in which the commander of the Greeks under Troy expresses second thoughts over the content of a previously sent letter to his wife Clytemnestra. What shall I say to my wife, then? Klytaimestra Whats wrong? Oh, goddess who lets her brilliant light roll along through the gloomy darkness of the night! My friend, neither kill nor be killed because of me. Achilles The whole army wants her your daughter- killed! I want to marry you, to take you to my home and to protect you. Klytaimestra How can there be a death and not a grave? The Greeks were then enabled to set sail. 1031. Where shall I begin? All of us? Agamemnon Little girls should not be bothered with such things. Its not proper for young girls to be in the public eye for too long. Here is the body that your wife has given birth to. It is unjust that your children should die while mine still enjoy the sunlight. Iphigeneia If only it were possible to take me with you, father. Making the Call: Reflections on This Is War - academia.edu IPHIGENIA IN AULIS Essay Summary - Essay Example | Happyessays Iphigenia and Clytemnestra come to Aulis, and are received with acclamations by the Greeks. Tell me! IPHIGENIA (Daughter of Agamemnon and Klytaimestra) ACHILLES (Chief of the Myrmidons, an army) FIRST MESSENGER SECOND MESSENGER FIRST CHORUS (Of women from Chalkis) SECOND CHORUS (Men and women of Argos, attendants to Klytaimestra and Iphigeneia) THE BABY ORESTES (Silent) GUARDS (Silent) VARIOUS OTHER ATTENDANTS (Silent) The altar of Zeus daughter. Accept this sacrifice which we, the Greek army and Agamemnon, offer to you! Please lend me your arms, so that I may get down from the seat of this carriage modestly. Klytaimestra Was he picked by the army to do this or is this his own private doing? Whos calling through that half-opened door? Agamemnon Menelaos! Klytaimestra You, alone? I just couldnt get through to them! How I pity you! It is our custom to bury sacrificial offerings. Orestes is begging you, too! Ill now stand by you and so I advise you not to kill your daughter or put my own interests before yours. 1300. For a mere woman? 910. Ah, heres your father, go to him, darling! In his frenzy, he rushed about the whole ofGreece, calling upon everyone to remember Tyndareus solemn oath and to help him, since he was the wronged husband. No, you look after everything outside the household and I shall take care of things within it! Dont be so afraid of the masses! This sword will have blood on it even before I leave for Troy! Whether they treat me well or appallingly makes no difference to them. Why? You just cant imagine Calchas joy, madam! Pensively, anxiously. Otherwise why should we bother being just? I shall give it to her for the sake of Greece. 190. Come on, wont you beg your father not to kill your big sister? At the tip of their sterns stood the golden statues of Nereids, the emblem of Achilles army. The goddess son. Old Man Old age! Old Man anxiously takes Klytaimestras hand and kisses it. But, no, instead of that, I have brought her to her slaughter! Stuffed full with men and spears. You are the cause of it! 860. Step gently down, onto the earth. Let that act be what Ill be remembered by. They want me to. All of you! Chorus Come back to us once youve taken from that city her fairest spoils! Achilles Her father had promised her to me! I wrote a letter to my wife, Klytaimestra. No, Id rather see the death of a thousand women than that of a single man! I hate such relationships; they bring bitter pain to all. First Chorus I, too, feel pity for you if it is at all proper for a foreigner to feel pity for the plight of kings. 370. And then I also realised that were brothers and my heart went out for the poor girl who would be sacrificed for the sake of my own marriage. Agamemnon I wish I could, my child! Agamemnon Here, at the harbour, near our beautiful Greek ships. Achilles They were the worst of them all! Iphegenia at Aulis) was left unfinished at Euripides' death in 406 BCE, and so the beginning and the ending especially are mutilated and choppy.Completed by someone else, it along with The Bacchae and the lost Alcmaeon formed a trio produced in Athens which won Euripides a fifth albeit posthumous first prize.. Agamemnon recounts the recent history of Helen's suitors . 280. Agamemnon And now its my turn to criticise you but, no, I wont do so in some arrogant, contemptuous way, with my eyes looking down on you but I shall do so in a conciliatory, brotherly way. And you, you will carry the honour of my deed wherever you go! Unjustly but I must! 471. But why girl? Why do I not call her a woman? Will she not be made Hades bride soon? Agamemnon I was out of my wits, old man! But now? Thats what theyll be saying; and all this because of you, Helen! Agamemnon And if she has already left the safety of her home and if you chance to meet her retinue on the road, send them back again take the reins from their hands and hasten the horses towards the shrines of the Cyclopes. The King feared the prophets words that the boy would grow up to destroy him him and his city and so he tore the baby away from its mothers arms and cast him on the mountainside, hoping that he would die. Old Man My lady, you know who I am and just how loyal Ive been to you and your children. I have brought with me your daughter, Iphigeneia and her mother -your wife- Klytaimestra, as well as your young son, Orestes. Gone! Let the Greeks win, mother, not the barbarians. I wonder who her groom is. 430. Have no fear, the pain will soften with custom and with the passage of time. Old Man Menelaos! 1200. Why run away? Im angry because King Agamemnon has insulted me so gravely. Let me hug him tightly against my breast before you do! Menelaos How else, then, can you, Agamemnon, prove that we are brothers? 510. And Im very pleased to see you, too! You used to ask me, I wonder, my darling, will I get to see you married one day, married and settled happily in your husbands home, your life ever blossoming, making me proud of you? And Id touch your chin, my father, hang from your beard, father, like Im doing now and say, and what about you, father, will I get to see you, father, an old man, visiting me at my house, ready for me to repay you for your hard work in raising me?, No, you dont remember these words, father. Agamemnon He covers his face with his hands in shame and groans. This is something I wont tolerate. Checking out the situation carefully. Well, then, may you and your friends also enjoy a marriage such as mine! She will say to me! By my grand-father, my mothers father, Nereus, who was nurtured by the ocean waves! Cry! Lets not have the common tongues wag against us. I shall go to the priest. Od. Consistently, Full of joy and yet tears flow from your eyes 650. 1460. And if I tried to run off toArgos, the whole lot of them will come over and destroy the place, raze the whole city to the ground, Cyclopean walls and all! Agamemnon and I have separate properties. The lustral water, the barley, everything is ready for the holy flame. Chorus Friends, let us sing our prayer to Artemis! We are in front of Agamemnons lavish tent which has two entrances, one of which is the larger and used only by Agamemnon and his family. But let me try and persuade you and let her stay inside the tent. . Ive tried all manner of subtle tricks to get my closest friends to agree with me and there, too, Ive failed.