Separation and reunion of mother and child sums up the plot of Ion. Creusa is seduced by the god Apollo and has his child. She fears the wrath of her father and abandons the infant, Io, in a cave. The goddess Hermes rescues him and he is raised in the temple at Delphi. His mother returns to Delphi years later, with her husband, to ask the gods to cure her childlessness. Divine intervention brings Ion and Creusa together. ..

Unrequited love, deceit, and wrongful death are the themes of this play by Euripides. Hippolytus, who leads a celibate life as a follower of Artemis, rejects the advances of the married Phaedra, who is passionately in love with him. Despondent, Phaedra commits suicide by hanging and leaves a letter falsely declaring that Hippolytus had seduced her and that she cannot live with the shame. Consequently, Hippolytus is banished. On his way out of town, his horses are startled, and he is thrown from the chariot and dragged to his death...

Euripides' Helen is not directly responsible for the Trojan War; rather, it is her "shadow" that Paris takes to Troy and the war is waged on a false basis. Meanwhile, Helen waits in Egypt for her husband Menelaus to return from the war. Reports that he was killed at Troy prove to be false when Menelaus arrives at court to seek assistance after having been shipwrecked off the Egyptian coast. This turn of events proves difficult for both, because the Egyptian king has decided to make Helen his wife. A plan is devised and the two manage to escape...

Hecuba, widow of King Priam, is an icon of sorrow and loss. She becomes the property of Odysseus after the fall of Troy, but her daughter Polyxena chooses death over slavery and is killed. Hecuba has only one surviving son, Polydorus. He is murdered by Polymestor, the man entrusted with his safety. Hecuba’s pleas to avenge her son’s death are denied, and so she finds her own means of retribution...

Noted as the first essayist, Montaigne covers a multitude of topics, from philosophy to friendship to vanity to the immeasurable influence of the Greek and Roman classics. Montaigne defines the frailties and fascinations of human nature, but does so kindly, and includes frank, meaningful observations and clever anecdotes...

Electra is Euripides' version of the Greek tragedy of Electra and Orestes, the daughter and son of the murdered king Agamemnon. Once Orestes returns from his exile, he and Electra plot to avenge their father's death through the murder of their stepfather Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, their mother. ..

The children of Heracles are on the run from Eurystheus and hiding in Athens. They are found and their surrender is ordered. When the king of Athens refuses to hand them over to Eurystheus' emissary, war is declared on Athens. A maiden, Heracles' daughter, Macaria, offers her life as a sacrifice to help the Athenians win the war. ..

This title is from the Hayes Barton Press "Originals" series, a collection of classic fiction and nonfiction works from world literature published in the VitalBook format. Look for new titles soon, as we expand to include more works from both Western and Eastern cultures. Available exclusively from the VitalSource Store...

Euripides wrote The Trojan Women shortly after the Athenians captured the city-state Melos and then slaughtered all the male inhabitants and enslaved the women and girls. The play, a strong indictment of the barbaric cruelty of war, presents the distraught and grieving Trojan women as they wait to learn their fate after Troy has fallen and their men have been killed. The women of the royal family are divided as spoils of war among the victors Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Neoptolemus. ..

In Euripides' play, the six chieftains who fought with Polynices in the battle for Thebes have been denied burial. Not only does this violate the human dignity of the dead, it also denies their mothers performance of important funerary rites. The women plead with Theseus, king of Athens, to intervene on their behalf. He bows to their supplication and recovers the bodies by force...

The Cyclops is a satyr play by Euripides. Satyr plays provided comic relief at the end of a tragic trilogy and differ from other Greek comedy, such as that of Aristophanes, by presenting elements of tragedy and myth and in incongruous ways to create broad, earthy burlesques. The Cyclops Polythemus makes prisoners of Odysseus and his men, who search for food and wine after having been washed ashore the island, which is also populated with satyrs...

This title is from the Hayes Barton Press "Originals" series, a collection of classic fiction and nonfiction works from world literature published in the VitalBook format. Look for new titles soon, as we expand to include more works from both Western and Eastern cultures. Available exclusively from the VitalSource Store...

Dionysus, the son of Zeus and the Theban Semele, proves his power over mortals and nature when the King of Thebes refuses to acknowledge his divinity. The Bacchantes, the Theban women compelled to perform the rites of Dionysus, are driven to commit grisly murder and an earthquake destroys the palace. Again, a royal family is destroyed when the will of the gods is resisted. ..

It is questionable whether Rhesus was actually written by Euripides. It appears to be a dramatization of one of the books from Homer's Iliad in which Rhesus is killed by Odysseus and Diomedes at goddess Athena's provocation. The mother of Rhesus, a Muse, appears with the body of her slain son to identify his murderers and lay blame on Athena...

Sick in heart and mind, Orestes seeks refuge and healing from his sister Electra after avenging his father's death by killing his mother and her lover. Electra and Orestes are about to commit yet another murder to relieve their suffering, when the god Apollo appears unexpectedly and brings the action to an abrupt halt. Through his intervention, the vicious cycle of revenge killings that has beset the house of Atreus for generations is brought to an end...

Medea was a sorceress of Greek mythology who fell in love with Jason of the Argonauts and used her magic to help him obtain the Golden Fleece and his inheritance, the throne of Iolcus. Euripides opens his tragedy after Jason has been denied the throne and his marriage to Medea is disintegrating. Jason looks to improve his lot and sees in the daughter of the king of Corinth a mate who can bring him the rewards his ambition requires. Medea then succumbs to a jealous and lethal anger that brings Jason to despair...