Talk:Q523227
Autodescription — Iphigenia in Tauris (Q523227)
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Even though Euripides is most famous as a tragedian, we shouldn't call this a tragedy. As the English-language Wikipedia puts it, this play "is often described as a romance, a melodrama, a tragi-comedy or an escape play." The Oxford Classical Dictionary says "in so far as there has been a consensus, plays such as Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion and Helen have been characterised as 'escapist' or 'tragicomedies'." Personally, I'd say 'melodrama', what with the early tension of whether Iphigenia will unknowingly kill her brother, and the eventual escape and divine intervention that leaves everyone alive and satisfied. I hesitated to be so specific, given the other descriptions, so I chose 'play' but 'drama' would work well. @EncycloPetey: would you consider self-reverting to 'play' or switching to 'drama'? 92.19.24.131 11:20, 2 November 2019 (UTC)
- The source of the WP information is a work entitled Euripides' Escape-Tragedies: A Study of Helen, Andromeda, and Iphigenia among the Taurians. Even those scholars who describe it with additional words classify it as a tragedy, as it was presented in the competition for tragedies. It is true that Euripides' style led to an eventual change in the character of Greek drama, but viewed contextually in its original setting, sources call it a tragedy, not only in English but in other languages as well. French Wikipedia calls it "une tragédie grecque d'Euripide". Dutch Wikipedia calls it "een tragedie van de Griekse tragediedichter Euripides". It is therfore not clear exactly who has produced this consensus in The Oxford Classical Dictionary. --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:46, 2 November 2019 (UTC)