The themes of fate, revenge, and family drama are chef’s kiss

This volume contains a selection of six of Euripides dramas spanning the last twenty-four years of his career.

The principal theme is war, its ideals and its redemption, and the values that it destroys. These play s are considered to be some of Euripides finest poetic and dramatic writing. They form a moral and political statement encapsulating the corrosive nature of warfare on societies and their inhabitants, and relevant today as they were when they were written.

fuck the atreides and helen too

The plays:

Orestes - *****
The Children of Heracles - ***1/2
Andromache - ****
The Suppliant Women - *****
The Phoenician Women - *****
Iphigenia in Aulis - ****

No one behaves decently in this one.

Not gonna give this a star rating since it’s a bunch of different plays and it would be unfair, but I thought for the most part they were good and enjoyable!! I didn’t like Suppliant Women as much as the others but that might be more to do with the environment I read it in as opposed to the actual content

Apollo gets SO much air time in these plays

Jan 29-30, 2001, The Suppliant Women
Sept 17-30, 2001, The Children of Heracles
Oct 2-3, 2001, Andromache
Oct 9-11, The Phoenician Women
Oct 23-23, 2001, Orestes
Oct 16-17, 2001, Iphogenia in Aulis

Vellacott's lengthy introduction sees these plays as related to the moral and, eventually, existential problems posed to Athens by the Peloponnesian War, citing specific incidents and developments in the war as motivation for the action and emphasis of the plays. This makes them seem items of primarily historical interest rather than universal works of art. As far as I can tell, however, his interpretative approach did not influence his translations, which seem to attempt, as they should, a direct presentation of the meaning of the playwright's words in their immediate dramatic context. Thus, although Vellacott reads intentional authorial irony into a large number of the speeches in these works, given the words on the page the reader seems under no obligation to do so - Vellacott indicates, in fact, that a number of modern commentators accept such a straightforward reading of the words.

The Children of Heracles - An incomplete play involving human sacrifice and the question of putting prisoners of war to death. The realistic tone in treating these elements contrasts with the fantastic reported rejuvenation of Iolaus.

Andromache Set years after the Trojan War Andromache is slave and concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and has borne him a son, arousing the murderous hatred of Neoptolemus' wife Hermione who is barren. Unlike Medea, to which it has superficial similarities, the women's rivalry does not turn fatal; rather, Orestes, after killing Neoptolemus (who never appears in the play) takes Hermione away as his wife. Vellacott sees the play's action as the unfolding of a plot between Menelaus, Hermione's father, and Orestes to eliminate Neoptolemus and make Hermione the wife of Orestes.

The Suppliant Women The mothers of the seven who fell against Thebes supplicate Theseus and the Athenians to go to war against Thebes to recover the bodies of their sons, to whom Creon blasphemously refuses to grant burial. Before referring the matter to the Athenians, Theseus persuades the Argive king Adrastus to admit that the war against Thebes was unjustified. Theseus defeats Thebes but refuses to attack the city once the bodies are recovered. The sons of the seven swear vengeance once they come of age, an oath with Athena, the deus ex machina endorses.

The Phoenician Women The dispute and mutual killing of Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polyneices, bringing on stage most of the characters from Sophocles Oedipus, including Iocasta, who has not committed suicide in this version. Unlike the previous play in this collection, the cause of Polyneices and his Argive allies is seen as justified in the name of equity and oath keeping, while Eteocles is shown to be fighting to preserve his own tyranny.

Orestes In the aftermath of his killing of Clytemnestra, Orestes is condemned to death with his sister Electra. Resentful that Menelaus was present but did nothing to prevent the Argives from passing their death sentence, Orestes, Electra, and Pylades, who has sworn to share their fate, plan to kill Helen and take Hermione hostage to force Menelaus to do their bidding. Through a concluding deus ex machina, Apollo improbably resolves all and brings the play's conclusion into conformity with the events of Andromache.

Iphigenia in Aulis opens with Agamemnon sending a messenger to carry a letter to Clytemnestra rescinding his former order to send Iphigenia to Aulis, supposedly for her wedding to Achilles. Since his messenger is a slow-moving elder slave and, as subsequent events show, he has waited until almost literally the last minute to express this change of heart, Vellacott's ironic understanding of his intent seems, in this case, fairly certain. Clytemnestra arrives with her daughter and has a darkly comic encounter with Achilles, treating him as her potential son-in-law, while he knows nothing of Agamemnon's plans or subterfuge. When the old slave enlightens the two, Achilles promises to save Iphigenia if at all possible. Agamemnon, as Menelaus did earlier, expresses his change of heart, but, like his brother, claims to be helpless to prevent the sacrifice in the face of the army's insistence on moving on toward Troy. Achilles has encountered similar resistance among his Myrmidons, though he holds to his promise. Iphigenia, however, now agrees to the sacrifice, seeing her death as a patriotic act to further the glory, honor, and survival of Hellas. The play ends with a messenger telling of the miraculous substitution of a deer for Iphigenia, who has disappeared - an ending consistent with the earlier play Iphigenia in Tauris.

In the Chicago Euripides:
The Children of Heracles - Vol. 1
Andromache - Vol. 3
The Suppliant Women - Vol. 4
The Phoenician Women - Vol. 5
Orestes - Vol. 4
Iphigenia in Aulis - Vol. 4

The plays gathered in this book all deal with greek women. The plays depicts the place that women have in this environment. They are either free women or slaves, and they impose their presence and try with al their power to reach their goals (which is either to be saved or save someone dear to them).

The best of Euripides' plays.