IPHIGENIA'S DREAM IN EURIPIDES' IPHIGENIA TAURICA

Euripides' Second Thoughts

Timing Recognition: from Aristotle's Comments on the Iphigenia in Tauris to Gluck's Opera

No doubt Aristotle considered Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris among his favorite plays. He was impressed by its complex recognition scene to such a degree that he offered it several times in the Poetics as an example of how playwrights should compose such scenes. Nonetheless, he must have also admired Polyidus' variant of the recognition between Iphigenia and Orestes, since he mentions it as a v...

A Literary Study of Euripides’ Phoinissai

The Limits of Dionysiac Liberation in Euripides' Bacchae

Scholars have frequently observed that Dionysus is a god who breaks down barriers (of gender, class, social norms, et cetera). This is true in Euripides's Bacchae to a certain extent, and the play's breakdown of the divide between male/female and Greek/foreign has been well examined in scholarship. However, the limitations of this questioning of boundaries are much less discussed. For instance,...

Dream incubation: ancient techniques of dream influence

Dream incubation refers collectively to the practices, rituals, techniques and efforts that an individual applies to intentionally evoke helpful dreams. Derived from the Latin verb incubare (in'upon' + cubare 'to lie'), the term connotes the support and nurturance provided by a laying mother bird for her developing egg. The parallels with dream influence are all too appropriate; in antiquity, t...