William Shakespeare Who was William Shakespeare? Little Shakespeare was born in England, in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1564 AD. His family was pretty well off, and he probably went to good schools. Nobody knows if he went to college. Shakespeare got married when he was just 18 years old! England was getting much [...]
Cassandra dragged away from the altar (House of Menander, Pompeii, ca. 70 AD) Euripides lived in ancient Athens. He wrote the Trojan Women in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War. This was just after the Athenians had killed every man on the island of Melos, and enslaved all the women and children. The play [...]
Papyrus with part of Sophocles' play Antigone written on it When did Sophocles live? Aeschylus is the first playwright whose plays survive, but Sophocles (ca. 496-406 BC) is the second. (More about Aeschylus) Sophocles lived at the same time as Aeschylus, but he was younger and he lived longer. He died at the [...]
After Phaedra's suicide, Hippolytus drives his chariot away (On a red-figure vase from Southern Italy, ca. 350 BC) Phaedra - the second half of the play So the clueless chorus is singing about the need for love and balance in people's lives. (What's the beginning of Phaedra's story?) Phaedra's suicide But suddenly Phaedra's [...]
Phaedra falls in love with the hunter Hippolytus (Pompeii, ca. 79 AD) Phaedra is a play written by the Greek playwright Euripides. It is concerned with dike, justice, but also with sophrosyne, or control: how do people control themselves? When should they control themselves? Is control always good? In this way, the play [...]
A later painting of Antigone and Oedipus, by Camille Felix Bellanger, in the 1800s. Oedipus at Colonus is a play written by Sophocles. It tells the story of what happened to Oedipus after he left Thebes. Oedipus is old now, and he's blind, because he pulled out his own eyes. His daughter (and [...]
Oedipus Rex: The shepherd tells his story to Oedipus, while Jocasta listens in horror (now in the Getty Museum) Sophocles wrote this very famous play in the 400s BC. It is mainly about fate, and how men do not control their own fate, no matter how much they try. It's about accepting that [...]
Who was Menander? Here he is on a fresco painting from Pompeii, in Italy, painted after he died. Who was Menander? Menander is the only playwright from the Hellenistic period whose plays survive. Actually only one play, the Dyskolos, survives, and a lot of fragments. Even the Dyskolos was unknown until about thirty [...]
Medea: Creusa gets her new magic dress from a slave The Greek playwright Euripides wrote the play Medea in Athens, in the late 400s BC. It's about the opposition, the agon, between Greeks and barbarians, where the Greeks are rational, controlled people, and the barbarians are irrational, passionate, unthinking. In this way, the play [...]
Libation Bearers: Orestes This is the second of a cycle of three plays written by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. Some time has passed since the murder of Agamemnon. Agamemnon's children, Orestes and Electra, have grown up with their mother Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus. But they are very unhappy, because they know their [...]
