ABSTRACT
The Tauris episode, involving an imminent involuntary fratricide, would have provided the sequel had it not been decided that Iphigenia would help to purify Orestes. Although Iphigenia appears in the Trojan epic. The first of translations of Euripides was the Latin version of Erasmus Iphigenia in Aulis, 1509. The trend persisted in the librettos for opera seria devoted to Iphigenia which abounded until the end of the century. It is undoubtedly because Iphigenia refuses to marry Thoas that the latter orders her to be sacrificed at the beginning of Goethe's tragedy. For Euripides, consent on the part of Iphigenia was patriotic self-denial rather than an acceptance of divine will, while for Rotrou; her stoic resignation is converted into religious vocation. Paroxysm is central to the myth of Iphigenia which, in a combination of horror and the sublime, presents a series of decisive crises in terms of power and the emotions.
