Tragedy is one of the defining achievements of the Western Canon, and Greek tragedy is the archetype. At the beginning of the Western dramatic tradition are unflinching confrontations with suffering and the limits of human understanding. Beneath the apparent order of existence lie forces that reason cannot master and conflicts that show justice to be fundamentally irresolvable. Refusing to turn away from the darkness at the heart of the world, these tragedies are among the greatest literature ever written.

This volume includes the ten most essential Greek tragedies in muscular verse translations. It also includes extensive scholarly annotation that bridges the deep gap between us and the Greeks. Now, the non-specialist reader can encounter the tragedians themselves, equipped to understand their own words.

Uniting scholarly rigour with genuine accessibility is a rare achievement, but readers have come to expect this from the Imperium Press Western Canon series. This is the ideal edition for reading and study, and a substantial contribution to preserving the Canon for the twenty-first century.

The tragedies included in the collection are as follows:

Sophocles — Oedipus Rex
Sophocles — Antigone
Euripides — Medea
Sophocles — Ajax
Euripides — Hippolytus
Aeschylus — Agamemnon
Euripides — The Bacchae
Euripides — The Trojan Women
Aeschylus — The Persians
Aeschylus — Prometheus Bound