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Volume 05 - Greek Drama

This volume contains the masterworks of Greek tragic and comic drama from the 5th century B.C., representing the golden age of Athenian theater.

AESCHYLUS (c. 525-456 B.C.)

The father of Greek tragedy, Aeschylus introduced the second actor to the stage and developed the art of dramatic dialogue.

  • Agamemnon - The first play of the Oresteia trilogy, depicting the murder of King Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra
  • The Libation Bearers (Choephoroe) - Orestes returns to avenge his father’s death
  • The Eumenides - The trial of Orestes and the transformation of the Furies
  • Prometheus Bound - The Titan’s punishment for giving fire to humanity
  • Seven Against Thebes - The battle between Eteocles and Polynices for Thebes
  • The Persians - The Persian defeat at Salamis, told from the Persian perspective
  • The Suppliant Maidens - The Danaids flee forced marriage

SOPHOCLES (c. 496-406 B.C.)

Master of dramatic irony and character, Sophocles added the third actor and perfected the art of tragedy.

  • Oedipus the King - The devastating discovery of Oedipus’s true identity
  • Oedipus at Colonus - The death and transfiguration of Oedipus
  • Antigone - The conflict between divine and human law
  • Ajax - The madness and suicide of the great warrior
  • Electra - Electra awaits her brother Orestes to avenge their father
  • Philoctetes - The retrieval of Heracles’ bow from the abandoned hero
  • Trachiniae (The Women of Trachis) - The death of Heracles

EURIPIDES (c. 480-406 B.C.)

The most modern of the tragedians, Euripides brought psychological realism and social criticism to the stage.

  • Alcestis - A wife’s sacrifice and return from death
  • Medea - A woman’s terrible revenge on her faithless husband
  • Hippolytus - Phaedra’s forbidden love and its tragic consequences
  • Hecuba - The Trojan queen’s suffering and revenge
  • Andromache - The fate of Hector’s widow after Troy’s fall
  • Heracles Mad - The hero’s divinely-induced madness
  • The Trojan Women - The women of Troy await their fate after the city’s fall
  • Ion - Questions of identity and divine paternity
  • Helen - A revisionist tale: Helen never went to Troy
  • Electra - Euripides’ version of the revenge story
  • Iphigenia Among the Tauri - Iphigenia and Orestes reunited in a foreign land
  • Iphigenia at Aulis - The sacrifice of Iphigenia to launch the Greek fleet
  • Orestes - The aftermath of matricide
  • The Bacchantes (The Bacchae) - Dionysus’s terrible revenge on Thebes
  • The Phoenician Maidens - The war of the Seven against Thebes
  • The Suppliants - The burial of the Argive dead
  • The Cyclops - The only complete surviving satyr play
  • Rhesus - A night raid during the Trojan War
  • Heracleidae (Children of Heracles) - The protection of Heracles’ children

ARISTOPHANES (c. 446-386 B.C.)

The master of Old Comedy, Aristophanes combined political satire, fantasy, and bawdy humor.

  • The Clouds - A satire on Socrates and the new education
  • The Birds - Two Athenians build a city in the sky
  • The Frogs - Dionysus journeys to Hades to bring back a tragedian
  • The Wasps - A satire on Athenian jury courts
  • The Knights - An attack on the demagogue Cleon
  • The Acharnians - A private peace treaty with Sparta
  • The Peace - An Athenian flies to Olympus to rescue Peace
  • Lysistrata - The women of Greece go on a sex strike to end the war
  • Thesmophoriazusae - Women plot revenge on Euripides
  • Ecclesiazusae (The Assembly Women) - Women take over the government
  • Plutus (Wealth) - The god of wealth regains his sight