Really good film!

I agree! Iphigenia is very revealing of human nature while expounding on the universal human condition.

The classicist Edith Hamilton said Euripides was the saddest of poets. This play/movie certainly bears that observation out. Like Euripides' other play Trojan Women, the theme is similarly about innocents (women and children) suffering for the ambitions and wars of "great men".

Although some early scenes in the movie of soldiers idling on the beach are somewhat tedious, the second part of the movie is excellent from the moment when Clytemnestra discovers the truth. The subsequent rising tension amidst the clash of wills between her and Agamemnon is extremely well done!

Agamemnon: In his role as the high king of Mycenae, he was supreme military leader, and responsible to lead the other princes in defense of Greece's interests. As such he was locked in a curious power relationship with the princes and the mob of an army. He had the ultimate authority and power to make final decisions for the collective good of all. But simultaneously, he must constantly balance the varying demands of the princes who had their own agendas. Additionally, he must prove himself worthy of his authority and power to the fighting men.

The priest Calchas announced that Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia must be sacrificed to appease Artemis, so that the winds would blow and the army could get off the island Aulis to continue sailing to Troy. Agamemnon certainly did not want Iphigenia to die nor to earn the undying hatred of his wife Clytemnestra. But he was under even greater pressure to maintain himself as leader of his men. The men expected all personal considerations to be secondary to the mission of war. If they must sacrifice themselves to war, then why should anyone else be special?

To political power players like Agamemnon, everyone has a political value, and nothing is as important as what is considered to be the greater good, and what's just as important, is his position and power to define and carry out the greater good. Thus, Agamemnon went along with the low plot to lure Iphigenia and Clytemnestra to Aulis under the pretense of marrying Iphigenia to Achilles. However, even he did not want to face the reality of murdering his beautiful daughter, thus he put it off, and tried to hide it from both his wife and daughter - using "spin and artifice" to give a false impression to hide the truth. But of course, few men can hide such secrets from women who are close to them. And Clytemnestra quickly divined her husband's evil intent. However, because Agamemnon did nothing, matters came to a head when the men arrived in force demanding Iphigenia's sacrifice. Thus, he gave in to the men mostly out his own fear, rather than his purported service to Greece.

At the end of the movie, what you don't see that is reflected in the expression on Agamemnon's face, was perfectly done.

Clytemnestra: As the mother of Iphigenia, she had a mother's boundless love for her child. Nothing is as important to a mother as preserving her child's life. As she said, she would hold onto her daughter, and they would have to chop off her arms to take her way from her. She explicitly warned Agamemnon of her hatred and vengeance if he did not stop the deed. Significantly, their small child Orestes was also present, who would play his own part many years later.

Iphigenia: She is more a girl than a woman. Naturally, she was full of life, and enormously afraid of "going down below". The scene of her begging her father to look at her and acknowledge her while he refused to protect her, and then her wider appeal to any man who would protect her - with no takers - was about the saddest scene ever filmed. Interestingly, when noble Achilles tried to argue her case before the men, and then offered her his sword in her defense, his nobility and courage inspired her own. She acknowledged Achilles' nobility and courage and the value of preserving such a man's own life. I feel that only when she had some slight power over her own fate, could she then consider the value of the lives of the men going to war, and the possibility that her sacrifice might be for the greater good of Greece.

It was interesting how Iphigenia ultimately dressed her sacrifice up as her wedding. If marriage is a transformation from maiden to wife and mother, and hence, a place in society, was her symbolic marriage an assertion of her own newfound place in society by becoming associated with the goddess and the salvation of Greece?

Likewise, It was interesting to note some similar details to the Hebrew story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, i.e. the question of the rightness of human sacrifice and the appearance of the sacred stag/ram.

Overt human sacrifice in ancient societies gradually disappeared, but indirect human sacrifice and oppression certainly never abated. If human sacrifice is essentially offering up another's body to protect us from fate, it seems to me that sending young men (and young women) off into modern war, indifference to the suffering/exploitation of others, unannounced corporate downsizing, etc, are indirect forms of human sacrifice.

Achilles: There have been attempts to depict Achilles as a bloodthirsty savage in love with violence and his own pride, but I've always believed in his nobility. Certainly, one of his primary motives to defend Iphigenia was because his great name had been basely misused in a tricky ploy to bring her to Aulis. But as Achilles said, he could have a thousand girls, so even though I think he was interested in her, that was not his motive. I think that he was clearly most outraged by the injustice of Iphigenia being forced to die, suffering for Agamemnon's offending Artemis over a stag, and over Helen running off with Paris. Achilles affirmed the value of her life and made it clear to her that if she was to sacrifice herself for Greece, it must be HER choice, NOT the choice of her father, and NOT the collective choice of the men. Even up to the final moment, she had the right to change her mind.

Achilles, being the man of principle, was really neither a master nor a servant. He hated games, lies, and compromise, and was thus immune to any pressure except his own code of honor. Thus, he was a purist about his integrity just as he was a purist as a warrior. However, his great integrity, independence, as well as his skills as a warrior are what made his name and his favor desirable to other men.

Similarly, because of Achilles' love and loyalty for his friend Patroclus, he had to kill Hector in single combat, despite knowing that the prophecy said he must die soon afterwards. Thus, fate and Achilles' own code ruled Achilles, not other men.

Odysseus: His character is fascinating because though he was strong, wise, and courageous, he was also a supreme politician and played other people to his own benefit. Unlike Achilles, he was not averse to sacrificing an innocent to his ends (such as Iphigenia). Unlike Agamemnon, he was devoted to his own family, and would never sacrifice nor abandon one of his own for any reason. This is proven in The Odyssey by his love for his father Laertes, his boundless devotion for his wife Penelope, and his deep rapport with his son, Telemachus. However, he really did have a weakness of pride in his own craftiness that cost him greatly. After he blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus, he mocked him and gleefully announced his name, so that Polyphemus would know who did the deed. Thus, Polyphemus appealed to Poseidon to curse Odysseus, who subsequently spent another 10 years wandering the oceans before he could come home. There's a lesson here!


I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content