The summer 2026 Stratford-on-Odeon Literary Society will step back in time to explore the tragic beauty and haunting dilemmas of the Greek tragedy. We will read and discuss two plays by Sophocles and two plays by Euripides. Guiding Question How do Greek tragedies use extreme situations to interrogate the limits of human choice, the obligations of loyalty, and the ethical consequences of action? Students will explore: • The tension between human agency and inevitable fate • The moral responsibilities individuals hold to family, state, and self • The ethical consequences of choices in extreme circumstances • The classical Aristotelian definition of tragedy as a literary art form A Four-Drama Author Study • Oedipus Rex—Sophocles • Antigone—Sophocles • Medea—Euripides • Alcestis—Euripides Required Text The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (2016) New Translations edited by Mary Lefkowitz & James Romm Big Questions Explored in the Four Plays • How much of human life is determined by forces beyond our control (fate, the gods, society? • When loyalty to family, state, or self conflicts with morality, how should one act? • How do extreme emotional responses, such as grief, love, anger, both illuminate and distort ethical decision-making?