DOES ARISTOTLE BELIEVE GREEKS SHOULD RULE BARBARIANS?

Some scholars argue Aristotle reflects the prejudices of his Athenian audience, pointing to his repetition of the poetic claim that, it is fitting for Greeks to rule barbarians. What many of these critics - as well as many of Aristotle's defenders - fail to note is that the source of Aristotle's quotation (Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis) itself undermines the claim. Aristotle's citation, therefore, is less proof of his racial bias or an esoteric subversion of Greek attitudes of superiority than an explicit call to consider more carefully what the basis of true excellence is and what its attainment requires.