Calmness (metaphor)
The very first scene of the play shows that Agamemnon is disturbed, and his attendant is curious about his master’s agitation, as he does not understand the reason. Everything is calm and quiet, “The birds are still at any rate and the sea is calm; hushed are the winds, and silence broods o'er this narrow firth”. For the attendant sees no reason for his master to grieve.
The breath of love (metaphor)
The play presents a short flashback to the episode of how Menelaus has married the beautiful Helen. There were many suitors who wished to have gorgeous Helen as a wife, but her father, the old Tyndareus, allowed his daughter to choose “the one towards whom the breath of love might fondly waft her”. It was Menelaus whom she liked the most.
The bride (simile)
Agamemnon lures his daughter and his wife to Aulis under the pretext of the future wedding. He tells in the letter that Achilles wants to marry Iphigenia, and won’t take part in the war against Troy, if his desire is not satisfied. Iphigenia comes to Aulis with the thoughts of happy wedding, but she comes here to die. The chorus dramatically parallels her dreams with reality: “wreathing the lovely tresses of thy hair, like a dappled mountain hind brought from some rocky cave or a heifer undefiled, and staining with blood thy human throat; though thou wert never reared like these amid the piping and whistling of herdsmen, but at thy mother's side, to be decked one day by her as the bride of a son of Inachus. Where now does the face of modesty or virtue avail aught?”
