Euripides

Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him; of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived complete. Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances....

Euripides, the youngest of the trio of great Greek tragedians was born at Salamis in 480 B.C., on the day when the Greeks won their momentous naval victory there over the fleet of the Persians. The precise social status of his parents is not clear but he received a good education, was early distinguished as an athlete, and showed talent in painting and oratory. He was a fellow student of Pericles, and his dramas show the influence of the philosophical...

Clinging to the altar of the sea-goddess Thetis for sanctuary, Andromache delivers the play's prologue, in which she mourns her misfortune (the destruction of Troy, the deaths of her husband Hector and their child Astyanax, and her enslavement to Neoptolemos) and her persecution at the hands of Neoptolemos' new wife Hermione and her father Menelaus, King of Sparta. She reveals that Neoptolemos has left for the oracle at Delphi and that she has hidden...

"Ion" interprets the legend of the orphan Ion, who was conceived from the rape of Creusa by the god Apollo. Creusa is determined to keep the rape secret, and leaves the baby for dead. The baby is rescued by Hermes, and raised by a Pythian Priestess in Delphi. Many years later, when Creusa and her husband Xuthus visit the oracles at Delphi, the mother and son are reunited under false pretenses. The ensuing story of betrayal, revenge and reconciliation...

Iolaus, Heracles' nephew and his companion during his Twelve Labours but now an old man, is in hiding with Heracles' fatherless children at the altar of the temple of Zeus at Marathon, near Athens. They have been moving from city to city, as Iolaus tries to protect them from the vengeful King Eurystheus of Argos, who has vowed to kill them. A herald from Eurystheus appears calling on them once more to return to Argos to face the consequences, and...

A fantastic comic-book collaboration between the artist Rosanna Bruno and the poet Anne Carson, based on Euripides's famous tragedy

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF 2021

Here is a new comic-book version of Euripides's classic The Trojan Women, which follows the fates of Hekabe, Andromache, and Kassandra after Troy has been sacked and all its men killed. This collaboration between the visual...

"Helen" is a drama which follows an alternative myth of Helen of Sparta after the fall of Troy. It begins with the premise that Helen did not run off to Troy with Paris, but was actually stolen away to Egypt by the gods and replaced by a phantom look-alike in Troy.

"Heracles" was first performed in 416 B.C.E. at the City Dionysia festival, and remains one of the playwright's most puzzling works. The somewhat disconnected halves of this story feature a powerful climax when Heracles undergoes a fit of madness in the underworld. It explores themes of courage, endurance and nobility, as Heracles comes to the realization that he must accept his flaws and face whatever life has in store for him.

Here, in "Iphigenia Among the Taurians" is an escape play with a familiar cast of characters. Iphigenia, Orestes, and Pylades all appear at the Black Sea in a fascinating drama about ritual and sacrifice among the cult of Artemis. "Iphigenia" is difficult to categorize as it deftly moves from romance to comedy to tragedy. Considered by many classicists to be Euripides most well executed play, "Iphigenia" displays the deeply philosophical leanings...

Played out against the ruined walls of Troy, The Trojan Women - one of the most powerful indictments of war ever written - grimly recounts the murder of the innocent, the desecration of shrines, and the enslavement of Trojan women. Hippolytus, the second drama, depicts the struggles to master human passion, struggles symbolized by gods who behave like irresponsible humans. These two classics of human self-examination are essential reading for anyone...