Ten Plays

I only read Electra and Iphigeneia at Aulis. I didn’t enjoy this translation.

I read this because my friend was going to see the Bakkhai and I wanted to talk to her about it, plus I've always wanted to read the Iphigenia plays, Medea, Electra, and The Trojan Women, and while I was reading six of the plays in the book I might as well read the other four. This turned out to be varyingly good for me.

General comments: Roche is kind of a weird translator. Some of the plays (most notably the Bakkhai) have noticable gaps in the text, and he's flat out made up segments of verse to fill in these gaps. I'm not sure how I feel about that, although he's very conscientious about pointing out where he's made up things and where he's made questionable or just disputed choices in the translation. He also includes a number of introductions to the plays that I'd just skip, since they're spoilery and kind of tell you what to think. His glossary of people, places, and names at the end of the book was much appreciated, though. I'm more than passingly familiar with Greek mythology and there were definitely some references that evaded me.

Also, Euripides is very, very sympathetic to his female characters. Almost shockingly so if you know anything about ancient Greek culture. Just wanted to put that out there.


Alcestis: Admetus, king of Pherae, has wrested a promise from Death that he can live past his ordained time of death if someone else will die in his place. Unfortunately for him, the only volunteer is his beloved wife Alcestis. While she's dying, Hercules pops up and after behaving like a fratboy for most of the play, eventually goes down to the Underworld and brings her back. I really only have a few impressions, namely that gee, Admetus, what a huge shocker that your parents don't want to die in your place. This may be a cultural difference, but he seemed to be a huge ungrateful little shit about his parents not wanting to die for him. Also, Hercules is a fratboy and Alcestis doesn't get much to say at all. Kind of a meh play over all.

Hippolytus: I went into this thinking it was about an entirely different subject, so for those of you wondering, no, it isn't about any Amazons, alas. It is about Phaedra (Minos's daughter), who marries Theseus and falls in love with her stepson. Her nurse tells her to tell said stepson (the titular Hippolytus), and when she refuses, the nurse tells him anyway. Hippolytus reacts like a little shit, which results in Phaedra killing herself and claiming Hippolytus tried to rape her (??), which somehow ends up in his death and everyone beating their breasts about it. Also pretty meh, with bonus why the fuck did any of this happen at all.

Ion: I had the least idea what was going on here. Ion is the son of Apollo by a mortal woman he raped and left at his father's temple but ends up being adopted by his mother's husband as that man's bastard son...? And then his mother tries to kill him, for which he tries to kill her right back, but then it's revealed that she's his mother and everything's hunky-dory? IDEK, guys. Skip it.

Electra: This is where the plays started to get interesting. Electra is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemenstra. Those of you who know Greek mythology know that Agamemnon was killed by Clytemenstra for sacrificing their other daughter, Iphigenia, in order to get to Troy. Clytemenstra also had a lover in here somewhere, who forced Electra to marry a peasant (who is, of course, chivalrous and kind and too aware of his class to touch Electra at all). Electra eventually runs into her brother, Orestes, who had been banished by the aforesaid lover, and together they conspire to kill both the lover and Clytemenstra. This play is particularly notable for allowing both Electra and Clytemenstra to speak their piece, and for allowing both of them to be deeply sympathetic.

Iphigenia at Aulis: The play where Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia. He lured her to Aulis under the pretext of becoming Achilles's bride, which is hilarious because Achilles a) is already married and b) is head over heels in love with his boyfriend Patroclus. He does try to rescue Iphigenia once he figures out what's going on, but he gets overruled by pretty much every other man in the play. Notable because Iphigenia eventually allows herself to be sacrificed and sees it as a heroic, if tragic, action. Also notable because Euripides really did not like Odysseus and it shows.

Iphigenia Among the Taurians: At the end of the last play, Iphigenia was stolen away by Artemis and replaced with a white hind. She was then transported to Taurus, where she became priestess of Artemis's temple there and was given the responsibility of preparing for sacrifice all the Greeks who end up in Taurus. Why is never explained. Orestes shows up with a friend, in an attempt to cure the madness inflicted on him for killing his mother, and after a back and forth in which neither one of them recognizes the other (it's important to note that Orestes was a baby when Iphigenia was supposedly sacrificed, so this isn't as stupid as it sounds), they recognize each other and make plans to escape. Iphigenia is very different here than she is in the previous play; she seems to have turned against her father for sacrificing her and now just hates pretty much everyone. Can't blame her, though. Bonus points for Iphigenia giving her brother's friend a letter to her brother, at which point the friend turns around and gives it to Orestes. I laughed.

Medea: This is an amazing play. Amazing. It's told almost completely from Medea's point of view, is completely sympathetic to her plight, and treats Jason as the jackass he is, although it doesn't condone Medea's actions. Basically, Medea saved Jason's ass at the expense of her family ties, for which he brought her home and married her and had two sons with her. Recently, he's decided to discard her and marry someone else. On top of that, the new wife's father insists that Medea be expelled from her country. Medea sends the new wife a poisoned dress and crown, which kills her and her father, then kills both her children by Jason and books it to a prearranged sanctuary. Lesson learned: don't be a douchebag to your wife and then blame it on her when she's hurt and unhappy. But seriously, great play.

The Bakkhai (spelled Bacchae here): Dionysus is a new god, just getting his worship set up. He's pretty well established in what the play calls Asia (basically Turkey), and is now trying to set up in Thebes, the home of his mother, Semele. Incidentally, there's a truly gross story about Dionysus' birth that I won't tell here but you should look up. So, he returns to Thebes and finds that the current king, Pentheus, has banned his worship and even mocks him to his face. Horrible things happen. I had two quibbles with this play: first, what did Cadmus even do to deserve being turned into a snake, and second, what did Agave even do? Oh, okay, three things: what the hell was with the epilogue? I think this would be better on stage and look forward to discussing it with my friend.

The Trojan Women: Also a powerful, amazing play. It's the aftermath of the destruction of Troy, told mostly through Hecuba's eyes, but with cameos from other notable Trojan women, including Cassandra, Andromache, and Helen. It's brutal, and doesn't shy away from the reality of what happens to the people of a captured city (hint: nothing good). It's also almost entirely female, with one Greek man and a few nameless Greek soldiers who do the horrible things and act embarrassed about their orders, but don't try to stop it. The women all get their chance to speak, including Helen, and though they're pretty hateful toward each other, you get the feeling that the playwright at least wishes them all well. At least two people die over the course of the play. Cassandra predicts her own rape and murder, as well as the death of her mother. Troy is utterly destroyed. It's pretty damn heartrending. Also displays Euripides's hate-on for Odysseus, even though he doesn't show up.

The Cyclops: This, on the other hand, is a plain old bawdy play with a random rape joke and grossness from Odysseus. I wouldn't even bother.


So! Overall I'm glad I read it; I learned things about Greek mythology and got to read several plays I've been wanting to. Still, if I were to do it again, I'd skip Ion and Hippolytus, and I'd definitely skip The Cyclops. I'd love to see at least four of these plays staged, though. Maybe closer to six. I mean, I really want to see the Trojan Women now. A lot.

Love these plays, Particularly Medea and The Trojan women. I still find Trojan women very moving

If I'd known this copy was a reprint of an outdated translation from the 1960s, I would've skipped out.

Listen, there is NO reason to include the word "car" when you're translating any text from before the 1880s. Why am I reading about these tragic characters getting into "cars" when the words "carriage" "chariot", hell even "cart" already exist and make infinitely more sense for the time period and culture.

The names here are also weirdly translated sometimes. I had never heard of the name Loxias being used as another name for Apollo before; literally, in all my Greek and Roman courses it didn't show up, never, not even once. Apollo was Apollo, Greek or Roman. Of course there were nicknames and epithets for the gods but there are some that are more widely circulated. Leto's son, I understand. The Pythian oracle, I understand. Phoebus, I understand. Hell, sometimes they use Helios for Apollo because they're both sun deities even though Helios was a Titan. I had to look up why Loxias was used for Apollo, and apparently it's an epithet that has to do with his work in "intricate and ambiguous" oracles and the "interpreter" of prophecy. Which, alright. Apollo's got a lot of things under his jurisdiction. It was odd to find this though.

Speaking of rarely used epithets, Cypris is used here multiple times for Aphrodite, as she was born on the island of Cyprus. Granted, this epithet was easier to understand, as there's a one letter difference and the context was easier to grasp. Still, ruined my enjoyment a bit. (This also led to me looking up epithets for Aphrodite, and damn I didn't realise she had so many.)

A lot of characters are called by their relations instead of their actual names ("son of Atreus", "Tyndarid", "child of Thetis", "Maia's youth", ) which is typical for the ancient Greeks, but it was so overdone here I wonder if the translators just wanted to make readers' lives more difficult.

The word "ni**ardly" is also in this translation of the play Ion and for obvious reason I think it shouldn't be there at all.

For some reason "Troyland" was written for the city of Troy in Andromache. Just, why? Why Troyland? Troy is shorter, and the actual name of the city. It only appears once, but once is enough for it to be weird.


That being said, here's my short reviews of the actual plays:

Alcestis: Admetus does not deserve his wife (we know that going in), but his father is worse.

Medea: always a riot to read. The lovers-to-enemies dynamic here is top notch. Medea is the OG problematic girlboss.

Hippolytus: mostly meh. Phaedra didn't deserve any of that, but the gods punish people in roundabout ways and that screws everyone up. I think I prefer Racine's version.

Andromache: Andromache just tries her hardest to survive after surviving a fucking war. For some reason Orestes shows up, which made me annoyed.

Ion: if it weren't for the translation issues, this would be so damn great. Considering what Apollo did to her, I'm not judging Creusa too harshly. And considering how much he is a central character to the story, it is ironic and very telling of his shame that Apollo doesn't show his face at all.

The Trojan Women: my god so much angst and PTSD. And murder.

Electra: did not like Electra or Orestes.

Iphigenia Among The Taurians: liked the first half, not the second.

The Bacchants: I was unashamedly rooting for Dionysus the whole time.

Iphigenia At Aulis: the most fragmented, and thus, weakest of the plays here. The sequence of events was entirely off and confusing.

READ ION. THATS IT. THATS THE REVIEW.

I only read “The Trojan Woman.”

A great collection of the iconic works of Euripides. I thought that Roche added some clever humor with his notes and introductions to his translations.

"Time will soften your grief. The dead are nothing."

"I shall not leave my children for my enemies to insult. [In any case they must die. And if die they must, I shall slay them, who gave them birth.]"

"Even if this is no god, as you say, pretend to yourself that he is. It is a most honorable falsehood."