Euripides Response

Euripides Response

One can not read Inphigenia and not think of several parallels to ancient writings. The sacrifice of a child, at the request of god, dates back to Abraham and God in the Bible. God required Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son, one that came to him late in life from his already barren wife – a true miracle of God. In the end, as in Inphigenia, Isaac does not get sacrificed but a ram in the thicket does. As in Inphigenia, God provides the appropriate sacrifice in lieu of the child. In contrast, the god in Inphigenia, Artemus, takes Inphigenia with her, whereas God does not remove Isaac from his father Abraham, but rather honors his willingness to sacrifice Isaac by replacing the sacrifice and sparing his son. Furthermore, God gives Abraham the ultimate blessing, that because of his faithfulness, his offspring will be more numerous than the stars in the sky.

While one can see the similarities to Abraham’s story, there are several differences. For one, Artemus was holding back the winds that would set Agamemnon’s ships sailing into combat. She was angry and required this sacrifice to permit him to fight for Helen, which had been stolen from his brother Menelaos. The war could not go on unless this happened. The troops were anxious and restless.

Secondly, Isaac was all the while unaware of what was happening. Inphigenia, on the other hand, was instrumental