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Electra and Other Plays: Euripides (Penguin Classics) Paperback – January 1, 1999

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

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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 the Suppliants, with its extended debate on democracy and monarchy, can be seen as a patriotic piece. The Trojan Women is perhaps the greatest of all anti-war dramas; Andromache shows the ferocious clash between the wife and concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemos; while Hecabe reveals how hatred can drive a victim to an appalling act of cruelty. Electra develops (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.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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 lower than that of either Aeschylus or Sophocles. There is a tradition that he was unpopular, even a recluse; we are told that he composed poetry in a cave by the sea, near Salamis. What is clear from contemporary evidence, however, is that audiences were fascinated by his innovative and often disturbing dramas. His work was controversial already in his lifetime, and he himself was regarded as a ‘clever’ poet, associated with philosophers and other intellectuals. Towards the end of his life he went to live at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon. It was during his time there that he wrote what many consider his greates work, the Bacchae. When news of his death reached Athens in early 406 BC, Sophocles appeared publicly in mourning for him. Euripides is thought to have written about ninety-two plays, of which seventeen tragedies and one satyr-play known to be his survive; the other play which is attributed to him, the Rhesus, may in fact be by a later hand.

John Davie is head of classics at St. Paul's School in London.


Richard Rutherford is tutor in Greek and Latin literature at Christ Church, Oxford.


Richard Rutherford is tutor in Greek and Latin literature at Christ Church, Oxford.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0140446680
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (January 1, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780140446685
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140446685
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.57 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

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Euripides
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Euripides (/jʊəˈrɪpᵻdiːz/ or /jɔːˈrɪpᵻdiːz/; Greek: Εὐριπίδης; Ancient Greek: [eu̯.riː.pí.dɛːs]) (c. 480 – 406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few whose plays have survived, with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles, and potentially Euphorion. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete (there has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to mere chance and partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes and Menander.

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. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. Yet he also became "the most tragic of poets",[nb 1] focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of...that cage which is the theatre of Shakespeare's Othello, Racine's Phèdre, of Ibsen and Strindberg," in which "...imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates", and yet he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top review from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2017
needed for school. shipped well and in good condition!

Top reviews from other countries

Lorraine Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to find and download
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2021
I used this book for zoom meeting plays
Arthur
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in Australia on February 26, 2024
Book was throw into package without care, giant crease on the back. Do better.
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Arthur
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in Australia on February 26, 2024
Book was throw into package without care, giant crease on the back. Do better.
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Pete
5.0 out of 5 stars Electra and other plays
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2014
This book is part of my coursework for my Classics A- Levels, I chose it because the Penguin Version is always good, the language used is easy to read and understand, it arrived quickly and on time. I would recommend it to anyone studying Classics or an interest in Classics.
Nod3397
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2017
Good
Tracy Aitken
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2017
Marvellous.