At the Feet of the Gods: Myth, Tragedy, and Redemption in Alfonso Reyes's Ifigenia cruel

Abstract

Alfonso Reyes describes his Ifigenia cruel (Cruel Iphigenia), an adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia at Tauris, as a play about an individual's redemption from a cycle of violence: Iphigenia, forced to go back to her murderous family in Greece, refuses to do so and remains as a priestess in Tauris, sacrificing human victims to Artemis. This article offers a qualification of Reyes's reading through the following two aspects: his choice of myth and his understanding of Greek tragedy. The alternative version of the myth, that of the Taurian Iphigenia, allows Reyes to explore the possibility of redemption. At the core of this version there are two types of violence, human and sacred; Reyes concentrates on the human aspect of this violence in his reading of the play, but the sacred poses a problem: to liberate herself from the crimes of her family, Iphigenia chooses human sacrifice. Reyes's understanding of Greek tragedy provides a solution to this apparent contradiction. Since tragedy, for Reyes, is the manifestation of universal forces that transcend the individual, Iphigenia's redemption through sacred ritual is a pull toward the universal that projects this violence onto the cosmic forces that engulf her.

Keywords:

• adaptations of Greek tragedy
• redemption
• Alfonso Reyes
• the tragic
• violence

Notes

I would like to thank Konstantinos Nikoloutsos for his many detailed criticisms and suggestions that have greatly improved this article, as well as Alicia Reyes and the staff of the Capilla Alfonsina, who welcomed me warmly and facilitated my work in Reyes's archives.

1. By adaptations, I refer to those plays that derive their plot, directly or indirectly, from one or more tragedies of the Greek playwrights. Ifigenia cruel was also the first Mexican adaptation of a Greek tragedy to be staged: the Teatro de Orientación, one of the most important avant-garde theater companies active in Mexico, premiered it in 1934.

2. All translations are my own, except where indicated.

3. The bibliography on Ifigenia cruel is extensive and, sadly, quite uneven. Among the most thought-provoking contributions are those of Paz; Rodríguez Monegal; Vitier; and Xirau; the fourth chapter of Caicedo Palacios's dissertation also has some quite valuable insights, as does Montemayor's thumbnail introduction to the play.

4. Cropp (43–46) offers an excellent overview of the evidence for the myth.

5. Wright (133–57), for instance, has recently argued that Euripides based his tragedy on this alternative version to invite speculation in his audience about the truth-value of the myth being enacted before their eyes.

6. Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris and Reyes's Ifigenia cruel will be referred to by their initials IT and IC, respectively.

7. I follow Cropp's translation here.

8. These perceptive scholars are Caicedo Palacios (214, 247–56); Montemayor; Paz (281–82); Rodríguez Monegal (10–11, 13, 17); and Vitier (301–02).