The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides

Euripides · between 414 and 412 BCE (first performed between these years; commonly dated to this range) primary

passage 20 of 34 · (20/20)

in brief

Iphigenia addresses the women as comrades, appealing to shared secrecy and their power to influence events, promising freedom if they conceal the plan, while she signals that their fate hinges on whether the plot ends in death or homecoming.

thou speak with them, and find Words of persuasion. Power is in the mind Of woman to wake pity.--For the rest, God knoweth: may it all end for the best!

IPHIGENIA. O women, you my comrades, in your eyes I look to read my fate. In you it lies, That either I find peace, or be cast down To nothing, robbed for ever of mine own-- Brother, and home, and sister pricelessly Beloved.--Are we not women, you and I, A broken race, to one another true, And strong in our shared secrets? Help me through This strait; keep hid the secret of our flight, And share our peril! Honour shineth bright On her whose lips are steadfast ... Heaven above! Three souls, but one in fortune, one in love, Thou seest us go--is it to death or home? If home, then surely, surely, there shall come

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topics: counsel and advisers to rulers · diplomacy and embassies · faction, party, and civil strife

The Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides · Euripides · 414–412 BCE