Eurípides

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceHecuba, deposed queen of Troy, has seen her husband humiliated, her son murdered and her daughter sacrificed. Her grief turns to anger and she enacts a bloody vengeance on those responsible for the destruction of her family.This English translation of Euripides classic tragedy, published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Marianne McDonald.

Euripides classic story of the woman who murders her own children in revenge for her husbands infidelity, here given a distinctive Scots flavour by the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead.Lochheads version of the play was commissioned and first performed by Theatre Babel at The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, in March 2000. The production was revived at the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2000, and then remounted for a national tour later in 2000. It returned to the Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2001.This edition of the play was awarded the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2001.

I choose to take back my life.My life. Medea is a wife and a mother. For the sake of her husband, Jason, shes left her home and borne two sons in exile. But when he abandons his family for a new life, Medea faces banishment and separation from her children. Cornered, she begs for one days grace. Its time enough. She exacts an appalling revenge and destroys everything she holds dear. Ben Powers version of Euripides tragedy Medea premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2014.

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceAt the whim of Dionysos, a son is torn to pieces by his own mother during the famous women-only Bacchanalian ritual. The story of revenge by the half-man half-god on Pentheus, King of Thebes, and all his people.This version of EuripidesBacchae is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael.

Translated Into English Rhyming Verse With Explanatory Notes / By Gilbert Murray

Children, lead this old woman outside. A slave like the rest of you, She once was your queen. Troy has fallen to the Greeks, and Hecuba, its beloved queen, is widowed and enslaved. She mourns her great city and the death of her husband, but when fresh horrors emerge, her grief turns to rage and a lust for revenge. A savage indictment of the devastation of war, Hecuba is brought to life in this thrillingly visceral new version.Hecuba premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London in September 2004.

Shes chucked out like an old coat that nae langer fits himMedea and Jason, clinging together as refugees in Corinth, have struggled to bring up their beloved offspring in this alien and unsympathetic society. Now Jason has a plan to better integrate himself. Unfortunately, this involves abandoning his wife, the mother of his childrenSpurned, destitute, desperate, Medea exacts her terrible retribution.Liz Lochheads Scots-inflected version of Euripides classic revenge tragedy was first performed by Theatre Babel in 2000 and won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award. It was revived by the National Theatre of Scotland as part of the 2022 Edinburgh International Festival, with Adura Onashile as Medea, directed by Michael Boyd.

Translated into English rhyming verse by Gilbert Murray

Tr.: Theodore Alois Buckley

Translated by Gilbert Murray

Seven years have passed since the end of the Trojan War and Menelaus, King of Sparta and husband to Helen, is making his slow and painful way home. When his ship is wrecked on the coast of Egypt he stumbles upon what seems to be his wife lingering outside the royal palace. But if this is the real Helen, who was the beautiful woman stolen by Paris, for whom all Greece took up arms? Did Troy fall for nothing? Has it all been some gods idea of a joke? Frank McGuinnesss version of EuripidesHelen premiered at Shakespeares Globe, London, in August, 2009.

Furious that Prince Hippolytus will not worship her, Aphrodite, goddess of love, seeks revenge. Infecting Hippolytus stepmother, Phaedra, with an overpowering desire for him, Aphrodites retribution will sweep both prince and queen to a brutal end.A secret tormentStorms through herTosses her into that black harbourDeath. Timberlake Wertenbakers translation of Euripides tragedy Hippolytus premiered at Riverside Studios, London, in February, 2009 in a production by Temple Theatre.

Produced more frequently on the ancient stage than any other tragedy, Orestes retells with striking innovations the story of the young man who kills his mother to avenge her murder of his father. Though eventually exonerated, Orestes becomes a fugitive from the Furies (avenging spirits) of his mothers blood. On the brink of destruction, he is saved in the end by Apollo, who had commanded the matricide. Powerful and gripping, Orestes sweeps us along with a momentum that starting slowly, builds inevitably to one of the most spectacular climaxes in all Greek tragedy.

Hecuba is a tragedy by Euripides written c. 424 BC. It takes place after the Trojan War, but before the Greeks have departed Troy (roughly the same time as The Trojan Women, another play by Euripides). The central figure is Hecuba, wife of King Priam, formerly Queen of the now-fallen city. It depicts Hecubas grief over the death of her daughter Polyxena, and the revenge she takes for the murder of her youngest son Polydorus.

Classic Greek tragedy concerns the catastrophe that ensues when the King of Thebes imprisons Dionysus and attempts to suppress his cult. Full of striking scenes, frenzied emotion, and choral songs of great power and beauty, the play is a fine example of Euripides ability to exploit Greek myth to probe human psychology.