Achilles in Iphegenia at Aulis by Euripides
Iphegenia at Aulis by Euripides


As you may or may not have noticed, I don't have a huge number of books that include Achilles on this page, unlike on most of my pages. This is mainly because, well, the only one that includes him that I really like the description of him in is, well, the Iliad. (OK, maybe I like the Odyssey, too, but he barely appears!) Needless to say, there is so much on both of these books on the web, that all that I would be doing is repeating other people in adding a huge amount of information on them.

However, I came upon this play by Euripides a while ago and like it so well that I just had to include it! It's so funny! (So what if it was meant to be a tradegy?) Unlike the modern books which tend to portray Achilles as some sort of uncouth barbarian, this one portrays the fifteen year old Achilles, unwittingly engaged to Iphegenia so that Clytemnestra will bring her to be sacrified, as a kind of failed prince Charming. It's all very cute.

Iphegenia at Aulis takes place on the shores of Aulis where Agamemnon has just learned that the only way to get the winds to blow to take him to Troy is to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphegenia. He eventually decides to do this, and although his brother, Menelaus, argues with him for a while, they eventually agree that Iphegenia must die. However, Iffy is at home with her mother, Clytemnestra, who will certainly not bring the fair maiden if she knows that poor Iffy is going to be slaughtered! So, Agamemnon thinks up a plausible and wonderful plan. You see, there's this fifteen year old hunk who's guaranteed to be a great hero, not to mention is the only son of two wealthy parents, one of which is going to be a goddess. Why not tell Clytemnestra that her beloved daughter is going to be married to Achilles?

The plan goes well until Clytemnestra and Achilles meet. He addresses her cordially as an unfamiliar nobelwoman, and she tells him to be a bit more familiar as she will shortly be his mother-in-law. When Clytemnestra finds that Achilles knows nothing about the engagement, Achilles and Clytemnestra immediately rush to Iphegenia's rescue. Of course, Clytemnestra, as a woman in a large group of enemy soldiars really can't do much...and although Achilles would love to help, when his own men, lead by Odysseus, revolt, he hands Iphegenia his spear, and backs out saying that she's very brave and all, but it probably won't help matters much if both of them die, now will it? Iphegenia is sacrified and the ships sail. Depressing, but it is amusing to see the characterizations of all of everyone's favorite characters.

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