Writer, written text and reader in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis

Abstract

In Euripides' tragedy, there will be significant occasions when writing plays a very important role. We will try to study the relationship between the person responsible for writing, the written text itself, its immediate reader, the listeners of the reading and the receiver-interceptor in Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides. We have analyzed this relationship on another occasion in Iphigenia at Tauris, where, as we believe, multiple edges of these complex relationships linked to writing are reflected. Our proposal now consists in postulating that these relations are presented in an even more complex way in Iphigenia at Aulis: in addition to its triple nature (between the writer and the text, between the text and its reader, between the reader and the listeners), they present other relationships: writing and its rewriting, the change of opinion of the writer and the forced reading, beyond the will of the writer. These complexities of relationships will constitute a key to the correct interpretation of the tragedy.