Here, Peter Burian and Brian Swann recreate Euripides' The Phoenician Women, a play about the fateful history of the House of Laios following the tragic fall of Oedipus, King of Thebes. Their lively translation of this controversial play reveals the cohesion and taut organization of a complexdramatic work. Through the use of dramatic, fast-paced poetry--almost cinematic it its rapidity of tempo and metaphorical vividness--Burian and Swann capture the original spirit of Euripides' drama about the deeply and disturbingly ironic convergence of free will and fate. Presented with acritical introduction, stage directions, a glossary of mythical Greek names and terms, and a commentary on difficult passages, this edition of The Phoenician Women makes a controversial tragedy accessible to the modern reader.

This volume provides a thorough philological and dramatic commentary on Euripides' Phoenissae, the first detailed commentary in English since 1911. An introduction surveys the play, its possible date, features of the original production, the background of Theban myth, the general problem of interpolation, and the textual tradition. The commentary treats the constitution of the text, noteworthy features of diction and style, dramatic technique and structure, and the controversies over possible later additions to the text.

Euripides’ Phoenissae bears one of the richest tragic plots: multiple narrative levels are interwoven by means of various anachronies, focalizers offer different and often challenging points of view, while a complex mythical matrix is deftly employed as the backdrop against which the exploration of the mechanics of tragic narrative takes place. After providing a critical perspective on the ongoing scholarly dialogue regarding narratology and drama, this book uses the former as a working tool for the study and interpretation of the latter. The Phoenissae is approached as a coherent narrative unit and issues like the use of myth, narrators, intertext, time and space are discussed in detail. It is within these contexts that the play is seen as a Theban mythical ‛thesaurus’ both exploring previous mythical ramifications and making new additions. The result is rewarding: Euripides constructs a handbook of the Theban saga that was informative for those mythically untrained, fascinating for those theatrically demanding, but also dexterously open upon each one’s reception.

"Phoenician Women", one of Euripides' later tragedies, is an intriguing play that arguably displays some of his finest dramatic technique. Rich in cast and varied in incident, it is an example of Euripides' experimentation with structure. It dramatises the most fertile mythical tradition of the city of Thebes and its doomed royal family, focusing in particular on the conflict between Eteocles and Polyneices as a result of their father Oedipus' curse, which eventually leads to mutual fratricide. The play was very popular throughout antiquity, and became part of the so-called "Byzantine Triad" (along with "Hecuba" and "Orestes"), of plays studied in the school curriculum.Thalia Papadopoulou here offers a thorough survey of the play in its historical context, against the background of Athenian tragedy and Euripidean dramaturgy. Employing various critical approaches, she investigates the literary tradition and the dynamics of intertextuality, Euripidean dramatic technique, the use of rhetoric, characterisation, gender, the function of the Chorus, aspects of performance and the reception of the play from antiquity to modern times.

The Phoenissae is a literature & fiction Greek tragedy written by Euripides in 408 BC, based on the same story as Aeschylus's play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who are trapped in Thebes by the war. The chorus does not play a significant role in the plot, but represents the innocent and neutral people that very often are found in the middle of war situations. The ancient & medieval play opens with a summary of the story of Oedipus and its aftermath told by Jocasta, who in this version has not committed suicide. She explains that after her husband blinded himself upon discovering that he was her son, his sons Eteocles and Polyneices locked him away in hopes that the people might forget what had happened. He curses them, proclaiming that neither would rule without killing his brother. To avert this, they have agreed to split the country - Polyneices allows Eteocles to rule for one year. When the year expired, Eteocles was to abdicate, allowing his brother to rule for a year. He refused to do so, forcing his brother into exile instead. While exiled, Polyneices went to Argos, where he married the daughter of Adrastus, king of the Argives. He then persuaded Adrastus to send a force to help him reclaim the city. Jocasta has arranged for a cease fire so that she can mediate between her two sons. Euripides is known in literature & fiction circles as a Greek tragedian of classical Athens. Euripides is one of the few whose Greek dramas & plays have survived. Ancient & medieval scholars have attributed 95 dramas & plays to Euripides, of which 19 are known to have survived more or less complete. Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama & plays down to modern times. He was unique among the writers of ancient & medieval Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society, including women.

The Phoenician Women is a tragedy by Euripides, based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphiwho are trapped in Thebes by the war. Unlike some of Euripides' other plays, the chorus does not play a significant role in the plot, but represents the innocent and neutral people that very often are found in the middle of war situations. Patriotism is a significant theme in the story, as Polynices talks a great deal about his love for the city of Thebes but has brought an army to destroy it; Creon is also forced to make a choice between saving the city and saving the life of his son.Euripides wrote the play around 408 BC, under the influence of a big defeat of his homeland, Athens, which then faced a military disaster.

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.