Please read Euripides' Trojan Women either at the link here or (probably better) in Moses Hadas' Greek Drama (available at the bookstore).The Greeks regarded the words of their great playwrights as "theopneutos," i.e., God-breathed. Do you agree? Cite a line or two from the play that might show why the Greeks regarded writers like Euripides as almost equivalent to prophets and explain why you find this line/these lines inspired or inspiring. Do you see here a line worth committing to memory?
I would agree that Euripides would have some god like talent at least for descriptive prowess. Many of the lines where he is describing scenes or events are masterfully done, such as line 15-19. "Groves stand forsaken and temples of the gods run down with blood, and at the altar's very base, before the god who watched his home, Priam lies dead. While to Achaean ships great store of gold and Phrygian spoils are being conveyed," One can almost feel as if they were there and present for the destruction. One would not want to be there, but that is what our imagination is for. Euripides descriptive power does seem as if he was given a gift by the gods.
ReplyDelete"Ah me! ah me! What else but tears is now my hapless lot, whose country, children, husband, all are lost? Ah! the high-blown pride of ancestors, humbled! how brought to nothing after all! What woe must I suppress, or what declare? [What plaintive dirge shall I awake?] Ah, woe is me! the anguish I suffer lying here stretched upon this hard pallet! O my head, my temples, my side! How I long to turn over, and lie now on this, now on that, to rest my back and spine, while ceaselessly my tearful wail ascends. For even this is music to the wretched, to chant their cheerless dirge of sorrow."
ReplyDeleteThese are lines 105-120. I think parts of the story like this prove that Euripides had god like effect on people. His talents as a writer were so great that people thought of him as much more than that. These lines describe so horribly the situation at hand. People looked up to and respected Euripides. His work as a writer was so great and convincing that people started to look at him as a god figure. His writing was so good that people could imagine being in the story. When I read this section, I immediately pictured it in my mind. It was not a good sight to picture in my mind.
JACOB SCHWEITZER
Euripides also have some strong Gods such as Poseidon and Athena. There are many playwrights about those Gods. For exampls, each cities have their own God. The God proects the city from the enemy. According to the text, there is a sentance about it "Vanquished by Hera, Argive goddess, and by Athena, who helped to ruin Phrygia" [25]. This sentence shows well about the connection between each city and Gods. This sentence describes that each God represent and protect each city. Therefore, i believe that city's power also represent the God's power. So basically, Greek is in same culture and religion. However, in this religion, there is a conflict between cities. In lines 14-17, these sentences shows well about it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Euripides did have some God like talent. I believe that the lines following prove this because Euripides built a town just like God built the Earth "From the depths of salt Aegean floods I, Poseidon, have come, where choirs of Nereids dance in a graceful maze; for since the day that Phoebus and I with exact measurement [5] set towers of stone about this land of Troy and ringed it round, never from my heart has passed away a kindly feeling for my Phrygian town, which now is smouldering and overthrown, a prey to Argive might."
ReplyDeleteANDROMACHE.
ReplyDeleteO Mother, having ears, hear thou this word
Fear-conquering, till thy heart as mine be stirred
With joy. To die is only not to be;
And better to be dead than grievously
Living. They have no pain, they ponder not
Their own wrong. But the living that is brought
From joy to heaviness, his soul doth roam,
As in a desert, lost, from its old home.
Thy daughter lieth now as one unborn,
Dead, and naught knowing of the lust and scorn
That slew her. And I long since I drew my bow
Straight at the heart of good fame; and I know
My shaft hit; and for that am I the more
Fallen from peace. All that men praise us for,
I loved for Hector's sake, and sought to win.
This statement by Andromache is a very good example of Euripides (or Greek) writing being compared to that of a prophet. In this example, Andromache, who was the wife of Hector, whom was killed during the Trojan War, is crying out in mourning – which is ritualistic during Greek times – basically to whomever will hear her. This statement is a portion of her lamentation, but truly shows her pain of now being left completely without any family to provide her emotional and/or financial support; this marks the beginning of her “new” life completely void. She mourns the death of not only her husband, but also speaks to Queen Hecuba, informing her of the death of one of her daughters, as a sacrifice. At the same time, Andromache is painfully mourning the death of her infant son Astyanax, who was sacrificed, signifying the end of the war and whom she wants to bury according to Troy ritual.
The basis of this play is Troy being overtaken, ransacked and completely destroyed. The men are killed; families are destroyed and those that survive are taken away as slaves and concubines to the great warriors.
Euripides’ writing and interaction of many characters shows their first-hand account of the Trojan War and how the families, and in this case, mainly the women, were affected. In the passage below, Andromache continues to lament the loss of her husband, Hector, and the newfound fact that she has been “given” to Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son, a “spoil of war”:
And, lo! some rumour of this peace, being gone
Forth to the Greek, hath cursed me. Achilles' son,
So soon as I was taken, for his thrall
Chose me. I shall do service in the hall
Of them that slew . . . How? Shall I thrust aside
Hector's belovèd face, and open wide
My heart to this new lord? Oh, I should stand
A traitor to the dead! And if my hand
And flesh shrink from him . . . lo, wrath and despite
O'er all the house, and I a slave!
Unfortunately, because her entire family is dead, her options are limited and she is forced to work within the Greek system as she can, in order to be provided for. And yet, these Women of Troy were required to be emotionally tough in order to move forward in their lives, in the face of despair and destruction, physically, emotionally and locally. Euripides is very concise in his writing to show the true emotions the women experienced during the Trojan War, and the effects of it at the conclusion.