I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A graphic-novel adaptation of the basic story of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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I don't really know what else to say; if you haven't read those stories, or haven't seen the innumerable retellings in such media as exist then you've got one helluva learning curve ahead. This graphic version will, I suppose, do nicely to get you into the story. The idea that Agamemnon was required to kill his own child for a war against his sister-in-law's little bit on the side. It's a stupid reason to go to war, and the cost of it was staggering.
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The art is, as you'd expect from Eric Shanower, convincing and technically accomplished. The story is adapted from Euripides by playwright Edward Einhorn. His success or failure is a matter of personal taste; I liked it fine.
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Familiar or unfamiliar as you may be with the source material, it's a fantastic and worthy project, executed well, and solidly entertaining.

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 because it really brings to light the situation that got the ball rolling on Cyltemnstra's hatred towards her husband. Furthermore, before I read this play, Iphigenia was just a name that I recognized, but after reading this, I can get an idea of what she is actually like. I really appreciate having a concrete predecessor to the trilogy, so I realy enjoy this play and probably will have to read it again as a companion piece to the Oresteia.

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.

Mozaik knjiga
Zagreb, 2005.
Preveli Koloman Rac i Zdeslav Dukat.
Izuzetno kvalitetan Dukatov predgovor.
Svevremenski književni klasik.
Najkvalitetniji su tekstovi zborovođe i kora, u estetskom smislu vrve metaforama i vrckavom aktualizacijom jezika.

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.

There are so many modern “feminist retellings” of Greek mythology, especially with a focus on the Trojan War (Natalie Haynes, Pat Barker, Jennifer Saint), and many of these modern books claim to have been written due to a dearth of women-centric ancient stories, which baffles me—have y’all never heard of Euripides’s “The Trojan Women” or what about his plays “Iphigenia at Aulis,” “Medea,” and “Iphigenia in Taurus” And “Antigone” by Sophocles ?? All of these plays, written in the 5th century B.C., center around women and I would argue are more feminist than many of the modern stuff being churned out today.

Just because a book was written by a woman and is about a woman doesn’t automatically make it a feminist retelling. Reimagining a story to highlight the heroic acts of a female protagonist IS what makes something a feminist retelling, and that is exactly what Euripides does with “Iphigenia at Aulis.” Instead of being portrayed as a passive victim without agency (as she was portrayed in Madeline Miller’s “Song of Achilles”), Iphigenia is portrayed as a noble heroine among a cast of bumbling and hysterical characters.

This story is heart-breaking, especially the long speeches from Clytemnestra and Iphigenia. In Clytemnestra’s monologues, when she argues hard why her husband Agamemnon should not sacrifice their daughter, made me rethink how later she will welcome her husband’s return home. Let’s just say it’s not a heroic’s welcome.

My second read is an edition with notes. This I found helpful in reassuring me that I was roughly on the right track, as I continue my journey to read old stories and myths.

3,5 ⭐

helen isn’t a slut :(

3.5/5

some things about this play that make me feel fucking insane:

-> that achilles is so naive here. this isn't the achilles of the iliad. we can see how he gets there (and we'd better be able to see it, because euripides was writing after homer), but we can also tell he's far younger and far more naive, a man trained as a weapon who has yet to see innocent blood start spilling. (he is also such a little freak lmfao. "keep in mind one simple fact: i never lie" okay you weird little demigod murder machine)

-> clytemnestra begging agamemnon not to kill their daughter and alluding to the murder everyone knows is coming after this play. and BEGGING him not to do it, because then she'll have to do it. "for the gods' sakes, don't force me to take this hard line against you, or force yourself to do the same to me," she says, and she's saying: don't make me do this. don't make me do this to you. because if you sacrifice my daughter, i know how i am going to answer, and i don't want you to make me do it.

n  AGAMEMNON: A dangerous glory, and ambition however sweet lies close to grief.n

-> the fact that agamemnon KNOWS IT'S COMING. he knows that if he does this he's doomed. he knows. and he can't bear the idea of killing his own daughter. but he also doesn't have a CHOICE!!! the agamemnon lines in this play made me CRAZY like this man's entire deal is not having a choice because the gods have backed him into a corner but then he somehow still makes the worst choice despite not having one

n  AGAMEMNON: I am clamped to a doom I cannot shake off.n

-> that iphigenia doesn't speak for herself for the first half of the play. which is probably partially an actor constraint thing, but still, ouch. she's at the center of everything, she's the titular character, and her silence drives home how much she's just a pawn in the war effort, passed between her mother and her father and achilles and the army alike.

-> and then when she DOES speak, she draws on a heroic code worthy of any greek warrior. in aeschylus's description of her death, the men have to drag her kicking and screaming and gagged to the altar. but here she decides to die for the glory of greece. yeah, she's making an Uwu Womanly Sacrifice For The Men, but she's also choosing to start the trojan war. she's dying knowing full damn well she's the reason it's happening at all, and they're going to remember her name forever.

n  IPHIGENIA: So sacrifice me and sack Troy. That will be my memorial through the ages. That will be my marriage, my children, and my fame. ... Conduct me as a sacker of cities.n

anyway. bites wires (translations read: paul roche)

Ifigênia é levada para o acampamento dos gregos em Áulis, feliz da vida achando que seu pai Agamemnon a dará em casamento ao famoso guerreiro Aquiles, mas isso não passa de uma mentira para atrai-la ao seu pérfido destino.
As tropas já estão paradas a meses sem seguir viagem pois não há ventos. Um oráculo pede o sacrifício da filha de Agamemnon para deusa Artemis, afim de atrair bons ventos e sorte na batalha.