The story of Medea is only one part of a myth about the Argonauts' campaign. It portrays Jason joining a battle with fire-breathing bulls and a dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, Medea is helping him tame the beasts. She then follows him to Greece, because she falls in love.It is also a story of how a once young, beautiful and joyful woman, transforms into a monster, hungry for revenge, she kills even her own children. A long trail of horrible deaths, tied to her life path, is hard ...

The Trojan Women, also known as Troades, is a tragedy produced in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War. It is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athenians earlier that year. The four Trojan women of the play are the same that appear in the final book of the Iliad lamenting over the corpse of Hector.

ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL AND ENDURING OF GREEK TRAGEDIESAlong with Sophocles and Aeschylus, Euripides is regarded as one of the three great Greek tragedians from classical antiquity. One of his most important surviving dramas is “Medea”, which tells the story of the wife of Jason of the Argonauts, who seeks revenge upon her unfaithful husband when he abandons her for another bride.Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has...

Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full.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.His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. But he was also the literary a...

Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged with guilt after the vengeful murder of his mother. In the Bacchae, a king mistreats a newcomer to his land, little knowing that he is the god Dionysus disguised...

Alcestis is a Greek tragedy written by Euripides, one of the great playwrights of ancient Greece. It was first performed in Athens in 438 BC and is based on the mythological character Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, king of Pherae.The play begins with Admetus learning that he is fated to die soon, but he has been granted a reprieve by the god Apollo. However, in order to escape death, Admetus must find someone to take his place. Alcestis, his loyal wife, agrees to sacrifice herself in his s...

“The Trojan Women“ is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first presented at the City Dionysia of 415 BCE, along with two other unconnected tragedies, “Alexandros“ and “Palamedes“, and the comedic satyr play “Sisyphos“, all of which have since been lost to antiquity.The play is a famous and powerful indictment of the barbarous cruelties of war. It was first produced only months after the Athenians captured the city-state of Melos, butchering its men and reduc...

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 offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the poetry of the originals. Collected here for the first time in the series are four major works by Euripides all set in Athens: Hippoltos, translated by Robert Bagg, a dramatic int...

Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. Having married Medea and fathered her two children, Jason abandons her for a more favorable match, never suspecting the terrible revenge she will take....

A modern translation exclusive to signetFrom perhaps the greatest of the ancient Greek playwrights comes this collection of plays, including Alcestis, Hippolytus, Ion, Electra, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Medea, The Bacchae, The Trojan Women, and The Cyclops.

"Iphigenia at Aulis" is a tragedy written by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides in the 5th century BC. The play tells the story of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, who must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis in order to win the Trojan War.The play begins with the Greek army being stranded at the port of Aulis due to unfavorable winds, and Agamemnon is told by the seer Calchas that the only way to appease the gods and ensure a successful campaign is to sacri...

Alcestis is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize. In the play's prologue, the god Apollo comes out from Admetus' palace in Pherae (modern Velestino in Magnesia), dressed in white and carrying his golden bow, with the intention of leaving to avoid becoming stained ...