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Title: Euripides III: Hecuba/Andromache/the Trojan Women/Ion by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore, Richmond Lattiomre ISBN: 0-226-30782-4 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: January, 1958 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Greek tragedies regarding the Trojan War by Euripides
Comment: This volume brings together three of the extant plays of Euripides that focus on the characters made famous in Homer's epic poem the "Iliad," plus "Ion."
In "Hecuba" Troy's queen has become the slave of Odysseus, who takes away her daughter Polyxena to be slain on the grave of Achilles. However, in this drama it is the earlier death of another child, Polydorus that provides the motivation for what comes to pass. This was a child who had been sent for safety to the Thracian Chersonese. But now, after Hecuba hears of the death of Polyxena, the body of Polydorus washes up on shore. Apparently Hecuba's son-in-law Polymnester murdered the boy for the gold that King Priam had sent to pay for his education. Agamemnon hears Hecuba's pleas, and Polymnester is allowed to visit the queen before she is taken away into captivity. The most fascinating aspect of "Hecuba" is that it gives us an opportunity to contrast the character of the queen of fallen Troy with that in his more famous work, "The Trojan Women." In both dramas Hecuba is a woman driven by a brutal and remorseless desire for vengeance; however she proves much more successful in this drama . This play also makes reference to the myth that Hecuba would meet her own hideous death, which reinforces the idea that there is much more of a moral degradation of her character in this play.
"Andromache," the story of the fate of Hector's widow, is one of the weakest of the extant plays of Euripides. The play is better considered as anti-Spartan propaganda, written near the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, although it presents a tragedy. But even as propaganda Euripides elevates his subject for what he sees is not merely a war between two cities, but rather a clash between two completely different ways of life. Andromache, the widow of Hector, is the slave of Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, who is married to Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. The setting is the Temple of Thetis, the mother of Achilles, somewhere between Pithia and Pharasalia in Thessaly. Andromache has born Neoptolemus a son, and the barren Hermione accuses the Trojan woman of having used witchcraft and seeks her death. Andromache has taken refuge as this temple where Hermione and Menelaus try to get her to come out by threatening to kill her son. However, the title character disappears from the play and everybody from Peleus, the father of Achilles, to Orestes, the cousin of Hermione, shows up, mainly to talk about Neoptolemus, who is at Delphi. As a tragedy there is little her beyond a progression of characters who all talk about doing something they end up not doing.
"The Trojan War" was written as a plea for peace after the Athenians had slaughtered the populace of the island of Melos for refusing to aid Athens in the war against Sparta, and as preparations were being made for the ruinous expedition against Syracuse. Consequently there is a strong rhetorical dimension to the play, which prophesies that a Greek force would sail across the sea after violating victims and meet with disaster. However, there the play also has a strong literary consideration in that the four Trojan Women all appear in the final chapter of the "Iliad," mourning over the corpse of Hector, retrieved by his father Priam from the camp of the Acheans. "The Trojan Women" reflects the cynicism of Euripides. In this play the Greeks do more than enslave women: they have already slain a young girl as a sacrifice to the ghost of Achilles and they take Astyanax, the son of Hector, out of the arms of his mother so that he can be thrown from the walls of Troy. Even the herald of the Greeks, Talthybius, cannot stomach the policies of his people. The play also reminds us that Helen was a most unpopular figure amongst the ancient Greeks, and there is no satisfaction in her saving her life.
"Ion" is one of many plays by Euripides in which he tried to show his Athenian audience what the gods were liked when judged by ordinary human standards. In this play, Apollo, the god of truth, brutally rapes a helpless young girl, Creusa, and then abandons her. Creusa has a son, whom she abandons in a cave; when she goes back to find the child, he is gone. Years later she marries Xuthus, a solider of fortune who becomes king of Athens. At the start of the play Xuthus and Creusa are childless and go to Delphi for aid. There they are told that Ion, a young temple servant who has been raised from infancy, is the son of Xuthus. Creusa, outraged that Apollo let their own son die but preserved the life of a child begotten by Xuthus on some Delphian woman, tries to have Ion killed. Of course, in reality, Ion is her own child, abandoned in that cave. Condemned to death by the Delphians, Creusa escapes Ion's vengeance by taking refuge at Apollo's altar. There the priestess presents the tokens that allow Creusa to recognize Ion as her own son. Telling him the truth about his father, Ion tries to enter the temple to demand of Apollo the truth. I have always taken "Ion" as being one of the best examples of Euripides's cynical view of the gods the Greeks were supposed to be worshipping.
Obviously this collection would work as a companion volume to Homer's "Iliad" in the classroom, so it was nice of the editors to put all three of these plays in Volume III of the Collected Euripides. "The Trojan War" is the most significant play here, but the comparisons to "Hecuba" and "Andromache" are quite interesting since we are dealing with the same tragic dramatist writing about the same characters in essentially the same situations.
Rating: 4
Summary: Nicely organized
Comment: The third in this series of translation of Greek drama has the same basic flaws as the others: conservative translation. But also like the others it is very readable and affordable. I also liked the fact that these plays were organized so that the stories are shown in their interconnected fashion. An audience member in ancient Greece would have this full background and thus it is a wonderful ideas for the modern reader to take time and at least read all the introductions before beginning any one text.
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Title: Euripides IV: Four Tragedies: Rhesus, the Suppliant Women, Orestes and Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore, Frank Jones ISBN: 0226307832 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: June, 1968 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Euripides II: Cyclops, Heracles, Iphigenia in Tauris and Helen by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore ISBN: 0226307816 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: June, 1983 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Euripides V: Electra, the Phoenician Women, the Bacchae (The Complete Greek Tragedies) by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore, Richard Lattimore ISBN: 0226307840 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: June, 1959 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Aeschylus II (The Complete Greek Tragedies) by David Grene, Richmond Lattimor, Richmond Lattimore ISBN: 0226307948 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Euripides I: The Complete Greek Tragedies by Euripides, David Grene, Richmond Lattimore ISBN: 0226307808 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: January, 1983 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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