Three Songs from Euripedes' "Helen"

Abstract

Euripides composed his play Helen in 412 BCE; he was in his late sixties, and had been producing plays in Athens for more than four decades. Late in his career, Euripides’ work became freer and more experimental, with fantastic plots, musical innovations, and greater metrical variety and flexibility. Greek tragedies were composed entirely in verse (spoken or chanted) and song. The Chorus sang and danced to the accompaniment of the aulos, a double-reed pipe whose piercing sound is often compared to an oboe’s. The aulos-player, the only performer who appeared without a mask, also served as a kind of conductor to the Chorus.