Iphigenia among the Taurians, produced ca. 414, is a play that ends happily for its protagonists Orestes, Iphigenia, and Pylades. For moderns that would make it not a tragedy but a tragicomedy. But for the ancient Athenians it was a tragôidia, that is a play about the figures of myth (this distinguishes it from a komôidia, which is about the comic poet’s contemporaries) and also does not have a chorus of satyrs (this distinguishes it from a drama satyrikon or satyr play, the burlesque on heroic themes presented as the fourth of the four plays a tragic poet presented at the Dionysia). In fact, Aristotle in his Poetics cites Iphigenia among the Taurians as a model for tragic poets …
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Citation: Kovacs, David. "Iphigenia in Tauris". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 May 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13360, accessed 24 November 2024.]
