Hamilton is an English teacher at Cary Academy, an innovative private school in Cary, North Carolina, In this essay she explores the multi-layered ironies o/Iphigenia in Taurus and suggests that to probe these layers sharpens the drama student's critical thinking skills.

Because Iphigenia in Taurus is not as tragic or as compelling a story as such works as Sophocles's Oedipus the King or Antigone, (or even Euripides's own Medea), it is not produced as often on the modern stage or studied in the classroom as frequently. This play, written by a septuagenarian Euripides, pales in comparison to the violent action films of today's cinema, a genre of entertainment familiar to most students. Iphigenia in Taurus does not carry the legitimizing title of tragedy; it is often more accurately labeled a melodrama or romance. It has also frequently been dismissed as ancient Greek "escape" literature.

In a...