THE IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS OF EURIPIDES

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY

GILBERT MURRAY, LL.D., D. Litt.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD





PREFACE


The Iphigenia in Tauris is not in the modern sense a tragedy; it
is a romantic play, beginning in a tragic atmosphere and moving
through perils and escapes to a happy end. To the archaeologist
the cause of this lies in the ritual on which the play is based.
All Greek tragedies that we know have as their nucleus something
which the Greeks called an Aition--a cause or origin. They all
explain some ritual or observance or commemorate some great event.
Nearly all, as a matter of fact, have for this Aition a Tomb
Ritual, as, for instance, the Hippolytus has the worship paid by
the Trozenian Maidens at that hero's grave. The use of this Tomb
Ritual may well explain both the intense shadow of death that
normally hangs over the Greek tragedies, and also perhaps the
feeling of the Fatality, which is, rightly or wrongly, supposed to
be prominent in them. For if you are actually engaged in
commemorating your hero's funeral, it follows that all through the