Point of View

As dramas, the plays of Euripides do not have a narrator. However, they do have the Greek chorus, which typically represents the point of view of the common people in the play and also may represent an authorial viewpoint. The chorus provides commentary and judgment on the action. In Electra, the chorus supports Electra and condemns her mother Clytemnestra. In The Phoenician Women, the chorus is the Phoenician women, who are stranded in Thebes during the attack by Polyneices and his army. The women are torn because they do not want Thebes to fall, but they also honor Polyneices and believe he has been wronged by his brother. In The Bacchae, the chorus comprises followers of Dionysus. They follow Dionysus in everything and honor him as a god, rejoicing even in the king's death, since it is the god's will.

The gods themselves provide the final...