CLASSIC 45B Lecture 15: The Quest of Heroines: Iphigeneia & Thecla
Document Summary
Topic: the quest of heroines- iphigeneia & thecla. Both by euripides, end of 5th century. Focuses on the events b4 the trojan war and the sacrifice. Play focuses on iphigeneia"s transportation to the land of the. Taurians where she was a priestess of artemis. Eventually she was saved by her brother orestes and his bff. Iphigenia is the sacrificial victim when the greek fleet gathers in aulis to set the war against troy. Agamemnon, her father, accidentally kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess artemis. Artemis punishes him by holding the winds so that the fleet cannot sail to troy. The seer (prophet) calchas reveals to all that to appease artemis, Pressured by the other commanders eventually agrees. He asks his wife and iphigeneia"s mother clytemnestra to bring. Iphigeneia as if for a wedding for their daughter to the best warrior: We have the story of the sacrifice of a maiden.
