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Euripides

Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) was an Athenian playwright and one of the three principal tragedians of classical Greece, alongside Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in the deme of Phlya near Athens, he produced approximately 92 plays over a career spanning from his debut in 455 BC until his death, with 18 or 19 surviving intact today.

Euripides competed 22 times at the City Dionysia festival, securing only four first-place victories—three posthumously in 405 BC with productions including Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis—reflecting mixed contemporary reception despite his enduring influence.

In his final years, Euripides accepted patronage from King Archelaus of Macedon, composing works like Archelaus there before dying in 406 BC, after which his reputation surged, with Aristophanes and later audiences praising his rhetorical skill and emotional depth.

Iphigenia among the Taurians

Iphigenia among the Taurians (Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις) was produced in 414 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The play reworks the myth of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, who was spared from sacrifice at Aulis by the goddess Artemis, who substituted a deer and transported her to the Taurians' land on the Black Sea coast, where she serves as priestess required to prepare Greek strangers for human sacrifice to the goddess. It centers on the arrival of her brother Orestes, tormented by the Furies after matricide and guided by Apollo's oracle to steal Artemis' sacred statue for release from his affliction, accompanied by his loyal friend Pylades; their capture leads to a tense recognition scene, a clever escape plan involving deception of the Taurian king Thoas, and divine intervention by Athena to ensure their safe return to Greece with the statue. Unlike many tragedies, the work ends in salvation and reunion rather than catastrophe, marking it as one of Euripides' "escape plays" or romantic tragedies.