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Euripides IV: Helen/The Phoenician Women/Orestes
Euripides IV contains the plays “Helen,” translated by Richmond Lattimore; “The Phoenician Women,” translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff; and “Orestes,” translated by William Arrowsmith.
Sixty years ago, the University of Chicago Press undertook a momentous project: 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.
Sixty years ago, the University of Chicago Press undertook a momentous project: 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.
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First published January 1, 411
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About the author
Euripides
2,823 books1,975 followersEuripides (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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 14, 2022
4****
A name may be in many places, though a body in only one.
As I have read the other two plays previously in other editions, I only read “Helen” from this book.
This play by Euripides follows the story of Helen as a phantom/illusion sent to Troy, while the real (physical) Helen was sent to King Proteus of Egypt, to be taken care of.
At this point it has been 17 years (I believe) since the start of the Trojan war. 7 years since the war at Troy ended, and Menelaus and Helen have not seen, nor heard from each other in all this time.
Of course, during these 17 years King Proteus has died, and his tyrannical son wants Helen as his wife instead.
In this play we get to see Helens perspective from having been made to stay in Egypt, her absence from Menelaus, and hear about all the Greek hate she is getting aimed at her for something she had no control over. It was so interesting to see Helen depicted in this way and not villainous.
We also get to see, again, a more cunning female character that is apparent in some of Euripides plays (example: Elektra, Medea). I also enjoyed how we got to see both Menelaus and Helen plotting together to get out of a dangerous situation and be together, to sail, finally, home.
I also really enjoyed the use of prophecy in this one and the introduction of Theonoe as priestess with divination.
A name may be in many places, though a body in only one.
As I have read the other two plays previously in other editions, I only read “Helen” from this book.
This play by Euripides follows the story of Helen as a phantom/illusion sent to Troy, while the real (physical) Helen was sent to King Proteus of Egypt, to be taken care of.
At this point it has been 17 years (I believe) since the start of the Trojan war. 7 years since the war at Troy ended, and Menelaus and Helen have not seen, nor heard from each other in all this time.
Of course, during these 17 years King Proteus has died, and his tyrannical son wants Helen as his wife instead.
In this play we get to see Helens perspective from having been made to stay in Egypt, her absence from Menelaus, and hear about all the Greek hate she is getting aimed at her for something she had no control over. It was so interesting to see Helen depicted in this way and not villainous.
We also get to see, again, a more cunning female character that is apparent in some of Euripides plays (example: Elektra, Medea). I also enjoyed how we got to see both Menelaus and Helen plotting together to get out of a dangerous situation and be together, to sail, finally, home.
I also really enjoyed the use of prophecy in this one and the introduction of Theonoe as priestess with divination.
August 2, 2025
This volume features three plays by Euripides: Helen, The Phoenician Women (version of Seven Against Thebes), and Orestes. Helen, with it's alternate/duplicate Helen, was definitely my favorite. Orestes gives essentially a happy ending to everyone (well, except those who were murdered before the play begins). The Phoenician Women dragged for me a bit, as we see through various people's eyes all of the bad things happening to Oedipus and his family (lots of death).
Read
September 10, 2023This volume contains the last three surviving plays of Euripides that were published before his death. If you're new to this playwrights work, this might be a good starting point. Much of what is interesting about Euripides work is contained in these three plays: The Helen gives an insight into Euripides philosophical interest and his tendency to reinvent traditional myths. The Phoenician women is not only of the most famous and influential plays but also provides a thorough introduction to Theban mythology. Finally, Orestes might be the most entertaining and modern of Euripides plays and will satisfy any reader that comes to Euripides for the gore.
'Helen' is Euripides retelling of the story of the famous woman who is said to have caused the devastating Trojan war. In this version, Helen never went to Troy. Instead, Paris abducted an image of her, that Hera fashioned out of air, enraged that Paris did not choose her as the most beautiful goddess. At the beginning of this play, the 'real' Helen tells the audience that she is in Egypt, where she was kept safe by the land's king Proteus during the war. Now, however, she has to take refuge at the altar, as Proteus has died and his son tries to force her into marriage. Her misfortune is met with that of some Greek sailors who have been washed up to Egypts shore and now face death. Helen does not know yet that one of these sailors is Menelaos, her husband, who is barely recognizable due to his shabby clothes and unkempt appearance. What follows is a long and complicated recognition of the spouses, their happy reunion and the execution of their plan to escape Egypt. While the story sounds like a bit like a shallow romantic comedy, Euripides touches on a deep philosophical issue that is discussed in detail a bit later by Plato, namely how we can distinguish between appearance and being. The play tells us that the Helen we know from myth, with whom we are familiar through Homers epic, is not real. It does not, however, deny that the Trojan war is fought over 'Helen' and that thus, an image can cause action and is not just nothing. This leaves us with the understanding that the Greeks and Menelaos were at least partly deceived about what they fought for and (in Menelaos case) who they loved. Maybe the message of the play is that in war and love the object of our passions are never really what we think they are. If this is the case, the play asks us for temperance, for a critical examination of the facts and our reaction to them. At least this seems in line with what one servant in the play calls the "man's most valuable trait" - a sense for what not to believe. Many more aspects are worth considering, such as the role of name, heart and body for personal identity or the political reflections about how to face a tyrant we find in this play. Ultimately, however, I think the message of the play is an invocation to be reasonable, especially when it comes to human life and to not counterpose real, tangible suffering with something whose ontological status is questionable.
'The Phoenician Women' is a tour de force through Theban mythology and includes almost all its famous characters: Oedipus, Iocaste, Antigone, Polyneices, Eteocles and Teiresias. With the density of characters comes a density of themes. The audience is reminded of the incestious relationship between Oedipus and Iocaste, anticipates Antigone's burial of Polyneices and Oedipus' travel to Colonos. Yet, the focus of this play is the quarell between Polyneices and Eteocles about who should govern Thebes.
This conflict is presented by Euripides through the lense of many characters. Iocasta, Antigone, Creon, Teiresias and Oedipus all enter the stage to explain how it effects them and what they think about it. A special emphasis should be put on the perspective of the choir of Phoenician women, since Euripides makes them the plays namesake. They are a group of female slaves on their way from Phoenicia to Delphi. Their journey is interrupted because of the war between these brothers and thus they are commenting on what is happening from the perspective not only of foreigners but from the perspective of political non-entities. Their stance on the conflict is opposes the one we find in Sophocles: they see Polyneices' in the right and see Eteocles as a power-hungry, illegitimate sovereign. With this chorus, Euripides emphasises the core tragic message, that all humans are subject to the will of the gods. In this case, these humans are not only volnurable because they are mortal but because within the political human hierarchy, they are of the lowest rank - foreign female slaves. What is emphasised by their presence - the fact that they are literally 'stuck' - is the neccesity of good leaders, leaders that put the good of all before their own, for all people to move in the direction they are supposed to go.
While the previous plays of Ion and Helen present how prudence and good character can save people, this play returns to the grim prospect of Euripides that humans merely do harm. The emotional intensity of the play reaches its height close to the end, when a messanger report that Iocastes, Polyneices' and Eteocles' corpses lie next to each other. There is at least a bit of peace Euripides picture of the mother embracing them in her final act: "In death her arms are cast about them both".
Because this play is so dense and covers so much mythological ground, the characters seem a bit dull and two-dimensional. It is woth reading for its influence and popularity in earlier times alone, yet I have to say I prefer Euripides' plays that focus more on psychological studies of individual characters, such as Hecuba.
The third play of this edition, 'Orestes' takes us away from Thebes and back to Mycene and the house of Atreus. If 'Iphigenia among the Taurians' is Euripides clean and optimistic version of what happens to Agamemnons children, 'Orestes' is the X-rated, gory one.
The plot sets in the day the assembly of Mycene decides how Orestes and Electra ought to be punished for the murder of their mother Clytaimestra. While Electra, who is accused as an accomplice, is fully aware of the gravity of the situation, Orestes is presented as suffering from a severe mental illness that leads him to experience seizures ever since he killed his mother. In a lucid moment, he diagnoses himself: the sickness is "conscience" (395), "the certainty to have committed an evil". Yet, although Orestes admits that the murder was pointless, as it could not bring back his father, he is not willing to accept the death-sentence pronounced by the assembly. Instead, he and his buddy Pylades make a plan that they hope will make Orestes a free man: Kill Helena, the hatred wife of Orestes' uncle Menelaos who would not help him in the assembly, kidnap his cousin Hermoine and thus force Menelaos to let him go. Once Orestes belives he has killed Helen and is about to murder Hermoine, in the same moment that Menelaos decides to attack Orestes and a tragedy is bound to happen, Apollo appears and sets everything straight: Helen is not really dead and Orestes not really guilty of murdering Clytaimestra, because he, Apollo, ordered him to do so. The god states that Orestes will be king and will marry Hermoine and everyone, even Menelaos accept this proclamation.
This play is without doubt the most action-packed and entertaining play Euripides wrote. It is probably also the most readable one, as it implicitly entails many stage directions within the dialogue. I would recommend this play as an introduction to Euripides. A modern audience, I assume, would enjoy its fast pace and would encounter some of the dramatic elements Euripides is so famous for (deus ex machina, the message that chaos ensues among humans when gods don't intervene and his tendency to present bloody and gruesome acts). The Arrowsmith translation is fantastic!
'Helen' is Euripides retelling of the story of the famous woman who is said to have caused the devastating Trojan war. In this version, Helen never went to Troy. Instead, Paris abducted an image of her, that Hera fashioned out of air, enraged that Paris did not choose her as the most beautiful goddess. At the beginning of this play, the 'real' Helen tells the audience that she is in Egypt, where she was kept safe by the land's king Proteus during the war. Now, however, she has to take refuge at the altar, as Proteus has died and his son tries to force her into marriage. Her misfortune is met with that of some Greek sailors who have been washed up to Egypts shore and now face death. Helen does not know yet that one of these sailors is Menelaos, her husband, who is barely recognizable due to his shabby clothes and unkempt appearance. What follows is a long and complicated recognition of the spouses, their happy reunion and the execution of their plan to escape Egypt. While the story sounds like a bit like a shallow romantic comedy, Euripides touches on a deep philosophical issue that is discussed in detail a bit later by Plato, namely how we can distinguish between appearance and being. The play tells us that the Helen we know from myth, with whom we are familiar through Homers epic, is not real. It does not, however, deny that the Trojan war is fought over 'Helen' and that thus, an image can cause action and is not just nothing. This leaves us with the understanding that the Greeks and Menelaos were at least partly deceived about what they fought for and (in Menelaos case) who they loved. Maybe the message of the play is that in war and love the object of our passions are never really what we think they are. If this is the case, the play asks us for temperance, for a critical examination of the facts and our reaction to them. At least this seems in line with what one servant in the play calls the "man's most valuable trait" - a sense for what not to believe. Many more aspects are worth considering, such as the role of name, heart and body for personal identity or the political reflections about how to face a tyrant we find in this play. Ultimately, however, I think the message of the play is an invocation to be reasonable, especially when it comes to human life and to not counterpose real, tangible suffering with something whose ontological status is questionable.
'The Phoenician Women' is a tour de force through Theban mythology and includes almost all its famous characters: Oedipus, Iocaste, Antigone, Polyneices, Eteocles and Teiresias. With the density of characters comes a density of themes. The audience is reminded of the incestious relationship between Oedipus and Iocaste, anticipates Antigone's burial of Polyneices and Oedipus' travel to Colonos. Yet, the focus of this play is the quarell between Polyneices and Eteocles about who should govern Thebes.
This conflict is presented by Euripides through the lense of many characters. Iocasta, Antigone, Creon, Teiresias and Oedipus all enter the stage to explain how it effects them and what they think about it. A special emphasis should be put on the perspective of the choir of Phoenician women, since Euripides makes them the plays namesake. They are a group of female slaves on their way from Phoenicia to Delphi. Their journey is interrupted because of the war between these brothers and thus they are commenting on what is happening from the perspective not only of foreigners but from the perspective of political non-entities. Their stance on the conflict is opposes the one we find in Sophocles: they see Polyneices' in the right and see Eteocles as a power-hungry, illegitimate sovereign. With this chorus, Euripides emphasises the core tragic message, that all humans are subject to the will of the gods. In this case, these humans are not only volnurable because they are mortal but because within the political human hierarchy, they are of the lowest rank - foreign female slaves. What is emphasised by their presence - the fact that they are literally 'stuck' - is the neccesity of good leaders, leaders that put the good of all before their own, for all people to move in the direction they are supposed to go.
While the previous plays of Ion and Helen present how prudence and good character can save people, this play returns to the grim prospect of Euripides that humans merely do harm. The emotional intensity of the play reaches its height close to the end, when a messanger report that Iocastes, Polyneices' and Eteocles' corpses lie next to each other. There is at least a bit of peace Euripides picture of the mother embracing them in her final act: "In death her arms are cast about them both".
Because this play is so dense and covers so much mythological ground, the characters seem a bit dull and two-dimensional. It is woth reading for its influence and popularity in earlier times alone, yet I have to say I prefer Euripides' plays that focus more on psychological studies of individual characters, such as Hecuba.
The third play of this edition, 'Orestes' takes us away from Thebes and back to Mycene and the house of Atreus. If 'Iphigenia among the Taurians' is Euripides clean and optimistic version of what happens to Agamemnons children, 'Orestes' is the X-rated, gory one.
The plot sets in the day the assembly of Mycene decides how Orestes and Electra ought to be punished for the murder of their mother Clytaimestra. While Electra, who is accused as an accomplice, is fully aware of the gravity of the situation, Orestes is presented as suffering from a severe mental illness that leads him to experience seizures ever since he killed his mother. In a lucid moment, he diagnoses himself: the sickness is "conscience" (395), "the certainty to have committed an evil". Yet, although Orestes admits that the murder was pointless, as it could not bring back his father, he is not willing to accept the death-sentence pronounced by the assembly. Instead, he and his buddy Pylades make a plan that they hope will make Orestes a free man: Kill Helena, the hatred wife of Orestes' uncle Menelaos who would not help him in the assembly, kidnap his cousin Hermoine and thus force Menelaos to let him go. Once Orestes belives he has killed Helen and is about to murder Hermoine, in the same moment that Menelaos decides to attack Orestes and a tragedy is bound to happen, Apollo appears and sets everything straight: Helen is not really dead and Orestes not really guilty of murdering Clytaimestra, because he, Apollo, ordered him to do so. The god states that Orestes will be king and will marry Hermoine and everyone, even Menelaos accept this proclamation.
This play is without doubt the most action-packed and entertaining play Euripides wrote. It is probably also the most readable one, as it implicitly entails many stage directions within the dialogue. I would recommend this play as an introduction to Euripides. A modern audience, I assume, would enjoy its fast pace and would encounter some of the dramatic elements Euripides is so famous for (deus ex machina, the message that chaos ensues among humans when gods don't intervene and his tendency to present bloody and gruesome acts). The Arrowsmith translation is fantastic!
May 1, 2021
Started reading volume IV (of 5) first simply because it arrived first in the mail. It pains me too. This was my first foray into Greek tragedy since high school (so, a while) and it was a fun ride.
First, Helen— love that the tragedy is really more a love story, with the most reviled Helen presented sympathetically for one.
The Phoenician Women: The events preceding Sophocles’ Antigone, anchored by dual matriarch Jocasta. Fairly standard, interesting in the varying perspectives of the assault on Thebes to come.
Orestes: The best of the bunch, by far. This story was (nearly) new to me; having read only recently the Natalie Haynes novel A Thousand Ships, which offered a chapter of Clytemnestra’s plot against Agamemnon. What a ride! Several times I guffawed at the plight of the characters as well as some of the dialogue, that while surely valuable on the stage would be hilarious in reality. Great deus ex machina in this play—otherwise there is no way for it to resolve. A rare treat of a “happy” ending.
First, Helen— love that the tragedy is really more a love story, with the most reviled Helen presented sympathetically for one.
The Phoenician Women: The events preceding Sophocles’ Antigone, anchored by dual matriarch Jocasta. Fairly standard, interesting in the varying perspectives of the assault on Thebes to come.
Orestes: The best of the bunch, by far. This story was (nearly) new to me; having read only recently the Natalie Haynes novel A Thousand Ships, which offered a chapter of Clytemnestra’s plot against Agamemnon. What a ride! Several times I guffawed at the plight of the characters as well as some of the dialogue, that while surely valuable on the stage would be hilarious in reality. Great deus ex machina in this play—otherwise there is no way for it to resolve. A rare treat of a “happy” ending.
March 28, 2022
The Revised editions of the Greek plays are fabulous. I especially enjoyed this one because I was unfamiliar with the plays themselves, though I do know the players from other plays and literature. As always, the historical notes are helpful, and do lend the reader to seeking out other plays and ancient texts to fill out the stories. Another book to add to my library in the future.
February 7, 2019
Maybe my least favorite volume of the tragedy collection. Helen would probably be the favorite. I enjoyed seeing her struggle with the fact that two people groups fought for 10 years because of her. Powerful stuff.
The "Phoenician Women" and "Orestes" dealt with myths I had already read in other tragedies so I was getting fatigued.
The "Phoenician Women" and "Orestes" dealt with myths I had already read in other tragedies so I was getting fatigued.
December 31, 2024
Can't believe I've never read the Phoinissai - in my head I've always been mixing it up with the Suppliant Women and assuming I've read it. Phenomenal. Orestes is as weird as always, Helen is decidedly second to the Taurians to me.
March 21, 2020
read Helen...nice she is not blamed for once
November 12, 2024
don’t like orestes
February 25, 2025
Orestes was my definite favourite of the three.
March 18, 2025
the phoenician women is pretty good! whole lot goin' on.
February 8, 2017
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: I'm not fan of putting plays by date of the first performance, I would rather choose order more concered with stories (e.g putting plays about the house of Agamemnon together...) but it's nice that quality of plays here has ascending tendency. 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?".
Helen 3/5
It was really interesting to read alternative version of story of Helen. I prefer classic one though.
Portraiting Helen as super-faithful wife seems really odd to me. And the moode of story was more like some Red Library romance my mother would read than great greek tragedy. And the first half of the play was uneventful.
On the other side there are certainly good things in this play. Obviously the idea of alternative stor of Helen is big plus, the trick they[Helen and Menalaos] used to escape was quite clever and I really loved the idea of prophetess in the house that knews almost everything and you're at her mercy, at her decision what she'll tell or hide.
The Phoenician Women 4/5
Iwas suprised by amount of plot in this play, this piece is packed with action.
Well not really, all action scenes are only described by some messenger like is usual for ancient plays. But indeed these "things to describe" are great in number and lots of is going on here unlike in other great tragedies. Many suplots, suicides and events.
Nevertheless there are still long and sophisticated argumentations between characters and great revealing monoloques.
I especialy liked idea to portrait this Theban tragedy from the viewpoint of passing-by women that have no interest or role in Theban problems and reminds that it's not only about house of Laius but that consequences are far reaching. On the other side, this aspect of play could have been developed more.
Certainly my favourite "Theban play". Only important minus is that despite of great number of deaths and suicides it misses the dark feeling of uncoming tragedy that Seven Against Thebes had. But yes, good, complex and dark play.
Orestes 5/5
This play has everything that I love about greek tragedies and much more. Once again its readable but deep. One can feel the atmosphere of preceeding tragedies and tragedies yet to happen. Plot is quite complex, not lacking of action and many scenes starts your imagination and fills you with emotions (Orestes' fever, bombastic final scene, description of a court...)
And most importantly its full of argumentation lead in suprising level of sophistication. Once again Euripides takes problem from all sides, different people present their different opinions and explain bases for their opinions. In library they should put it right next to Plato's dialoques.
As for downsides: I'm not fan of putting plays by date of the first performance, I would rather choose order more concered with stories (e.g putting plays about the house of Agamemnon together...) but it's nice that quality of plays here has ascending tendency. 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?".
Helen 3/5
It was really interesting to read alternative version of story of Helen. I prefer classic one though.
Portraiting Helen as super-faithful wife seems really odd to me. And the moode of story was more like some Red Library romance my mother would read than great greek tragedy. And the first half of the play was uneventful.
On the other side there are certainly good things in this play. Obviously the idea of alternative stor of Helen is big plus, the trick they[Helen and Menalaos] used to escape was quite clever and I really loved the idea of prophetess in the house that knews almost everything and you're at her mercy, at her decision what she'll tell or hide.
The Phoenician Women 4/5
Iwas suprised by amount of plot in this play, this piece is packed with action.
Well not really, all action scenes are only described by some messenger like is usual for ancient plays. But indeed these "things to describe" are great in number and lots of is going on here unlike in other great tragedies. Many suplots, suicides and events.
Nevertheless there are still long and sophisticated argumentations between characters and great revealing monoloques.
I especialy liked idea to portrait this Theban tragedy from the viewpoint of passing-by women that have no interest or role in Theban problems and reminds that it's not only about house of Laius but that consequences are far reaching. On the other side, this aspect of play could have been developed more.
Certainly my favourite "Theban play". Only important minus is that despite of great number of deaths and suicides it misses the dark feeling of uncoming tragedy that Seven Against Thebes had. But yes, good, complex and dark play.
Orestes 5/5
This play has everything that I love about greek tragedies and much more. Once again its readable but deep. One can feel the atmosphere of preceeding tragedies and tragedies yet to happen. Plot is quite complex, not lacking of action and many scenes starts your imagination and fills you with emotions (Orestes' fever, bombastic final scene, description of a court...)
And most importantly its full of argumentation lead in suprising level of sophistication. Once again Euripides takes problem from all sides, different people present their different opinions and explain bases for their opinions. In library they should put it right next to Plato's dialoques.
December 4, 2012
This was the first time I've read a Loeb classic edition and I have to say, even though the dual text was lost on me, I really liked them. The size was perfect for reading. The edition I had also had the Phonecian Women and Orestes but I'd already read both of those so I only read Helen. I can't help think that there was some huge cultural context missing while reading this book. While I could appreciate the impact of totally making the whole Trojan war pointless, and making Helen good and a devout wife, it just didn't seem as emotional to me as it probably did to the ancient Greeks. The closest analogy I can think of is the books that try to make Satan out as the good guy. What this reminded me of the most was "fix it fic", when someone just can't stand the ending that was given and needs to make it so the characters don't do the awful things they are supposed to do and end up living happily ever after. What I thought was interesting was the fact that in this play most of the parts were female, and it was the women who had all the brains and important descisions to make, Helen came up with their plan to escape, Theonoe had the gift of prophecy and was the one who decided if Helen and her husband could escape. And yet (according to the introduction) Euripides still got into lots of trouble by the women of Greece for the way he portrayed them. The play itself was alright, not as interesting as Aschelyus, as not much happened and there were no surprises. But it was still quite good. It's being put on at King's this week as their Greek play and I'm looking forward to watching it.
April 24, 2016
An unusual batch of three works, the last of which ('Orestes') is the most interesting -- at least until the absurd deus ex, the device that is now approaching comedic and tiresome in use. Euripides gets frustratingly close to pushing outside the limits of myth. I am sure the climax of 'Orestes' must have been very interesting when initially performed.
That being said, I felt this volume could easily be glossed over, but I feel like if you've already invested in five volumes of Euripides, like I have, and you want to garner as much information as you can about this time frame, it wouldn't hurt to read these.
Otherwise: meh.
That being said, I felt this volume could easily be glossed over, but I feel like if you've already invested in five volumes of Euripides, like I have, and you want to garner as much information as you can about this time frame, it wouldn't hurt to read these.
Otherwise: meh.
September 27, 2015
The Phoenician Women is not, to my mind, one of Euripides' towering masterpieces and doesn't stand comparison with the Medea or Trojan Women, but it is a great exploration of fraternal rivalry and ambition and of transgenerational consequences. I'm going to use this as part of the A-level course on Oedipus and Antigens as a way of exploring the immense flexibility Attic playwrights had in crafting plays based in known myths through contrast with the Sophoclean narratives of the same cycle, which have different characters alive or dead, present or exiled.
July 26, 2017
This are the crazy plays -- at least to modern sensibilities. Readers who have only read the "major" Greek plays will be surprised. The end of Orestes sounds like something from Tarentino with (of course) a deus ex machina.
May 10, 2007
Great play, but the edition I have isn't that good.
April 29, 2016
Wow.. I knew Euripides was unorthodox, but what a fresh way to look at the same story. Some of the plays are even better than the more reknowned counterparts by the old masters!
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HELEN
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