Euripides: Ten Plays

January -- March 2007

CAMI

My friend asked me the other day if I liked reading the Greek stuff, if it was any good. It was sort of a hard question to answer. It’s not my favorite reading material, and I’m not sure I’ll ever revisit it, but my answer was, “Well, I’m learning a lot, and it’s good to have a foundation for modern literature.” And that is true. There is so much in these little plays that contributes to Shakespeare, or modern plays, or even just classic stories and allusions in other literature, that it’s hard to say these are not worth reading.

[Here are some notes from the summaries of each play]: . . . you just never know what consequences your selfish actions will bring (Alcestis). She uses reason and emotion to get what she wants, which is basically for everyone to suffer as she does (Medea). Lives are destroyed for crimes not actually committed. Just our thoughts are enough to destroy us (Hippolytus). I always wonder what those spoils of war are thinking once they are handed over as slaves. It was interesting to see a woman's life (a slave's life) valued in a literary way during this time (Trojan Women). It all just seemed so futile and hypocritical to me (Electra). Don't fight agains the worst sides of yourself, just use them sparingly. Very interesting. It's something we haven't really seen quite this way in the Greeks yet (The Bacchants).

JANICE

I soon saw why Aristotle called Euripides "the most tragic of the poets." Because he portrayed damaged souls at their worst, not how people could or ought to be, we are forced to face the results of raw, unrestrained, and (supposed) irredeemable human nature. Of all the plays we read I liked Hippolytus the best, because it points out that way back in the 400s B.C. people had some very strict rules for sexual morality, even in thought. As the miserable Pheadra who is lusting after her stepson says, "My hands are clean. It is my soul that's fouled." But she has no way out of her sin (no sense of agency and no Savior) except death. I loved this quote: "What brashness has the human heart? How far will it push? Is there any limit to its brazen nerve?" It goes on to say how the gods will have to create a bigger earth to hold all such depraved individuals. I thought Euripides' supposed masterpiece, The Bacchae, was horrific. To me it simply showed how lawlessness leads to loss of all sense of civility and loyalty and results in disorder and bloody, pointless tragedy. How ripe the world was for Christianity!


JULIA

I finished Euripedes last week but have taken so long, I've forgotten the first 4 plays so will have to say I liked BACCHANTS and THE TROJAN WOMEN the most since I actually remember them.

I thought BACCHANTS was the most timely play. I swear this passage, "These were young mothers who had left their infants behind and still had their breasts swollen with milk," mirrored the Britney Spears of our day. The greusome Agave/Pentheus scene when A. doesn't realize she has murdered her own son, scattered pieces of him, mounts his head on the thrysus thinking it is a lion's head, showed to me the blindness and denial of wanton wickedness and drink. It destroys those closest to you while butchering yourself into little pieces.