Electra and Other Plays

Written during a period overshadowed by the fierce struggle for supremacy between Sparta and Euripides' native Athens, these five plays are haunted by the shadow of war - and in particular its impact on women.

In "Electra" the children of Agamemnon take bloody revenge on their mother for murdering their father after his return from Troy, and "Suppliant Women" depicts the grieving mothers of those killed in battle.

The other plays deal with the aftermath of the Trojan War for the defeated survivors, as "Andromache" shows Hector's widow as a trophy of war in the house of her Greek captor, and "Hecabe" portrays a defeated queen avenging the murder of her last-remaining son, while "Trojan Women" tells of the plight of the city's women in the hands of their victors.