Ion

euripides

Ion is a play written by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, believed to have been first performed around 412 BCE. The play tells the story of Ion, a young man who works as a temple servant at the temple of Apollo in Delphi. Ion is unaware of his true parentage, but as the play unfolds, he discovers that he is actually the son of the god Apollo and a mortal woman named Creusa. The play explores themes of identity, family, and the power of the gods. It also features a number of other characters, including Creusa, who struggles with the revelation that her son is the child of a god, and Xuthus, a man who believes himself to be Ion's father. The play builds to a dramatic climax as Ion and Apollo confront each other over their relationship and Ion's place in the world. Ion is considered to be one of Euripides' lesser-known works, but it is still widely studied and performed today. It is notable for its complex characters, intricate plot, and exploration of themes that are still relevant today.CHORUS The furious Mimas Here blazes in the volley'd and there Another earth-born monster falls beneath The wand of Bacchus wreathed with ivy round, No martial spear. But, as 'tis thine to tend This temple, let me ask thee, is it lawful, Leaving our sandals, its interior parts To visit?This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres playsclassicsdramamythologyfictionpoetrytheatregreecetragedyancient

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,-0414

This edition

Format: 88 pages, Paperback
Published: June 17, 2004 by Kessinger Publishing
ISBN: 9781419126659
ASIN: 1419126652
Language: English

About the author

euripides

Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, 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. He also became "the most tragic of poets", 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 William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.