Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris

David Kovacs (University of Virginia)

Ed. by Vaios Liapis, Open University of Cyprus
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. -410

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragedy

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Iphigenia among the Taurians

, produced

. 414, is a play that ends happily for its protagonists Orestes, Iphigenia, and Pylades. For moderns that would make it not a tragedy but a tragicomedy. But for the ancient Athenians it was a

tragôidia

, that is a play about the figures of myth (this distinguishes it from a

komôidia

, which is about the comic poet’s contemporaries) and also does not have a chorus of satyrs (this distinguishes it from a

drama satyrikon

or satyr play, the burlesque on heroic themes presented as the fourth of the four plays a tragic poet presented at the Dionysia). In fact, Aristotle in his

Poetics

cites

Iphigenia among the Taurians

as a model for tragic poets almost as often as he cites

Oedipus the King

. The important thing in an ancient tragedy is not that it…

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1636 words

Citation: Kovacs, David. "Iphigenia in Tauris". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 May 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13360, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris

Dates

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