3.5

yeah anne carson should be the only person allowed to translate greek tragedies

Such a good collection of plays, a lot of my new favourites in this book now.

Ion- Solid play. Interesting premise but expecting something with more pathos/dramatic. Also tf was that slave who was intent on fire/death/murdering someone lol.

Women of Troy- timeless classic, very much underappreciated I think. I could see the events happening in the Ukrainian war or any war tbh. Beautifully written, and people say Euripides is a misogynist...

Helen- interesting concept and just in general a good story, although slightly dragged on but still a bop.

Bacchae- probably like the 4th time I've read this play but still *that kiss chefs do* perfecto.

Some of the stories were interesting, but the only one that was a real Greek tragedy was the Bacchae. The other stories were all happy ending types (well women of troy wasn't super happy). The Bacchae really helped me understand the wrath of the gods. It really showed how powerful they are. I think everyone should read the Bacchae but the other stories can be skipped.

“It is unjust to call men bad for copying what the gods find good: the sin lies with our examples!”

“If any man feels solid satisfaction at what he calls his established position in life, he is a fool. For the forces that control our lives are as unpredictable in their behaviour as any capering idiot. Assured happiness? - there is no such thing.”

Yes you should read these plays.

Euripides' Bacchae is a gripping tragedy that explores the tension between reason and instinct, civilisation and chaos. It is one of the most bewildering yet rich tragedies from the Greek canon, and arguably Euripides' magnum opus and the swan song of his playwrighting career.

The focus of the play is on Dionysus, the beloved wine-god, who comes back to Thebes, the land of his mother, accompanied by his maenads (female devotees), to introduce his worship and brutally discipline those who do not accept his godhood, notably the doubtful and principled King Pentheus (incidentally, Dionysus' cousin).

Dionysus, in Euripides' portrayal, is equally terrifying and tantalising, playful and petrifying, embodying nature's intoxicating potential to both liberate and annihilate. The play's runtime showcases a society's dramatic fall from grace, progressing from a monarchy predicated by order and conservatism to one swept up in a whirlwind of raucous barbarity, hierarchical disestablishment, and, at its most shocking climax, festive 'sparagmos' (tearing people apart with bare hands), including Agaue, Pentheus' mother, ritually decapitating her son's head as a trophy.

The play serves as a powerful commentary on the dangers associated with repressing the irrational and more primordial elements inherent in human nature. Despite this, Euripides' Bacchae continues to be enigmatic, defying any definitive understanding or interpretation. This unsettled and ambiguous quality of the play is what secures its position as a classic of Greek tragedy, appreciated, performed, and theorised upon over millennia.

If there was one recommendation I could make for a Greek tragedy, it would undoubtedly be the 'Bacchae'.

If you're a big nerd like me and love Greek and roman mythology. Then please read this!! It's a book detailing the life of Dionysus. I love his story. I read this for school and I enjoyed studying this a lot.

SIDE NOTE: for all my True Blood fans out there, you'll appreciate season 2 of the show if you know about Dionysus.

beware the dangers of denying the godhood of Dionysos!! god of wine and uncontrollable emotions..madness!

My edition contained 4 plays of Euripides - Ion, The Trojan Women, Helen and The Bacchae. I had mixed feelings about them and thought that each play went downhill, in the order that I read them above. Overall, still a fantastic worth while read.

3.75*

initially I found this collection of Greek plays a bit of a bizarre grouping. I went in wanting to read all the plays themselves first and then read the introductory contextualisation and I wish I didn’t do that lol. This collection details Ion, the Women of Troy, Helen, and the Bacchae.

My favourite on initial reading was ion and I think because from reading that I could see how interesting it is that modern literature is so clearly derived from these ancient origins and was just a fun story on appearance vs reality etc. Etc. I also initially thought Helen was just like frankly a bit bizarre because the story is like oh the Helen from the Iliad is not actually Helen, it’s like this phantom the gods have put there.

However, after reading the context I can kinda see why this translator chose these four plays as a depiction of Euripides’ anti-war stance in Athens (barring perhaps Ion). The women of Troy clearly becomes a critique of Athens’s own treatment of other people that it has conquered in its war against Sparta, Helen is a play that shows how even the Iliad which is this mythological war that underlies the Greek tradition is also futile, while the Bacchae shows how humanity is doomed if it doesn’t take time for more simple human pleasures and instead focuses all of its intent on war.



7/10

Old as the Bacchae is, I didn't think it would impact me or affect me emotionally...but it did!! Dionysus, in particular, is a magnetic, chilling character - his divinity and apathy towards other chatacters, though deserved, was quiet unsettling to read. I loved the dialogue, and the end...wow. Agave's actions, her warped mental state, the realisation of what she had done - amazing to read.

Rhesus is likely the weakest of the Attic tragedies that have survived the wiles of history; it is a surprisingly antidramatic miscellanea on the Iliad, failing to associate its premise and its conclusion. There are some intriguing interactions between Hector and the beatified Rhesus, but pseudo-Euripides can neither bend these into an amusing sophistry, nor activate the morally compelling fulcrum found in many of the other plays in this series. The Bacchae is contrariwise in so many ways. It exists instead at the heart of affect, even Stimmung: intellect is sloughed off as the play proceeds, resulting in primal horror; a kind of backwards history of mankind. Where all winding paths lead, perhaps, or the knowledge that knowledge is not enough. A play that could benefit from an enormously expressionistic production; all singing, all dancing. Phoenician Women is not the greatest of the Theban plays, and the ending is compromised here in an amusing fashion, but it is not without its memorable flourishes. The self-sacrifice of Menoeceus is the play’s superlative effect, and serves as a piquant metaphor for warfare generally. Fathers must decide whether their sons must die for the sake of the polis; inevitably, this decision is regretted by the elder, but taken up with gusto by the younger. The larger drama of the play must emanate from this single act of selflessness. Iphigenia in Aulis has something of a spotty history, so far as the text is concerned, but remains among Euripides most moving and compelling pieces regardless. The shifting sands that remark Agamemnon and Menelaus – then countervailed by an awaiting army – and complicated by a haughty Achilles. A mix of dramatic potential, frequently eked most drastically. I will confess to disliking the ending; even its Euripidean reconstruction is dissatisfying. Euripides in general is an artist far too formulaic in beginnings and endings. He will almost always begin with a glossing monologue, and almost always end with an incredulous dramatic turnaround. It seems he so rarely sits with the misery his plays imply; those exceptions to this rule tend to be his more effective plays. Medea’s cosmic escape will always best a sudden benediction of the god.