Christian Dirce by Henryk Siemiradzki

Iphigenia in Aulis

Iphigenia in Aulis (or at Aulis) was written by Euripides, the youngest and most popular of the trilogy of great Greek tragedians. The play was based on the well-known myth surrounding the sacrifice of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's daughter Iphigenia. With the winds silenced by the goddess Artemis, the young girl's sacrifice at the goddess's altar would allow the Greeks to sail to Troy, win the Trojan War, and retrieve Menelaus's wife Helen. The tragedy was written sometime between 408 and 406 BCE and produced after the poet's death by his son in 405 BCE. As part of a trilogy, it won first place at the competition at the Dionysia in Athens - only the playwright's fifth first-place finish

Life of Euripides

Very little is known of Euripides' early life. Born in the 480's BCE on the island of Salamis near Athens to a family of hereditary priests, he preferred a life of solitude, alone with his books. There are even rumors - mostly dismissed - that he lived isolated in a cave. He was married and had three sons, one of whom, also named Euripides, became a noted playwright. Unlike his contemporary the elder Sophocles, Euripides played little or no part in Athenian political affairs; the one exception was a brief diplomatic mission to Syracuse in Sicily. Of his over 90 plays, 19 have survived which is more than any of his contemporaries. The poet made his debut at the Dionysia competition in 455 BCE, not winning his first victory until 441 BCE. Unfortunately, his participation in these competitions did not prove to be very successful with only four victories during his lifetime.

With the Peloponnesian War waging, Euripides left Athens in 408 BCE at the invitation of King Archelaus to live the remainder of his life in Macedonia. Although he may have written some of his best plays there, he left Athens embittered after seeing lesser-known playwrights win at the competition. Although often misunderstood during his lifetime and never receiving the acclaim he deserved, he became one of the most admired poets decades later, influencing not only Greek but Roman playwrights.

Years after the playwright's death, the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) called him the most tragic of the Greek poets. Sophocles admired his fellow tragedian by saying that Euripides saw men as they are not as they ought to be. Classicist Edith Hamilton, in her book The Greek Way, agreed when she wrote that he was the saddest of all of the greats, a poet of the world's grief. “He feels, as no other writer has felt, the pitifulness of human life, as of children suffering helplessly what they do not know and can never understand.” (205) She added no poet's work was “so sensitively attune as his to the still, sad music of humanity, a strain little heeded by that world of long ago” (205). In his book Greek Drama, Moses Hadas said that audiences would come to appreciate his style and outlook viewing his plays as more sympathetic than those of his contemporaries. It has been said that when Athenians speak of “the poet” they are referring to Euripides.

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[ID: A page of a play. It reads as follows, "Theseus: Stop. Give me your hand. I am your friend. / Herakles: I fear to stain your clothes with blood. / Theseus: Stain them, I don't care." End text.]

Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson)

i don't care.

herakles - euripides (tr. anne carson) //  aaron o’hanlon

hey girl, um, we were having a bacchanal and we kinda tore your boyfriend to shreds. yeah, ripped his head clean off. sorry about that :/

Euripides, from "Orestes", An Oresteia (trans. Anne Carson)

Our Flag Means Death (created by David Jenkins)

not to me. not if it’s you.

― Anne Carson (Euripides), Dead Poets Society (Final Script), Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Ep. 10), Anne Carson (H of H Playbook)

girlhood, love, godhood

kristin chang — @/onlywreckage on twitter — marcel proust — euripides — angels in america, dir. tony kushner.

a questionnaire, noor unnahar // haunted womanhood, heather havrilesky // lamb's head on a plate, viggo johansen // citizen illegal, josé olivarez // grief lessons: four plays by euripides; tr., anne carson

Thinking about Agamemnon sacrificing his teenage daughter in order to go to war. Thinking about Odysseus trying to avoid going to war but when the choice was to kill his infant son or to go to war he chose the war. Thinking about how upon the death of Achilles, Odysseus recruited Achilles's teenage son Neoptolemus to join the war. About Odysseus or sometimes it's Neoptolemus throwing Hector's infant son off the battlements to his death. About Achilles's ghost demanding the sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena before the Greeks can sail home from Troy and when Hecuba begged Odysseus to spare Polyxena he said no, I want to go home, we're going to kill her. Thinking about how the only one of the Greek generals opposing Polyxena's sacrifice was Agamemnon. How Odysseus never wanted to be here but he will inflict the pain he wanted to avoid on others out of his duty to the other Greek soldiers. How Agamemnon, leader of the Greek soldiers, is so, so tired of sacrificing children to this war. How it happens anyway.

E.M. Forster, from Maurice

Euripides

Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson)

Media consumption? No, Medea consumption. Grab the sword. Men's oaths are gods' dishonor. Become the wretchedest of women.

euripides? more like yuripides

I enjoy the efforts of the "Percy Jackson" show to make the kids better at catching on to the monsters and other mythological figures they meet. It suits the fast pacing demanded by the limited number of episodes. It fits with how vigilant and clever the characters are. The idea that half-blood children are desperately trying to memorize the lore and often end up in danger despite their best efforts is tragically compelling to me.

Knowing that it's Medusa ahead doesn't make Medusa not dangerous. It's interesting to have Medusa use their knowledge of her story and compassion against them. I enjoy seeing these kids trying to make good and kind choices with the knowledge they have.

Also, I was scrolling Wikipedia for a list of Poseidon's children while chatting with someone after the latest episode (7), and I found out that there's a lost Euripides play about Bellerophon (son of Poseidon), rider of Pegasus (another child of Poseidon), the hero who slew the Chimera. It involves Bellerophon doubting the existence of the gods and trying to storm Olympus on Pegasus??? That sounds incredibly cool. I so badly wish that I could read that lost play.

And thinking about these plays and how much I enjoy these stories made me finally fully realize that the opinions of my lit classes and even greater academia on these stories must have nothing on the arguments held at Camp Half-blood. This camp is fully of traumatized and troubled teenagers with swords, whose emotional investment in these stories outclasses everyone else on the planet, partially because their very survival depends on their knowledge of this lore and the grace of their godly family. They must have OPINIONS on this stuff that takes "fandom" behavior to another level.

The "Is Euripides' Medea a girlboss?" argument has been permanently banned as a subject by Chiron after one long and bloody summer of debate.

Preface, Tragedy: A Curious Art Form by Anne Carson, from Grief Lessons