Early modern receptions of Iphigenia at Aulis

Abstract

Abstract The sacrifice of Iphigenia, appearing influentially in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, assumes various forms in early modern translation, reading, and adaptation. Early modern receptions variously constrict, domesticate, Romanize, and Christianize the story. Publication in Latin, especially in Erasmus’ translation (1506) transposes Greek linguistic and cultural referents to later hermeneutics, rendering mysterious ancient elements into familiar Roman analogues — Stoic ideals, fortuna, prudentia, and the like. Caspar Stiblin’s Latin translation (1562) and Gabriel Harvey’s copious marginalia in his copy of Erasmus’ translation show that constriction and domestication often take the form of fragmentation of the text into sententiae, or wise sayings. The search for rhetorical figures, political maxims, or moral lessons generates many Christian applications and culminates in Buchanan’s biblical reworking of Iphigenia’s story in Jephthes, wherein Artemis gives way to the Judaeo-Christian god and Iphigenia, here Iphis, becomes a type of Christ. The Vernacular Adaptations of Jane Lumley, Jean Racine, and Abel Boyer continue to dismantle the heroic ethos of Euripides play and re-imagine the story: Achilles dwindles into a romantic lead, Agamemnon, into a vicious ruler and father, and Iphigenia becomes a pious and submissive daughter.

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