Book Description
The dramas Euripides wrote toward the end of his life are remarkable for their stylistic innovation and adventurous plots. Heracles stands apart in its stark portrayal of human suffering and the deceptive power of the gods. In contrast, the satyr play Cyclops celebrates drink, sex, and self-indulgent hedonism. In the plays in this collection, which also includes Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Ion, and Helen, Euripides exploits the comic potential to be found in traditional myth. While weaving plots full of startling shifts of tone, deception, and illusion as well as comedy, Euripides always reminds us how quickly fortunes can be reversed and invites his audience to view the world with skepticism and compassion.
About the Author
Euripedes (c. 485-406 B.C.) is thought to have written ninety-two plays, only eighteen of which survive.
Heracles and Other Plays FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Euripides wrote about timeless themes, of friendship and enmity, hope and despair, duty and betrayal. The first three plays in this volume are filled with violence or its threat, while the fourth, Cyclops, is our only surviving example of a genuine satyr play, with all the crude and slapstick humour that characterized the genre." There is death in Alcestis, which explores the marital relationship of Alcestis and Admetus with pathos and grim humour, but whose status as tragedy is subverted by a happy ending. The blood-soaked Heracles portrays deep emotional pain and undeserved suffering; its demand for a more humanistic ethics in the face of divine indifference and callousness makes it one of Euripides' more popular and profound plays. Children of Heracles is a rich and complex work, famous for its dialogues and monologues, in which the effects of war on refugees and the consequences of sheltering them are explored. In Cyclops Euripides takes the familiar story of Odysseus' escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus and turns it to hilarious comic effect.
Art & Photography
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