page_title: Iphigenia in Tauris
section_title: Date
hierarchical_section_title: Iphigenia in Tauris / Date
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail with motives from Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides from the decoration in the triclinium of the Casa dei Vettii (VI 15,1) in Pompeii. Deutsch: Detail der Wanddekoration aus dem Triklinium der Casa dei Vettii (VI 15,1) in Pompeji mit Motiven aus Iphigenia in Taurus des Euripides. Italiano: Scena da Ifigenia in Tauride di Euripide, nella decorazione del triclinio della Casa dei Vettii (VI 15,1) a Pompei.
context_page_description: Iphigenia in Tauris is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, as well as the lost play Andromeda, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, a tragi-comedy or an escape play.
  Although the play is generally known in English as Iphigenia in Tauris, this is, strictly speaking, the Latin title of the play, the meaning of which is Iphigenia among the Taurians. There is no such place as "Tauris" in Euripides' play, although Goethe, in his play Iphigenie auf Tauris, ironically utilising this translation error, posits such a place. The name refers to the Crimean Peninsula.
context_section_description: The exact date of Iphigenia in Tauris is unknown.  Metrical analysis by Zielinski indicated a date between 414 and 413 BCE, but later analysis by Martin Cropp and Gordon Fick using more sophisticated statistical techniques indicated a wider range of 416 to 412 BCE.  The plot of Iphigenia in Tauris is similar to that of Euripides' Helen and Andromeda, both of which are known to have been first performed in 412.  This has often been taken as a reason to reject 412 as the date for Iphigenia in Tauris, since that would mean three similar plays would have been performed in the same trilogy.  However, Matthew Wright believes the plot and other stylistic similarities between the three plays indicates that they most likely were produced as part of the same trilogy in 412.  Among Wright's reasons are the fact that although the plots are similar they are not identical, and that this type of escape plot may have been particularly relevant in 412 at the first Dionysia after Athens' failed Sicilian Expedition.  Also, other than this play and the two plays known to date to 412, we do not know of any such escape plays by Euripides; if he produced two that year, why not three, which might make a particularly strong impression if the escape theme was one Euripides wished to emphasize that year.  Finally, Aristophanes overtly parodied Helen and Andromeda in his comedy Thesmophoriazusae, produced in 411, and Wright sees a more subtle parody of Iphigenia in Tauris in the final escape plan attempted in Thesmophoriazusae as well.
caption: Iphigenia in Tauride, decoration in Pompeii
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