Full Description
Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis revolves around King Agamemnon of Argos, the commander in chief of the Greek army, and his decision to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis and allow his troops to set sail to preserve their honour in battle against Troy. Aeschylus' Oresteia continues the story of this myth over three plays: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides. In Agamemnon, the title hero comes home victorious after 10 years of warfare at Troy, only to be killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Jumping forward in time, Libation Bearers shows Agamemnon's son, Orestes, returning home as an adult and avenging his father by killing his mother. At the beginning of Eumenides we find Orestes, desperate to shed the Furies, the primordial avenging spirits chasing him, in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. A newly established civic court in Athens judges his case, Athena casts her vote in his favour and so ends the cycle of blood revenge. An adaptation of Iphigenia in Aulis, which resolves the problematic ending is included in the Appendix.Aeschylus' Oresteia was first produced at the Athenian festival of Dionysus in 458 BC, where it won first prize. The first production of Iphigenia in Aulis in 405 BC also won the first place at the Dionysia.
