Iphigenia in Taurus Essay & Criticism

Iphigenia in Taurus Critical Overview

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 three whole plays to burlesquing—ridiculing—his...
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