Read complete books and articles on: Euripides

Euripides - yoorĭpˈĭdēz, 480 or 485–406 b.c., Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time on Salamis. He died in Macedonia, at the court of King Archelaus. He wrote perhaps 92 plays (the first produced in 455); during his lifetime he won only four first prizes (the first in 441) at the competition held at the annual spring festival of Dionysus in Athens. There are 19 of his plays extant (including one that is doubtful): Cyclops (date unknown), the only complete extant Greek satyr play; Alcestis (438); the Heraclidae (c.430?), a patriotic play inspired by the Peloponnesian War; Medea (431); Hippolytus (428); Andromache (426?); Hecuba (425?); the Suppliants and Hercules Furens (both c.420); Electra (417?); the Trojan Women (415), an indictment of war; Helena (412); Ion (c.412); Iphigenia in Tauris (date uncertain); the Phoenician Women (c.409), on the story of the Seven against Thebes; Orestes (408); Iphigenia in Aulis and the Bacchae, on the Pentheus story, both posthumously produced (405); and Rhesus, doubtfully attributed to Euripides. Provocative, concerned with problems and conflicts sometimes disturbing to his audiences, Euripides displays a rationalistic and iconoclastic attitude toward the gods and an interest in less heroic, even homely, characters. He brings the mythical stories down to the immediate contemporary and human level. His sense of dramatic situation and plot construction go beyond Aeschylus and Sophocles, and what his plays may lack in grandeur they make up in penetration. His choral passages (interludes in, rather than parts of, the action) have remarkable lyric power. Euripides uses the prologue to get into the situation as rapidly as possible, sacrificing a proper exposition of previous action, and he uses the deus ex machina [god from a machine] to cut through and resolve the play's problem. His popularity increased after his death, and his plays were revived more than those of Aeschylus or Sophocles. Among the many translations of Euripides is The Complete Greek Tragedies, ed. by Richmond Lattimore and David Grene (1956–59).

See studies by G. Murray (1918, 2d ed. repr. 1965), T. B. L. Webster (1967), and A. P. Burnett (1972).

Show Excerpt Only

16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Euripides

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Euripides and His Influence » Read Now
by F. L. Lucas. 194 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
2.

Medea; Hippolytus; Electra; Helen » Read Now
by Euripides, James Morwood. 218 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This new translation brings to life the most profound tragedies of Euripides, described by Aristotle as "the most tragic of the poets." In these plays, Euripides places his characters under the pressure of intolerable circumstances, revealing them, to use his own words, "as they are." Responsive to...
Read More

This new translation brings to life the most profound tragedies of Euripides, described by Aristotle as "the most tragic of the poets." In these plays, Euripides places his characters under the pressure of intolerable circumstances, revealing them, to use his own words, "as they are." Responsive to the fate of women, these plays give voice to a howl of protest against the world in which we live. Full explanatory notes accompany this translation. Edith Hall provides a substantial general introduction and select bibliography.
Show less
3.

Herakles » Read Now
by Euripides, Tom Sleigh. 112 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

In Herakles, Euripides reveals with great subtlety and complexity the often brutal underpinnings of our social arrangements. The play enacts a thoroughly contemporary dilemma about the relationship between personal and state violence to civic order. Of all of Euripides' plays, this is his most...
Read More

In Herakles, Euripides reveals with great subtlety and complexity the often brutal underpinnings of our social arrangements. The play enacts a thoroughly contemporary dilemma about the relationship between personal and state violence to civic order. Of all of Euripides' plays, this is his most skeptically subversive examination of myth, morality, and power. Depicting Herakles slowly going mad by Hera, the wife of Zeus, this play continues to haunt and inspire readers. Hera hates Herakles because he is one of Zeus' children born of adultery, and in his madness, Herakles is driven to murder his own wife and children and is eventually exiled, by his own accord, to Athens. This new volume includes a fresh translation, an updated introduction, detailed notes on the text, and a thorough glossary.
Show less
4.

The Bakkhai » Read Now
by Euripides, Robert Bagg. 96 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Scrawny Sonnets and Other Narratives Euripides, Hippolytos translation with introduction and notes Euripides, The Bakkhai translation with introduction...notes THE BAKKHAI...
5.

Cyclops » Read Now
by Euripides, David Konstan, Heather McHugh. 77 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order...
Read More

Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. Under the general editorship of Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on the text, full stage directions, and a glossary of the mythical and geographical references in the play. Brimming with lusty comedy and horror, this new version of Euripides' only extant satyr play has been refreshed with all the salty humor, vigorous music, and dramatic shapeliness available in modern American English. Driven by storms onto the shores of the Cyclops' island, Odysseus and his men find that the Cyclops has already enslaved a company of Greeks. When some of Odysseus' crew are seized and eaten by the Cyclops, Odysseus resorts to spectacular stratagems to free his crew and escape the island. In this powerful work, prize-winning poet Heather McHugh and respected classicist David Konstan combine their talents to create this unusually strong and contemporary tragic-comedy marked by lively lyricism and moral subtlety.
Show less
6.

Medea (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Alan Elliott. 165 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
7.

The Agon in Euripides » Read Now
by Michael Lloyd. 152 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This book is a study of the agon, or formal debate, in Euripides' tragedies. In these scenes, two characters confront each other, often before an arbitrator or judge, and make long speeches as if they were opponents in a court of law. Most of Euripides' extant plays contain an agon, often of crucial...
Read More

This book is a study of the agon, or formal debate, in Euripides' tragedies. In these scenes, two characters confront each other, often before an arbitrator or judge, and make long speeches as if they were opponents in a court of law. Most of Euripides' extant plays contain an agon, often of crucial importance to the central conflict of the play. Lloyd provides interpretations of the more important agones, giving special attention to their dramatic context and function. Concentrating on Euripides' rhetorical skill, brilliance in argument, and interest in philosophy, Lloyd explores the role of formal debate in Euripides. He contrasts the agon in Euripides' work with that of Sophocles, and discusses extensively Euripides' relationship to fifth-century rhetorical theory and practice.
Show less
8.

Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow: Art, Gender, and Commemoration in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba » Read Now
by Charles Segal. 316 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow ART, GENDER, AND COMMEMORATION...ix 1. Introduction 3 2. Euripides Muse of Sorrows and the Artifice...
9.

Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study (includes "The Euripidean Tragedy" and "The Technique of the Euripidean Tragedy") » Read Now
by H. D. F. Kitto. 412 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Sophocles introduce the Third Actor? why did Euripides not make better plots? This book is...to activity. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides each have a different fashion...
10.

Theseus, Tragedy, and the Athenian Empire (includes "Theseus of Trozen: Euripides' Hippolytus and its Predecessors") » Read Now
by Sophie Mills. 293 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This book traces the development of the Theseus myth and its importance for Athens. Mills examines all extant tragedies in which Theseus appear in order to assess the significance of his role as mythological representative of Athenian greatness. She argues that the Theseus of most Athenian tragedy...
Read More

This book traces the development of the Theseus myth and its importance for Athens. Mills examines all extant tragedies in which Theseus appear in order to assess the significance of his role as mythological representative of Athenian greatness. She argues that the Theseus of most Athenian tragedy is carefully drawn to exemplify the idealized image of the Athenian "national character" that was prevalent in the age of the empire.
Show less
11.

Gender and Politics in Greek Tragedy, Vol. 7 of Artists and Issues in the Theatre (includes "'The Best of All Possible Wives': Euripides' Alcestis" and "Euripides' Everywoman: Medea nad the Dramaturgy of Gender") » Read Now
by August W. Staub. 158 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Theatrical tragedy, like all other major civic institutions of the fifth-century B.C. Athenian democratic patriarchy, was exclusively male. The course of western drama changed when women characters (played by transvestite male performers) were introduced. Gender and Politics in Greek Tragedy...
Read More

Theatrical tragedy, like all other major civic institutions of the fifth-century B.C. Athenian democratic patriarchy, was exclusively male. The course of western drama changed when women characters (played by transvestite male performers) were introduced. Gender and Politics in Greek Tragedy explores themes and issues of gender identity and political ideology in plays by Aeschylus (Suppliant Maidens, Oresteia), Sophocles (Antigone, Philoctetes), and Euripides (Alcestis, Medea, Orestes, Helen, Iphigeneia in Aulis, Bakkhai). This is the first book-length treatment of the themes of gender and politics in ancient Greek tragedy.
Show less
12.

Euripides and the Spirit of His Dramas » Read Now
by Paul Decharme, James Loeb. 392 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...EURIPIDES AND THE SPIRIT OF HIS DRAMAS -i- BUST OF EURIPIDES IN THE BRUNSWICK MUSEUM EURIPIDES AND THE SPIRIT OF HIS DRAMAS BY PAUL DECHARME PROFESSOR OF GREEK POETRY IN...
13.

Murder Among Friends: Violations of Philia in Greek Tragedy (includes "Averting Fratricide: Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris") » Read Now
by Elizabeth S. Belfiore. 282 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Modern scholars have followed Aristotle in noting the importance of philia (kinship or friendship) in Greek tragedy, especially the large number of plots in which kin harm or murder one another. More than half of the thirty-two extant tragedies focus on an act in which harm occurs or is about to...
Read More

Modern scholars have followed Aristotle in noting the importance of philia (kinship or friendship) in Greek tragedy, especially the large number of plots in which kin harm or murder one another. More than half of the thirty-two extant tragedies focus on an act in which harm occurs or is about to occur among philoi who are blood kin. In contrast, Homeric epic tends to avoid the portrayal of harm to kin. It appears, then, that kin killing does not merely occur in what Aristotle calls the "best" Greek tragedies; rather, it is a characteristic of the genre as a whole. In Murder Among Friends, Elizabeth Belfiore supports this thesis with an in-depth examination of the crucial role of philia in Greek tragedy. Drawing on a wealth of evidence, she compares tragedy and epic, discusses the role of philia relationships within Greek literature and society, and analyzes in detail the pattern of violation of philia in five plays: Aeschylus' Suppliants, Sophocles' Philoctetes and Ajax, and Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris and Andromache. Appendixes further document instances of violation of philia in all the extant tragedies as well as in the lost plays of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.
Show less
14.

Figures of Play: Greek Drama and Metafictional Poetics (includes "Herakles: Euripides' Peirithous and Aristophanes' Frogs") » Read Now
by Gregory W. Dobrov. 240 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Figures of Play explores the reflexive aspects of ancient theatrical culture across genres. Fifth century tragedy and comedy sublimated the agonistic basis of Greek civilization in a way that invited the community of the polis to confront itself. In the theatre, as in the courts and assemblies, a...
Read More

Figures of Play explores the reflexive aspects of ancient theatrical culture across genres. Fifth century tragedy and comedy sublimated the agonistic basis of Greek civilization in a way that invited the community of the polis to confront itself. In the theatre, as in the courts and assemblies, a significant subset of the Athenian public was spectator and judge of contests where important social and ideological issues were played to it by its own members. The "syntax" of drama is shown to involve specific "figures of play" through which the theatrical medium turns back on itself to study the various contexts of its production. Greek tragedy and comedy were argued to be tempermentally metafictional in that they are always involved in recycling older fictions into contemporary scenarios of immediate relevance to the polis. The phemonenology of this process is discussed under three headings, each a "figure of play": 1) surface play--momentary disruption of the theatrical pretense through word, sign, gesture; 2) mise en abyme--a mini-drama embedded in a larger framework; 3) contrafact--an extended remake in which one play is based on another. Following three chapters in which this framework is set forth and illustrated with concrete examples there are five case studies named after the protagonists of the plays in question: Aias, Pentheus, Tereus, Bellerophontes, Herakles. Hence the other meaning of "figures of play" as stage figures. In the second section of the book on "the Anatomy of Dramatic Fiction," special attention is paid to the interaction between genres. In particular, Aristophanic comedy is shown to be engaged in an intense rivalry with tragedy that underscores the different ways in which each genre deployed its powers of representation. Tragedy refashions myth: in Bakkhai, for example, it is argued that Euripides reinvented Dionysis to be specifically a theatrical god, a symbol of tragedy's powers of representation. Comedy refashions tragedy: in a series of utopian comedies, Aristophanes re-enacts a tragic scenario in a way that revals comedy as a superior means of solving political and social crisis.
Show less
15.

Tragedy and the Tragic: Greek Theatre and Beyond (includes "Realism in the Ion: Response to Lee") » Read Now
by M. S. Silk. 566 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This important book of thirty new essays focuses on the crucial question: what makes tragedy, especially Greek tragedy, tragic? The contributors include many of the world's foremost scholars in the field of Greek drama. The book is accessible to readers with no knowledge of Greek and will be...
Read More

This important book of thirty new essays focuses on the crucial question: what makes tragedy, especially Greek tragedy, tragic? The contributors include many of the world's foremost scholars in the field of Greek drama. The book is accessible to readers with no knowledge of Greek and will be essential reading for anyone interested in tragedy, especially students and specialists in classics, drama, and English literature.
Show less
16.

Euripides: Student of Human Nature » Read Now
by William Nickerson Bates. 315 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...EURIPIDES PLATE I. -- EURIPIDES PRESENTS A TRAGIC MASK TO THE STAGE. FROM A LATE RELIEF IN CONSTANTINOPLE EURIPIDES STUDENT OF HUMAN NATURE BY WILLIAM NICKERSON BATES PH.D...