The Phoenician Women
by Euripides
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At a glance:
- Author: Euripides
- First Published: 409
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Tragedy
- Setting: Thebes
- Characters: Jocasta, Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, Creon, Menoeceus, Tiresias, Oedipus, Chorus of Phoenician Maidens
- Genres: Drama, Tragedy
- Subjects: War, Kings, queens, or royalty, Fratricide, parricide, or filicide, Prophecy or prophets, Greek or Roman times, Duels or dueling, Greece or Greek people, Heads of state
- Locales: Europe, Greece, Thebes, ancient
The Story:
Before the royal palace of Thebes, Jocasta, the mother of King Eteocles, prays to the sun god for aid in reconciling her two sons and avoiding fratricidal war over the kingdom of Thebes. In her supplication she recalls that her family has already suffered unbearable horrors; her husband, Oedipus, plucked out his eyes upon discovering that in marrying her he had married his own mother and had conceived two sons and two daughters by her. At first the sons had confined their father in the palace in order to hide the family shame and had decided to rule the kingdom...
(The entire page is 2172 words.)
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