The Greek tragedian Euripides wrote plays that sometimes challenge our commonsense notion of what constitutes tragedy. Euripides was accused of misogyny during his life, but these translations of the tragedies of Euripides indicate profound sympathy with the suppressed place of women in ancient Greek society. These translations may more properly be called interpretations.
1. Alcestis
Euripides' Alcestis, rendered into Ted Hughes' modern idiom, tells the timeless story of conflicts between public and private values, selfishness and filial relations, while retelling myths about Prometheus, Heracles' labors, and the sacrifice the best of women, Alcestis, made for her undeserving husband, King Admetos.2. Andromache
Translated by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton, this is the tale of Hector's wife and widow Andromache, who was taken as a concubine after the Trojan War, by Achilles' son, Neoptolemus.
3. The Trojan Women
Howard Rubinstein has translated Euripides' anti-war play into modern American English, and added a prologue and choral odes that are more relevant to the play than the ones Euripides wrote and for which he was criticized.4. Medea
Liz Lochhead's Medea is not only a translation, but an interpretation of Euripides' drama about Medea, the woman abused by Jason.5. Bakkhai
This translation of Euripides' Bacchae, by poet and English professor Reginald Gibbons, with an introduction by Charles Segal, was originally commissioned for a London theatre group.