Greek Tragedies, In Brief

Over the last week, I've read many of the surviving Greek tragedies. Sadly, what remains is quite limited, primarily consisting of a handful of works by Athens's three great dramatists - Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripedes. The subject matter would be somewhat familiar to all of you, drawing as it does from Homer and a handful of Greek myths. In this post, I want to pull a small excerpt that seems relevant to our class discussions from each of the ten plays I've had a chance to read.

Sophocles - Oedipus Rex

Quick Synopsis: Everything seemed to be going so well for Oedipus. First he vanquished the Sphinx, then he became King of Thebes, married, and established a happy family. But, unwittingly, he had already confirmed the tragic fate spelled out for him following his birth. This play, the first of a trilogy, narrates the unraveling of Oedipus's seemingly charmed existence.

Quote from the Chorus:
"Let every man in mankind's frailty
Consider his last day; and let none
Presume on his good fortune until he find
Life, at his death, a memory without pain"

Sophocles - Oedipus at Colonus

Quick Synopsis: Exiled from Thebes, Oedipus wanders with his daughter Antigone, finally stopping on the outskirts of Athens. Theseus, the King of Athens, makes an oath to protect Oedipus, and is true to his word when Oedipus's regal successor in Thebes comes for the disgraced monarch.

Quote from Theseus to Creon:
"You come to a city-state that practices justice,
A state that rules by law, and by law only;
And yet you cast aside her authority,
Take what you please, and worse, by violence,
As if you thought there were no men among us,
Or only slaves; and as if I were a nobody"

Quote from Oedipus:
"And tell me this: if there were prophecies
Repeated by the oracles of the gods,
That Father's death should come through his son,
How could you justly blame it upon me?
On me, who was yet unborn, yet unconceived,
Not yet existent for my father and mother?
If then I came into the world - as I did come -
In wretchedness, and met my father in fight,
And knocked him down, not knowing that I killed him
Nor whom I killed - again, how could you find
Guilt in that unmeditated act?"

Sophocles - Antigone

Quick Synopsis: Antigone and Ismene return to Thebes, following the deaths of their brothers in an ill-advised civil war. King Creon orders that the body of one brother, Polyneices, not be given proper burial rights because he had died attacking the city. Antigone defies the decree, arguing that in doing so she followed divine law.

Quote from Antigone to Creon:
"Yes; for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict;
not such are the laws set among men
by the justice who dwells with the gods below;
nor deemed I that thy decrees were of such force,
that a mortal could override the
unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven.
For their life is not of to-day or yesterday,
but from all time, and no man knows
when they were first put forth.

"Not through dread of any human pride could I
answer to the gods for breaking these.
Die I must - I knew that well (how should I not?) -
even without thy edicts.
But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain:
for when any one lives, as I do, compassed about with evils,
can such an one find aught but gain in death?

"So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief;
but if I had suffered my mother's son
to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me;
for this, I am not grieved.
And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight,
it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly."

Aeschylus - Agamemnon

Quick Synopsis: Following victory at Troy, Agamemnon finally returns home to Argos and his wife Clytemnestra. However, Clytemnestra hasn't quite gotten over his sacrifice of their daughter prior to his departure for the war. She isn't exactly happy about Cassandra, either. But, Clytemnestra is a clever woman, and she has some ideas for fixing these problems...

Quote:
"In fame unmeasured, praise too high,
Lies danger: God's sharp lightnings fly
To stagger mountains. Then, I choose
Wealth that invites no rankling hate;
Neither to lay towns desolate,
Nor wear the chains of those who lose
Freedom and life to war and fate"

Aeschylus - The Choephori

Quick Synopsis: Orestes and Electra, the children of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, are displaced from Argos following Clytemnestra and Aegisthus's treachery. It's payback time. A father's murder must be avenged; but, is it just for a child to kill his mother?

Quote from Orestes:
"Hark ye and learn, friends, ere my reason goes!
I say that rightfully I slew my mother,
A thing God-scorned, that foully slew my sire.
And chiefest wizard of the spell that bound me
Unto this deed I name the Pythian seer
Apollo, who foretold that if I slew,
The guilt of murder done should pass from me;
But if I spared, the fate that should be mine
I dare not blazon forth-the bow of speech
Can reach not to the mark, that doom to tell.
And now behold me, how with branch and crown
I pass, a suppliant made meet to go
Unto Earth's midmost shrine, the holy ground
Of Loxias, and that renowned light
Of ever-burning fire, to 'scape the doom
Of kindred murder"

Aeschylus - The Eumenides

Quick Synopsis: After killing his mother, Orestes is forced to flee Argos, as he is tormented relentlessly by the Furies. He takes refuge at the temple to Athena in Athens, imploring her to judge his case. She assembles a jury of Athenian citizens and hears from both sides.

Quote from Athena:
"O men of Athens, ye who first do judge
The law of bloodshed, hear me now ordain.
Here to all time for Aegeus' Attic host
Shall stand this council-court of judges sworn,
Here the tribunal, set on Ares' Hill
Where camped of old the tented Amazons,
What time in hate of Theseus they assailed
Athens, and set against her citadel
A counterwork of new sky-pointing towers,
And there to Ares held their sacrifice,
Where now the rock hath name, even Ares' Hill.
And hence shall Reverence and her kinsman Fear
Pass to each free man's heart, by day and night
Enjoining, Thou shalt do no unjust thing,
So long as law stands as it stood of old
Unmarred by civic change."

Euripedes - Medea

Quick Synopsis: Jason (of Argonaut fame) and Medea were such a nice couple. But, then, a more politically valuable option came along for Jason and so he cast Medea (and their children) aside. Let's just say that Medea didn't take it very well...

Quote:
"To you Medea,
I have no more to say. You will yourself know best
How to evade reprisal. As for human life,
It is a shadow, as I have long believed. And this
I say without hesitation: those whom most would call
Intelligent, the propounders of wise theories -
Their folly is of all men's the most culpable.
Happiness is a thing no man possesses. Fortune
May come now to one man, now to another, as
Prosperity increases; happiness never."

Euripedes - Hecabe/Hecuba

Quick Synopsis: Troy has fallen and the Greeks wait to return home. Meanwhile, Hector's family nears its final days. Priam's wife, Hecuba, is now Agamemnon's slave, as are her daughters Polyxena and Cassandra. The one child she had thought to be safe and free, Polydorus, has been murdered in an act of treachery. Once again, Greek justice is swift and painful...

Quote from Hecuba:
"How strange, that bad soil, if the gods send rain and sun,
Bears a rich crop, while good soil, starved of what it needs,
Is barren; but man's nature is ingrained - the bad
Is never anything but bad, and the good man
Is good: misfortune cannot warp his character,
His goodness will endure. Where lies the difference?
In heredity, or upbringing?"

Euripedes - Electra

Quick Synopsis: This is the same basic story that Aeschylus told in the Choephori, with some important changes, including an emphasis on the noble goodness of a peasant.

Quote:
"There is a place in Athens called
The hill of Ares, where the gods once sat to cast
Their votes in the first murder-trial, when Ares, filled
With savage indignation for his daughter's rape,
Killed Halirrhothius, son of the Sea-god; a court
Where ever since, for mortal men, Justice sits firm,
Inviolable; and there you too must stand your trial
For this bloodshed. The votes being equal shall acquit you;
For Loxias, who commanded you to kill your mother,
Shall take the guilt upon himself. And this shall stand
As precedent for murder-trials in time to come,
That the accused, when votes are equal, wins his case."

Euripedes - Heracles

Quick Synopsis: Heracles, fathered by Zeus, has been one of the greatest heroes for a long time. After returning triumphantly from Hades, however, Hera finally punishes him for her husband's misdeeds. Madness drives Heracles to kill his wife and children.

Quote from Theseus:
"I hate a friend whose gratitude grows old;
One who ready to enjoy his friends' prosperity
But unwilling to sail in the same ship
With them when their fortune lours.
Arise, unveil thy head, poor wretch! and look on me.
The gallant soul endures without
A word such blows as heaven deals."