Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Euripides' Medea

‘Man must suffer to be wise.’

The fifth century BC saw the fullest flowering of art, literature and philosophy in ancient Athens, and this major new selection brings the masterpieces of the great tragedians of that era – Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides – together in one volume.

Powerful and devastating, they depict complex characters locked in brutal conflict both with others and themselves in situations that offer no simple solutions.

Through the revenge-murder in Agamemnon, the hideous family secret revealed in Oedipus Rex, and a mother’s slaughter of her children in Medea, we see the wrenching dilemmas of humans living in a morally uncertain world.

This volume also includes extracts from Aristophanes’ comedy The Frogs – a comic satire on tragic playwrights – and a selection from Aristotle’s masterful Poetics, which presents a philosophical discussion of Greek tragedy.

Simon Goldhill’s introduction illuminates the plays’ cultural background and place in ritual ceremony, and illustrates their lasting effect on the Western imagination. This edition includes a preface, chronology, further reading and detailed notes on each work, while genealogical tables clarify the complex legends behind each tragedy.

About the Authors

Aeschylus (525-456 bc) wrote more than seventy plays, of which seven have survived.
Euripides (c. 484-406 bc) is believed to have written ninety-two dramas, fewer than twenty of which have survived.
Sophocles (496-406 bc) wrote more than one hundred plays for the Athenian theater.

Shomit Dutta (Editor) was educated at University College Oxford, and King's College London and teaches at Alleyn's School.
Simon Goodhill (Foreward) is a professor of Greek at Cambridge University and a fellow of King's College where he is director of studies in Classics.