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delible stain,—the "Furies" of his murdered mother still can shake his
mental stability. He possesses great courage and, when in possession of
himself, great clarity of mind, yet at the same time he leans heavily and
somewhat pathetically upon his loyal friend, Pylades. Iphigenia likewise
commands attention. She is still filled with bitterness because the Greeks
would have sacrificed her at Aulis, but nevertheless she still loves Greece
and longs desperately to return to her native land. She too possesses
great courage, and manages coolly to carry out the plan whereby she
may safely effect the flight of herself, her brother, and his friend. Some
literal-minded interpreters have objected because she outwits Thoas by
means of gross deception. The fact that the play in its central nature is
melodramatically "romantic" tends to render such criticism irrelevant.
The drama on the whole is well constructed, even though Athena's
appearance as a deus ex machina seems to be unsatisfactorily motivated.
Aristotle thought well of at least one feature of the play, for he singled
out the recognition scene between Iphigenia and Orestes to illustrate the
best way in which this aspect of drama could be handled. 1 So far as the
general significance of the play is concerned, there have been attempts to
establish a definite religious orientation. This element seems only to be
present in a secondary degree, for our attention cannot fail to be captured
primarily by the desperate situation in which Iphigenia, Orestes,
and Pylades find themselves and by the excitement of their escape.
1 Aristotle, Poetics, chap. XVI.