Author names not noted above: Euripides and Aristophanes. Translator names not noted above: E.D.A. Morshead, E.H. Plumtre, Gilbert Murray, and B.B. Rogers. Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume VIII features nine plays by the greatest of the Greek dramatists: - from AESCHYLUS (c. 525 BC-c. 456 BC), the father of tragedy: Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers, and The Furies, which constitute his trilogy known as the Oresteia; and Prometheus Bound, about the downfall of the god who gave fire to humanity - from SOPHOCLES (c. 496 BC-406 BC): the ultimate Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, as well as Antigone, still regularly performed today - from EURIPIDES (c. 480 BC-406 BC): Hippolytus, based on the legend of the son of Theseus, the founder of Athens, and The Bacchae, the story of a king who refused to worship the god Dionysus - from Aristophanes (c. 446 BC-c. 386 BC), the father of comedy: The Frogs, a political satire featuring the god Dionysus.
