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iphigenia: notes and commentary act i 1. This opening exchange immediately establishes an intimate tone between the paterfamilias and the family retainer, a tone consistent with what is, after all, the tale of a beleaguered family. Compare the similar opening of The Fratricides, where, however, it is the servant, Olympia, who awakens the mistress, Jocasta; in both cases, a careworn parent is anxious about the possible death of a child. And in the first scene of Athaliah, which also opens at daybreak (“The temple dome glows white with dawn’s first flare” [Athaliah I.i.160]), Jehoiada, the high priest, is given cause for concern about the safety of his foster son, Joash. 2. Racine marks the significance of this line, which provides the first hint of the crisis Greece is facing (the immobility of the winds, which thwarts her offensive against Troy), by a rare and beautiful employment of onomatopoeia: “Mais tout dort, et l’armée, et les vents, et Neptune” (But all sleep: the army, the winds, and Neptune). I have sought to achieve the same sense of immobility with the drone of the repeated nasals (five in Racine’s line, seven in mine) and the doze of the voiced sibilants. Racine resorts to onomatopoeia again, for a similar purpose, later in this scene (line 50). 3. This abrupt maxim, at once complaining and complacent, is adapted from Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, Racine’s source play. It speaks to an essential element of classical tragedy, namely, that the protagonists be of lofty station, first, so that they may be subject to a hubris that will undo them, and, second, so that their consequent fall may be precipitous . (Whether Iphigenia, with its radiant conclusion, in which all ends well [except for the foredoomed Eriphyle], can be considered a neoclassical 132 S Iphigenia tragedy is another question; certainly, the grievously tormented Agamemnon , with so much to lose and so much to gain, achieves a tragic stature .) Agamemnon bewails his yoke, but considers it a proud one (“joug superbe”), revealing the inveterate pride that characterizes his whole family. Later, Iphigenia declares: “One knows only too well the Atrides’ pride” (III.vii.18). Considerations of pride, reputation, and loss of face (too numerous to cite) are a constant preoccupation of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra , and even the otherwise meek and docile Iphigenia. Achilles, too, shares such concerns (see I.ii.89–97), scorning to live in the “blest obscurity” that Agamemnon is momentarily moved to covet. Also see lines 77–78 of this scene and note 14. 4. The first of many instances in this play of Racine’s characteristic dramatic irony. Here, the ironic point will not be made explicit until Agamemnon’s lengthy récit (beginning at line 41), but Racine’s audience would have known that the life of his daughter Iphigenia has been placed in jeopardy by the demands of an oracle. 5. This “richest realm” comprised Argos, Mycenae, and Tiryns. 6. Agamemnon could claim direct descent from Zeus ( Jupiter or Jove) on his paternal grandfather’s side (Zeus → Tantalus → Pelops → Atreus → Agamemnon), as well as on his paternal grandmother’s (Zeus → Ares → Oenomaus → Hippodamia → Atreus → Agamemnon). 7. Since Clytemnestra was the child of mortals (Leda and her husband , Tyndareus), when Agamemnon wed her his blood “joined Jove’s blood in his bride” only inasmuch as Clytemnestra’s sister Helen was of godly descent, having been famously sired by Jove in his avatar as a swan. Helen’s putative father, however, was Tyndareus, who is mentioned as such later in this act (I.iii.26). 8. This couplet, expressing Arcas’s concern for Agamemnon’s son, daughter, and wife, focuses our attention on one of the major concerns of the play: the imperiled family. Indeed, Roland Barthes asserts that “the family . . . is in fact the central character of the play” (Barthes, 114). 9. This is another of Racine’s onomatopoetically suggestive verses (“et la rame inutile / Fatigua vainement une mer immobile”). See note 2 above. In this case, I have attempted to reproduce his effect with liquid labials and soughing sibilants, as well as with the offbeat stress of the longvoweled “smooth” to slow the rhythm of the line. 10. That is, Diana, virgin goddess, associated with the moon and the hunt; the Roman counterpart to the Greek Artemis. In the following line, the three kings (mentioned by name in the French) are Menelaus (Agamemnon’s brother and Helen’s husband), Nestor, and Ulysses. 11. Calchas, priest of Apollo...

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