Greek category: 1293 books

Written during the long battles with Sparta that were to ultimately destroy ancient Athens, these six plays by Euripides brilliantly utilize traditional legends to illustrate the futility of war. The Children of Heracles holds a mirror up to contemporary Athens, while Andromache considers the position...

Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His works are characterized by their moral ambiguity, plots of...

Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection...

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 becomes a fugitive from the Furies (avenging spirits) of his mother's...

Euripides' classic about the woman who murders her own children in revenge for her husband's infidelity, here given a distinctive Scots flavour by the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead. Winner of the Saltire Society's award for SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2001 'This outstanding work should...

Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. His work sticks out from that of his contemporaries for his attention to the political...

This file includes the English verse translation by Lewis Campbell of all seven extant Sophocles plays: Antigone, Aias. King Oedipus, Electra, The Tracinian Maidens, Philoctetes, and Oedippus at Colonos. According to Wikipedia: "Sophocles( c. 496 BC-406 BC) was the second of the three ancient...

Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian who is often considered to be the father of tragedy.  Aeschylus was one of only three ancient tragedians whose plays have survived.  This edition of The Libation Bearers includes a table of contents.

Award-winningpoet-playwrights Robert Bagg and James Scully presenta gripping new translation of Western literature’s earliest treasures in TheComplete Plays of Sophocles. In the tradition of Robert Fagles’bestselling translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, andretaining the textual authenticity...

Oedipus the King orOedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Greeks, the title was simply Oedipus, as it is referred to by Aristotle in the Poetics. It is thought to have been renamed Oedipus Tyrannus to distinguish it from...

Sophocles was one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived.  Sophocles wrote over 100 plays but only 7 have survived including the famous Oedipus trilogy.  This edition of Ajax includes a table of contents.

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography,...

Widely regarded as one of the greatest Greek tragedies, ‘King Oedipus’ (or ‘Oedipus Rex’) is the first play in the Oedipus trilogy (followed by ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ and then ‘Antigone’). After defeating the Sphinx and freeing the kingdom of Thebes from her curse, the flawed hero unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

Among the most celebrated plays of ancient Athens, Elektra is one of seven surviving dramas by the great Greek playwright, Sophocles, now available from Harper Perennial in a vivid and dynamic new translation by award-winning poet Robert Bagg. Elektra masterfully explores the consequences of revenge—both...