The Bacchae and Other Plays

The Bacchae and Other Plays
ISBN: 9780140440447
Publication Date: 29 December 2000

Presents translations of four plays by Euripides that revolve around the themes of religious scepticism, the injustices suffered by women, and the folly of war. The plays of Euripides have stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. This volume, containing Ion, The Women of Troy, Helen, and The Bacchae completes the new editions of "Euripides in Penguin Classics".

Ion concerns the upheaval surrounding the conception of Ion through the rape of Creusa by Apollo, Ion's quest to find his parents and his mother's desire to have a child with her new husband. Unconventional in many ways compared to most Greek tragedies, Euripides wrote Ion as self-referential and innovative.

Helen is an alternate telling of the events surrounding the Trojan War. Rather than fleeing with Paris to Troy, Helen of Sparta was taken to Egypt by the gods and remains loyal to her Spartan husband, Menelaus. An anti-war tract written in the aftermath of a major Athenian defeat, Helen encouraged the Greeks to re-evaluate their traditional philosophies and beliefs.

The Trojan Women tells of the immediate aftermath of the Trojan War from the point of view of the women who taken as prizes by the victorious Greeks. Cassandra, Andromache, Hecuba and Helen are mourning the loss of their homeland and families while the Greeks decide who will take which woman as a slave. Written as the Greek states fought the Peloponnesian War, it is Euripides' lament to the true victims of war.

The Bacchae tells of the god Dionysus' youth and his quest to be recognised as a deity by his family. After being rejected as such, he gathers a horde of followers and takes his revenge on the family that disrespected him. One of Euripides' most discussed works, The Bacchae ponders the ...