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2 - Iphigenia among the Taurians

Memory and Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Claire Catenaccio
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
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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.

Type
Chapter
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Monody in Euripides
Character and the Liberation of Form in Late Greek Tragedy
, pp. 82 - 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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