Women of Trachis [in translation]

Really a spectacular play. I would have loved to see this Live-on-Stage. I must say that I had an intense reaction to Hercules's behavior at the end of the play. At the end of the other tragedies I have read I have so much compassion for those who have died, so tragically (lol), but with Hercules, I think the tragedy was in the way he lived. This play, above all others, has left me pondering life a little more deeply.

this might be the first 'pleb filter' in literature's history. whoever cannot appreciate the multiple layers of irony surrounding nessus' character has yet to understand the play

An ancient Greek myth with traces of Medea. A woman waits for her husband, Herakles, to return from war. Prior to his return, he sends home new slaves he has captured; one of them is the woman he has fallen in love with and wishes for his wife. In a desperate plea to hold onto his love, she casts a love spell that has disastrous consequences. An interesting work, but the new translation into modern vernacular removes a great deal of the poetry that characterizes Greek writing. In an effort to make it accessible to the general public, they have removed what makes it Greek.

This is a fairly straightforward and basic play involving Heracles and his family. While it got the job done, providing some good lines in the midst of its story and in the dialogue, I feel that this not among Sophocles' best work. Nevertheless, I do believe that it's still worth the read for those interested in classics.

3 stars.

the death of heracles, it wasn't that interesting, not as much as oedipus, the ending was too long, never happening, heracles seems to like cuckolding from hades