Euripides

Starts off as a National Lampoon college movie, with Dionysus as the party hero, the Bacchae/Thebians as his fraternity/sorority friends, and Pentheus as the stuffy Dean...

...and ends like a combination of Hostel and Oldboy. Seriously, the tone shift in this story is nuts.

That all said, Dionysus is probably the most interesting Greek God, in that he is associated with the bridge between domestication and wildness.


I've realized something about these non-normative cults, like that of show more Dionysus, what the Chinese authorities dub White Lotus, and the Gnostics back in early Christianity. Their enemies always describe them as going out into the night, disregarding gender roles, having orgies, and dancing around a fire on drugs.

So folks nowadays look back on these cults positively, or try to emulate that behavior attributed to them. It often seems subversive. But the reason they are perceived as behaving in these ways is that their enemies were trying to discredit them by attributing to them behavior that was taboo and illegal at the time. The writings of said enemies are often the only historical documents we have about these cults. So, people's inspiration in these supposed behaviors might just be fetishization of taboos held by respectable society back in Classical Greece or whenever. And not on any actually subversive behavior which, when they did happen, probably didn't look like the exact opposite of ethical norms like these cults do. show less

I like this solid anthology of and introduction to Athenian tragedy. I know that the literary qualities were much reduced in translation, but I could tell how beautiful the originals might be from the English versions. I welcomed the deep ideas suggested by the plays but appreciated the authors of the translations and closing essays pointing out what the deep ideas were not present, i.e., Antigone is not a proto-libertarian, Medea was not jealous of a younger woman but furious at Jason’s show more breaking of his word. I like that the plays were still great entertainment: the suspense in Agamemnon, Oedipus, and Medea; the happy endings in Alcestis and Helen; the shocking, liberating blasphemy of Prometheus; the strong women; the gory violence; the angry speeches. show less

MEDEA: This is all about rage and revenge. Medea, wronged by Jason (of Argonaut fame), seeks a bloody revenge that hurts her as much as it hurts him.

HECABE: Another rage/revenge tale. The wife of Priam, former queen of Troy, seeks revenge against the Argives who killed and/or captured her children.

ELECTRA: And yet another r/r story. The daughter of Clytemnestra and sister of Orestes seeks revenge on her mother and her mother's lover for the death of her father by urging Orestes to kill them show more both.

HERACLES: This one seems out of place. For one thing, it isn't about female rage and revenge. It is about the brutality of one man, a hero, who is afflicted with madness by the gods and who then murders his own wife and children. Afterwards, beset by remorse and sorrow, he finds support and friendship with another man.

The Greek dramatists seem to be aware of how their patriarchal society leads to the oppression and emotional trauma of women, who then seek bloody justice from their oppressors. I'm not sure what the fourth play is saying about their society--that men are forced to do heinous things at the hands of the gods? That they can only find true companionship and understanding with other men? I found Heracles to be the least engaging. There doesn't seem to be a reason for his actions (other than the gods). Maybe Euripides is trying to say that no one, regardless of their position in society, has power over their destiny.

Anyway, I enjoy these ancient plays, and seeing how humanity has been grappling with questions of power and fate for millenia. show less

Greek playwright number three! There are four plays in this book.

Medea: This seems to set the tone for the anthology. The intro mentions Euripides seems to be concerned with vengeance, but I'd go a bit further and suggest his primary theme is female wrath. Medea is the brutal pinnacle of female wrath, willing to kill her own children, her husband's new bride, and the bride's father in order to destroy her faithless husband's life. Then she leaves in a chariot pulled by dragons. Epic.

Hecabe: show more Concerns the fate of Troy's queen in the wake of the fall of Troy. Reduced to slavery, her children dead, she still finds a way to extract violent vengeance on a man who wronged her. There's some tension here between the Greek world-view and our modern sensibilities. Agamemnon comments on how "unlucky" poor Hecabe is - when he is the very man who burned her city, killed her family and enslaved her! To the ancient Greeks all this was the doing of the gods - had they not willed Troy to fall, it never would have - but a modern audience is likely to find Agamemnon disingenuous. There's another funny-weird moment, when Agamemnon comes across the commotion, sees Hecabe's victim crawling from her tent, blinded and furious...and basically tells the guy "Chill out dude, I need to hear both sides of the story." My man, how can someone who just had their eyes stabbed out be expected to chill??

Electra: This is the third version of this episode I've read, and in some places responds specifically to Sophocles' version. The sensible sister disappears in Euripides' telling - there's no room for a moderating female character in this battle of vengeance between Electra and Clytaemnestra. Orestes instead serves as the voice for moderation, the hapless young man caught between these two battling women. While so many characters in the play insist that Clytaemnestra's death is just, the mood of the play seems to suggest otherwise. Perhaps if Electra had been more willing to hear out her mother, the bloodshed could have been avoided. Or, perhaps, the gods demanded Clytaemnestra must die, regardless of human reservations.

Heracles: This story opens with Megara, her children, and her elderly father in law praying for salvation from the invaders ravaging her city. It seemed out of place at first, as it appeared to be a classic tale of the strong oppressing the weak. But then Iris and Madness appear, both female deities, sent by Hera to bring Heracles down in his moment of triumph. There's a couple of those human moments that remind us that despite the thousands of years that separate us, we share a common humanity with the ancient Greeks. First is Heracles' fatherly gentleness with his sons, the other is the comforting friendship Theseus shows when Heracles is at his lowest. We might have completely different world-views, but friendship and love for one's children are a constant.

I find the preoccupation with female rage very interesting. I've commented before that Greek art seems to acknowledge the humanity of women, and the artists seem to be aware that women suffer at the hands of men and the patriarchal society they live under. Perhaps these works represent a fear - of what might happen should their wives or mothers or daughters one day refuse to take the abuse patiently, and instead decide to take revenge. show less