Euripides and Politics: Meaning and Structure in Iphigenia among the Taurians and The Trojan Women

The lecture will discuss the political meaning that Euripides' tragedies carried. While contemporary critics tend to see the tragedies as discussing the most general political and social themes, such as democracy, slavery, and gender issues, the lecture will propose and justify a very different connection between theatre and political life: the staging of a tragedy celebrates an important political event for Athens. This conclusion follows from a detailed analysis of the poetic and dramatic structure of two tragedies, Iphigenia in Tauris and The Trojan Women.