Videogames as Tragedy

        This game was made as a final project for my class Greek Tragedy, Modern World.  For my final project, I chose to adapt the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia according to Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon into a videogame.  Through the game, I explore how videogames can work theatrically to reflect the idea of tragic choice.

The premise of my project is based on the idea of narrative videogames as a form of interactive theater.  Although video media is very different to live performance, it still has the ability to, as Lorna Hardwick writes, “form part of the mise-en-scène for Greek drama” (Hardwick, 112).  When playing a narrative videogame, the player becomes at once audience and actor.  In her work Tragic Time in Drama, Film, and Videogames, Rebecca Bushnell writes, “The player controls the actions of an avatar from either a first-person or a third-person camera view and thus produces a kind of theatrical performance.” (Bushnell, 66).  The experience of the videogame by the player is similar in nature to that which one would have standing in the audience of a play.  The events on screen in a narrative videogame certainly produce a “theatrical performance”, the only thing that distinguishes this from conventional ideas of theater is the aspect of interactivity that is central to videogames, but this difference is the very thing that makes videogames a perfect medium for interactive theater.  In his work Performance Theory, Schechner’s claim that “It is hard to build into a performance both narrative power and the tensions of a sporting match.” (Schechner, 53) is rendered entirely false by the narrative videogame, which easily integrates stakes for the audience into the development of a story.  

It is my argument that, not only do videogames fall beneath the genre of theater, but that they can be a medium to effectively reflect aspects of ancient Greek tragedy.  The first reason for this is tragedy’s emphasis on divine law, fate, and justice. In tragedy, the characters are bound by the will of the gods.  Artemis’ actions in the story of Iphigenia as relayed in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon exemplifies this.  With her “[sending] savage storms” and “demanding another sacrifice” (Aeschylus, 147-149), Artemis interacts directly with the narrative and forces Agamemnon to decision, as Goldhill states, “Artemis delays the expedition; and Agamemnon is to kill his daughter to conform to the instructions of the divine.” (Goldhill, 68).  

In videogames, the players are similarly bound by the will of the programmer.  There is no way to escape the “divine frame” of code.  Just as the gods in tragedy bring about divine dikē, the program brings unavoidable consequences to certain actions that the player makes within the game.  In my game, this is exemplified not only through the simple cause and effect that the story as a whole brings, but also through the inclusion of a possible ending of the game that directly references the gods and takes control of the player’s agency within the program.  In the game, I have a variable that acts as a sort of clock, moving forward each time the player chooses a dialogue option that is defined within the code as disrespecting the gods (Ex. "Screw Artemis. I'm not killing my daughter.", "I don't care about respecting Artemis, I'm not killing my daughter.", and "If you're gonna blame anyone, blame Artemis, not me.").  Once this clock reaches a certain point, “Artemis”, and the program, take over the game.  A small cutscene plays in which Artemis explains that the player/Agamemnon has wronged her and as a result every button for dialogue options in the game that previously allowed the player agency will be changed to display the text “KILL IPHIGENIA”, leaving the player’s capacity for choice bound by the “divine frame” of the program.

        The second reason why videogames are a particularly fitting medium for tragedy is the tragic emphasis on human choice and responsibility.  In his The Historical Moment of Tragedy, Vernant argues that the sense of tragic responsibility arises when “human actions hinge on divine powers” (Vernant, 27).  This is made true both in my game through the frame of the program and in the story of Iphigenia through the divine frame.  The issue of choice in the story of Iphigenia is clear;  The chorus in Agamemnon quotes the titular characters as saying, “An unbearable fate will fall on me if I disobey but how can I bear to slaughter my own daughter… How can I choose? Both ways [letting the army waste away at Aulius and killing his daughter] are full of evil!” (Aeschylus, 206-211).  The main issue in this short but tragic story is this impossible choice.  As Goldhill writes, “Agamemnon knows that either course of action – and one must be chosen – is disastrous. This conflict of competing and necessary obligations is known as a tragic ‘double bind’.” (Goldhill, 26).  The tragedy in the story of Iphigenia comes from human choice that is made into a “double-bind” by the frame which Artemis imposes upon Agamemnon.  No matter what action he chooses to take, his story is bound by fate to end in misery.

This idea of impossible choice is the main tragic idea that I explore in my game.  This is able to be done by having the gameplay be dependent entirely on the player’s choices in dialogue.  In my game, there are three sections of dialogue that grant the player agency: speaking with Calchas, speaking with an army member, and contemplating sending the letter that asks for Iphigenia to be sent to Aulius to be sacrificed.  Within each of these dialogues, there are multiple paths that the player can take through their dialogue options, and thus multiple different responses they can get from the other characters (or in the case of the letter dialogue, from Agamemnon himself).  There are many ways that the player can find themselves at the end of the game, but there is only one possible ending, and that is the death of Iphigenia.  No matter what narrative path the players take, what dialogue options they choose, there will be no way to “win” the game, emphasizing, though technological intervention rather than divine, the tragically “overdetermined” choice that Agamemnon is forced to make at Aulius by throwing the choice (and the guilt that comes along with it) directly upon the audience.

        This impossible choice and the guilt that comes along with it bring us to the tragic concept of catharsis.  Although, in his Poetics, Aristotle never explicitly defines catharsis, he asserts that tragedy "[effects] through pity and fear the katharsis of such emotions.” (Aristotle, 9).  Thus, we can gather that pity and fear through empathy for the characters in tragedy are central to the genre of tragedy as a whole.  In the chorus’ relation of the story of Iphigenia in Agamemnon, Agammemnon’s impossible choice, the Greek army forced to “suffer and starve” (Aeschylus, 189), and Iphigenia’s “pitiful glance” (Aeschylus, 240) work to invoke this tragic sense of pity and fear in the audience.  

        Narrative videogames inherently produce empathetic feelings through their interactive design.  The player is virtually forced into the main character’s perspective, and, by controlling all of the actions of the character, “becomes” the main character for a short period of time.  In my game, this is emphasized, once again, through the dialogue options as the main mechanism that moves the plot forward.  For the narrative to function, the player has to step into the role of the Agamemnon and think about the choices that they are making while playing as this character.  

The art in my game was also made with intentions to induce “fear and pity”.  I chose to color the entire game in black and white, and tried to make the animations I included in my game (the death of Iphigenia and the omen) dark and shocking.  The pixel art style is primarily for simplicity, to allow me to focus more on what the interactivity of the game is doing than its art, but also reflects the original style of videogames and helps to build up a kind of theatrical fourth wall by reminding the player that they are playing a game.  

        All of these connections between videogames and tragic ideas surrounding choice gave me the ability to (hopefully effectively) adapt Agamemnon’s tragic choice in the story of Iphigenia (as relayed in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulius) into a videogame.  In my game, Calchas is the first character with whom the player can interact (in fact, they can not move on in the narrative until they do so), and so he sets up the exposition and poses the main problem to the player.  Clachas’ first line in my game comes directly from Agamemnon, and his subsequent lines adapt certain expository elements from the chorus’ retelling of the story of what happened at Aulius, such as the omen of the two eagles and the pregnant hare (Aeschylus, 115-120).  The second non-player-character, the army member, is not directly adapted from any work, but is necessary for allowing the player to understand, through dialogue, how “the flower of Greek manhood began to wither and waste away” (Aeschylus, 197-198) while Agamemnon delays in making his decision.  The soldier character also helps to clearly establish the tragic “double bind” by making the alternative option to Iphigenia’s sacrifice –Agamemnon's betrayal and the starvation of the army– clear.  The player also interacts through internal dialogue with Agamemnon himself when choosing whether or not to send the letter to Clytemnestra bidding Iphigenia be brought to Aulius to be sacrificed (an idea taken from Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulius).  This dialogue, like that of the soldier, has no direct source from which it is adapted, but instead adapts general ideas and sentiments from the story of Iphigenia as presented in Iphigenia at Aulius and Agamemnon.

        Though the game is short and only adapts aspects of the story of Iphigenia, it explores through its short narrative tragic ideas of choice, responsibility, and divine influence.  I hope that, though simple and unconventional, it works as an engagement in the conversation that surrounds the adaptation of tragedy.

Bibliography

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Aristotle. Aristotle's Poetics: The James Hutton Translation : Ancient Contexts, Interpretations. Edited by Michelle Zerba and David Gorman, translated by James Hutton, W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 2018.

Bushnell, Rebecca. Tragic Time in Drama, Film, and Videogames: The Future in the Instant. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016.

Foley, Helene P..  Introduction.  Oresteia, Aeschylus,  Hackett Publishing, 1998, pp. vi-xlviii.

Goldhill, Simon. “The Divine Frame.”  Aeschylus: The Oresteia. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Homan, Daniel and Sidney Homan. "The Interactive Theater of Video Games: The Gamer as Playwright, Director, and Actor." Comparative Drama, vol. 48 no. 1, 2014, p. 169-186. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cdr.2014.0000.

“Iphigenia At Aulis by Euripides.” The Internet Classics Archive, https://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/iphi_aul.html. Accessed 11 December 2025.

Knox, Bernard. “Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy.” 1966.

Liapis, Vayos, and Avra Sidiropoulou, editors. Adapting Greek Tragedy: Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Schechner, Richard. “Actuals”.  Performance Theory. Routledge, 2003.

Vernant, Jean-Pierre, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. "The Historical Moment of Tragedy in Greece: Some of the Social and Psychological Conditions." Myth and tragedy in ancient Greece. Zone Books, 1990.