Carriages of justice: Euripidean receptions of the Agamemnon "carpet scene"

Journal article

Aeschylus’s Oresteia had an enduring impact on later Greek tragedy. This article explores the reception of the Agamemnon “carpet scene” in three Euripidean plays: Electra, Trojan Women, and Iphigenia at Aulis. It makes the case for a maximal reading of intertheatrical connections in Attic tragedy, and contends that verbal and thematic parallels serve as an index of now lost interperformative connections onstage. All three Euripidean reworkings concern other episodes of the Trojan war myth, establishing a network of connections and a sense of cyclical inevitability akin to that which Aeschylus achieves within a single interconnected trilogy.

Authors: Nelson, T

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Department of the Classics, Harvard University
• Journal: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-26
• EISSN: 2325-9353
• ISSN: 0073-0688
• Language: English