What are the best greek plays?

Bonus points for ones other than Oedipus Rex and Prometheus Bound

Medea.

Well? There's the Oresteia, Aeschylus' trilogy. From Euripides Alcestis isn't read so much anymore, but I like it. Two other good ones by him are Hippolytis and Iphigenia at Aulis (I'll let someone else rec the Bacchae). From Sophocles I rather liked Philoctetes (instrumental for gaining further knowledge as to how the Trojan War concludes- about an abandoned, stinking archer) and Oedipus at Colonus is perhaps my favorite by him.

The Seven Against Thebes.

The Persians.

Antigone.

Ajax.

lysistrata

The Oresteia reads like an anime. If it's not enough that it's the only surviving trilogy of Greek tragedy we have, then read it for Cassandra. She is one of the most memorable and pitiable characters in any play.

Clytæmnestra's vain attempt to get the captive Cassandra to speak is a very clever manipulation of the three-actor convention. But after the former goes back into the house to do what she will, Cassandra breaks her silence, not with speech but with an eerie howl of lamentation and an anguished call upon Apollo. The chorus understands her when she speaks of past events, such as the murders of Thyestes's children, but they cannot understand or believe her when she tells them what is about to happen, even when she speaks as plainly as possible.

She knows what is going to happen to her, but she also knows that there is nothing she can do to stop it.

Anyone here have ideas about how the Furies' entrance in Eumenides was handled? We know from ancient testimonial that their first appearance was horrifying to the audience; an ancient anecdote says that women fainted and pregnant women miscarried when the chorus of the third play was revealed to be the Furies.

Clearly an exaggeration, but it tells us that the Furies' appearance was unexpected and shocking to the audience. I think the answer lies in the music they played, for surely they had concept of dissonance and diminished sevenths.

What I wouldn't give to have lived to see this one performance, even as a slave.

Alcestis is fucking great
Hippolytus is also outstanding
IMO there's too many Trojan War subject plays by Euripides. They're obviously different but it gets a bit tiresome.

The iliad

Odissey is a much better play

Philoctetes

I've always been fond of Philoctetes. Ajax too is rarely mentioned. I still have a few by Euripides and Aristophanes to read because, after reading a bunch, I felt I needed a break.

>I still have a few by Euripides and Aristophanes to read because, after reading a bunch, I felt I needed a break.

Yeah they do get exhausting if you read them one after another. I have like 3 more Euripides plays to read and then Aristophanes, but my pace has slowed considerably. Was easily reading through 2 plays a week for a while.

The Persians, I'm gonna keep shilling The Persians until the day I die.

It's not only a great play, senpai, but strangely unlike all its brothers and sisters. It stands out on more than a single count, too.

This.

Medea.

>The Oresteia reads like an anime.
You fucking FAGGOT

Obviously the Bacchae and the Orestia

The Bacchae is tremendous.

There's just more or perhaps even too much Euripides in general. Had only his seven best plays survived I'd no doubt feel differently about him. Most tiresome for me is Aristophanes, although there's two, maybe three (Acharnians) of his I really like. Wish there was more Menander.

people think euripides low, but he's my favorite. of all of them, i'd probably pick the bacchae, but i don't think it's his best.

This

Oh boy. Definitely the music. Oh man. You got me hyped for something I will never see