Years before the time period covered by the play, the young princess Iphigenia narrowly avoided death by sacrifice at the hands of her father, Agamemnon.

At the last moment the goddess Artemis, to whom the sacrifice was to be made, intervened and replaced Iphigenia on the altar with a deer, saving the girl and sweeping her off to the land of the Taurians.

She has since been made a priestess at the temple of Artemis in Taurica, a position in which she has the gruesome task of ritually sacrificing foreigners who land on King Thoas's shores.

She wants to inform them that, thanks to the miraculous swap performed by Artemis, she is still alive and wants to return to her homeland, leaving the role of high priestess to someone else.

Meanwhile, Orestes has killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge his father Agamemnon with assistance from his friend Pylades.

Apollo sends him to steal a sacred statue of Artemis to bring back to Athens so that he may be set free.

The scene represents the front of the temple of Artemis in the land of the Taurians (presently, the Crimean peninsula).

She has had a dream in which the structure of her family's house crashed down in ruins, leaving only a single column which she then washed clean as if preparing it for ritual sacrifice.

She asks if Helen has returned home to the house of Menelaus, and of the fates of Calchas, Odysseus, Achilles, and Agamemnon.

Goddess Artemis saved me and substituted a deer, which my father sacrificed believing he was thrusting the sharp blade into me.

First, Orestes recounts how Iphigenia embroidered the scene of the quarrel between Atreus and Thyestes on a fine web.

Orestes also spoke of Pelops’ ancient spear, which he brandished in his hands when he killed Oenomaus and won Hippodamia, the maid of Pisa, which was hidden away in Iphigenia's maiden chamber.

Orestes explains that he has come to this land by the bidding of Phoebus's oracle, and that if he is successful, he might finally be free of the haunting Erinyes.

Iphigenia tells Thoas that he must remain at the temple and cleanse the hall with torches, and that she may take a long time.

The messenger explains Iphigenia's lies and that the strangers fought some of the natives, then escaped on their Hellene ship with the priestess and the statue.

This has often been taken as a reason to reject 412 as the date for Iphigenia in Tauris, since that would mean three similar plays would have been performed in the same trilogy.

However, Matthew Wright believes the plot and other stylistic similarities between the three plays indicates that they most likely were produced as part of the same trilogy in 412.

)[8] Roman relief carving around stone column discovered in Fittleworth, West Sussex (1st century AD.