The play described is Oedipus Rex, an iconic tragedy written around the 420s BCE by the Greek playwright Sophocles. The play, which belongs to a trilogy including Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, gave rise to numerous other works and to the Freudian concept of an oedipal complex.

This is Euripides’ Medea, named after the heroine of the play. In the drama, Medea murders Jason’s new wife and her children and escapes to Athens to begin a new life. A controversial work at the time, Medea, like many of Euripides’ works, is remarkable for its complex and nuanced portrayal of a victim’s struggle for autonomy in an unsympathetic society.

The comic genius Aristophanes is responsible for these plays and for nearly two dozen more, some of which are now lost. The playwright was known especially for lambasting society with his scathing wit, a skill that contributed to the condemnation and death of Socrates.

The Oresteia, composed of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, concerns a curse placed on the House of Atreus after the murder of Agamemnon by his wife, Clytemnestra. The works include the reunion of Agamemnon’s children Electra and Orestes, who murder their mother to avenge their father’s death, and the pursuit and torture of Orestes by the Erinyes, or Greek furies responsible for justice.

This play is Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes (the “Father” or “Prince” of ancient comedy). It concerns the eponymous heroine Lysistrata, who rallies the women in their efforts to bring about peace, and serves as commentary on the relationship between men and women in patriarchal ancient Greece.

The satyr play is the genre described above. It often appeared as the final play in a four-play cycle of ancient Greek tragedy, of which Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle is a famous example.

Antigone was written by Sophocles, who, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, is one of the only ancient Greek dramatists with work surviving today. The play in question contains the familiar Greek character Tiresias, the blind prophet, as well as Creon, the new king of Thebes; the slain brothers Eteocles and Polyneices; and the sisters Antigone and Ismene. In addition to its literary significance, the play achieved political importance by speaking out against despotism and anarchy and by promoting democratic society.

Eugene Onegin, originally written by Alexander Pushkin, concerns the eponymous main character, the fictional poet Vladimir Lensky, the shy but passionate Tatyana, and her vain older sister Olga. The novel’s and subsequent plays’ themes include the relationship between art and life, the absurdity of social conventions such as duels, and the mortality and loneliness of man. 

The listed works are by Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist, director, and poet. His work is known for its strict, often bleak realism and for its role in introducing modernism to the theater. Plays such as A Doll’s House criticized social conventions that Ibsen saw as limiting and artificial, particularly marriage, motherhood, and family life.

Friedrich Schiller, one of the most important playwrights of the 1700s, was known for shepherding in the artistic movement known as Weimar Classicism. He did so with the help of Goethe, a friend and literary rival, and with his own work, which include the lyrics to Beethoven’s famous Ode to Joy.