Chapter 16, The Trojan War
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♠ Sophokles, Iphigeneia fr 305 R – Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta vol. 4, p. 271, ed. S.L. Radt. Göttingen 1977.
Odysseus (to Clytemnestra about Achilles)
And you, who are gaining the greatest in-laws (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ S: El 563-76 – Sophokles, Elektra
Ask the huntress Artemis what wrong she punished when she stayed the frequent winds at Aulis; [565] or I will tell you, since we may not learn from her. My father, as I have heard, was once hunting in the grove of the goddess, when his footfall flushed a dappled and antlered stag; he shot it, and chanced to make a certain boast concerning its slaughter. [570] Angered by this, Leto’s daughter detained the Greeks so that in requital for the beast’s life my father should sacrifice his own daughter. So it was that she was sacrificed, since the fleet had no other release, neither homeward nor to Troy. [575] For that reason, under fierce constraint and with much resistance, at last he sacrificed her—but it was not for the sake of Menelaus. Greek Text
♠ IT 15-25 – Euripides, Iphigeneia among the Tauroi
But when he met with dreadful winds that would not let him sail, he went to burnt sacrifices, and Calchas had this to say: “”Lord and general of Hellas, Agamemnon, you will not set free your ships from land until Artemis has your daughter Iphigenia [20] as a victim. For you once vowed to sacrifice to the torch-bearing goddess the most beautiful creature brought forth that year; then your wife, Clytemnestra, bore a child in your house—ascribing the prize of beauty to me—whom you must sacrifice.” And by the craft of Odysseus, [25] they took me from my mother, pretending a marriage with Achilles. Greek Text
♠ IA 87-107 – Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis
But after the army was gathered and come together, we still remained at Aulis weatherbound. In our perplexity, we asked Calchas, the seer, [90] and he answered that we should sacrifice my own child Iphigenia to Artemis, whose home is in this land, and we would sail and sack the Phrygians’ capital [if we sacrificed her, but if we did not, these things would not happen]. When I heard this, I commanded Talthybius [95] with loud proclamation to disband the whole army, as I could never bear to slay my daughter. Whereupon my brother, bringing every argument to bear, persuaded me at last to face the crime; so I wrote in a folded scroll and sent to my wife, [100] bidding her despatch our daughter to me on the pretence of wedding Achilles, at the same time magnifying his exalted rank and saying that he refused to sail with the Achaeans, unless a bride of our lineage should go to Phthia. Yes, this was the inducement I offered my wife, [105] [inventing, as I did, a sham marriage for the maiden. Of all the Achaeans we alone know the real truth, Calchas, Odysseus, Menelaus and myself. Greek Text
♠ IA 352-53 – Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis
Then the Danaids began demanding that you should send the fleet away instead of vainly toiling on at Aulis. Greek Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2023
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