Euripides

Medea and Three Other Plays: Herakleidae, Herakles, and Hippolytus - Euripides

Was Medea a murderer? Or was she just another victim of racist laws enacted by a bigoted politician?

Under Hera's orders, Herakles had to serve Eurystheus, a cruel king for whom he had to perform his famous ten labours. Later, Herakles' children - "The Herakleidae" - are being pursued by Eurystheus' man and the Athenians offer those children protection.

Do mortals have the right to reject the ways of gods? Hippolytus rejected Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and sex and took his devotions to the virgin goddess Artemis, the goddess who opposed all that Aphrodite stood for.

How strong and big in stature - or knowledge or ability - is a mortal allowed to be before he or she irks the gods? In these plays, Euripides the bearer of the scales of Justice turning his stage into a courtroom trying to present moral questions such as these to his fellow Athenians.