Ten Plays

Author: Euripides (c 485 BC – 406 BC)
Translator: Moses Hadas and John McLean
Publisher: Bantam Book (2006 reissue)
Bought from: Borders


Introduction

Euripides is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays are extant. In terms of career, his came later than both Sophocles and Aeschylus. Euripides is said to have written more than 90 plays but only 18 or 19 survive (there is much debate over the authorship of one play). Apparently, Euripides does not write connected trilogies like Sophocles or Aeschylus. Euripides won 4 or 5 dramatic competitions in Athens. Aeschylus is said to have won 14-15 while Sophocles won between 20-25.


What is it about?

This, as the name suggests, is a collection of 10 of Euripides’ extant plays.

Medea

“Woman in most respects is a timid creature, with no heart for strife and aghast at the sight of steel; but wronged in love, there is no heart more murderous than hers.”

First performed in the Dionysia festival 431 BC, won 3rd prize. Medea, a barbarian (non-Greek) princess betrays her own family and even kills her own brother to help Jason steal the Golden Fleece from her homeland Colchis. Jason abandons her and their young sons for another woman. Medea kills her rival in love and her father and then, most shockingly, her own children. This is an unremittingly tragic play.

Hippolytus

“Neither the flash of fire nor the bolt of the stars is more deadly than the shafts of Aphrodite which Eros, Zeus’ boy hurl from his hands.”

First performed in the Dionysia festival 428 BC, won 1st prize. The gods play key roles in this play. Aphrodite is angry that Hippolytus, son of Theseus, worships Artemis and ignores her. In reprisal, she causes Hippolytus’ stepmother Phaedra to fall in love with him. When her secret is revealed, Phaedra kills herself. She leaves a suicide note accusing Hippolytus of raping her. Theseus asks his father Poseidon to punish Hippolytus. Poseidon causes the death of his own grandson. Artemis, who does not intervene to save Hippolytus, appears at the end of the play to reveal the truth to Theseus. Theseus, king of Athens and one of the leading heroes of Greek mythology, is not portrayed in a good light here. He is deceived by his wife and condemns his son “untried, without examination of oath or pledge or prophet’s oracle.”

The Trojan Women

“Sorrow outsorrows sorrow.”

First performed in the Dionysia festival 415 BC, won 2nd prize. In the aftermath of the Trojan War, the surviving women of the Troy are divided as spoils. Hecuba, wife of Priam, will be Odysseus’ slave (note: she does not feature in Homer’s The Odyssey). Cassandra, Hecuba’s daughter, will be Agamemnon’s concubine (but at least she has the comfort of foreseeing Agamemnon’s murder in the hands of his wife). Most pathetic of all is Andromache, widow of Hector. She will be taken by Achilles’ son Neoptolemus as “a special gift”. She learns the fates of her children with Hector: their daughter Polyxena has already been sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles and (at Odysseus’ instigation) their baby son Astyanax will be killed by being hurled off the battlements of Troy. What about Helen, the casus belli? Menelaus threatens his wanton wife with a death sentence but the audience and reader know she will win a reprieve. At the climax of the play, the Greeks burn down the city of Troy. This is a heartbreaking account of the effects of war.

Electra

“Women are their husbands’ friends … not their children.”

Performed c 413 BC. Electra and Orestes kill their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus to avenge the murder of their father Agamemnon. The events in this play are largely similar to that in Sophocles’ play of the same name and Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers.

The Bacchants

“Talk wisdom to the stupid and they will think you foolish.”

 First performed posthumously in the Dionysia festival 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigenia at Aulis, won 1st prize. Pentheus, the king of Thebes, is alarmed by news of the approach of Dionysus and the maenads, his female followers. He forbids the worship of this self-professed new god. Dionysus, who is actually his cousin, has come to his home city Thebes to spread his religion. This clash of ‘old’ and ‘new’ religions ends in Pentheus’ gruesome death in the hands of his own mother (now a maenad).

Iphigenia at Aulis

“One’s own child is a fine price to pay for a harlot. We buy what we loathe with what we love.”

First performed posthumously in the Dionysia festival 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included The Bacchants, won 1st prize. The Greek naval forces mustered for the Trojan War are stuck in Aulis because Artemis has stayed the winds. Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis. Clytemnestra is distraught her daughter has to die just so Menelaus can reclaim his runaway wife Helen. The scene is set for the events told in Aeschylus’ The Oresteia.

The other plays are Alcestis, Andromache, Ion and Iphigenia among the Taurians. I do not know if the plays in this volume are Euripides’ best plays. They probably are. For comparison purposes, there is another compilation of 10 Euripides plays, translated by Paul Roche, which contains the same plays except The Cylops replaces Andromache.


How is the book?

The translation is in modern English prose. There is a general introduction and a very brief introduction to each play. There is a glossary at the end of the book. But my biggest complain is that there are no notes. For example, in The Trojan Woman, Hecuba describes Helen as “that affront to Castor, that scandal of the Eurotas.” What is that all about?

This is a no-frill compilation. But it is a cost efficient way of getting 10 Euripides plays in one go. In complete collections, these plays are spread out over 3-5 books with the better plays found (as expected) in different volumes. Given the variable qualities of some of Euripides’ works, it would be a luxury to splurge on any of the complete collections available in the market.


Finally …

No bad. A better set of notes would have make the reading more enjoyable.