Euripides is not a definitive tragedian (in the Aristotelian notion) like his contemporary Sophocles; although he mines the same subject matter, he exhibits a number of stylistic differences and peculiarities. His plays tend to begin with a single character delivering a soliloquy that introduces the background of the story, and he makes frequent use of a "deus ex machina" at the end in order to set things right, or as right as they can be.

The biggest difference between Sophocles and Euripides is their approach to tragedy. Sophocles uses tragedy as an enhancement of nobility, an illumination of heroic dignity and grandeur; to Euripides it is just ugly, crude, and awkward, like a ketchup stain on your shirt. Tragedy elevates the Sophoclean hero to a state of fearsome awe, but it merely reduces the Euripidean hero to an object of pity and even derision. In this sense Euripides is more of a realist and a humanist, and therefore more modern.

Euripides's plays transform classical mythology not into morality lessons but into drama in a very basic, empathic mode. He makes the most of every dramatic situation: Medea, who kills her children to punish her unfaithful husband Jason; Hector's widow Andromache, who is enslaved by Achilles's son Neoptolemus and is accused by his wife Hermione of seducing him; Ion, son of Apollo by the rape of Creusa and attendant at his temple, in a classic plot of mistaken identity; Pentheus, king of Thebes, who is murdered by frenzied Bacchantes, one of whom is his own mother; Iphigenia, who is sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to ensure Greek victory in the Trojan War. There is a very clear path that connects Euripides with the conventions of two and a half millenia of Western literature. He might not have been as famous or as respected as Sophocles, but he is no less important a dramatist.

I'm an acting teacher, and this is the best translation I've come across. It's very readable and actable. Most other translations focus more on formal equivalency but this one is more of a dynamic equivalency. For an acting student, the text is so immediate and realistic rather than awkward.

One of the playwrights from the triad of great dramatists that comprised Greek tragedy,Euripides is considered to be the most modern of all of them in the depiction of his subject matter,& it is here that one can clearly see true humanity abound:immoral women,devious & cunning people,gods with human frailties,etc.Euripides touches on themes common of his time,which claims an ineffaceable hold on humanity even up to now;the helplessness of man in the face of fate,the attitude & relationships of people towards one another & with their gods.The language at times(especially with its oratorical phrases)is dated,but the compelling & convincing dialogues are truly moving,& the playwright handles with effortless ease the conveyance of the heightened sense of drama.But the real delight is in the awareness that reading works almost 2,500 years old & finding still a lot of common traits among the people of this time & of that is a marvel in the realization of the unity of man's soul through the centuries.

"The Complete Plays of Sophocles" presents a fundamental tradeoff: the translations of the seven extant plays of Sophocles were done by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb at the end of the 19th century, which means the translations are rather stilted. But on the other hand you get the seven extant plays of Sophocles in a single standard sized paperback volume. The formalism of Jebb's translations does provide a sense of the inherent dignity of Greek tragedy; besides, editor Moses Hadas has substituted moderate for extreme archaism in vocabulary, syntax, and word order regarding the dialogue (the choral poetry remains essentially intact).

Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays, only seven of which have survived intact. If we were left with a similar ratio of the plays of William Shakespeare we would be reducing the Bard down to four plays (go ahead, pick your four favorite Shakespeare plays and then think of what would then be lost). Obviously the big plays here are "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone," which comprise two-thirds of the Theban trilogy along with "Oedipus at Colonus," and Sophocles' version of the murder of Clytemnestra by her son Orestes in "Electra," the only mythological story for which we have tragedies by all three of the Greek tragic playwrights. "Ajax," "Trachinian Women," and "Philoctetes" are lesser plays but have in common the Sophocles ideal of the Greek hero.

The ancients considered Sophocles to be the greatest master of tragedy, although today modern critics show a preference for Euripides. Aristotle cited "Oedipus the King" as the ideal tragedy, and the play remains the perfect choice for explicating the Aristotlean elements of tragedy such as hubris, anagnorisis, harmartia, et al. Consequently, for teaching the basics of Greek tragedy it remains the first and most obvious choice. From a contemporary perspective, it is the development of character in the plays of Sophocles that warrants the most attention, as evidenced by Freud's development of the Oedipus and Electra complexes off of these plays. Contemporary readers are stille enthralled by such protagonists as Oedipus and Antigone, individuals who are doomed by the very qualities that made them heroic. Even in defeat such characters achieve a moral victory of sorts.

There is a corresponding volume containing the complete tragedies of Euripides, which would make for some interesting pedagogical possibilities for classroom study. Hadas also edited a collection of Greek plays that features three from Sophocles in addition to works by Aeschylus and Euripides. I still think there is great value today in the formal study of Greek tragedies and "The Complete Plays of Sophocles" is one way to doing so with some degree of depth.

This is a most accessible tome of the seven extant plays of the Sophocles .
The editor's comments also illumine the reader. If you've never read Sophocles, this inexpensive paperback is all you need to enter the realm of ancient Greece.

Undoubtedly Hadas' edition is currently the best single volume work available of Seneca's writings. I also have Penguin's selected letters, which offers a more extensive collection of the great Stoic's correspondence, but Hadas' book is nice because it includes some of Seneca's more interesting dialogues and essays. Simply as a writer, Seneca is marvelous. His style is remarkably pithy, yet the thought is lofty. Just from a historical viewpoint, I've learned a lot about daily Roman life from his many annecdotes. Seneca's Stoicism is not presented in a "doctrinaire" manner as in Epictetus (whom I also enjoy) but rather in a conversational style.

I read this book while in graduate school (when I was suppose to be reading something else of course), and it had a profound effect on me. There are many legends in Stoicism but there are few tangible works, ones that one can imbibe and feel atleast a little filled--other than Marcus Aurelius. This book gives not so much a systematic look at the philosophy but it does have that density and practicality and intimacy, which is so rare. It is interesting and more illuminating than any other book on the topic that I have come across, including the other greats: Epictetus, Aurelius.

Heliodorus' "Ethiopian Romance" is an absolutely wonderful piece of literature! A novel from around the third century AD, the "Ethiopian Romance" centrally concerns a young man, Theagenes, and his beloved, Charicleia. The novel begins with an epic scene in which the two lovers console each other in the midst of a scene of total destruction - a banquet scene has degenerated into violence, and they remain on the field alone. Thyamis, the leader of a band of Egyptian pirates, takes them prisoner, and we are pulled into a spectacular adventure.

Beginning in medias res, much of the novel concerns itself with catching the reader up with the events leading to the astounding initial scene. Heliodorus accomplishes this by way of nested narratives, primarily between two men who, by various accidents, have an interest in Theagenes and Charicleia: Calasiris, an exiled Egyptian priest, and Cnemon, an exiled Athenian youth. The novel draws heavily on the universal human tendency to tell, and eagerness to hear stories. In a novel where various marriages are proposed and deferred, it is appropriate that the internal stories and their audiences should express the need to hear stories in terms of desire and gratification. You find yourself desperate to see how each individual story leads to clarification and understanding of the whole.

Heliodorus' characters are well-developed and interesting. He gives us lovers, pirates, nobles, eunuchs, witches, priests, and schemers, among others. His plot is as complicated as that of any traditional modern novel, and manages to deal not only with the primary love affair, but with a host of other social issues that still bear importance to-day. To wit, the ravages of war, economic relationships, ethnic diversity and acceptance, political wranglings, and issues of identity and self-definition in an increasingly cosmopolitan world.

Heliodorus' major influences are clearly the epics of Homer, which are invoked directly and subtly to wonderful effect. One can sense here that even in the third century, novel writers saw themselves both indebted to the Iliad and the Odyssey, and striving to claim for fiction an artistic worth to rival epic poetry. The "Ethiopian Romance" is presented in accessible and lively English by Moses Hadas, and comes to you highly recommended. It is simply a beautiful work and deserves to be read by more people.

Excellent work by outstanding scholar. Covers drama, poetry, history, philosophy, oratory, pretty much the whole gambit. Author dicusses literally hundreds of different writers. There is no way you will remember all of them, because besides the usual suspects like Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides, Sappho, Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Apuleius (author of The Golden Ass, and no, it's not about Bill Gates, no matter how rich he is), and so on, there are hundreds of others you've probably never heard of, but at least after you've read this book, you will have seen their names mentioned in some context and learned something about each of them, and a lot more about the more prominent ones such as those mentioned above. It just goes to show you how many classical authors' work got preserved, and makes me wonder what got lost in the fire at the library at Alexandria.

Moses Hadas was (and perhaps still is) the preeminent scholar of Classical, both Greek and Latin, Literature. In A History of Latin Literature, Hadas explores and defines, explains and unveils, compresses and expounds upon the mass oevre that is Latin literature. Tracing Roman literacy from its early beginnings through its complex years of "Golden Age" to its decline, Hadas outlines clearly and concisely. This book is essential for anyone interested in ancient literature. Whether you're a high school latin student, a Classics major in college, or have no understanding or prior knowledge of the Latin language, this book is for you.

Excellent reference, especially for young people. I'll never give up my copy. It is also a good coffee table book. Does not have the depth of a text book.

I first heard of Medea in our Latin II class when we covered Greek/Roman mythology. I was really intrigued by her then. This year, in Latin IV we translated a piece of Medea by the Roman author Seneca. I really enjoyed it. I bought Medea at the bookstore and loved it. There is a lot more psychological things going on than you get from the normal myth.

I reccomend this to anyone who likes classical mythology.

This is an amazing book and I am surprised it is not better known. It tells about the life of a Polish Jew who escaped from what he considered the stifling atmosphere of Polish Hasidic life and went to Germany to become part of the German Enlightenment. He translated Kant into Yiddish for the edification of his compatriots back home. The scenes depicting Maimon's marriage at the age of 12 and of Jewish life in eighteenth century Poland are very memorable. Someone told me recently that this book might not actually have been written by Maimon at all but by the "editor," the German writer Karl Philip Moritz, who apparently had a similar life. Perhaps that is why the book has not been reprinted.

These are not, as one review says, "early Christian" works; they are later Jewish writings, some from the first century before Christ.

Also, though as other reviewers point out, none are in the Protestant "canon" (the original "Revised Standard Version" issued a one volume version of them a few decades ago, introducing them to many Protestant lay people for the first time).

They are, in various combinations, in the Roman Catholic canon (e.g. New American Bible translation, authorized for use in the American Catholic Church), and in the canons of the various Orthodox (Eastern) Churches. Communicants of those churches should consult their own authorized canonical versions of the Bible to determine which specifically are recognized by their church. Anyone generally interested can consult the New Oxford Revised Standard Version with the Aphocrypha, which includes notes on the various books and a table of which are included in the various "canons" (often under different names, or incorporated in the text of books recognized as canonical by Protestants, e.g. Esther, Daniel.)

Protestants might like to inquire into the process of exclusion of various of these books; often it was becaused they are used by the Roman and Eastern churches to support doctrines rejected by Protestants, e.g. prayers for the dead. A single verse might have been enough to result in exclusion.

The "canon(s)" of the Bible as we know it (them) are the result of centuries of argument, and many of the early church fathers rejected or accepted books that were later held the opposite when the Bible as we know it finally settled into its current form.

But the "Apocrypha" can at the very least supply missing Western cultural references for Protestant readers (the stories of Bel and the Dragon and Susanna), and at best provide some beautiful spiritual reading from late Jewish Wisdom literature.

Althought this is not considered part of Scripture in the modern Bible any longer, I still have truly enjoyed reading this. I found this to be easy to read. Whenever a person reads positive material that is praising our Lord, then they will be gaining knowledge of some sort. Subjects will arise that will peak curiousities and cause that curious nature to seek out more answers or more information on certain subjects. Seeking the Lord and furthering your knowledge of Him, is most wonderful and blessed. So, whether you read this, a devotional, or ? do it with the mind set, that you are learning and seeking. Pray for guidance and He will take care of the rest.

I have read through Goodspeed's translation, and I thought it was understandable and quite the interesting read. Everyone who values their Bibles ought to see for him or herself what the Apocrypha really says. Of course, none of these books are in the Protestant's canon, not even in the Jewish canon for that matter, but the stories are still fascinating and include important history for several hundred years before and after Christ. Well worth the price for those who are curious.