Western
Literature week 12
Euripides
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He is one of the few whose plays have survived,
with the others being Aeschylus, Sophocles, and potentially Euphorion. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but according to the Suda it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete
(there has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some
substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact
than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to mere chance and 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.
Medea
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written
by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and
first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in
the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes
vengeance on Jason by killing Jason's new wife as well as her own children with
him, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra was the
wife of Agamemnon and queen of Mycenae (or
sometimes Argos) in ancient
Greek legend. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she murdered Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom he had taken as war prize following the
sack of Troy; however, in Homer's Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her
character is significantly more subdued.
Lost
civilizations
From the bloodletting of Maya kings and a
pharaoh's last journey to the secret pleasures of a Roman empress.
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