Siendo una historia bastante conocida, esperaba un poco más de acción.

My first satyr-play, of any sort, so also my first by Euripides. Surprisingly, the only satyr play to survive from antiquity, so the only one I could have read anyway. The remarkable feature of the satyr play is the chorus of satyrs, with their costumes that focus on the phallus, and their language, which uses wordplay, sexual innuendos, references to breasts, erections, among other things that do not occur in tragedy. The satyr play was "not merely a deeply traditional Dionysiac ritual, but also generally accepted as the most appropriate and satisfying conclusion to the city’s most complex and prestigious cultural event of the year”.
The play is based on a well-known tale from Book IX of the ‘Odyssey’. I will spare the summary. Who hasn’t read Homer’s ‘Odyssey??
The play changes a few things - there is no rock-block or sheep-as-escape-vehicle - instead we get a nasty game of blind man’s buff (not “bluff”!). And the satyrs, of course!
We start off with Silenus orating to Dionysius (Bromius here) as to how he ended up trapped in a cave by a Cyclops.
Odysseus lands and he and Silenus talk, both men plotting their escape, willing to sacrifice the other to the Cyclopes, who love human flesh.
Drinking, more drinking, some eating, more drinking.
Then the eye-popping conclusion.
Hah!
Not a popular play, now or then - overshadowed by Homer’s version - and only surviving being of the “alphabet plays”. The fact of it being the only extant satyr play seems to lend it only slight scholarly influence, as it has no comparison pieces to allow any deep studies to be done. I found it dull to read, with the overt sexuality quite boorish. I can imagine it being rather ribald and raucous staged live with the Chorus properly attired, though I would be loathe to attend.

Tråkig för att vara euripides…

Not my favourite play by Euripides, was solely interested because The Cyclops is pretty much the only surviving Sartr play but I liked the portrayal of Odysseus in the play - a hero struggling between his heroic nature and his human flaw of revenge.

The carnivalesque in the play is somewhat comedy in its own way even though the upshot of this play is that Polyphemus claims to eat Odysessus so it's not liberatory or egalitarian, it's not about justice, it's still undergirded by violence or revenge, but at the same time, this carnivalesque element is surely a comedic relief.

Bawdy brawl. Rowdy romp.

Tragedya, Troya Savaşı sonrasında Odysseus’un askerleriyle eve dönüş yolunda yaşadığı zorlu maceralardan birine odaklanıyor. Homeros’un Odysseia destanından tanıdığımız bu olay, Euripides'in kaleminde bir satir oyununa dönüşerek tragedyaların ciddiyetinden uzaklaşıyor ve mitolojik olayları daha hafif bir dille ele alıyor. Ancak itiraf etmeliyim ki; Homeros’un anlatımı beni daha çok sarmıştı.

Odysseus ve adamları, Troya Savaşı’ndan sonra eve dönerken Kyklopsların yaşadığı bir adaya ulaşır. Aç ve yorgun halde yiyecek ararken dev Kyklops Polyphemus’un mağarasına girerler. Polyphemus onları tutsak edip sırayla yemeye karar verir. Odysseus kaçıp gitme fırsatı yakalamasına rağmen arkadaşlarını orada bırakamayacağını söyleyip bir kaçış planı hazırlar. Devin güvenini kazanmak için ona içki ikram ederek sarhoş olmasını sağlar ve böylece Polyphemus’un savunmasız hale gelmesini sağlar ve bu zayıflıktan faydalanır.

Cyclops is a form of ancient Greek play unfamiliar to modern readers. It is a satyr play and is indeed the only such play to have survived entire from fifth century BCE Athens. Satyr plays and tragedies were performed together during festivals of Dionysus, who among other things was the patron deity of the theater in Athens. For each festival, a panel of judges selected three playwrights to compete and each entered three tragedies and a satyr play. An individual playwright’s entries were performed as one group on the same day beginning in early morning and concluding by early afternoon. The tragedies could be, but need not be, trilogies. After them came the satyr play which was “a burlesque version of a traditional myth, named for the chorus of satyrs … One ancient critic neatly characterized satyr drama as ‘tragedy at play’” (David Konstan in his Introduction to this edition).

In Euripides’ re-telling Silenus, a drinking buddy of Dionysus, and his satyr sons have been captured by Polyphemus, the Odyssey's Cyclops, who uses them as servants and herders, When Odysseus and his crew arrive on his island, Polyphemus captures them too and intends to eat their man-flesh. In this retelling Odysseus is mild-mannered, reasonable and straightforward, not the sly liar he can be in Homer’s telling. Odysseus here stands for civilization and order while Polyphemus and the satyrs represent barbarism and wildness.

Reading a satyr play changed my perspective on Greek tragedy. Tragedies were never intended to be experienced in isolation. Each tragedy was connected in an intimate way with two other tragedies and a satyr play in a tetralogy. There are no extant tetralogies and but a few surviving tragedy trilogies, or tragedies we know that were performed as a set of three.

Euripides'in bugüne gelmeyi başaran 19 eserinden birisini okuma şansıdır bu aslında. Medeia, Hekabe
Bakkhalar, Yakarıcılar, Alkestis, Andromakhe ve Elektra ile birlikte 8. sini tamamlamış oluyorum. Bu eser diğerleri kadar bariz bir hikayeye sahip gibi gelmedi bana. Açıkçası tadımlık bir eser. Hemen bitiverdi.

My edition (not this one) also contains Sophocles' satyr play, Ichneutai, or The Searching Satyrs, which doesn't have its own goodreads entry, but would probably get three stars as well anyway.

Herkese merhaba! Bu aralar oldukça hacimli kitaplar okuyorum, o nedenle de arada kısa molalar verme ihtiyacı hissediyorum. Bu kitabı da bir gün aniden elime alıp, 1 saatte okuyup bitirip, zihnimi boşalttım diyebilirim. Çeviri kalitesi, sunuşu ve notları ile o kadar nitelikli bir çalışmanın ürünü ki bu defa önce çevirmen Ari Çokona'nın ismini zikretmek istedim. Ve sırf bu nedenle de, Euripides'in bütün basılı eserlerini (yani gördüğüm kadarıyla) sipariş verdim. Eserden de biraz bahsetmek gerekirse

Þetta er nú meiri vitleysan. En voða skemmtilegt. "Enginn meiddi mig" brandarinn fær mig alltaf til að blása fast út um alla vega aðra nösina.

A satyr play about the dangers of drink! It is always fun to see Odysseus, but the Oxford New Translation leaves a lot to be desired. Readable for a modern audience.