Book review: Iphigenia Among the Taurians

Iphigenia Among the Taurians introduces the daughter of Agamemnon, survivor of an attempted human sacrifice, working as a priestess of Artemis at a temple that sacrifices men.

Unfortunately the rest of the play does not live up to this initial excitement. The plot heavily relies on the irony of Iphigenia and Orestes not recognizing each other, until eventually they do. This makes for a pretty boring story, and while the escape is cool and all, none of this really did anything for me.

Anne Carson has a fluid writing style. Her liberal use of line breaks and modern poetry conventions make her translations of Euripides very accessible. I’ve read her Bakkhai and would love to track down others.