Ritual Irony

Ritual Irony is a critical study of four problematic later plays of Euripides: the Iphigenia in Aulis , the Phoenissae , the Heracles , and the Bacchae . Examining Euripides' representation of sacrificial ritual against the background of late fifth-century Athens, Helene P. Foley shows that each of these plays confronts directly the difficulty of making an archaic poetic tradition relevant to a democratic society. She explores the important mediating role played by choral poetry and ritual in th