Euripides’ NewfangledHelen

Abstract

When Euripides’Helenwas first produced in 412 B.C., it seems to have created a literary sensation. We have Aristophanes’ word for it. In theThesmophoriazusae, staged almost certainly at the Dionysia of the following year, the comic poet introduces an old relative of Euripides, who says at line 850 ‘I’m going to copy that newfangled Helen’τήν καινήν ΈΧένψ μιμήσομαι, and this he proceeds to do by burlesquing four scenes from the tragedy.