Published in the new Methuen Classical Dramatists series
Written at the height of the Peloponnesian War, the three plays in this volume highlight the trivial causes and dire consequences of war and the fate of the innocent. In Andromache, Hektor's widow struggles to survive as the concubine of her husband's killer. Herakles' Children and Herakles show his two young families, without his powerful protection at the mercy of his enemies. Full of humanity and subtle characterisation, these new translations by Robert Cannon and Kenneth McLeish which are intended both for performer and student, Euripides is reaffirmed as a fresh and compelling dramatist.
Andromache; Herakles' Children and Herakles
Euripides was born near Athens between 485 and 480 BC. His first play was presented in 455 BC and he wrote some hundred altogether of which nineteen survive - a greater number than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles combined - and which include Alkestis, Medea, Bacchae, Hippolytos, Ion and Iphigenia at Aulis. He died in 406 BC.