I want to conclude this flurry of posts about Iphigenia with a quote from the lass herself:
If Artemis is minded to take this body, am I, a weak mortal, to thwart the goddess? Nay, that were impossible. … give me wreaths to cast about me; bring them hither; here are my tresses to crown; bring lustral water too. Dance to Artemis, queen Artemis the blest, around her fane and altar; for by the blood of my sacrifice I will blot out the oracle, if it needs must be.
That’s from Euripides (the Edward P. Coleridge translation). There’s a very nice analysis of Iphigenia in Aulis by Russell Buzby in Portrayals of Heroism – Achillies, Agamemnon and Iphigenia:
Iphigenia may be regarded as the progenitor of all kleos [glory] in the Iliad: she becomes the war’s first victim, and also its greatest hero. Hers truly is aphthiton kleos [everlasting glory], which time and age will never fade.
However, if anyone wants a happy ending for her, there’s always Gluck’s opera Iphigénie en Aulide…
Francis James Franklin (Alina Meridon) 