Colin Farrell seems to have it all. He's a successful cardiologist, he gets to have necrophilic sex with Nicole Kidman every night, and his beautiful daughter has just started menstruating. Unfortunately, he's about to discover that he's walked into a Greek tragedy.(If this doesn't make sense, go watch The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It still won't make sense, but you'll be confused in a more enjoyable way).

Agamemnon: I'm so sad.Old Man: Yo, what's up?Agamemnon: Helen, that hot chick from Troy, picked my brother Menelaus to marry. But Paris stole her. Now we gots to get her back, but some prophet said that we can't leave to do that until I kill my daughter Iphigenia!Old Man: Uh... okay.Agamemnon: Take this letter to my wife. I sent her one already that lied and said that I was marrying Iphigenia to the hot dude Achilles, but this one says it was all a lie and not to come here. I don't want to kill

It made me cry.It upset me.A play by Euripides from 500 B.C.E. or so.This reader has read Greek tragedies before but for some reason, this one ambushed.We are so messed up. We are so fragile. Trauma is never far away. Tragedy can enter through any window or door or vent at any time.Yes, it was a bit melodramatic. Yes, it may not have been completed by the man himself, his last work.It’s about a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, a brother.It’s about war and power. Always war and power. Why?It’...

None of mortals is prosperous or happy to the last, for none was ever born to a painless life.Written between 408 and 406 BC, the play revolves around Agamemnon's decision to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis in order to be able to set sail and fight against Troy.

This play premiered in Athens in 405BC and is about an incident that took place at Aulis before the the armies of Hellas could set sail for the Trojan War.This isn't a tragedy as we would normally think of them, as in Shakespeare's tragedies where bodies litter the stage by the final scene but it is a tragedy nonetheless despite the apparent 'happy' ending. I've heard it argued that this is a tragedy in the way Aristotle defined them, where someone has to make a choice, a difficult & horrible ch...

In reading this again I noticed how much info I missed when reading it last year. Previously, I had not grasped the patriotism that runs through this play, turning over the last page I remembered the lines from a Wilfred Owen poem: My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori Dulce et Decorum Est I also found the introduction essay in this edition confirming this helpful. The story is heart-breakin...

One Final Play29 August 2018 – Sydney Well, as it turns out, this was Euripides’ last play, the reason being that he died before he could finish it. This is sort of a bit of a turn of events where Greek plays are concerned because most of the time the reason we don’t have the plays is because they have been lost (you can probably blame Julius Caeser for that, among other people, but then again the Great Library did seem to be a bit of a fire magnet). However, just because he didn’t finish it doe...

This episode in the house of Atreus is powerful indeed. Is the morally torn cast desperate and defenseless in the face of the will of the Gods? Or are they complacent and cowardly? A terribly strong antiwar statement, even if this particular translation feels a little clunky.

This was an interesting read for me as it told me why the Trojan war happened, the story here is like a prequel and has a back story to many of Iliad’s main characters.The story itself was a touch shocking, father sacrificing his daughter to appease a god – just writing it sounds gruesome. Anyway, I did some background reading and learnt that Euripides wrote this during the Peloponnesian War, wanting to express the pointlessness of it. I read how there had been many causalities and Euripides was...

Quality.

5/08/18 Upon reading this play again, my feelings concerning the character's actions have definitely changed. Last I read this play I described Agamemnon as morally divided on what course he should take, but now I kinda seeing Menelaus' point - he can't stick with the decision he's made and in the end he no longer has the choice. Iphigenia, who I had previously described as choosing to sacrifice herself for Greece, really didn't have a choice either like I said she did. I imagine she put on a br...

This was a pretty good story. I just had a bit of a hard time reading it. I would recommend it to others to read if they want to read an interesting story.

when the entire play is a subtweet of Aeschylus and Homer…

This is hardly a straightforward play. At this point in our society's history it will likely resonate strongly with Game of Thrones viewers, as the play neatly mirrors recent events (view spoiler)[Shireen's being burnt at the stake by her father, including her devotion to him (hide spoiler)], but not many others, I think. Self-sacrifice of this sort, where the sacrifice's identity is diminished to that of an object a gift, has been regarded as barbaric for so long that it's an alien notion, inte...

Near the end of Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia has offered herself as a sacrificial victim: "I have decided that I must die. And I shall die gloriously."(p 58) At this point the Chorus echoes her praises, but one wonders at the events that have led to this point and the event that will come to follow this moment as the ending turns the drama on its head. The story told in this drama by Euripides is one that Athenians knew well. It was told by Aeschylus in his drama Agamemnon, the first play in th...

This is an extremely readable adaptation of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, which is a great anti-war play questioning the sacrifices people are willing to make just for the chance to fight in a war without any real goal or benefit.Teevan does two things I find particularly interesting in this adaptation. First, he incorporates a frame narrative where the old servant from Iphigenia at Aulis reflects back on the sacrifice from the end of the Trojan War when Agamemnon and the Greeks have returned h...

Even at the end of his life, Euripides was great tragedian. I really enjoyed this one. Like with Creon's son in Phoenican Women there's issue of killing your child because it is necessary in order for your army to suceed. But unlike Phoenican Women, here it's not only one episode in play but central issue that is discussed through whole play. Discussed from many sides. I think that description of Agamemnon's inner strugle was extraordinary well-writte. And even though there is so many affected c...

I first read about the sacrafice of Iphigeneia in the Orestia by Aeschylus - Aeschylus was the first ancient playwrite I read and I fell immediately in love with his visceral, forceful style and imagery. I feel that what set Euripides' Iphigeneia apart from previous works I have read is that he incorporates criticisms of "the mob" into his dialouge and into the characters' motives.I read this book because it was referenced in "The Gay Science" by F. Nietzsche and I want to understand where he is...

Iphigenia in Aulis is one of two plays about Iphigenia that Euripides wrote- out of those two, this one is by far the better one. Instead of following a hypothetical situation like Iphigenia Among the Tauri, Iphigenia at Aulis simply tells the story of a father who is forced to kill his own daughter for assistance in battle from the gods. Essentially, this is the most appropriate "prequel" to the Oresteia trilogy. Since I love the trilogy following Agamemnon and Orestes, I also love this play be...

This seems to me like Euripides' attempt to redeem the horrible story of Iphigenia's sacrifice by portraying her as choosing to go through with it for the good of Greece. He gives her some kleos (glory). I was surprised that my edition said the ending was spurious, because having a god set things right at the end seems totally in character, and his sequel assumes those events. In another play, Euripides says something like "these stories are terrible, but they reveal the gods." I've thought abou...

In this tragedy, there is a dilemma, Agamemnon and Menelaus are preparing to sail to rescue Helen, Menelaus' wife. But, the oracle told that Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, that is arriving for that, without her knowing, thinking she is there to marry Achilles. Clytemnestra discovers her husband plan, and tell Achilles to the rescue.Euripides on this play, is a bit skeptical about the greek gods (As Clytemnestra says "If the gods exist, they surely will support your righteous s...

4.5 starsYou could call this play Agamemnon vs Achilles: OriginsThis play sets up so many relations for the stories that were written before it, I really liked it!

There is a lot to say about this play, but I have a lot of stuff going on right now, so all I have time for is this: Screw Agamemnon. Iphigenia, I am sorry your father was such a coward.

She dies because of patriarchal bullshit, that's what happens.

2.5? This play is... super weird.

War fever leads to tragic choices and sacrifices.

I worry that it is a reflection on my middlebrow approach to literature that this was one of my favorite plays (and if I were left to my own devices I would rate it above Oedipus Rex). It feels very contemporary: the plot mostly advances through dialog, there are a number of twists and turns, the chorus plays a minimal role, there is no deus ex machina, and relatively minimal intrusions of exposition. In other ways it feels very much like a Greek tragedy as characters wrestle with moral dilemmas...

Between this and The Children of Herakles, I'm getting a little concerned about how many young girls are sacrificing themselves on the altars of ancient Greece. Really we need to call Child Protective Services on their fams.In the latter play, the Heracleidae seek shelter in Athens, so their pursuer Eurystheus declares war on the state in order to get them back. The Athenians are willing to fight for the refugees, and the goddess Persephone agrees to help them win the war, but she wants a sacrif...

This is opera material.

My first Euripides and it was beautiful :)