Electra and Other Plays: Euripides [Paperback]

Euripides, wrote Aristotle, ‘is the most intensely tragic of all the poets’. In his questioning attitude to traditional pieties, disconcerting shifts of sympathy, disturbingly eloquent evil characters and acute insight into destructive passion, he is also the most strikingly modern of ancient authors.

Written in the period from 426 to 415 BC, during the fierce struggle for supremacy between Athens and Sparta, these five plays are haunted by the horrors of war – and its particular impact on women. Only theSuppliants, with its extended debate on democracy and monarchy, can be seen as a patriotic piece.The Trojan Womenis perhaps the greatest of all anti-war dramas;Andromacheshows the ferocious clash between the wife and concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemos; whileHecabereveals how hatred can drive a victim to an appalling act of cruelty.Electradevelops (and parodies) Aeschylus’ treatment of the same story, in which the heroine and her brother Orestes commit matricide to avenge their father Agamemnon. As always, Euripides presents the heroic figures of mythology as recognizable, often very fallible, human beings. Some of his greatest achievements appear in this volume.

Electra and Other PlaysGeneral Introduction
Note on the Text
Chronological Table
Translator's Note

Preface toAndromache
Andromache

Preface toHecabe
Hecabe

Preface toSuppliant Women
Suppliant Women

Preface toElectra
Electra

Preface toTrojan Women
Trojan Women

Notes
Bibliography
Glossary of Mythological and Geographical Names

Euripides, the youngest of the three great Athenian playwrights, was born around 485 BC of a family of good standing. He first competed in the dramatic festivals in 455 BC, coming only third; his record of success in the tragic competitions is lls