Abstract

Iphigenia at aulis presents many problems to the literary and textual critic. Among these the problem of the prologue is as clear-cut as it is controversial. It may be summarized as follows: Our text opens abruptly with an anapaestic dialogue between Agamemnon and the Retainer , instead of the usual monologue in trimeters. In reply to a question from the Retainer, Agamemnon launches into a long iambic narrative , describing much that the Retainer must know already, and with no sign, for more than sixty lines, that the Retainer is being addressed. Moreover 49 {γνοντο ۸ήδαι…) reads like the first line of a conventional opening monologue