Euripides

We will read two plays of Euripides, Andromache of ca. 425 and Orestes of 408, both dramatizing the aftermath of the Trojan War; as time permits, we will read relevant fragmentary plays and papyrus fragments. We will give a close reading to the two plays and their textual problems, esp. in Andromache, and in the case of that play, we will be concerned with its double plot and oft-cited lack of coherence. In both plays, we will also be concerned with their emotional onslaught, mythological fireworks, theatrical dynamics, and the connection to their dramatic locales (in Phthia in the earlier one, in Argos, in the later) and to the politics of the times, that is, respectively, to the first years of the Peloponnesian War and to the tumultuous politics of the last decade of the fifth century.