To spill blood for his nation, a father is called to first sacrifice his own.

The infamous “thousand ships” of the Greek armada muster in the port town of Aulis, all set to reclaim Helen from the Trojans. Yet the winds refuse to blow. After weeks of waiting, their prophet divines the cause: for hunting her sacred deer, the goddess Artemis has taken ire against Lord Agamemnon, commander of the fleets. Should the Greeks wish to sail to Troy, she demands the blood of a virgin at her altar. Agamemnon sends for his wife. And requests she brings their young, unwed daughter.

Two and a half thousand years on, Iphigenia at Aulis presents one of the most psychologically wrought tales from ancient myth, and asks: how can any of us – a father, a citizen, a nation – come to justify acts of violence – to others, to ourselves?

This year’s production of the Oxford triennial Greek Play places Euripides’s final tragedy in a Celtic world. Expect a tartan-clad Achilles, Greek generals in Irish saffron, and a chorus dancing to flutes and fiddles, with live accompaniment from a traditional céilí band performing an original score by University of Oxford music student Peter Hardisty.

Presented by Oxford Classical Drama Society

By Euripides

In a new English translation by Alexander Lafferty, Evelyn Watterson, and Nathaniel Denton

Directed by Wally McCabe with Kelly Yu

£5 – £30