Book contents
- Monody in Euripides
- Monody in Euripides
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Editions and Translations
- Introduction
- 1 Ion
- 2 Iphigenia among the Taurians
- 3 Phoenician Women
- 4 Orestes
- Conclusion
- Appendix Actor’s Song in the Extant Plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
- References
- Index
2 - Iphigenia among the Taurians
Memory and Movement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2023
- Monody in Euripides
- Monody in Euripides
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Editions and Translations
- Introduction
- 1 Ion
- 2 Iphigenia among the Taurians
- 3 Phoenician Women
- 4 Orestes
- Conclusion
- Appendix Actor’s Song in the Extant Plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
- References
- Index
Summary
In Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, produced around 414–412 BCE, the two monodies highlight two critical stages of the heroine’s emotional journey from stasis to purposeful action. In her first monody, Iphigenia mourns the unfulfilled potential of her young life, where each status was canceled, each promised doing undone. Iphigenia’s second monody, delivered after the reunion scene with Orestes, marks a shift in her mind and a crisis in the plot. Here monody becomes a site for thought and decisive action, acting as a deliberative rhesis wherein the heroine formulates a plan for the future. The two monodies in this play thus mark two points in the inflection of Iphigenia’s character as she leaves behind her status as a passive victim and finds her purpose as the functional head of her family.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Monody in EuripidesCharacter and the Liberation of Form in Late Greek Tragedy, pp. 82 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023