Tom's Learning Notes

Iphigenia in Tauris (Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις) is a tragedy by Euripides probably first performed in Athens some time around 412 BC. The play's usual English title is, strictly speaking, the Latin name meaning 'Iphigenia among the Taurians'.

Euripides follows the version of the Iphigenia story in the Cypria, which relates that when her father Agamemnon was about to sacrifice her to secure the success of the Trojan expedition, she was spirited away by the goddess Artemis to be a priestess in the land of the Taurians in Crimea.

The play deals with the arrival of a group of Greeks among whom Iphigenia recognises her brother Orestes. She saves him from being sacrificed and they escape together with the image of the goddess. The theme of escape has led some commentators to conclude that like Euripides' similar Helen, it was composed after the defeat of the Sicilian Expedition in 413 BC.

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Free online texts

Gutenberg, Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Gilbert Murray. Multiple formats.

Gutenberg: The Tragedies of Euripides, Vol I, translated by Theodore Alois Buckley (1892). Multiple formats. 

Internet Archive: Iphigenia in Tauris, verse translation by Witter Bynner. (1915). Multiple formats.

Internet Classics Archive: Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter. HTML and TXT formats.

Loebulus: L010N - Euripides -- Euripides II: Electra. Orestes. Iphigeneia in Taurica. Andromache. Cyclops. Greek and English parallel text. Loeb edition, PDF format.

Perseus: Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter. HTML and XML formats.

Poetry in Translation: Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by George Theodoris. Multiple formats.

University of Adelaide (Internet Archive): Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter. Multiple formats.

Wikisource: Greek text and multiple English translations. HTML and other formats.

Other Resources

Gutenberg: Euripides and His Age, by Gilbert Murray.

History of Ancient Greece: Euripides at War, podcast by Ryan Stitt.

Librivox: Iphigenia in Tauris, public domain audiobooks.

Wikipedia: Iphigenia in Tauris

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Homer: The Iliad

Epic Cycle: The Cypria.

Euripides: Iphigenia at Aulis

Euripides: Helen

Goethe: Iphigenia in Tauris.

A.E. Haigh: The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).

 Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.