Sophocles Aeschylus and Euripides are often described as the greatest tragedians of the
ancient world. Of these three pivotal founders of modern drama Euripides is characterized as
the interloper and the innovator: the man who put tragic verse into the mouths of slaves women
and the socially inferior in order to address vital social issues such as sex class and gender
relations. It is perhaps little wonder that his work should find such resonance in the modern
day.In this concise introduction Isabelle Torrance engages with the thematic cultural and
scholarly difficulties that surround his plays to demonstrate why Euripides remains a figure of
perennial relevance. Addressing here issues of social context performance theory
fifth-century philosophy and religion textual criticism and reception the author presents an
astute and attractively-written guide to the Euripidean corpus - from the widely read and
celebrated Medea to the lesser-known and deeply ambiguous Alcestis.
