Euripides III: Heracles, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion

by Euripides, Mark Griffith (Editor), Glenn W. Most (Editor)

Euripides III contains the plays “Heracles,” translated by William Arrowsmith; “The Trojan Women,” translated by Richmond Lattimore; “Iphigenia among the Taurians,” translated by Anne Carson; and “Ion,” translated by Ronald Frederick Willetts. Sixty years ago, the University of Chicago Press undertook a momentous a new translation of the Greek tragedies that would be the ultimate resource for teachers, students, and readers. They succeeded. Under the expert management of eminent classicists David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, those translations combined accuracy, poetic immediacy, and clarity of presentation to render the surviving masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in an English so lively and compelling that they remain the standard translations. Today, Chicago is taking pains to ensure that our Greek tragedies remain the leading English-language versions throughout the twenty-first century. In this highly anticipated third edition, Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most have carefully updated the translations to bring them even closer to the ancient Greek while retaining the vibrancy for which our English versions are famous. This edition also includes brand-new translations of Euripides’ Medea, The Children of Heracles, Andromache, and Iphigenia among the Taurians, fragments of lost plays by Aeschylus, and the surviving portion of Sophocles’s satyr-drama The Trackers. New introductions for each play offer essential information about its first production, plot, and reception in antiquity and beyond. In addition, each volume includes an introduction to the life and work of its tragedian, as well as notes addressing textual uncertainties and a glossary of names and places mentioned in the plays. In addition to the new content, the volumes have been reorganized both within and between volumes to reflect the most up-to-date scholarship on the order in which the plays were originally written. The result is a set of handsome paperbacks destined to introduce new generations of readers to these foundational works of Western drama, art, and life.

Genres: Classics, Plays, Drama, Mythology, Poetry, Fiction, Tragedy

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2013

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

[Linniegayl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read all of the plays except one for a class a year ago. I decided to finish out the series by reading Heracles, which also fits in my effort to read the Greek plays in chronological order. It turns out, that of all the plays in this volume (Heracles, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia among the Taurians, and Ion), I like Heracles the least.

As always, with this series from the University of Chicago Press, I found the general introduction and the specific introductions for each play extremely helpful.

[✧༺♥༻∞ carly ✧༺♥༻∞ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read ion for uni. i did not care for it.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is similar to the previous volumes: two stronger works ("Trojan Women" and "Iphigenia") and two weaker ("Heracles" and "Ion"). Overall, this volume was not as interesting as the previous two, though I appreciate Euripides' decision-making and questioning of the gods' morality. There is also a much more prevalent use of 'deus ex machina' throughout. Interesting, but not wickedly compelling to me.

[Dmk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a lovely edition of Euripides' plays. Introductions are informative but not too long. Plays are presented in readable form - it is clear who is speaking now, verses are numbered. It was all readable and nice so I think translations here are good.

As for downsides: Footnotes were uninteresting. I would prefer to have allusions explained rather than to read about long history of question "is this said by this or that character?"

Heracles 1.5/5
One of the most neglected Euripides' plays? No wonder.
They are lamenting that they're going to die. But this triggers no emotional reaction (in reader) since everyone knows Heracles would come back soon enough to "save them". 
And than kills them and it's only told in not-very-interesting speech of messenger and than they're all lamenting again and the rest I do not remember well since I was too bored to focus properly on play. 
Euripides is my favourite ancient playwright but here he fails on every level. Boring plot, no sophisticated argumentation, descriptions of feelings are unmoving and unrevieling and poetry itself is also somehow lame here.

Trojan Women 4/5
This play has roughly the same setting and plot as Hecuba but chosen point of view is different here.
While Hecuba is concerned with tragedies of one woman (namely Hecuba) this one explores cruel aftermath of Trojan War in much greater scope and it makes you realise how many people were affected.
This is certainly great plus of this play, because Hecuba [the play] makes it look like that only Hecuba [person] suffered. But unlike Hecuba, Trojan Women fails to reach me, fails to really affect my emotions. Due initiative to describe more events it focuses on each sub-story for shorter time and (unlike in Phoenican Women where this worked remarkably) you're left indifferent to the destinies of characters and judge it more like a long list of unfortunate events with no significance to you. 
Still it's good play and I believe it deserves four stars. It was interesting to learn more about aftermath of Trojan War

Iphigenia among the Taurians 4/5
Instead of portaing well known myth Euripides' chooses one lesser known and it's is really refreshing. Plus with exotic setting in some unknown barbarian temple, this play gives you amazing feelings of unknown and excitement. 
Once again witful plot (like in Helene) is used by characters to escape. Dialoques are full of clever argumentation. And the way how they found out that their brother ans sister is just briliant. Great play

Ion 3.5/5
This play although by far not hist best, clearly shows why Euripides is my favourite ancient playwright. His willingness to experiment, to add new things to tragedy. Not just to tell old, well-known stories of doom in heavily "poetic" language.
But I guess I would enjoyed it more if I haven't been told most of the plot before reading. This is one of those Euripides' pieces where the plot itself is the strongest part. But still entertaining to read, with some inspirating elements.

[Mateusz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume of this anthology of surviving fragments and plays of Euripides led me on a psychagogic, highly educative journey, equipped with a theological (theo logoi — words about the gods) superstructure that I harnessed from classical sources and translations. It is a highly didactic piece of writing. As I just finished Ion, its underlying theme reveals how, through manifold tragedies, paths, and windings of human life, invisible hands are at play—opening greater vistas of paths and threads in the most unforeseen ways, yet masterfully plotting the unseen-by-mortal causation of co-arising, co-dependent webs. These webs are often unjust or tragic to mortals, but if such is fate, fortune and destiny facilitate great endings in a process that never truly ends.

It taught me about sustenance—the wheel that goes round and holds great works (Rotas Tenet Opera) ever fresh, even new, unexpected, and complex. The gods here do not hold absolute roles; they are facilitators of destinies, artificers of fates continuously at work, distributing fortunes (daimons) to sustain the world, the work, the beauty, and the truth—against the odds of chaos and darkness that would vanquish this delicate order.

The Gigantomachia of the gods is different than that of mortals. The gods are no greater men or women, but objective, ontological, disembodied forces with burdens and toils of their own—unlike the common imagining that their worlds are without strife and filled only with “all-bliss” in eudaimonia.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’m just writing this to review heracles bc that was in the compilation i got this summer, and like it was a good tragedy. not great tbh. but like the drama was so real i can’t believe they made heracles murder all of his kids ! that would suck so much. can you imagine if your husband rescued you from being exiled and then suddenly brutally killed all your children. these people cannot catch a break

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Revised editions of Greek theatre! This was especially intriguing for me because the four plays in this volume were quite unfamiliar to me as stories, though I knew the characters somewhat. The historical information was great, and, as always, the translations were wonderful. Another volume I will eventually purchase for future re-reading.

[Alex Scheidecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heracles was an interesting play, but not one of my favorites. It falls into the trope that men will be awarded despite their wrongdoings. Heracles committed a horrible crime, and yet he is welcomed into Athens with open arms. The only salvation for Heracles is knowing that Hera caused the madness that drove him to murder.

[Allen Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following Daughters College Readings

I read this series of tragedies in following my daughter’s reading assignments from Boston University. Such sad and tragic events have been with human civilization from very early times.

[Stephen Angliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Iphigenia Among the Taurians" was my #1 favorite Greek tragedy hands down. It had great action, beautiful pathos, and endearing characters. It was the only one that I couldn't put down. After reading it I just went "wow." For that reason alone this volume gets four stars.

Heracles was good and the Trojan Women was forgettable.

[Samrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read Heracles before, I see it sticking with me for a long while. Shocking that it's one of the alphabetics. I should really start reading Seneca's plays too.

Love the Trojan Women as always, have never cared for the Taurians or Ion.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. I liked Trojan Women better than the others, but all of them were worth reading. I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I’ve been enjoying the works of Euripides.

[Callum Morris-Horne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - more Greek tragedy before term starts; they’re all beginning to blur into one at this point but they’re never not good 😂

[Ella]

read for hum102

[Brotologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome edition. The stage directions were wonderful. UChicago press is always the best

[Happy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Devastating and entertaining, this collection of Euripides' plays gives us a look at the cruelty of gods and humanity.

[Alec]

Read:
HERACLES
ION