Women and Oaths in Euripides

The plots of three Euripidean tragedies, the Medea, the Hippolytus, and the Iphigenia at Aulis, are driven by oaths sworn by men to women. Women gain control not only of men's language and action, a distortion of the normative social hegemony, but also of the script itself. In all three plays women's power is substantiated by additional oaths of solidarity sworn by female choruses. The catastrophes of the Medea and the Hippolytus are direct consequences of women's control of language, while the twinned oaths of Pylades and Iphigenia dilute this control and contribute to the salutary outcome of the Iphigenia.