Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae

by Euripides, Stephen Esposito (Editor), A.J. Podlecki (Translator)

This anthology includes four outstanding translations of Euripides' plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae. These translations remain close to the original, with extensive introductions, interpretive essays, and footnotes. This series is designed to provide students and general readers with access to the nature of Greek drama, Greek mythology, and the context of Greek culture, as well as highly readable and understandable translations of four of Euripides most important plays. Focus also published each play as an individual edition.

Genres: Classics, Plays, School, Drama, Mythology, Classical Studies, Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

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.

Reviews

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

*read for greek mythology class*

(3.5)
medea 3.5 slightly anticlimactic but really good banter
hippolytus 3.0
heracles 3.25
bacchae 4.0 probs one of his best works

[James Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great!! I wish Medea came up with a better way for the demise of Jason however the piece of the ship hitting him is symbolic to their marriage so what it lacks in goriness, it makes up for in a symbolic way. At first, yes one can sympathize with Medea, however she twists her plans to include the murders of her own children. This was taken to the extreme and we now must take sides with Jason, who has no royal wife, no children to heir his king-hood, and a predictable death. In the meantime, Medea flies off in a chariot after she is done with her rampage to King Aigeus.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair translation. Cannot comment much on Medea, Hippolytus and Heracles in relation to the Greek (but readable translations) but the treatment of the Bacchae I found awkward. Referring to Dionysus as "The Stranger" rather than Dionysus was a strange translation choice I found. As I've studied the Greek there were some liberties where I've found a more clear, accurate translation. All in all a great book to read these plays, not the best in my opinion, but will work for reading.

[phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

bacchae was the best <3

[Margaret Cathcart]

euripides loves an insane woman who hangs herself! she contains multitudes!

[Zara Neville · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bacchae

Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility return to his birthplace in Thebes in order to clear his mother's name and to punish the insolent city-state for refusing to allow people to worship him. The background to his return is presented in the prologue, in which Dionysus tells the story of his mother, Semele, once a princess in the royal Theban house of Cadmus. She had an affair with Zeus, the king of the gods, and became pregnant.

As revenge, Zeus's jealous wife Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to appear in his divine form. Zeus, too powerful for a mortal to behold, emerged from the sky as a bolt of lightning and burnt Semele to a cinder. He managed, however, to rescue his unborn son Dionysus and stitched the baby into his thigh. Semele's family claimed that she had been struck by lightning for lying about Zeus and that her child, the product of an illicit human affair, had died with her, maligning her name and rejecting the young god Dionysus.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars ! Read all four plays, and Medea was my favourite ! Very interesting read, lots of drama my goodness & very fun and vicious dialogue ! I liked that the graphic violence was more described than shown (I guess bc the whole theatre effects weren't as fancy then but still). Overall very fun and enjoyable, would def b fun to watch performed !

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Medea and Hippolytus so far.

[Swara Ramaswamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for clciv 250, but also would have read on my own accord. medea and bacchae are my top two plays of all time. love me some euripides

[sam]

read for class

[Carrie-Anne Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Euripides was in a silly, goofy mood when writing down the plays Medea and Bacchae. Read for CLAS 131.

[Anna Sprague · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these tragedies, easy to understand and entertaining.

[Paul D. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greek Tragedy: when your father’s brother’s cousin’s former roommate marries your sister’s half-uncle’s ex-step-brother-in-law, only to discover that he is actually the bastard son of Zeus’ illegitimate liaison with Artemis’ third-cousin’s daughter, which dictates that she murder him, commit suicide, curse her house, and decapitate her son.

I jest, but overdosing on Greek tragedy spoils the effect. There is too much distance, historically and culturally, to empathize with Medea. She is a monstrosity. There is little tragedy here: it is simple atrocity. Her inner conflict is foreign to a world touched by Christianity. The light brought by the knowledge that all persons are made in God’s image makes her murder of her sons for the sake of honor not a noble act of protecting her reputation, albeit at a terrible cost, but a simple act of grotesque and selfish wickedness, a sacrifice to the Moloch of one’s own ego. It inspires neither pity nor sorrow, but horror.

Hippolytus perhaps is closer to us culturally, but not as interesting. It is a tragedy founded on a refusal to communicate clearly and cleanly. The tragic effect depends not on iron cause and effect of circumstance and choice, but on mores against talking openly about desire and obligation. If only the characters would actually talk to each other there would be no tragedy.

The Bacchae seemed at first to be the strangest and least tragic of all, but the more I thought on it and benefited from the translator’s interpretive notes, the more deeply it impressed me. It seems to be not a tragedy, like Oedipus Rex, in which a great man is brought low by fate and choice, but rather the story of a god’s vengeance, total and implacable, against humans for being who and what they are. Bacchus not only has his opponent dismembered, but at the hands of his mother, whom he has driven mad. It looks like a cosmic statement of fear about the overpowering, untamed, feral forces that await humanity just beyond the horizon of our expectations. The play has a ghastly power.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nietzsche believed Euripides to be both agent and symptom of ancient Greek decadence. His critical and analytic mind, along with that of his confederate, Socrates, are indicative of the evisceration of the Greek instinct, an instinct which had hitherto unreflectively established the greatest culture, represented by tragedy, ever to grace the earth. This judgment depends upon a slew of ancillary judgments - about the quality of pre-Euripidean tragedy of Aeschelus and Sophocles, about the nature of tragedy itself, about degree of self-awareness expressed in Euripidean tragedy, and about the nature and purpose of art - that render the specifics of the more general judgment dubious, or at least highly contentious.
The modern reader will likely be baffled by these four Euripidean plays, and the goal is to understand why the ancients charged with the laborious tasking of the transmission of ancient culture, found these to be worth preserving. Was their transmission a mistake, a Nietzsche contends? If not, what do they reveal about Greek democratic culture and, vicariously, our own democratic culture? To this end, they are, like any sophisticated literature, best read untranslated, a time-consuming task well-worth the effort. To the degree that Nietzsche was correct in his assertion that art is the metaphysical activity of man (i.e., the creation of art is humanities distinctive characteristic), it is incumbent upon us to refine our aesthetic judgment (is there an aesthetic judgment distinct from other forms of judgment?) and to discriminate between those works that are worthy of culture transmission and those that are not, and the attentive reading of these works is a necessary prologue to making these sorts of judgments, regardless of one's ultimate understanding of Euripides' work. Recommended to all engaged in this endeavor.

[C.S. Malerich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some folks may love their Oedipus Rex, and that's okay, but for my money, Hippolytus is the greatest Greek tragedy you will ever read. Dueling goddesses, a militant virgin, forbidden love, father-son rivalry, court-room drama, a gory messenger speech - this one's got it all. Euripides is the most modern of the 3 tragedians; he's the master of capturing his characters' psychology -- check out Phaedra's soliloquy "Women of Troezen..." or Medea debating whether to do in her kids or not. Who else would write a play with such strict form, filled with emotions and passions that can't be contained? Sophocles said he portrayed people as they should be, but Euripides portrayed them as they are (according to Aristotle). Yep, and double yep. No one but Euripides understands the tragedy of that gap between what we know to be right and what we actually do like this.

[Mark Dasios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of the plays were very interesting and even commented on some element of society today - Medea and modern feminism, Bachae and hubris, Hippolytus and lust, and Heracles and having to endure misfortune. I didn't like the essays explaining the significance of different elements of each of the plays, except for the Heracles one which was quite interesting. Euripides employed many literary elements, commonly using irony and tragedy in each of these plays. Speaking to the tragedy, there is not one play which does not end poorly / tragically for one or more characters which is a stark difference to the stories of today which all (for the most part) have happy endings.

[Carolyn James · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my days as a High School Drama Nerd I had a brief familiarity with the components and style of Greek Drama. Later in my undergrad I had to read this collection of plays for an Ancient History class. It was probably the best required reading I had in those 4 years. I like the way Greek plays are set up with the chorus of commentators who appear in some way in most of the plays. Of the four here Medea was hands down my favourite. It’s pretty dark but worth the read! If you are a fan of Greek culture or reading play anthologies this is a quick good collection of stories to check out!

[Jennifer Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incest! War! Sex! Jealousy, love, hatred and greed. Greek tragedy centralizes on these themes, especially in these plays by Euripides. The true interaction of the Ancient Greeks with their gods is implied through the anthropomorphic characteristics given to the gods. Plus, they're just good stories!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Note: This book really has a 2.5 star rating!!!

I read 3 of the tragedies in this book-Medea, Hippolytus, and Bacchae. Overall, I was not really impressed by these plays because they are just downright twisted and depressing. There's really nothing else left to say.

[Verditwist]

What a discovery. I didn't even know Greek plays existed. Bloody, violent, set in a world soaked in brutality, tripped or fated by the random acts of gods. Gods that do walk amongst mortals. Here is the Bronze Age. Welcome.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

i had to read this for classical lit. and really loved it. All four stories are equally enjoyable. you won't regret.

[Tasshin Fogleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Hippolytus and Bacchae.

[Indigo Wayworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. I liked half of it. I read Heracles and Bacchae. Kinda liked Heracles, and really didn't like Bacchae.

[Matei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bacchae is extraordinary. (5 stars) I'm on the fence about Medea. (3 stars)

[Mobius1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plays are all pretty good except for Bacchae which is phenomenal.