Our Greek Theatre summer continues with the last of the great tragedians, Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE). While less successful than Aeschylus and Sophocles when it came to winning prizes at the Athenian Dionysia, Euripides was more popular in his day—according to the historian Thucydides, Athenian prisoners of war were able to win favors, and sometimes freedom, by reciting his lines to their captors.

He has also left us the largest body of work of any of the other tragedy writers. He is known for a more cynical outlook on religion, for his naturalistic dialogue, and as a writer of women with deep characters. This week, we look at The Trojan Women, his portrait of Hecuba and the other royal women of Troy as they wait to learn their fates following the sack of the city by the Greeks—a sequel to the events of Homer's Iliad.

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