I simply cannot wait until I read more of Euripides plays (Ancient Greek plays in general, actually). Brilliant translation and collection of plays.

To be precise I’m only rating The Bacchae (translated by Philip Vellacott)
*4 stars for the translation

“Our god has given us the delight of wine, that frees us from grief, and he hates anyone who does not want to live, both by day and by precious night, a life of blessed happiness, and anyone who does not want to keep a wise heart and a wise mind safe from arrogant man.” I wish I read more about this god, Dionysus in the rest of the play seems more like an Old Testament God. Worship me or be punished.

Beautifully written, even in translation. It depends heavily on knowledge of works like those of Homer and ancient Greek mythology, but even with only a superficial idea one should be able to enjoy the plays for what they are. The aspect which made Euripides stand out for me personally was his use of plots which question the relationship between the human experience against godly explanations. His mixing of rationality and mythology is certainly worth analysis.

The other three plays in this Penguin Classics collection are Ion, Helen, and The Women of Troy. Vellacott does a nice job of helping you get the context - both within Greek mythology and the life of Euripides and the politics of his day - you need to enjoy the plays. I enjoyed all of them more than I expected and found them full of pithy quotes and subtle but good lessons about human behavior.

Rhesus

Tragedy of best laid plans

Evidently one of Euripides early works, this play doesn’t really say anything and feels rushed throughout. Pretty much just a retelling of the classic song without any depth.

Love it, in all it’s violent pagan glory. There is so much about Dionysus that points to Christ. I love seeing the fingerprints of God in ancient literature.

Reading Response to the Bacchae
The Bacchae, written by Euripides, is a greek tragedy that was very interesting to read. The story takes place in ancient Thebes and encompasses the balance between control and chaos. Pentheus, the ruler, demonstrates complete control and order of the society. Dionysus and the maenads represent the new chaos and celebration. The Apollonian(Pentheus) versus the Dionysian(Dionysus/maenads) side of society was the main ongoing struggle in the story. These two extremes experience conflict because of their drastic difference in beliefs, and the ultimate tragedy results. There needs to be balance in this society, or else the society will implode. The characters in this story are not open to any sort of compromise and stay true to their beliefs until disaster occurs. I was also thinking about how this conflict related to my own personal life. Finding a balance that still allows us to let loose and have fun, yet maintaining structure and control in our lives is crucial to living a healthy lifestyle. This balance is sometimes difficult for a lot of people to establish. I related myself more to Pentheus when I was reading the story because I need some sort of structure and agenda in my life. Pentheus is scared by the fact that the women of society are being so wild and free. Pentheus wants to watch the maenads and must dress up like one of them in order to spy on them. Unfortunately, he gets caught and killed for it. I thought this tragedy was especially sad because Agave kills her own son. The saddest part is the fact that she was so high and delusional that she didn’t even realize that she had killed her own son until afterwards. She was carrying her son’s head around like it was some sort of trophy, this is gruesome! I was absolutely appalled at this particular scene. A consistent theme in the story is the liberation of women. The women get to be free, wild, and carefree, which is not typical in the ancient greek society. However, at the end of the story Agave and the women were exiled. I am still confused as to why Euripides made the decision to have them exiled and blamed instead of any other character. It goes against the theme of women’s liberation. Yes, this was very unfair because Agave was just trying to let loose for once, and was exiled for something that she doesn’t even remember doing. She was in a state of delusion. Cadmus let Agave and the other women be blamed, so he wouldn’t have to suffer any punishment. However, sometimes people receive consequences for actions they weren’t responsible for. Is this unfair/unjust? Yes, however, sometimes life just works out like this. I know many people that have received an unfair punishment for actions that they weren’t actually responsible for. I overall enjoyed reading the Bacchae, I also enjoyed interpreting and understanding its underlying messages. Many of the struggles within the Bacchae are still relevant to our society today.

I interrupted my reading of Nietzche’s The Birth of Tragedy in order to read this, since Nietzsche makes much of the distinction between Euripides and the earlier Greek tragedians, Aeschylus and Sophocles (with whom I was somewhat more familiar). (NB: I only read The Bacchae and did not delve into the other plays included in this volume.)

“[…] the loveliness of eating fresh raw flesh, new-killed/and rushing to the eastern mountains/and our leader is the lord of the rumbling thunder! shout his name!"

"[…]
‘and after all this, what will i be told? a story of tears.’
‘don’t grieve in advance, my love: no need to be a prophet of pain.’"

the bacchae 5/5 (BIZARRA!!!!! muito muito boa parece que o leitor ta ali dentro das maeneds. não existe bondade nem piedade, relações de causa e efeito ou discussões sobre a justiça. apenas o ritual. o prazer. o horror)
women of troy 5/5 (a mais triste do mundo inteiro tive vontade de também cortar os cabelos e arranhar meu rosto todo)
helen 3/5 (meio breguinha amigas)

We humans are mere creatures of a day, and full of suffering,
yes, full of suffering is our life.

There were a number of introductions in this book: one general introduction and one for each of the five plays, not to mention the copious notes on the text. I am glad I read them though because they not only gave a context to the action which followed, but provided a bounty of historical, literary and mythological information which enhanced my understanding and appreciation of tragedy in general and Euripides in particular. The plays themselves were finely composed and illustrated the problem of suffering in glorious detail.