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read Medea a few years ago, Hippolytus this year and I just now finished Helen o/
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Three Great Plays: Medea / Hippolytus / Helen
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play
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1,1958
This edition
- Format
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192 pages, Paperback
- Published
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October 19, 1958 by Plume
- ISBN
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9780452010406
- ASIN
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0452010403
- 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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fascinating how different out outlook but how close we are as people over two and half millenia
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The Greeks knew that there is no such thing as a spoiler. When a play/movie/tv-episode is well-crafted, you can tell the audience exactly what's going to happen ahead of time and they'll still find it gripping if you craft it like a pro. (Euripides is a pro.) I never get tired of the revenges in "Medea" or "Hippolytus." As for "Helen," WTF.
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“Alas! I am the miserable victim of a woman’s trickery.” Theoclymenos (1621), Helen
Realizing it was coming on nearly a decade since I had last read Euripides I decided to remedy this by picking up this book at the library and immerse myself in his plays once again.
Medea; witchy vixen – clever and condemned.
It’s a good play. Medea is at once an atrocious but also an understandable character. Her conversations with both Jason and Creon are rather riveting and very human.
She does get away with her evil acts in the end, which is quite remarkable and to my understanding quite unique to the tragedies of this time period, it is almost as remarkable as the notable silence from the gods which is in stark contrast to their very intricate involvement in both Hippolytus and Helen… It’s a fascinating drama really and really shows off Euripides skills as a wordsmith. (And his daring… the childrens’ death cries are heart-wrenching)
Lesson: “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Hippolytus:
“O Zeus, why have you created women to live in the light of the sun and prove a bane, a counterfeit coinage for mankind? If you wanted to propagate the human race, you should not have brought this about through women. Rather men should deposit bronze or iron or heavy gold in your temples as the purchase price for any offspring. They should buy their children through a means test, each paying an appropriate sum, and they should live in their houses free from women. But as things are, when we are about to take this evil into our homes, we first expend the wealth of our houses. It is clear that a woman is a great evil – after all, in order to get rid of it, the father who gave her life and brought her up attaches a dowry to her when he sends her away from home. And then the man who takes this pernicious creature into his house rejoices as he tricks out his disastrous idol with lovely jewels and decks her in robes to perfection, poor man, as he gradually drains his house of its wealth. He has no alternative.” - Hippolytus (lines617-634)
Centuries upon centuries later and male gripes are much similar, boo-hoo ;) His de-humanizing of females might have seemed like a more serious matter hadn’t it been for the source – Hippolytus is essentially an immature man-child who spends his days frolicking in the woods, worshipping a virgin goddess-entity to extremes. His viewpoint is understandable, especially under the incestuous undertones of Phaedra’s love (she is his step-mother after all so outrage is an appropriate response from him at what he interprets as a sexual advancement from her side).
Personally I think that Hippolytus is utterly obnoxious and kind of can’t wait for him to die. That said the play is excellent. All of the main characters make individual choices, trying to do the right thing, while playing right into the mold that the goddess of love has set out for them. I will also say that it is only masterful writers who can produce a great, gripping drama that is not diminished by your dislike of the title character.
Lesson: Don’t forget to worship Aphrodite or she will have your head on a plate.
Helen
The dullest of the plays and also the one with a happy ending, might not be a coincidence. Intricate involvement of various deities and exculpation of Helen’s character, fresh setting in Egypt but otherwise… kind of meh. It’s like the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective.
“And go on your way rejoicing in the surpassing nobility of Helen’s heart. Not many women are her equal in this.” - Theoclymenos (1687) *insert eye-roll here*
Lesson: Stay “pure” and chaste for 17 years for the sake of the husband you may never see again (Menelaus states that he has been at war with the Trojans for 10 years and lost at sea for 7) and make sure not to be too clever and you get to be the good girl. Congrats.
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I know almost nothing about Greek drama, but I enjoyed the sheer theatricality of these , especially "Helen". It's a revisionist postscript to "The Iliad" in which Helen, part goddess in this version, never really ran off with Paris but was in fact shipped off to Egypt by the Gods. (They send a phantom version of Helen to Troy). She's finally reunited with her husband Menelaus when he's shipwrecked in Egypt, and the pair have to outwit the local King, who's decided to claim Heln for himself.
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Well, well, well, greek plays, just keep coming in my shelf
(Looking out for Iliad & the Odyssey)
Okay, so how do we make a statement to these 3 "patched" plays without spoiling a possible reader?
Medea: do not anger women. Most of all, the faithful ones.
Hippolytus: poor innocent & kind kid. We can give u the plot in this line which Artemis said:
"Jealous of your honor, angry at your living pure."
(hugs & salute to Hippolytus)
& Last Helen: thank Euripides. The gods have given you peace at last.
I only know Helen from what they told me of the movie. I'm glad i know who she really is now. As Menelaus said 'few are her kind'
♥️
(Looking out for Iliad & the Odyssey)
Okay, so how do we make a statement to these 3 "patched" plays without spoiling a possible reader?
Medea: do not anger women. Most of all, the faithful ones.
Hippolytus: poor innocent & kind kid. We can give u the plot in this line which Artemis said:
"Jealous of your honor, angry at your living pure."
(hugs & salute to Hippolytus)
& Last Helen: thank Euripides. The gods have given you peace at last.
I only know Helen from what they told me of the movie. I'm glad i know who she really is now. As Menelaus said 'few are her kind'
♥️
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