Euripides was born484 BCE, AthensEuripides Died406 BCE, Macedonia, 2 years before end of Great Peloponnesian War1st Peloponnesian War460 – 446 BCEGreat Peloponnesian War431 – 401 BCEFirst competed445 BCEFirst victory441 BCELeft Athens408 BCE for the Macedonian royal courtCivic lifeDiplomat to Syracuse in sicilyAssociated with… Pre-Socratic philosophers and rhetoricians of his dayWrote how many plays? 92, 18 to 19 surviveCompetes how many times? over 20 times, won 4 (popular but controversial)Innovations-reshaped Greek tragedy to focus on importance of the whole context, not just characters/ personalities
-use of prologues and epilogues
-likes to bring gods directly into theater
-diminishes role of chorusEuripidian Tragedy-most famous of three great tragedians
-attitude of doubt toward traditional religious beliefs and mythology
-psychological realism
-deeply engages in contemporary issues
– fates are characters own doing not gods
-language is relatively chatty
-happy endingIphigenia in Tauris Date413 BCETrojan Women Date415 BCEBacchae Date406 BCEMadea Date431 BCEIphigenia in Tauris Summary-Iphigenia was sacrificed by Agamemnon by The goddess Artemis Switched her out at the last second and took her to Taurus
-She was made a priestess for Artemis in Taurus where she has to sacrifice foreigners
-Iphigenia has a dream that Orestes is dead
-Orestes killed Clytemnestra because she killed Agamemnon because she thought he killed Iphigenia
-Orestes is being driven mad by the Fury’s so Apollo sent his to bring back Artemis by stealing the statue of her in Taurus
-Orestes and his friend Pylades go to the temple and see the remains of oll the dead greek but decide to carry on anyways
-They are captured and taken to the temple for sacrifice
-Iphigenia questions them
-Orestes figures out she is he sister
-Orestes tells Iphiginia who he is
-They make a plan to escapeIphigenia in Tauris ThemesGreek vs Non Greek
-barbarians
Proper Respect for Gods
-establishment of Artemis cult
Trojan Women Summary-Troy is in ruins after the Trojan war
-The play follows the Trojan women after their city is captured and their husbands and sons are killed
-The Greek herald Talthybius arrives to tell the dethroned queen Hecuba what will befall her and her children.
-Hecuba will be taken away with the Greek general Odysseus, and Cassandra is destined to become the conquering general Agamemnon’s concubine.
-The widowed princess Andromache arrives and Hecuba learns from her that her youngest daughter, Polyxena, has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior Achilles
-Andromache’s lot is to be the concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus
-Talthybius reluctantly informs her that her baby son, Astyanax, has been condemned to die
-Helen, though not one of the Trojan women, is supposed to suffer greatly as well: Menelaus arrives to take her back to Greece with him where a death sentence awaits her, but in the end she lives
-Talthybius returns, carrying with him the body of little Astyanax on Hector’s shield. Andromache’s wish had been to bury her child herself, performing the proper rituals according to Trojan ways, but her ship had already departed. Talthybius gives the corpse to Hecuba, who prepares the body of her grandson for burial before they are finally taken off with Odysseus. Trojan Women ThemesGreek vs Non Greek
-Trojans
Horrors of war
-Troy is in ruins.
– Corpses lie about the battlefield.
-Trojan women young and old huddle together as they lament the loss of husbands and children and shudder at the thought of becoming slaves in a land across the sea.
-Hecuba, once a great queen, is to become a lowly servant in the house of the Greek warrior Odysseus.
-The rape victim Cassandra, a prophetess of Apollo, is to become the property of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek armies.
-Astyanax is killed
Women’s roles in society
-what happens to women and children in war
Bacchae Summary-Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility, returns 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
-He arrives in town disguised as the stranger, accompanied by a band of bacchants, to punish the family for their treatment of his mother and their refusal to offer him sacrifices.
-Dionysus tells the audience that when he arrived in Thebes he drove Semele’s sisters mad, and they fled to Mt. Cithaeron to worship him and perform his rites on the mountainside.
-Penthius arrests Dionysus
– He tries to torture Dionysus but can’t
-Dionysus convinces Penthius to go up the mountain and see for himself by convincing him to dress as a woman
-He goes up and is capture by the women and ripped limb from limb because they think he is a lion cub
-They go back to the city with his head in their hands and then realized what they have not
-In the end, Dionysus finally appears in his true form to the city. He banishes Agaue from Thebes and ordains that Cadmus and his wife will turn into snakes, destined to invade Greek lands with a horde of barbarians. Bacchae ThemesRespect for the gods
-no one respected Dionysus so he punished them
Waomens roles in society
-what happens when women leave the household
Medea Summary-Jason has abandoned his wife, Medea, along with their two children
-He hopes to advance his station by remarrying with Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, the Greek city where the play is set
-After a long series of trials and adventures, which ultimately forced Jason and Medea to seek exile in Corinth, the pair had settled down and established their family, achieving a degree of fame and respectability
-Jason’s recent abandonment of that family has crushed Medea emotionally, to the degree that she curses her own existence, as well as that of her two children
-Fearing a possible plot of revenge, Creon banishes Medea and her children from the city
-After pleading for mercy, Medea is granted one day before she must leave, during which she plans to complete her quest for ” justice”–at this stage in her thinking, the murder of Creon, Glauce, and Jason. Jason accuses Medea of overreacting
-He claims that his decision to remarry was in everyone’s best interest.
-Medea finds him spineless, and she refuses to accept his token offers of help.
-Appearing by chance in Corinth, Aegeus, King of Athens, offers Medea sanctuary in his home city in exchange for her knowledge of certain drugs that can cure his sterility.
-Now guaranteed an eventual haven in Athens, Medea has cleared all obstacles to completing her revenge, a plan which grows to include the murder of her own children; the pain their loss will cause her does not outweigh the satisfaction she will feel in making Jason suffer.
-Medea engages in a ruse; she pretends to sympathize with Jason
-Medea engages in a ruse; she pretends to sympathize with Jason (bringing him into her confidence) and offers his wife ” gifts,” a coronet and dress. The gifts are meant to convince Glauce to ask her father to allow the children to stay in Corinth. The coronet and dress are actually poisoned, however, and their delivery causes Glauce’s death. Seeing his daughter ravaged by the poison, Creon chooses to die by her side by dramatically embracing her and absorbing the poison himself.
-Medea murders her children and flees the scene in a dragon-pulled chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-GodMedea ThemesGreek vs Non Greek
-Medea is foreign so her children are not citizens
-Jason leaves Medea to move up his position in society and have legitimate Greek children an wife
Womens roles in society
-Medea is a smart woman who talks well
Revenge
-Medea gets revenge on Jason
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