Barbarian among barbarians : a study of Euripides' Iphigenia in Taurus

Abstract

This thesis is a new reading of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris, and argues that, contrary to common scholarly opinion, Iphigenia in Tauris is a serious tragedy which engages with serious issues, and is as finely constructed as some of Euripides’ better known, and better loved, plays. I have examined IT as an individual play on its own terms, but within the whole context of fifth century literature and ideology. Throughout this thesis, my methodology has been based primarily on close reading of the text while keeping in mind the contemporary context. I have approached the text as one written for performance, and I have always analyzed the text with performance in mind. The present study is thematic rather than seriatim, with the exception of ch. 2, which deals with the stagecraft of the play.