None
3 stars
I'm a big fan of Euripides on the whole. He deftly weaves tragedy and comedy in his plays, his themes form a tight line through each work, and he manages to keep his plots simple in spite of fairly complex characters. His works presented here are all great, and while I know some of the stories it's my first time reading the actual translated works.
Alcestis is the story of a lord whose deal to return from Hades caused the death of his wife, and he tries to be a good host to the belligerent Heracles while grieving for her. Euripides manages to carefully juggle the emotional aspects of Admetus' grief and rage with Heracles' general meatheadedness, and in spite of the happy ending it really seems to be as emotional as any proper Greek tragedy.
Of which Heracles is. Heracles' family is being strong-armed out of their home after …
I'm a big fan of Euripides on the whole. He deftly weaves tragedy and comedy in his plays, his themes form a tight line through each work, and he manages to keep his plots simple in spite of fairly complex characters. His works presented here are all great, and while I know some of the stories it's my first time reading the actual translated works.
Alcestis is the story of a lord whose deal to return from Hades caused the death of his wife, and he tries to be a good host to the belligerent Heracles while grieving for her. Euripides manages to carefully juggle the emotional aspects of Admetus' grief and rage with Heracles' general meatheadedness, and in spite of the happy ending it really seems to be as emotional as any proper Greek tragedy.
Of which Heracles is. Heracles' family is being strong-armed out of their home after his supposed death in the underworld, and just when he turns out to be alive he is tragically spurred into madness to kill them all. Reading even a brief summary of Heracles' mythical tragedy always made me sad, so seeing the desperation of his family and his numb grief after the fact was much more moving than I expected.
Children of Heracles takes place after his actual death, when his comrade Iolaus is trying to keep Heracles' children safe from the machinations of Eurystheus of Argos who seeks their deaths. The back and forth as Iolaus continually overcomes one challenge to be presented with a greater one is engaging, and the ending comes as a relief more than anything. Plus an old man being a badass in combat is always fun.
Cyclopes is a bit of a departure from the others, being a satyr play based on Odysseus' escape from the cyclops. All of these plays probably would have been performed for the Dionysia, but this one (typical of satyr plays) feels like it was specifically written for it. The satyrs are as rowdy as you'd hope. Silenus is impotent to the point of hilarity. Odysseus is appropriately devious, and the cyclops is appropriately naive. It's a grand ol' time.
My one problem with this collection is that the translation is a bit wonky in places. Not that it felt wrong, but there's the occasional phrase that feels oddly out of time compared to the rest of the prose and probably could've used another go-over with the editors.
Regardless, this is a great set of plays that anyone interested in Greek tragedians should read. Euripides is a gooder.
