Other Fiction Eliot, Charles W. (editor): Harvard Classics Volume 8 V2.0 30 Mar 2014

[GeorgeH]

The Harvard Classics Volume 8 (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes) Published 1909

Edited by Charles W Eliot LL D. (March 20, 1834 - August 22, 1926)

Nine Greek Dramas

Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC – c. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy:

Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Furies is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus which concerns the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. When originally performed it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have been performed following the trilogy; it has not survived.

Prometheus Bound is composed almost entirely of speeches and contains little action since its protagonist is chained and immobile throughout. Scholars at the Great Library of Alexandria unanimously deemed Aeschylus to be the author of Prometheus Bound. Since the 19th century, however, several scholars have doubted Aeschylus' authorship of the drama.

Sophocles (c. 497/6 BC – winter 406/5 BC) is another of the first three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His most famous tragedies feature Oedipus and also Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, although each play was actually a part of a different tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot.

Oedipus the King chronicles the story of Oedipus, a man that becomes the king of Thebes and was always destined from birth to murder his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of a classic tragedy, noticeably containing an emphasis on how Oedipus's own faults contribute to the tragic hero's downfall, as opposed to having fate be the sole cause.

Antigone picks up where Oedipus at Colonus leaves off. Oedipus has just passed away in Colonus, and Antigone and her sister decide to return to Thebes with the intention of helping their brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, avoid a prophecy that predicts they will kill each other in a battle for the throne of Thebes.

Euripides (c. 480 – 406 BC) was the youngest in the set of three great tragedians who were almost contemporaries: his first play was staged thirteen years after Sophocles's debut and only three years after Aeschylus's masterpiece, the Oresteia.

Hippolytus is set in Troezen, a coastal town in the northeastern Peloponnese. Theseus, the king of Athens, is serving a year's voluntary exile after having murdered a local king and his sons. His illegitimate son Hippolytus, whose mother is the Amazon Hippolyta, has been trained here since childhood by the king of Troezen, Pittheus.

The Bacchae is based on the mythological story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agauë, and their punishment by the god Dionysus (who is Pentheus' cousin) because he refuses to worship him.

Aristophanes (c. 446 BC – c. 386 BC) was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his thirty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre.

The Frogs tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades (the underworld) to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. (Euripides had died the year before, in 406 BC). He brings along his slave Xanthias, who is smarter and braver than Dionysus.

[Extracts from Wiki and other sources]

Version 2.0: New Book Cover. Revised Table of Contents. Various format changes. (prev DLs 175)

[GeorgeH]

Version 2 uploaded.

Changes:
- New Book Cover.
- Revised Table of Contents.
- Numerous format changes.