Euripides' narrative choral odes continue to trouble the critics. The hymn to the Mountain Mother in the Helen, the hymn to Apollo in Iphigenia among the Taurians, the song of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis in Iphigenia in Aulis, and the song of Achilles' armor in the Electra were once generally regarded as having little or nothing to do with the plays in which they appear. They were thought to be dithyrambic, essentially non-dramatic compositions, or embolima of the type Agathon is supposed to have written. These odes are now better appreciated, and we have learned to look in them for clues to the meaning of his plays, but we still condemn or defend their dramatic relevance according to an Aeschylean or Sophoclean model. We want a larger definition of the function of choral song in drama, and a critical approach to Euripides' odes that will reveal their meaning without obscuring their peculiar complexity.

Euripides' narrative songs may be better understood if we compare them with another more familiar type of Euripidean lyric, which we may call the escape ode. In an escape ode the chorus sings of its own or of someone else's escape from the present dramatic situation, with great elaboration and emphasis.