Orestes and Iphigenia

In Euripides' play, Iphigenia in Tauris, the story takes place after the purported sacrifice of Iphigenia, and after Orestes has killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus for killing his father, King Agamemnon. Apollo orders Orestes—to escape persecution by the Erinyes (the furies) for killing his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover—to go to Tauris. While in Tauris, Orestes is to carry off the xoanon (carved wooden cult image) of Artemis, which had fallen from heaven, and bring it to Athens. When Orestes arrives at Tauris with Pylades, son of Strophius and intimate friend of Orestes, the pair are immediately captured by the Tauri, who have a custom of sacrificing all Greek strangers to Artemis. Iphigenia, not dead but spared and whisked away by the gods, is the priestess of Artemis, and it is her duty to perform the sacrifice. Iphigenia and Orestes don't recognize each other (Iphigenia thinks her brother is dead—a key point). Iphigenia finds out from Orestes, who is still concealing his identity, that Orestes is alive.

Iphigenia then offers to release Orestes if he will carry home a letter from her to Greece. Orestes refuses to go, but bids Pylades to take the letter while Orestes will honorably stay to be slain. After a conflict of mutual affection, Pylades at last yields, but the letter makes brother and sister recognize each other, and all three escape together, carrying with them the image of Artemis.

Some scholars think Euripedes modified the original myth of Iphigenia's sacrifice to make the story more palatable for audiences and to allow sequels using the same characters. The original version, however, is thought to be the inspiration for the Taurians' sacrifice of bulls and virgins in honor of Artemis.  Rather than sacrificing virgins, the Spartans would whip a male victim in front of a sacred image of Artemis. Iphigenia's sacrifice was most popular in Etruria, especially in Perusia.  In the second and first centuries BCE the Etruscans adorned their cremation urns with scenes from the sacrifice. The most common scene was Iphigenia depicted as a little girl, held over the altar by Odysseus while Agamemnon performs the aparchai. Clytemnestra stands beside Agamemnon and Achilles beside Odysseus and each one begs for the life of Iphigenia. This version is closest to the myth as the Romans told it.

 

Modern relief of Orestes and Iphigéneia stealing the statue of Diana (Artemis) Taurique in the Diana Room of The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Tangopaso.

Roman mosaic of Iphigenia and Orestes from the Horti Maecenatiani found in the area near the auditorium, 2nd - 3rd century CE, that I photographed at the Capitoline Museum in Rome, Italy

Fresco of Iphigenia as a priestess of Artemis in Tauris sets out to greet prisoners, amongst which are her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades, from Pompeii, now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, italy, courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen 

Pylades and Orestes Brought as Victims before Iphigenia, 1766, by Bejamin West, now in the Tate Britain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the Google Art Project.

Roman silver cup depicting Orestes, Iphigeneia and Pylades on the island of Sminthe, may be illustrating a lost play by Sophocles. Silver cup with repoussé decoration, Roman artwork, ca. 20 BCE/CE, Said to be from Asia Minor, now in the British Museum, courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Orestes at Delphi, Paestan red-figured bell-krater, ca. 330 BCE, now in the British Museum, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen

Orestes and Pylades attributed to the Roman Pasiteles School, late Republican Period, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Disdero.

Fresco from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii depicting Iphigeneia carried to the sacrifice (centre) while the seer Calchas (on the right) watches on and Agamemnon (on the left) covers his head in sign of deploration. In the sky, Artemis appears with a hind (deer) which will be substituted for the young girl. This fresco is in an alcove viewable by those approaching or leaving the triclinium. When studying the frescoes of this structure, I proposed that this image is meant to remind the pater familias that sacrificing family for ambition always ends in dire consequences. See my 2014 post, "The House of the Tragic Poet: What's Love Got To Do With It?" at https://ancientimes.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-house-of-tragic-poet-whats-love-got.html

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The evils of religious zealotry theme of film "Agora"

I finally saw the film "Agora" a few weeks ago and, although it was very well acted, found it rather disturbing.  I was, of course, already aware of the history behind the murder of fourth century Greek philosopher/astronomer/mathematician Hypatia (although she was actually pulled from her chariot and literally ripped to pieces by the Christians rather than stoned).

Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her by scraping her skin off with tiles and bits of shell. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them ." - Socrates Scholasticus

But to see how the religious fervor of the period bred such brutality was hard to watch.  The Christians were definitely shown in a terrible light but the worshipers of Serapis and the Jews were portrayed as not much better.  In fact, at one point I wasn't sure who was butchering who - I think it turned out to be the Jews ambushing and stoning the Christians in retaliation for similar Christian atrocities.  Of course the Christians' glee as they destroyed centuries of knowledge in the Great Library made me shudder too, knowing that the Church elite would soon use the people's ignorance to enslave them in a repressive feudal system developed during the coming Dark and Middle Ages.

Other scenes that bothered me included one scene where you hear the Christians raptly listening to a recitation of the sermon on the mount.."Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.."  when they have demonstrated they don't have a merciful bone in their bodies.  They are in what I think are the remains of the Great Library and the words echo hollowly in the huge cavernous chamber.  I couldn't help but think that the words echoed just as hollowly in their souls.   I also found the "feeding the poor" scene rather distasteful.  The Christian rabble rouser that took the bread from Hypatia's slave  seemed to have no concern for the family the bread was intended to feed or the consequences to the slave for returning to his master's household without it.  Furthermore, it was no act of piety to hand out bread that was not his own. Instead, he seemed to relish the political "appearance" of distributing bread to the poor as modern politicians do when they are attempting to win a voter's support.  Then when Hypatia's slave takes the remains of the bread and begins to give it out, the recipients at first take the bread tentatively then seem to wolfishly snatch it from him without gratitude or consideration for the other unfortunates around them.  Compassion is conspicuously absent.

The Christians used one of Paul's diatribes against women as the rationale for attacking Hypatia. Of course Paul, himself, may not have even realized that his writings, including his own cultural prejudices, would be presented later as the word of God.

The filmmakers didn't make Hypatia out to be some kind of saint either.  Whenever she got flustered she would bad mouth slaves - the result of her ethnocentric Greek upbringing no doubt.    I just finished reading "The Golden Mean", a novel about Aristotle and Alexander the Great (my review), and it was hard to fathom how really intelligent people like Aristotle and Hypatia could consider themselves so superior to other people simply because life's circumstances resulted in someone being born into another culture or conquered and enslaved.

Anyway, I felt the film did a good job of making the case that religious zealotry (regardless of which religion it is) is the root of all evil.

Related articles

• 'Agora': Rachel Weisz shines as a heroine caught in an orbit of hate (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• MOVIES: Weisz Work in 'Agora' Won't Keep Your Attention from Roman (kitsapsun.com)
• 'Agora': A mind ahead of its time (boston.com)

           

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