Just as Charles Dickens died before he finished writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Euripides died before he finished Iphigenia at Aulis. But unlike Dickens, Euripides had a descendant to finish the writing for him.
Discussion Prompts
- What does this play have to say about family loyalty?
- Where do you think this play should end? Why?
- Do you think this play would have won first prize if it hadn’t been produced alongside The Bacchae? Why or why not?
- What do you think of the characterization of Iphigenia? Clytaemestra? Agamemnon? Menelaos? Achilles?
- Describe your vision if you were directing this play today. Defend your choices.
- How well does this play fit with the rest of the plays we’ve seen that are part of this myth? (As a reminder: Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy, Sophocles’s Electra, Euripides’s Electra, Orestes, Iphigenia Among the Taurians…)
- Having read multiple versions of this myth, how do you choose to tell the story?
Triumvir Clio's School of Classical Civilization 