Euripides, III, Suppliant Women. Electra. Heracles

Euripides

Edited and translated by David Kovacs

    One of antiquity's greatest poets, Euripides (ca. 485-406 BCE) has been prized in every age for the pathos, terror, surprising plot twists, and intellectual probing of his dramatic creations. Here, in the third volume of a new edition that is receiving much praise, are four of his plays.

    Suppliant Women reflects on war and on the rule of law. Euripides' Electra--presenting the famous legend of a brother and sister who seek revenge on their mother for killing their father--is a portrayal interestingly different from that of Aeschylus or Sophocles. Heracles shows the malice of the gods--and mutual loyalty as the human response to divinely sent disaster. And the theme of the tragic unpredictability of life is developed in Trojan Women. David Kovacs gives us a freshly edited Greek text and a new translation that, in the words of Greece and Rome, is "close to the Greek and reads fluently and well."

  • Cover: Euripides, III, Suppliant Women. Electra. Heracles
  • A photo of the author

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David Kovacs is Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia.