Euripides Our Contemporary Book

Introduction 1

I Domesticating Tragedy

1 Playmaker and Image-Breaker 11

2 The Family Saga: Phoenician Women, Bacchae, Iphigeneia at Aulis 29

3 Women and Men: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus 44

4 The Comic Touch: Cyclops, Ion, Orestes, Electra, Bacchae, Children of Heracles, Helen 62

II Powerful Forces: The Grand Passions

5 War and the Military: Rhesus, Trojan Women, Suppliants, Iphigeneia at Aulis 81

6 Revenge: Electra, Hecuba, Children of Heracles, Andromache, Medea 97

7 Immortals and Mortals: Alcestis, Iphigeneia Among the Taurians, Electra, Rhesus, Ion, Hippolytus, Bacchae 115

8 Sanity, Madness and Responsibility: Orestes, Heracles, Bacchae, Electra 131

III Theatre Theatrical

9 Playing the Game: Illusion and Reality: Hecuba, Suppliants, Ion, Rhesus, Helen, Bacchae 151

10 Great Roles: Medea, Alcestis, Heracles, Hippolytus, Iphigeneia at Aulis, Hecuba, Electra, Helen, Bacchae 168

11 Heirs to the Legacy: Shaw, Strindberg, Brecht, Pirandello, Anouilh, Sondheim, Frisch 192

Appendix: A plot summary of all nineteen surviving plays 213

Select Bibliography 235

Index 245