Medea
A canonical early masterpiece and the clearest entry point into Euripides' psychologically intense treatment of myth.
Author guide
Euripides Books in Order
Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE) was an Athenian playwright whose dramatic career ran from about 455 to 406 BCE. Ancient sources attributed roughly ninety plays to him; eighteen tragedies and one satyr play survive substantially complete, while many others survive only in fragments or by title. His dramas are distinguished by psychological realism, intellectual argument, sympathy for marginal figures, and critical treatment of war, religion, gender, and heroic myth. He spent his final years at the court of Archelaus of Macedon. Rhesus is traditionally transmitted among his works, although its authorship remains disputed.
Greek tragedysatyr playancient Greek drama
Catalog record updated .
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Hippolytus
A formally controlled tragedy that illustrates Euripides' distinctive treatment of desire, piety, and social conflict.
Bacchae
His most powerful late tragedy and the best starting point for understanding his engagement with Dionysian religion and theatricality.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Plays (9)
Other (72)
- Alcestis
tragedy · 438
- Medea
tragedy · 431
The play begins after Medea, a princess in her own land, has sacrificed everything for Jason: she helped him in his quest for the Golden Fleece, eloped with him to Greece, and borne him sons. When Jason breaks his oath to her and betrays…
- Heracleidae
tragedy · c. 4
- Hippolytus
tragedy · 428
English translation of Euripides' tragedy in which Phaedra unsuccessfully fights her desire for her stepson Hippolytus, while he risks his life to keep her passion secret. Introduction on Euripides and ancient theater; interpretive essay…
- Andromache
tragedy · c. 4
- Hecuba
tragedy · c. 4
This is the final in a series of three volumes of a new prose translation of Euripides' most popular plays. In the three great war plays contained in this volume Euripides subjects the sufferings of Troy's survivors to a harrowing…
- Suppliant Women
tragedy · c. 4
Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new…
- Electra
tragedy · c. 4
- Heracles
tragedy · c. 4
Dentre as tragédias gregas que chegaram até nós, o Héracles, de Eurípides (c. 486-406 a.C.), e As Traquínias, de Sófocles - que ora se publicam conjuntamente em apuradas traduções de Trajano Vieira - são as únicas que trazem o grande…
- Trojan Women
tragedy · 415
"The Trojan Women" is a play by the 5th century B.C. Greek dramatist Euripides. The story takes place at the end of the Trojan war and is focused on the Greeks' division of the spoils, who happen to be the survivors of the ten year war,…
- Iphigenia in Tauris
tragedy · c. 4
- Ion
tragedy · c. 4
he Ion is the shortest, or nearly the shortest, of all the writings which bear the name of Plato, and is not authenticated by any early external testimony. The grace and beauty of this little work supply the only, and perhaps a…
- Helen
tragedy · 412
- Phoenician Women
tragedy · c. 4
- Orestes
tragedy · 408
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…
- Bacchae
tragedy · 405
In Bacchae, one of the great masterpieces of the tragic genre, Euripides tells the story of king Pentheus' resistance to the worship of Dionysus and his horrific punishment by the god: dismemberment at the hands of Theban women. Iphigenia…
- Iphigenia in Aulis
tragedy · 405
- Rhesus
tragedy
- Peliades
tragedy · 455
- Telephus
tragedy · 438
- Alcmaeon in Psophis
tragedy · 438
- Cretan Women
tragedy · 438
- Cretans
tragedy · c. 4
- Philoctetes
tragedy · 431
- Dictys
tragedy · 431
- Stheneboea
tragedy · befo
- Bellerophon
tragedy · c. 4
- Cresphontes
tragedy · c. 4
- Erechtheus
tragedy · 422
- Phaethon
tragedy · c. 4
- Wise Melanippe
tragedy · c. 4
- Alexandros
tragedy · 415
- Palamedes
tragedy · 415
- Captive Melanippe
tragedy · c. 4
- Andromeda
tragedy · 412
- Antiope
tragedy · c. 4
- Archelaus
tragedy · c. 4
- Hypsipyle
tragedy · c. 4
- Alcmaeon in Corinth
tragedy · c. 4
- Aegeus
tragedy
- Aeolus
tragedy
- Alcmene
tragedy
- Alope, or Cercyon
tragedy
- Antigone
tragedy
- Auge
tragedy
- Cadmus
tragedy
- Chrysippus
tragedy
- Danae
tragedy
- Hippolytus Veiled
tragedy
- Ino
tragedy
- Ixion
tragedy
- Lamia
tragedy
- Licymnius
tragedy
- Meleager
tragedy
- Mysians
tragedy
- Oedipus
tragedy
- Oeneus
tragedy
- Oenomaus
tragedy
- Peirithous
tragedy
- Peleus
tragedy
- Phoenix
tragedy
- Phrixus
tragedy
- Pleisthenes
tragedy
- Polyidus
tragedy
- Protesilaus
tragedy
- Rhadamanthys
tragedy
- Scyrians
tragedy
- Temenidae
tragedy
- Tennes
tragedy
- Theseus
tragedy
- Thyestes
tragedy
