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All of the plays in this text follow the traditional cycles of heroic legend. While a large part of their purpose was that of dramatic entertainment, each of them bears ready comparison with the political climate of Athens, and the final three are in particular overshadowed by the prospect of imminent defeat. In a society where dramatists were extremely influential, but could be swiftly destroyed if their messages were considered unacceptable, Euripides writes with deliberate irony of the ethics of war as he illustrates its destructive effects on both the public and private lives of those involved. Expressed in some of his finest poetic and dramatic writing, his theme that revenge is wrong is as forceful and relevant today as it was in ancient Greece.
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