Iphigenia in Taurus Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Iphigenia in Taurus.

Iphigenia in Taurus Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Iphigenia in Taurus.
This section contains 763 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Iphigenia in Taurus Study Guide

Euripides wrote Iphigenia in Taurus before he wrote Iphigenia in Aulis, making Aulis a kind of "prequel" to Taurus. Euripides is one of a trio of great tragedians in fifth-century Greece: Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus. Euripides was renowned during his lifetime, but he was not nearly as popular as either Sophocles or Aeschylus. Sophocles admired Euripides as a master playwright and honored the latter's death by having the participants in the subsequent Dionysian festival dress in mourning rather than in their usual festive costumes.

Philip Vellacott, a twentieth-century translator, explained in Ironic Drama that "as a poet he was revered; in his function as a 'teacher of citizens' he was misunderstood." A century later, Euripides gained more notoriety, if not appreciation. During the fourth century B.C., his plays were more commonly produced and adapted than those of his fifth-century rivals. Aristophanes (448-380 B.C.) dedicated...

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This section contains 763 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Iphigenia in Taurus Study Guide
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