Medea and Other Plays

By Euripides, Philip Vellacott (translator),

Book cover of Medea and Other Plays

Book description

Medea/Hecabe/Electra/Heracles

Four devastating Greek tragedies showing the powerful brought down by betrayal, jealousy, guilt and hatred

The first playwright to depict suffering without reference to the gods, Euripides made his characters speak in human terms and face the consequences of their actions. In Medea, a woman rejected by her lover…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Medea and Other Plays as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This translation of four of Euripides’ plays features his three best female avengers.

Electra is the loyal daughter who conspires with her brother Orestes, to avenge the killing of their father by slaughtering their mother, Clytemnestra. Hecabe is the fierce maternal figure who exacts revenge for her dead son Polydorus on the man who killed him for his riches. Medea is the murderous mother who avenges herself on her faithless husband, Jason, by killing her own children to destroy his family line.

The power of these plays is in the way their plots build as the women move from grief…

From Fiona's list on women and revenge in Greek tragedy.

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