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Only read “Trojan Women” out of this collection.
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Euripides III: Hecuba / Andromache / The Trojan Women / Ion
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Contains:
1. Hecuba, translated and with an introduction by William Arrowsmith
2. Andromache, translated and with an introduction by John Frederick Nims
3. The Trojan Women, translated and with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore
4. Ion, translated and with an introduction by Ronald Frederick Willets
'Clear accurate reflections of the Greek in well-polished mirrors of contemporary American language and taste. Not just language and taste: although they are far from being playbook 'treatments, ' they are eminently actable'. . . . Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation
1. Hecuba, translated and with an introduction by William Arrowsmith
2. Andromache, translated and with an introduction by John Frederick Nims
3. The Trojan Women, translated and with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore
4. Ion, translated and with an introduction by Ronald Frederick Willets
'Clear accurate reflections of the Greek in well-polished mirrors of contemporary American language and taste. Not just language and taste: although they are far from being playbook 'treatments, ' they are eminently actable'. . . . Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,-0414
This edition
- Format
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255 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 15, 1992 by University of Chicago Press
- ISBN
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9780226307824
- ASIN
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0226307824
- Language
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English
About the author
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Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.
Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of ... that cage which is the theatre of William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.
Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of ... that cage which is the theatre of William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.
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Glorious Exploits brought me here. And, if you too find your way here wondering if reading the plays "performed" in that novel are worth reading--yeah. The answer is yeah, it totally is.
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Read Hecuba and Trojan Women. All the tragedy of the genre with only a fraction of ambiguity that makes the great Greek tragedies great.
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Whether by coincidence or design, I think this collection may be the most coherent volume of the Chicago editions of the tragedies. Three of the four plays are concerned with the fate of various women of Troy after the conclusion of the ten-year war and the sacking of the city and the fourth addresses the aftermath of one of Apollo's endless stream of rapes. Euripides is frequently interested in the strategies that women must employ to live with intention in a system of gender relations that is premised on their lesser humanity. That is very much to the fore in this "me-too-est " of collections.
Hecuba is a satisfying (if you like that kind of thing and I really do, I guess I'm a little embarrassed to admit) revenge narrative. As it happens, it was the second classical tragedy that I was ever able to see performed live and my first encounter with the red-ribbon-as-blood bit of stagecraft that has gone from new and exciting to tired and silly in the intervening years. While he pulls a few dick moves in Homer to be certain, I'm fascinated by the way that Odysseus is such a mustache-twirling, stock villain in so many of the tragedies. Reading this collection, I was conscious of the shadow of the Peloponnesian War, which was raging during Euripides' most productive period. Bellicose schemers and the miseries they cause were, I would imagine, familiar to the ἐκκλησία that formed the audience for his plays.
Perhaps my opinion of The Trojan Women is inflated by the excellent Michael Cacoyannis film version that I watched, but I found it one of the most moving of the tragedies. Set immediately after Troy's defeat, we see the women of the royal house delivered to their terrible individual fates: murder, infanticide and chattel slavery.It felt uncomfortably relevant to read this brutal account of the eternal sexual politics of international conflict just as the United States removed troops from Afghanistan and Taliban domination commenced.
Andromache tells the story of the rivalry between the title character, who had become the "slave-wife" of Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and his new wife, the dreadful Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen. While Euripides is definitely the most "feminist" of the tragedians, I am not infrequently surprised at the level of hostile, Helen-directed slut-shaming that goes on, and he clearly views Hermione as characteristic fruit of that poisoned tree. The play was involving, but it sorta felt like Medea-lite.
My first-year Greek instructor liked to say that Apollo, in Greek myth, is less a Nietzschean exemplar of rationality and music and medicine and sunlight than a chronic, failed rapist. His bumbling attempts at sexual assaults are at the heart of so many of the Greek 'just-so' stories. In this instance the rape, of a princess of Athens, is actually perpetrated and the boy that Creusa, the victim, bears is whisked away by his dad to serve as an acolyte at Delphi. All of this leads to the highly-charged scene of belated recognition that you might expect. Again, engaging enough but Euripides did the same thing better elsewhere.
Hecuba is a satisfying (if you like that kind of thing and I really do, I guess I'm a little embarrassed to admit) revenge narrative. As it happens, it was the second classical tragedy that I was ever able to see performed live and my first encounter with the red-ribbon-as-blood bit of stagecraft that has gone from new and exciting to tired and silly in the intervening years. While he pulls a few dick moves in Homer to be certain, I'm fascinated by the way that Odysseus is such a mustache-twirling, stock villain in so many of the tragedies. Reading this collection, I was conscious of the shadow of the Peloponnesian War, which was raging during Euripides' most productive period. Bellicose schemers and the miseries they cause were, I would imagine, familiar to the ἐκκλησία that formed the audience for his plays.
Perhaps my opinion of The Trojan Women is inflated by the excellent Michael Cacoyannis film version that I watched, but I found it one of the most moving of the tragedies. Set immediately after Troy's defeat, we see the women of the royal house delivered to their terrible individual fates: murder, infanticide and chattel slavery.It felt uncomfortably relevant to read this brutal account of the eternal sexual politics of international conflict just as the United States removed troops from Afghanistan and Taliban domination commenced.
Andromache tells the story of the rivalry between the title character, who had become the "slave-wife" of Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and his new wife, the dreadful Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen. While Euripides is definitely the most "feminist" of the tragedians, I am not infrequently surprised at the level of hostile, Helen-directed slut-shaming that goes on, and he clearly views Hermione as characteristic fruit of that poisoned tree. The play was involving, but it sorta felt like Medea-lite.
My first-year Greek instructor liked to say that Apollo, in Greek myth, is less a Nietzschean exemplar of rationality and music and medicine and sunlight than a chronic, failed rapist. His bumbling attempts at sexual assaults are at the heart of so many of the Greek 'just-so' stories. In this instance the rape, of a princess of Athens, is actually perpetrated and the boy that Creusa, the victim, bears is whisked away by his dad to serve as an acolyte at Delphi. All of this leads to the highly-charged scene of belated recognition that you might expect. Again, engaging enough but Euripides did the same thing better elsewhere.
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Liked the feeling of originality that is lost in newer works in the world.
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Read for class; installment of Greek Tragedies. Great translations, would definitely recommended to any mythology lovers & those that enjoy Classic Literature.
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actually very sad. women in classics you will always be special to me. cassandra in the background of the plays is nice i love her, but especially hecuba is just sad. very good reads and great stories! just Sad
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Hecuba: 4/5. Woman getting revenge.
Andromache: 3/5. Didn't even have much to do with Andromache in the second half. Disjointed.
Trojan Women: 3.5/5. The depressing fates of Hecuba, Andromache, and Helen after the war.
Ion: 4/5. Who's son is Ion? Let's hope no one dies before the truth comes out.
Andromache: 3/5. Didn't even have much to do with Andromache in the second half. Disjointed.
Trojan Women: 3.5/5. The depressing fates of Hecuba, Andromache, and Helen after the war.
Ion: 4/5. Who's son is Ion? Let's hope no one dies before the truth comes out.
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