About the work
Euripides' late tragedy, first performed posthumously in 405 BC at the Athenian City Dionysia, probably staged by his son or nephew together with 'The Bacchae' after the poet's death in 406 BC. The play appears unfinished or reworked in several places.
Plot
The Greek fleet is stranded at Aulis because Artemis withholds favourable winds unless Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia. He lures her there under the pretext of marrying Achilles; when the deception is discovered, it is almost too late. Iphigenia ultimately agrees to die for Greece — in the transmitted ending, Artemis substitutes a deer for her at the last moment.
Cultural significance
The story shaped European opera and theatre for centuries, from Jean Racine's 'Iphigénie' (1674) to Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera 'Iphigénie en Aulide' (1774). Scholars still debate the authenticity of the rescuing ending.