The Bacchae

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Digireads.com, 2012 - Drama - 34 pages
Euripides turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first victory in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. He would be awarded this honor three more times in his life, and once more posthumously. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. In 408 b.c.e., Euripides left worn-torn Athens for Macedonia, upon the invitation of King Archelaus, and there he spent his last years as a confidant of the king. In his final years, he produced "The Bacchae" - one of the most produced ancient plays of the twentieth century. The play, based on the mythological story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agaue, and their punishment by the god Dionysus for refusing to worship him, was awarded first prize at the Athens City Dionysia after Euripides' death. Its popularity through the centuries is a testament to Euripides' great talent as a Greek dramatist."

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About the author (2012)

Euripides was born in Attica, Greece probably in 480 B.C. He was the youngest of the three principal fifth-century tragic poets. In his youth he cultivated gymnastic pursuits and studied philosophy and rhetoric. Soon after he received recognition for a play that he had written, Euripides left Athens for the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia. Fragments of about fifty-five plays survive. Among his best-known plays are Alcestis, Medea and Philoctetes, Electra, Iphigenia in Tauris, The Trojan Women, and Iphigenia in Aulis Iphigenia. He died in Athens in 406 B.C.

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