Besides, you are a born woman:
feeble when it comes to the sublime,
marvelously inventive over crime.

Oh Medea, you emerge as the force in this tumultuous collection and such a distinction is not lost on the gore-spattered pages where it take an epic hero to return a lost love from the dead to a shitbag husband (Alcestis) and then later a hallucination to inspire an incestual dismemberment (Bacchae). My reading of Medea is anchored by her being foreign-born, a stranger whose displacement is opened wide by her jackass husband and his efforts at social elevation through snagging a new bride of royal (and white) stock. There is something to be said for the original Lady Vengeance. Her vision and pluck are to be respected even if we cower and squirm before her monstrous deeds. She maintains a grace evn in the darkest light. ( )

THE BACCHAE

I bought this trio of plays mainly for The Bacchae , as Donna Tartt hinted this was an influence for her book [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327733397s/29044.jpg|221359] (a story of classical Greek students who attempt to recreate some ancient rites in the Vermont woods). I began the story expecting scenes of wild revelry in the mountains. I had assumed that Dionysus represented laid back festivity and if he had a flaw it was debauchery to excess. But it turns out he also has a jealous side as vengeful as any Old Testament deity that comes out in this play .The scene in which the Maenads decimate a man as a wild animal would, ripping him limb from limb, in a trance of Dionysian super-strength was really something to read. And very helpful in illuminating one crucial scene in The Secret History. A major theme of this play seems to be the importance of balancing the rational knowledge-seeking mind with its mysterious unconscious counterpart. It is the gift of the free-flowing grape which allows humans to escape temporarily the sufferings of the literal world.

MEDEA

At first Medea seems a bit crazy, but after a little reading you can see she is plainly dealing with the outrage and hurt of being unceremoniously cast aside for a new wife, especially painful after all she’s done for her husband (it turns out there is a whole backstory told in [b:Jason and the Golden Fleece|764332|Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica)|Apollonius of Rhodes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1178147869s/764332.jpg|750408] where she played a key role in helping him steal the fleece/avenge his enemy, then emigrated from her homeland to be with him). Because she is so intense her revenge takes an epic form. At one point Medea tries to retreat from her tragic plan, but by then the wheels have been set in motion. The play is full of suspense as it builds to its dramatic conclusion. What is interesting is trying to interpret what the moral of the story might be. In the story King Aegeus appears to Medea after having just left the Oracle of Delphi, diviner of the gods. They strike a deal in which he offers her sanctuary, and this becomes the linchpin in her plan of escape. To me the timing is just too perfect: it's as if the gods sent him and are on her side. Maybe they do hold Jason to blame? Could this have been a cautionary tale to cheating men of Euripides’s Greece, a sort of Fatal Attraction for the ancients? I wonder!

ALCESTIS

This is the tale of a man allowed to cheat death provided he can find a substitute to take his place (a favor from Apollo who intervenes with The Fates). This person turns out to be his near saintly wife Alcestis but when Death comes a knockin’ the husband, Admetus, has a serious case of remorse. My favorite scene in the play is when Admetus tries to put the blame on his elderly father for Alcestis’s fate, as both parents had refused earlier to be the martyr their son so desired, but the old man has none of it. He gives as good as he gets and tells his son “So, be quiet, you degenerate, and remember that if you love your life so does everybody”. Then he calls his son a murderer and forces him to take the responsibility! I liked how Euripides lets each character be true to himself even at the expense of contradicting the hero. This play demonstrates the importance of hospitality to the ancient Greeks (which was also a theme in the Odyssey) and how the gods can produce a happy ending if they desire.
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Very nice translation with informative explanations of the Choral statements ( )