Deeply heart-wrenching plays. Hecabe was my favourite of the lot.

Shelving this here more for Electra than the others. That'll come eventually.

Funniest part of this whole thing is the mockery of Aeschylus. In Os Persas / Electra / Hécuba by him, Electra identifies her exiled brother by a lock of hair, a similar footprint, and an article made for him years later. Euripides, knowing his audience, literally has the characters make fun of Aeschylus. Here's my paraphrase:

"See Electra! It's him! Here's his lock of hair!"
"But what if we had different hair as kids?"
"Well, I—"
"I mean I don't know what hair we had!"
"Yes, but—"
"And kids hair changes, man. My friend had black hair as a kid. I had strawberry blonde. How is this helpful?"
"We'll come back to the hair, check out this footprint!"
"What are you, that one Dr. Who from Broadchurch?"
"What do you mean?"
"A detective?"
"In this case..."
"How are you going to identify anyone off a frigging shoe print?! Let alone a brother I haven't seen for my whole frigging life?"
"I just thought—"
"Hold up. Let's say you could. Let's say you're just THAT good. WHO'S TO SAY WE HAD THE SAME SHAPE OF FOOT? What if I got my evil dad's grody feet and he got my momma's dainty little flowers?"
"They could be the same size..."
"Since when do girls and boys of the same age share the same shoe size chart? IN WHAT SYSTEM DOES—"
"FINE. Here. Fine. Here! A piece of his clothes."
"You have. A piece. Of clothes."
"Yes! Yes! See! It's the one you made him years earlier."
"You know I made my brother clothes?"
"Yes! Yes! See! You have to believe now."
"Why. On earth. Would he keep a twenty-year-old t-shirt his toddler self would have painted with his own poop?"
"...

"A woman’s heart is a jealous thing." [from Andromache]

A collection of 5 plays by Euripides, one of the greatest ancient playwrights. Andromache and Trojan Woman are both such superb pieces of literature. I can't believe none of these plays was every required reading in any of my history classes, even in college (and I was a History major can almost a year). Everyone should make a point to read at least one play by Euripides during their life, if only to see his writing compared to other ancient playwrights.

General Introduction & Notes
Note on the Text & Further Reading
Chronological Table
Translator's Note

Preface to Andromache
--Andromache

Preface to Hecabe
--Hecabe

Preface to Suppliant Women
--Suppliant Women

Preface to Electra
--Electra

Preface to Trojan Women
--Trojan Women

Notes
Bibliography
Glossary of Mythological and Geographical Names

3.5**** rounded up

RTC

3.5

take off suppliant women and i would have finished this a month ago

Read Electra, Suppliant Women, and Hecubafor a class. This is a great translation, and Euripides' work is wonderful.

"it is the lot of all men to pay the debt of death"

"wisdom lies in recognizing the moment not to act"

Euripides knew what he did when he wrote these plays. The Trojan women made me cry and the others have interesting perspectives of well known female characters.

Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Now that I've read a collection of plays by the three tragedians I can say pretty confidently that Aeschylus has the most elaborate writing, Sophocles has the most exciting stories, but Euripides is the best all-rounder. While I didn't enjoy The Suppliants in this collection, all the other plays were engaging and interesting. Euripides has a slightly stronger focus on women which stood out to me, though still very much in the style of the time (it's nice to see classical female characters explored, but he isn't going to be winning any awards for being especially progressive). One thing I would say was that the ordering of the plays was a little strange if you aren't familiar with the mythos; I assume it's done by chronological date of when they were written, but the play that explains the circumstances surrounding every other individual play (The Trojan Women) is put right at the end. If you hadn't already learnt about the exposition of Troy this might make the collection a bit less accessible.

why are these ancient greeks always killing each other

andromache ⭑⭑⭑⭑
hecabe ⭑⭑⭑
suppliant women ⭑⭑⭑
electra ⭑⭑⭑⭑
trojan women ⭑⭑⭑⭑