Euripides was in a silly, goofy mood when writing down the plays Medea and Bacchae. Read for CLAS 131.

euripides loves an insane woman who hangs herself! she contains multitudes!

*Note: This book really has a 2.5 star rating!!!

I read 3 of the tragedies in this book-Medea, Hippolytus, and Bacchae. Overall, I was not really impressed by these plays because they are just downright twisted and depressing. There's really nothing else left to say.

Some folks may love their Oedipus Rex, and that's okay, but for my money, Hippolytus is the greatest Greek tragedy you will ever read. Dueling goddesses, a militant virgin, forbidden love, father-son rivalry, court-room drama, a gory messenger speech - this one's got it all. Euripides is the most modern of the 3 tragedians; he's the master of capturing his characters' psychology -- check out Phaedra's soliloquy "Women of Troezen..." or Medea debating whether to do in her kids or not. Who else would write a play with such strict form, filled with emotions and passions that can't be contained? Sophocles said he portrayed people as they should be, but Euripides portrayed them as they are (according to Aristotle). Yep, and double yep. No one but Euripides understands the tragedy of that gap between what we know to be right and what we actually do like this.

Each of the plays were very interesting and even commented on some element of society today - Medea and modern feminism, Bachae and hubris, Hippolytus and lust, and Heracles and having to endure misfortune. I didn't like the essays explaining the significance of different elements of each of the plays, except for the Heracles one which was quite interesting. Euripides employed many literary elements, commonly using irony and tragedy in each of these plays. Speaking to the tragedy, there is not one play which does not end poorly / tragically for one or more characters which is a stark difference to the stories of today which all (for the most part) have happy endings.

Greek Tragedy: when your father’s brother’s cousin’s former roommate marries your sister’s half-uncle’s ex-step-brother-in-law, only to discover that he is actually the bastard son of Zeus’ illegitimate liaison with Artemis’ third-cousin’s daughter, which dictates that she murder him, commit suicide, curse her house, and decapitate her son.

I jest, but overdosing on Greek tragedy spoils the effect. There is too much distance, historically and culturally, to empathize with Medea. She is a monstrosity. There is little tragedy here: it is simple atrocity. Her inner conflict is foreign to a world touched by Christianity. The light brought by the knowledge that all persons are made in God’s image makes her murder of her sons for the sake of honor not a noble act of protecting her reputation, albeit at a terrible cost, but a simple act of grotesque and selfish wickedness, a sacrifice to the Moloch of one’s own ego. It inspires neither pity nor sorrow, but horror.

Hippolytus perhaps is closer to us culturally, but not as interesting. It is a tragedy founded on a refusal to communicate clearly and cleanly. The tragic effect depends not on iron cause and effect of circumstance and choice, but on mores against talking openly about desire and obligation. If only the characters would actually talk to each other there would be no tragedy.

The Bacchae seemed at first to be the strangest and least tragic of all, but the more I thought on it and benefited from the translator’s interpretive notes, the more deeply it impressed me. It seems to be not a tragedy, like Oedipus Rex, in which a great man is brought low by fate and choice, but rather the story of a god’s vengeance, total and implacable, against humans for being who and what they are. Bacchus not only has his opponent dismembered, but at the hands of his mother, whom he has driven mad. It looks like a cosmic statement of fear about the overpowering, untamed, feral forces that await humanity just beyond the horizon of our expectations. The play has a ghastly power.

*read for greek mythology class*

(3.5)
medea 3.5 slightly anticlimactic but really good banter
hippolytus 3.0
heracles 3.25
bacchae 4.0 probs one of his best works

Fair translation. Cannot comment much on Medea, Hippolytus and Heracles in relation to the Greek (but readable translations) but the treatment of the Bacchae I found awkward. Referring to Dionysus as "The Stranger" rather than Dionysus was a strange translation choice I found. As I've studied the Greek there were some liberties where I've found a more clear, accurate translation. All in all a great book to read these plays, not the best in my opinion, but will work for reading.

The Bacchae

Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility return to his birthplace in Thebes in order to clear his mother's name and to punish the insolent city-state for refusing to allow people to worship him. The background to his return is presented in the prologue, in which Dionysus tells the story of his mother, Semele, once a princess in the royal Theban house of Cadmus. She had an affair with Zeus, the king of the gods, and became pregnant.

As revenge, Zeus's jealous wife Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to appear in his divine form. Zeus, too powerful for a mortal to behold, emerged from the sky as a bolt of lightning and burnt Semele to a cinder. He managed, however, to rescue his unborn son Dionysus and stitched the baby into his thigh. Semele's family claimed that she had been struck by lightning for lying about Zeus and that her child, the product of an illicit human affair, had died with her, maligning her name and rejecting the young god Dionysus.

Read Medea and Hippolytus so far.

bacchae was the best <3

From my days as a High School Drama Nerd I had a brief familiarity with the components and style of Greek Drama. Later in my undergrad I had to read this collection of plays for an Ancient History class. It was probably the best required reading I had in those 4 years. I like the way Greek plays are set up with the chorus of commentators who appear in some way in most of the plays. Of the four here Medea was hands down my favourite. It’s pretty dark but worth the read! If you are a fan of Greek culture or reading play anthologies this is a quick good collection of stories to check out!