It is difficult to imagine a world without television, cinema and Netflix. It also seems like an impossible task for the entertainment industry to create a work that can satisfy the masses. In ancient Greece, these "blockbusters" were called Athenian tragedies, and Sophocles and Euripides were masters of this craft. Through their careful interpretation of ancient stories told through oral tradition, they were able to best create a legacy of emotional distress and baffling logic. In “Oedipus the King,” Sophocles analyzes a series of decisions and fateful consequences that led to the death of a king, or so we are to believe. On a different scale, Euripides' “Medea” tells the story of a scorned woman and a revenge that would dwarf all other forms of revenge. Although both Sophocles' Oedipus and Euripides' Medea meet the expectations set for an Athenian tragedy, they differ from each other in cultural influence and significance. Encompassing a wide variety of emotions, an Athenian tragedy can be described as a mixture of "compelling emotions". stories about human relationships, whose melodramatic plots invite us to think about profound questions…” according to the Norton Anthology of World Literature. (644) It is the ability to manipulate human circumstances in the most extravagant way that attracts the audience's attention; while the articulation and careful consideration of plot structure and dialogue leaves the audience thinking long after the story is over. Sophocles took this idea and ran with it when he wrote Oedipus the King, arguably one of the most popular Athenian tragedies ever written. The Norton Anthology of World Literature provides support for this claim by explaining that “Aristotle describes…… in the middle of the paper……, we learn more about who we are as a society and what we value in entertainment and in life. Works Cited Anderson, Joshua. “Sen and the Bhagavad Gita: Lessons for a Theory of Justice.” Asian Philosophy 22.1 (2012): 63-74. Academic research completed. Network. March 27, 2014. Bassett, Samuel E. “Achilles' Treatment of Hector's Body.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 64 (1933): 41-65. JSTOR. Network. 27 March 2014. Homer. "The Iliad." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 230-331. Print.Hume, Robert E. “Hinduism and War.” The American Journal of Theology 20.1 (1916): 31-44. JSTOR. Network. March 27, 2014.Dvaipayana, Krishna. "The Bhagavad-Gita." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Gen. ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. vol. A. New York: Norton, 2012. 1285-1301. Press.