Three Other Theban Plays: Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes; Euripides’ Suppliants; Euripides’ Phoenician Women

Though now associated mainly with Sophocles’ Theban Plays and Euripides’Bacchae, the theme of Thebes and its royalty was a favorite of ancient Greek poets, one explored in a now lost epic cycle, as well as several other surviving tragedies. With a rich Introduction that sets three of these plays within the larger contexts of Theban legend and of Greek tragedy in performance, Cecelia Eaton Luschnig’s annotated translation of Aeschylus’Seven Against Thebes, Euripides’ Suppliants, and Euripides’ Phoenician Women offers a brilliant constellation of less familiar Theban plays—those dealing with the war between Oedipus’ sons, its casualties, and survivors.