Euripides (Euripiides) (c. 480 - 406 BC) - one of the greatest ancient Greek playwrights, was a younger contemporary and. He is a representative of the neo-Attic tragedy, in which psychology prevails over the idea of ​​​​divine fate.

Euripides was born on the island of Salamis ca. 480 BC

Biographical information about him is very scarce and contradictory. Euripides' parents were not among the wealthiest or most prominent aristocratic families in Athens. Aristophanes in his comedy “Women at the Festival of Thesmosphoria” indicates that his mother was a greengrocer, but the later biographer Philochor denies this. There is no doubt that Euripides' family had means and therefore he received a good education. The Roman writer Aulus Gellius in his Attic Nights says that Euripides studied with the philosopher Anaxagoras and the sophist Protagoras.

Euripides himself was called by his contemporaries “a philosopher on stage.” It is believed that he had a big library. In 408 BC. Euripides moved to Macedonia at the request of King Archelaus, where he died in 406 BC.

Euripides wrote more than 90 tragedies, of which 17 have come down to us (the 18th tragedy "Res" is attributed to Euripides). In addition, one satyr drama “Cyclops” has reached us, which is the only completely surviving play of this kind, despite the fact that satyr dramas were written by all tragedians.

Most of his tragedies have to be dated only approximately, since there is no exact data on the time of their production.

Euripides did not develop his own philosophical system. He mastered other people's thoughts well, and his strong connection with the sophists influenced his work, although he did not accept everything from their philosophy. Euripides was skeptical about religion and the gods. For him, mythology is nothing more than an outer shell. Using the myth as a basis, he changed not only the details, but also the content itself. In his works, the gods turned out to be vengeful and bloody. This is clearly expressed in the tragedy "Ion". The young man Ion, a student of the most famous Delphic temple, begins to doubt the veracity of the gods. “The gods give laws, but they themselves break them,” argues Ion. But at the same time, Euripides cannot be considered an atheist, since he recognizes a certain divine essence that rules the world.

During the years of Euripides, the moderate democracy of Pericles was disappearing. He wrote his works during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. This war was of an aggressive nature; it dealt a blow to the entire Greek democracy. Euripides angrily protests against wars. Several of his tragedies are devoted to these questions. Euripides glorifies the world, his beloved Athens, which he contrasts with oligarchic Sparta.

Euripides' tragedies should be divided into two groups: tragedies and social dramas, which depict not heroes outstanding in their thoughts and deeds, but ordinary people. The latter include, for example, “Alceste”, “Helen” and “Ion”.

Especially among his works, tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation stand out. Among them are the most famous tragedies of Euripides - “Medea” and “Hippolytus”.

Euripides was not fully understood by his contemporaries, since his rather bold views on nature, society, and religion seemed too outside the usual framework of the ideology of the majority.

The ancient tradition portrays Euripides as a lover of silence and solitude in the lap of nature; Even in Roman times, a grotto on the seashore was shown on Salamis, where the playwright spent long hours pondering his works and preferring solitary reflection to the noise of the city square.

The definition given to his own work in comparison with the work of Euripides is known: he depicts people as they should be, and Euripides - as they really are.

Plutarch in his “Comparative Lives” conveys a legend according to which lightning struck the tomb of Euripides, which was a great sign that he was awarded from famous people only Lycurgus.

XII. EURIPIDES

1. Biography.

Euripides (c. 480-406 BC), one of the greatest playwrights, was a younger contemporary of Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was born on the island of Salamis. Biographical information about Euripides is scarce and contradictory. Aristophanes, in his comedy “Women at the Festival of Thesmosphoria,” says that Euripides’ mother was a greengrocer, but the later biographer Philochorus denies this. There is no doubt that Euripides’ family had the means and therefore the great tragedian was able to receive a good education: he studied with the philosopher Anaxagoras and the sophist Protagoras, the Roman writer Aulus Gellius speaks about this (“Attic Nights”). In 408, Euripides, at the invitation of King Archelaus, moved to Macedonia, where he died.

2. Creative path

Euripides began during the heyday of the Athenian polis, but most of his activity took place already in the years of decline of this slave-owning republic. He witnessed the long and grueling Peloponnesian War for Athens, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC. This war was equally aggressive both on the part of Athens and on the part of Sparta, but it is still necessary to note the difference in the political positions of these two policies: Athens, as a democratic slave-owning state, introduced the principles of slave-owning democracy into the areas conquered during the war, and Sparta everywhere imposed an oligarchy. Euripides, in contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles, did not hold any public office. He served his homeland with his creativity. He wrote more than 90 tragedies, of which 17 have come down to us (the 18th tragedy “Rhea” is attributed to Euripides). In addition, one satyr drama by Euripides, “Cyclops,” has reached us, and many fragments of his tragedies have survived.

Most of Euripides' tragedies have to be dated only approximately, since there is no exact data on the time of their production. The chronological sequence of his tragedies is as follows: “Alkes-ta” - 438, “Medea” - 431, “Hippolytus” - 428, “Heraclides” - approx. 427, "Hercules", "Hecuba" and "Andromache" - ca. 423-421, “Petitioners” - probably 416, “Ion”, “Trojan Women” - 415, “Electra”, “Iphigenia in Tauris” - ca. 413, "Helen" - 412, "Phoenician Women" - 410 - 408, "Orestes" - 408, "The Bacchae" and "Iphigenia at Aulis" were staged after the death of Euripides.

3. Criticism of mythology.

Euripides is extremely radical in his views, aligning himself with the Greek natural philosophers and sophists regarding their criticism of traditional mythology. For example, he believes that at first there was a common undivided material mass, then it was divided into ether (sky) and earth, and then plants, animals and people appeared (fragment 484).

His critical attitude towards mythology as the basis of folk Greek religion is known. He recognizes some kind of divine entity that controls the world. It is not without reason that the comedian Aristophanes, a contemporary of Euripides, who considers this tragedian the destroyer of all folk traditions, laughs angrily at him and in the comedy “Frogs” says through the mouth of Dionysus that his gods “have their own special coinage” (885-894).

Euripides almost always portrays the gods from the most negative sides, as if wanting to instill in the audience distrust of traditional beliefs. Thus, in the tragedy "Hercules" Zeus appears evil, capable of dishonoring someone else's family, the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, is vengeful, bringing suffering to the famous Greek hero Hercules only because he is the bastard son of Zeus. The god Apollo is cruel and treacherous in the tragedy "Orestes". It was he who forced Orestes to kill his mother, and then did not consider it necessary to protect him from the revenge of the Erinyes (this interpretation differs sharply from the interpretation of Aeschylus in his Oresteia trilogy). As heartless and envious as Hera, the goddess Aphrodite in the tragedy "Hippolytus". She envies Artemis, whom the beautiful Hippolytus reveres. Out of hatred for the young man, Aphrodite kindles in the heart of his stepmother, Queen Phaedra, a criminal passion for her stepson, thanks to which both Phaedra and Hippolytus perish.

Critically depicting the gods of folk religion, Euripides expresses the idea whether such images are not the fruit of the imagination of poets. So, through the mouth of Hercules he says:

Moreover, I did not believe and do not believe that God would eat the forbidden fruit, that God would have bonds in his arms, and that God alone would command the others. No, the deity is self-sufficient: All this is the nonsense of daring singers 3 . ("Hercules", 1342-1346.)

4. Anti-war tendencies and democracy.

Euripides was a patriot of his native city and tirelessly emphasized the superiority of democratic Athens over oligarchic Sparta. More than once Euripides portrayed his people as defenders of weak, small states. Thus, using myth, he pursues this idea in the tragedy "Heraclides". For the children of Hercules - the Heraclides, who were expelled from their hometown by the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, none of the states, fearing the military power of Mycenae, gave shelter or stood up for them. Only Athens protects the offended, and the Athenian ruler Demophon, expressing the will of his people, says to the envoy of the Mycenaean king, who was trying to drag the children away from the Athenian altars:

But if anything worries Me, then this is the highest argument: honor. After all, if I allow some foreigner to tear those praying from the altar by force, then goodbye, Athenian freedom! Everyone will say that out of fear of Argos, I insulted the prayer with Treason. Worse than a noose is Consciousness (242-250).

The Athenians defeated the troops of Eurystheus and returned their hometown to the Heraclides. At the end of the tragedy, the choir sings the glory of Athens. The main idea of ​​the tragedy is expressed by the luminary of the chorus, saying: “This is not the first time the land of Athens has stood up for the truth and the unfortunate” (330).

Euripides' tragedy "The Petitioner" is also patriotic. It depicts the relatives of soldiers who fell under the walls of Thebes during the fratricidal war between Eteocles and Polyneices. The Thebans do not allow the families of the murdered to take the corpses for burial. Then the relatives of the dead soldiers turn to Athens for help. The conversation between the Athenian king Theseus and Adrastus, a messenger from the relatives of the dead soldiers, is a glorification of democratic Athens, the protector of the weak and oppressed. The choir sings:

Help mothers, help, O city of Pallas, May they not trample upon the common laws, You observe justice, alien to injustice, You are the patron of everyone, no matter who is dishonestly offended (378-381).

In the same dialogue, through the mouth of Theseus, wars of conquest launched by rulers because of their selfish interests are condemned. Theseus says to Adrastus:

Those are striving for glory, these are inflating the Game of War and corrupting the citizens, Those are aiming for commanders, those for leadership, Their temperament is to show off, and those are attracted by profit - They do not think about the disasters of the people (233-237).

Euripides reflected the Athenians' hatred of Sparta in the tragedies "Andromache" and "Orestes". In the first of these tragedies, he depicts the cruel Menelaus and his no less cruel wife Helen and daughter Hermione, who treacherously broke their word and did not stop before killing the child Andromache, born by her from the son of Achilles Neoptolemus, to whom she was given as a concubine after the fall of Troy . Andromache sends curses on the heads of the Spartans. Peleus, the father of Achilles, also curses the arrogant and cruel Spartans. The anti-Spartan tendencies of the Andromache tragedy met with a lively response in the souls of the Athenian citizens; everyone knew the cruelty of the Spartans towards prisoners and enslaved helots. Euripides carries out the same ideas in the tragedy "Orestes", portraying the Spartans as cruel, treacherous people. Thus, Clytemnestra’s father Tyndar demands the execution of Orestes for killing his mother, although Orestes says that he committed this crime on the orders of the god Apollo. Menelaus is pathetic and cowardly. Orestes reminds him of his father Agamemnon, who, as a brother, came to the aid of Menelaus, went with his troops to Troy to save Helen and, at the cost of great sacrifices, saved her and returned Menelaus’ lost happiness. Recalling his father, Orestes asks Menelaus to help him now, the son of Agamemnon, but Menelaus replies that he does not have the strength to fight the Argives and can only act by cunning. Then Orestes bitterly remarks:

Nothing like a king, but a worthless coward at heart. Having left your friends in trouble, you run away! (717-718)

Closely related to the tragedies of Euripides with anti-Spartan tendencies are tragedies in which the author expresses his anti-war views and condemns wars of conquest. These are the tragedy "Hecuba", staged around 423, and the tragedy "The Trojan Woman", staged in 415.

The tragedy "Hecuba" describes the suffering of Priam's family, which, together with other prisoners, after the capture of Troy, the Achaeans lead to Greece. Hecuba's daughter Polyxena is sacrificed in honor of the murdered Achilles, and her only surviving son Polydorus is killed by the Thracian king Polymestor, to whom the child was sent to protect him from the horrors of war. Hecuba humbly asks Odysseus to help her save her daughter, but he is implacable. Euripides depicts Polyxena as a proud girl who does not want to humiliate herself before the victorious Greeks and goes to her death:

What does the Temper of my future masters promise me? Some savage, having bought me, will force me to grind wheat, a house of vengeance... ...And the torturous day will end, and the purchased slave will desecrate my bed... (358-365). I have nothing and no reason to fight (371). ...Life will become a burden to us when there is no beauty in it (378).

As a great expert on the human soul, Euripides depicts the last minutes of the life of Polyxena, proudly going to her death; but it’s hard to die in the prime of life, and she, clinging to her mother, sends greetings to both her sister Cassandra, who became Agamemnon’s concubine, and her little brother Polydor. Polyxena dies a heroine. Her last words were:

You, sons of Argos, have destroyed my city! I die by my own will. Let no one hold Me... ...But let me die Free, I conjure by the gods. Just like I was free. It is shameful for the princess to go down as a slave to the shadows (545-552).

The tragedy “Hecuba” is pessimistic in its mood, the author seems to want to say that human life is hard, injustice, violence, the power of gold reign everywhere - this is the law of life and these are the last words of the tragedy: “necessity is inexorable.”

The tragedy of "The Trojan Women" is close to this tragedy in its anti-war tendencies and even in its plot. It also describes the suffering of captive Trojan women, among whom are women from the family of King Priam.

This tragedy, like the tragedy "Hecuba", depicts the war of the Greeks with the Trojans, contrary to the usual mythological interpretation, glorifying the exploits of the Achaeans. "The Trojan Women" depicts the insane suffering of women and children after the fall of Troy.

A messenger from the victorious Greeks informs Priam's family that the king's wife Hecuba will be the slave of Odysseus, her eldest daughter Cassandra will become Agamemnon's concubine, the younger Polyxena will be sacrificed at the grave of Achilles, Hector's wife Andromache will be given as a concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus.

Andromache is taken away from her baby son Hector, although she begs to leave him to her, since the child is not guilty of anything before the Greeks. The winners kill the child by throwing him from the wall, and the corpse is brought to his grandmother, Hecuba, distraught with suffering.

An unfortunate old woman, who has lost her homeland and all her loved ones, screams over the corpse of her grandson:

Blood flows from a crushed skull... I’ll keep silent about the worst... Oh hands, Exactly like my father’s! The joints are all crushed... O sweet mouth... (1177-1180). ...What will the poet write on your tombstone? “This boy was killed by the Argives out of fear” - a verse shameful for Hellas (1189-1191).

In many tragedies where the idea of ​​patriotism is carried out, Euripides depicts heroes sacrificing their lives for the sake of their homeland. Thus, in the tragedy “Heraclides,” the daughter of Hercules, young Macaria, sacrifices herself, saving her hometown and her brothers and sisters.

In the tragedy "The Phoenician Women" (staged between 410-408), Creon's son, the young man Menoeceus, sacrifices his life for the victory of his homeland over its enemies. The father persuades his son not to undertake such a feat, but to go somewhere far away, beyond the borders of his homeland. Menekey pretends to agree with his father’s will, but in his soul he has already firmly decided to give his life to save his homeland.

Euripides had a hard time experiencing the entire course of the Peloponnesian War, the deprivations and military defeats of his fellow citizens. He saw that the principles of the democratic polis system were collapsing, that privileged people were coming to the helm of the state social groups, rich people, moneymen, owners of lands and enterprises. That is why the playwright, in his tragedies, so passionately defends the principles of Athenian democracy and denounces tyranny. He considered the basis of Athenian democracy to be middle social groups, that is, small free workers, peasants and artisans. In the tragedy “The Petitioner,” its main character Theseus, an exponent of the views of Euripides himself, says:

There are three kinds of citizens: some are rich and useless, everything is never enough for them, others are poor, in perpetual want. They are formidable, they are consumed by envy, and in their anger they accurately sting the rich. They are confused by the bad tongues of the Troublemakers. The third kind is the middle one, the support of the state and the protection of the Law in it... (238-246).

Aristotle also held the same views (Politics, VI, 9).

Euripides portrayed free small workers with deep sympathy, especially the workers of the land. The old honest farmer in the tragedy "Electra", to whom Queen Clytemnestra marries her daughter in order to remove her from the palace, because she is afraid of her daughter's revenge for her murdered father, understood the plan of the insidious Clytemnestra, considers his marriage fictitious, protects the honor of Electra and treats her like a daughter. The peasant is kind and hardworking, he says: “Yes, he who is lazy, let the words of prayer never leave his lips, but let him not collect bread” (81).

The same image of an honest farmer, the guardian of the democratic principles of Athens, is given in the tragedy "Orestes". He alone spoke out in defense of Orestes at a public meeting, demanding leniency towards this young man, since the murder of Clytemnestra was committed by him on the orders of the god Apollo. This is how Euripides characterizes this citizen dear to his heart:

Here comes the speaker - not a handsome man, But a strong man; It is not often that he leaves a footprint on the Argive square, He plows his land - on such people Now the country rests. He is not poor in mind, since sometimes there is a chance to measure himself in a verbal competition. And in life he is an impeccable husband (917-924).

5. Social and everyday dramas.

Euripides' tragedies should be divided into two groups: on the one hand, tragedies in the full sense of the word, and on the other, social and everyday dramas, which depict not heroes who are outstanding in their thoughts and deeds, but ordinary people. These dramas will introduce a comic element, which classical ancient tragedy did not allow at all, and a happy ending, which also contradicts the canon of the tragic genre. These include, for example, plays such as “Alceste”, “Elena”, “Ion”.

a) "Alceste".

"Alceste" was staged in 438; of the works of Euripides that have come down to us, this is the earliest. The hero of the drama is the Thessalian king Admet, to whom the gods promised that his life could be extended if someone voluntarily agreed to die for him. When Admetus became seriously ill and was threatened with death, none of his loved ones, even his elderly parents, wanted to die in his place, and only his young wife, the beautiful Alceste, agreed to such a sacrifice.

Euripides with great skill depicts the last minutes of Alceste’s life, her farewell to her husband, children, and slaves. Alceste loves life, and it is hard for her to die, but even in her dying delirium she thinks about the fate of her husband and children.

Alcesta's husband, King Admetus, is an ordinary man, not a hero: a good family man, loves his wife and children, is hospitable to friends, a hospitable host, but is selfish and loves himself most of all. Admet curses himself for accepting his wife’s sacrifice, but is not capable of self-sacrifice, of feat.

There is a scene in the play that really convinces that there is only one step from the tragic to the comic - when Admet's father Feret brings a blanket and wants to cover the corpse of the deceased with it. Admet is outraged by the behavior of his father, who did not sacrifice his fading life to save his only son, but reproaches the father for selfishness, and the father, in turn, scolds his son for hoping for self-sacrifice on the part of his parents. The old man accuses his son of living, in essence, at the expense of his wife, who sacrificed her young life. This squabble between two egoists is both comical and bitter. Euripides conveys it very vividly with the help of short, ordinary, catchy phrases:

Admet (pointing to the corpse of Alceste) You see your guilt there, old man. Feret Or are they burying her for me, you say? Admet You will need me too, I hope. Feret Change your wives more often, you will be healthier. Admetus Shame on you. Why did you spare yourself? Feret Oh, this torch of God is so beautiful. Admetus And this is the husband? A shame among husbands... Feret I would become a laughing stock to you if I died. Admetus You too will die, but you will die ingloriously. Feret Infamy does not reach the dead. Admetus Such an old man... And even a shadow of shame... (717 - 727).

Admet and Feret are ordinary people as they are. It is not without reason that Aristotle noted that Sophocles depicts people as they should be, and Euripides - as they are (Poetics, 25).

The playwright depicts Hercules not in the halo of exploits, but as an ordinary a good man who knows how to enjoy life, capable of a deep sense of friendship. Euripides tells how Hercules, on the way to Thrace, visits Admetus and he, not wanting to upset his friend, does not tell him about the death of his wife, but arranges a treat in one of the remote rooms of the palace. Hercules gets drunk, sings songs loudly, and this behavior outrages the slave who served him, who grieves for Alcestes. Hercules is perplexed and pronounces a whole speech in which he tells his everyday life that one should live, they say, for fun, for love, for pleasure. But when Hercules learns from a slave that Alceste has died, then for the sake of his friend he descends to Hades, recaptures Alkeste from the demon of death and returns her to Admetus, distraught with joy.

b) "Elena".

Euripides' play "Helen", staged in 412, should also be included in this genre of social and everyday dramas. It uses a little-known myth that Paris did not take Helen with him to Troy, but only her ghost, and the real Helen, by the will of Hera, was transferred to Egypt to King Proteus. The son of this king, Theoclymenus, wants to marry Helen, but she persists, wanting to remain faithful to her husband. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus goes home by ship; a storm wrecked his ship, but Menelaus, with several comrades and the ghost of Helen, escaped and was thrown onto the shore of Egypt. Here he accidentally meets the real Elena at the gate, who comes up with a cunning escape plan. She tells Theoclymenes that she will become his wife, but only asks for one favor - to allow her, according to Greek custom, to perform a funeral rite at sea in honor of the deceased Menelaus. The king gives her a boat and rowers, and then Elena in a mourning dress gets into the boat, and the rowers enter, including Menelaus and his comrades, all dressed in Egyptian clothes. When the boat was already far from the shore, Menelaus and his friends killed the Egyptian oarsmen, threw their corpses overboard and with raised sails headed to the shores of Hellas.

Again, before us is not a classical Greek tragedy, but an everyday drama with a happy ending, with twists and turns of an adventure nature, with the idea of ​​glorifying faithful marital love. The Helen of this drama is not at all like the Helen depicted in the tragedies "Andromache", "The Trojan Woman" and "Orestes", where she appears to us as a narcissistic beauty, cheating on her husband and throwing herself into the arms of Paris. This image is also far from the Homeric image of the beautiful Helen, forcibly taken by Paris to Troy, languishing away from her homeland, but not taking any steps to return to her family.

c) "Ion".

In terms of social and everyday drama, Euripides also created the play “Ion”. It depicts the son of Apollo, Ion, born of Creusa, a victim of this god. To hide his shame, Creusa throws the child into the temple. Subsequently, she marries the Athenian king Xuthus and by chance, thanks to the preserved diapers in which the child was once thrown, finds her son, who has already become a young man. The plot of an abandoned child would later, in the Hellenistic era, become the most popular among Greek comedians, who generally believed that they “came out of the dramas of Euripides,” since in terms of ideological content, in the depiction of characters, in composition, Hellenistic comedies are undoubtedly very close to the social - everyday dramas of Euripides. In the dramas of Euripides, one of the most important guiding forces is no longer fate, but the chance that befalls a person. As is known, the role of chance will be especially significant in Hellenistic literature.

6. Psychological tragedy.

Among the works of Euripides, the famous tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the playwright’s great interest in the human personality with all its contradictions and passions, stand out.

a) "Medea"

One of Euripides' most remarkable tragedies, Medea, was staged on the Athenian stage in 431. The sorceress Medea is the daughter of the Colchis king, the granddaughter of the Sun, who fell in love with Jason, one of the Argonauts who came to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. For the sake of her loved one, she left her family, her homeland, helped him take possession of the Golden Fleece, committed a crime, and came with him to Greece. To her horror, Medea learns that Jason wants to leave her and marry the princess, heir to the Corinthian throne. This is especially difficult for her because she is a “barbarian” and lives in a foreign land, where there are no relatives or friends. Medea is outraged by the clever sophistic arguments of her husband, who is trying to convince her that he is marrying the princess for the sake of their little sons, who will be princes, heirs of the kingdom. An offended woman understands that the driving force behind her husband’s actions is the desire for wealth and power. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, who mercilessly ruined her life, and destroys her rival, sending her a poisoned outfit with her children. She decides to kill the children, for the sake of whose future happiness, according to Jason, he enters into a new marriage.

Medea, contrary to the norms of polis ethics, commits a crime, believing that a person can act as his personal aspirations and passions dictate to him. This is a kind of refraction in everyday practice of the sophistic theory that “man is the measure of all things,” a theory undoubtedly condemned by Euripides. As a profound psychologist, Euripides could not help but show the storm of torment in the soul of Medea, who planned to kill the children. Two feelings are fighting in her: jealousy and love for children, passion and a sense of duty to children. Jealousy prompts her to decide - to kill the children and thereby take revenge on her husband; love for the children forces her to abandon the terrible decision and make a different plan - to flee Corinth with the children. This painful struggle between duty and passion, depicted with great skill by Euripides, is the climax of the entire chorus of the tragedy. Medea caresses the children. She decided to let them live and go into exile:

Stranger to you, I will drag out my days. And never, having changed your life for another, will you see me, Who carried you... With these eyes. Alas! Alas! Why do you look at me and laugh with your last laugh?.. (1036-1041).

But the involuntarily escaped words “with the last laugh” express another, terrible decision, which has already matured in the recesses of her soul - to kill the children. However, Medea, touched by their appearance, tries to convince herself to abandon the terrible intention dictated by insane jealousy, but jealousy and offended pride take precedence over maternal feelings. And a minute later we see the mother again, convincing herself to abandon her plan. And then a disastrous thought about the need to take revenge on her husband, again a storm of jealousy and the final decision to kill the children...

So I swear by Hades and all the power below, That the enemies of my children, abandoned by Medea to mockery, will not be seen... (1059-1963).

The unfortunate mother caresses her children for the last time, but understands that murder is inevitable:

Oh sweet embrace, Your cheek is so tender, and your mouth A joyful breath... Go away... Quickly go away... There is no strength to look at you... I am crushed by torment... What I dare to do, I see... Only anger Stronger than me , and for the mortal race there is no fiercer and more zealous executioner (1074-1080).

Euripides reveals the soul of a man tormented by the internal struggle between duty and passion. Showing this tragic conflict without embellishing reality, the playwright comes to the conclusion that passion often takes precedence over duty, destroying the human personality.

b) In terms of the idea, dynamics and character of the main character, the tragedy "Hippolytus", staged in 428, is close to the tragedy "Medea". The young Athenian queen, Theseus's wife Phaedra, passionately fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. She understands that her duty is to be a faithful wife and an honest mother, but she cannot tear the criminal passion out of her heart. The nurse asks Phaedra for her secret and tells Hippolytus about Phaedra’s love for him. The young man, in anger, brands his stepmother and sends curses on the heads of all women, considering them the cause of evil and depravity in the world.

Offended undeserved accusations Hippolyta, Phaedra commits suicide, but in order to save her name from shame and protect her children from it, she leaves her husband a letter in which she accuses Hippolyte of violating her honor. Theseus, having read the letter, curses his son, and he soon dies: the god Poseidon, fulfilling the will of Theseus, sends a monstrous bull, in horror from which the young man’s horses rushed, and he crashed against the rocks. The goddess Artemis reveals to Theseus the secret of his wife. In this tragedy, as in the tragedy "Medea", Euripides masterfully reveals the psychology of the tormented soul of Phaedra, who despises herself for her criminal passion for her stepson, but at the same time only thinks about her beloved, tirelessly dreams of meeting and intimacy with him.

Both tragedies are similar in composition: the prologue explains the reason for the current situation, then the heroines are shown in the grip of a painful conflict between duty and passion; the entire tragedy is built on this high tension, realistically revealing the secrets of the souls of the heroines. But the outcome of the tragedies is mythological: Medea will be saved by her grandfather, the god Helios, and she flies away with the corpses of the murdered children in his chariot. The goddess Artemis appears to Theseus and reports that his son is innocent of anything, that he has been slandered by Phaedra. Such endings, where the knot of conflict is resolved with the help of the gods, sometimes contradicting the entire logical course of the tragedies, are usually called in the practice of ancient theater yeis ex tasin, characteristic of Euripides, a master of complex, confusing situations.

7. Special interpretation of the myth.

Euripides in his tragedies often changes old myths, leaving from them essentially only the names of the heroes. The great tragedian, using mythological plots, expresses in them the thoughts and feelings of his contemporaries, and poses pressing questions of his time. He, so to speak, modernizes the myth. And this is the big difference between Euripides and Aeschylus and Sophocles. The difference in the artistic system of the playwrights is especially noticeable when comparing the tragedy of Euripides "Electra" with the tragedy of the same name by Sophocles and with the tragedy of Aeschylus "Choephora", which is the second part of his trilogy "Oresteia". The plot in them is the same - the murder of Clytemnestra by her children Orestes and Electra as revenge for their murdered father.

In Aeschylus, both heroes, Orestes and Electra, are still completely at the mercy of religious principles; they carry out Apollo’s order to kill their mother because she killed their father, her husband, the head of the family and state, thereby violating the priority of the paternal principle.

Aeschylus still has great respect for myth; for him, the gods largely decide the fate of people. In Sophocles, Electra and Orestes are also champions of the laws given by the gods, while in Euripides they are simply unfortunate children abandoned by their mother for the sake of her lover Aegisthus. Wanting to strengthen his position, Clytemnestra deliberately marries Electra to an old, poor farmer, so as not to have contenders for the throne from her daughter. Orestes and Electra kill their mother because she deprived them of the joy of life and deprived them of their father.

The entire interpretation of the murder of their mother by Orestes and Electra in Euripides is revealed more vitally, psychologically more deeply.

In the tragedy “Electra,” Euripides condemns the methods by which Aeschylus and Sophocles recognize Electra as her brother: by a lock of Orestes’ hair, which he cut off and laid on his father’s grave, by the footprints of his feet near this grave. In Euripides, when Uncle Orestes invites Electra to match a lock of hair found on a grave to her own, she, expressing the author’s own arguments, laughs at him.

And this strand? But could the color of the hair of the Tsarevich, who grew up in the palestra, And the delicate color of the maiden’s braids, cherished with a comb, preserve the resemblance? (526-530)

When the old man invites Electra to compare the footprint on the ground near the grave with the footprint of her foot, the girl again says with mockery:

Is there a mark on the stone? What are you saying, old man? Yes, even if his trace remained, can a brother and sister really have legs similar in size? (534-537)

The old man asks Electra that maybe she recognizes her brother by the clothes of her work, in which Orestes was once sent to a foreign land. Euripides laughs at this too, putting the following sarcastic objections into the mouth of Electra:

Are you delusional? But then, old man, I was a child: will my brother really put on this chlamys now? Or maybe our clothes grow with us? (541-544)

Quite differently from Aeschylus, Euripides depicts the scene of Orestes’ murder of his mother. Without hesitation, even with gloating, he kills her lover Aegisthus, as the culprit of all the suffering of his family, but it is scary and painful for him to kill his mother. Aeschylus shows only the moment of Orestes' hesitation before killing his mother. Euripides depicts the terrible torment of a son who cannot raise a hand against his mother, and when Electra reproaches him for cowardice, he, covering his face with a cloak so as not to see his mother, strikes her with a sword...

After the murder, Orestes is tormented by pangs of conscience. In the tragedy "Orestes", which was staged in 408 and which reveals the same plot as the tragedy "Electra", only expanding it somewhat, the sick Orestes, when asked: "What illness is tormenting?" - He answers directly: “His name is and the villains have a conscience.”

In Aeschylus’s “Orestes” trilogy, the Erinyes, terrible goddesses, defenders of maternal rights, pursue Orestes, while in Euripides, in the “Orestes” tragedy, this is a sick young man suffering from seizures, and after the murder, during delirium, it only seems to him that Erinyes are all around wanting his death. And in Medea, contrary to myth, Euripides forces a mother to kill her children. For Euripides, what is important here is not the mythology of the tragedy, but the closeness of the characters and life situations.

8. “Iphigenia in Aulis” is an example of a pathetic tragedy.

Euripides' posthumous tragedies were the tragedies "The Bacchae" with its complex religious and psychological issues and "Iphigenia at Aulis". Both of them were staged at the festival of the city Dionysius in 406. For the tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis” the author was awarded the first prize. "Iphigenia in Aulis" is one of Euripides' perfect tragedies. It depicts the Achaean army ready to sail on ships from Aulis to Troy. The goddess Artemis, insulted by Agamemnon, does not send a fair wind. In order for the wind to blow and the Greeks to reach Troy, and therefore conquer it, it is necessary to sacrifice Artemis eldest daughter Agamemnon Iphigenia. Her father summons her together with her mother under the pretext of the girl’s wedding with Achilles, but the goddess Artemis herself saves Iphigenia and, unseen by everyone around her, during the sacrifice she takes her to her temple, in distant Tauris.

If in the tragedies of Euripides “Hecuba”, “Andromache”, “Trojan Woman”, “Electra” and “Orestes” the Greek campaign in Troy is depicted as a war of conquest, the purpose of which is to defeat Troy and take Helen, the wife of Menelaus, then in the tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis" the war of the Greeks with the Trojans is covered from Homeric positions, that is, as a war for the honor of Hellas. This interpretation, which raised the patriotic spirit of the Greeks, was especially relevant in last years V century BC. for Hellas and the policies exhausted by the Peloponnesian War. People sacrificing themselves for the sake of their homeland were depicted more than once in the tragedies of Euripides: Macarius in the tragedy “Heraclides”, Menoeceus in the tragedy “Phoenicians”, Praxitea in the tragedy “Erechtheus” (only a fragment survived) - but there these images were not the main ones.

Iphigenia, the central character of this tragedy, sacrifices her life for the sake of her homeland. She is shown surrounded by people who are experiencing a painful conflict between duty and personal happiness. So, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter for the sake of the victory of Greece, but he does not dare to do this. Then, after painful torment, he nevertheless sends a letter to his wife asking her to bring Iphigenia to Aulis, since Achilles allegedly wooed the girl. Soon Agamemnon comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to sacrifice his daughter and writes a second letter to his wife that there is no need to come with Iphigenia, since the wedding is postponed. This letter was intercepted by Menelaus, he reproaches Agamemnon for selfishness and lack of love for his homeland. Meanwhile, Clytemnestra, having received her husband’s first letter, comes with Iphigenia to Aulis. Agamemnon suffers greatly when meeting his daughter, but a sense of duty wins. He knows that the entire army understands the inevitability of this sacrifice. Agamemnon convinces Iphigenia that her homeland needs her life, that she must die for her honor. In contrast to Agamemnon, Clytemnestra cares only about the happiness of her family and does not want to sacrifice her daughter for the common good.

Achilles is indignant to learn that Agamemnon deliberately lied in a letter to his wife about his matchmaking with their daughter, but he is touched by the girl’s beauty, her defenselessness, and he offers her his help. However, Iphigenia has already decided on the sacrifice and refuses his offer. Achilles is amazed by the nobility of the girl’s soul, her heroism, and love for Iphigenia arises in his heart. After some time, he already persuades her to abandon self-sacrifice, since he places personal happiness above duty to the homeland. Thus, the people surrounding Iphigenia are depicted by Euripides as immersed in the experience of a conflict between duty and personal happiness. Iphigenia herself plays the main role in resolving this conflict. Her image is revealed by the author with high pathos and love, and Euripides’ achievement is that it is not static, like most images of ancient tragedies, but is given in its own internal development. At the beginning of the tragedy, we see just a sweet, nice girl, happy with the consciousness of her youth, full of joy from her upcoming marriage with the glorious hero of Hellas, Achilles. She is glad to meet her beloved father, but feels that her father is worried about something. She will soon learn that she was brought to Aulis not for marriage with Achilles, but for a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis and that her homeland needs this sacrifice. But the girl does not want to bring life to the altar of her homeland, she wants to live, just live and begs her father not to destroy her: “After all, looking at the light is so sweet, but going down into the underworld is so scary - have mercy” (1218 et seq.). Iphigenia recalls to her father the days of her childhood, when she, caressing her, promised to give him peace in his old age:

I keep everything in my memory, all the words; And you forgot, you are glad to kill me (1230 et seq.).

Iphigenia forces her little brother Orestes to kneel and beg his father to spare her, Iphigenia. Then she exclaims in despair:

What else can I think of to say? For a mortal it is joyful to see the sun, But underground it is so terrible... If someone does not want to live, he is sick: the burden of life, All torment is better than the glory of a dead man (1249-1253).

Further, Euripides shows the indignation of the army, which is eager to go to Troy, and demands that Iphigenia be sacrificed, otherwise there will be no fair wind, otherwise it will not be possible to reach the enemy and defeat him. And so, seeing warriors eager to defend the honor of their homeland, ready to give their lives for it, Iphigenia gradually realizes that it is shameful for her to put her happiness above the common good of the warriors, that she must give her life to defeat the enemy. Even when Achilles tells her of his love and invites her to secretly escape with him, she firmly declares her readiness to die for the honor of the fatherland. So Iphigenia turns from a naive, frightened girl into a heroine who realizes her sacrifice.

9. General conclusion.

In his tragedies, Euripides posed and resolved a number of pressing issues of his time - the question of duty and personal happiness, the role of the state and its laws. He protested against wars of conquest and criticized religious traditions, carried out the ideas of humane treatment of people. His tragedies depict people of great feelings, sometimes committing crimes, and Euripides, as a deep psychologist, reveals the fractures of the soul of such people, their painful suffering. No wonder Aristotle considered him the most tragic poet (Poetics, 13).

Euripides is a great master of constructing the twists and turns of tragedies; for him they are always causally motivated and vitally justified.

The language of tragedies is simple and expressive. The choir no longer plays a big role in his tragedies; it sings beautiful lyrical songs, but does not participate in resolving the conflict.

Euripides was not fully understood by his contemporaries, since his rather bold views on nature, society, and religion seemed too outside the usual framework of the ideology of the majority.

But this tragedian was highly appreciated in the Hellenistic era, when his social and everyday dramas began to enjoy particular popularity, which undoubtedly had a great influence on the dramaturgy of Menander and other Hellenistic writers.

Euripides is an ancient Greek tragic philosopher, the youngest in the triad of famous ancient Greek playwrights after Aeschylus and Sophocles.

His homeland was Salamis, where he was born around 480 BC. e. Some ancient sources indicate the exact date of his birth - September 23, 480 BC. e., however, most likely, to give greater significance, it is simply tied to the day when the famous naval battle took place, in which the Greeks defeated the Persians. 486 BC is also mentioned as the year of birth. e. and 481 BC e. It is believed that his parents were wealthy people, but not of noble origin, but this thesis is also questioned by a number of researchers, because There is evidence of his excellent education, as well as of his participation in some celebrations to which the road was closed to commoners.

In his childhood, Euripides' dream was the Olympic Games (he was known as a capable gymnast), but his too young age prevented him from taking part in them. Soon he began to study literature, philosophy, oratory, and his works eloquently indicate that he succeeded in this activity. His worldview was largely formed under the influence of the teachings of Protagoras, Anaxagoras, and Prodicus. Euripides collected books for his personal library, and one day the moment came when he decided to write himself.

Euripides began to try his hand at creativity at the age of 18, but the first competition in dramatic art, in which he decided to take part with the play “Peliad,” dates back to 455 BC. e. And only in 440 BC. e. he was awarded the highest honor for the first time. Creative activity always remained a priority for him; he stayed away from the socio-political life of the country and city, but was not completely indifferent to it. There is also such a known fact from his biography as a special attitude towards the fair sex: the unhappy experience of two marriages made Euripides a real misogynist in the eyes of those around him.

It is known that Euripides composed until his death; in ancient times, according to various sources, from 75 to 92 plays were attributed to him, and 17 dramatic works have survived to this day, including “Electra”, “Medea”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”, etc. In the performance of Euripides, the ancient tragedy was transformed: it began to pay more attention to the everyday, private life of people, their mental suffering; in the works one can see a reflection of the philosophical thoughts of that time. The innovation and merits of his creative manner were not properly appreciated by his contemporaries. Of all his many plays, only four received awards at theater competitions. This circumstance is called main reason that in 408 BC. e. the playwright accepted the invitation of Archelaus, the Macedonian king, and left Athens forever. This ruler treated the famous guest with extreme respect and showed him great honors.

In 406 BC. e. Euripides died, and the circumstances of his death were called different - for example, a conspiracy of envious people who bribed the courtier in charge of the royal kennel: he allegedly unleashed a pack of hounds on Euripides. They also said that the playwright, going on a date with his mistress (or lover), was torn apart not by dogs, but by distraught women. Modern researchers are inclined to believe that the tragic Macedonian winter, who was already over seventy, was killed. Euripides was buried in the capital of this country, although the Athenians turned to Archelaus with a request to hand over the body of his fellow countryman for burial. Faced with refusal, they showed their respect by erecting a statue of the playwright within the walls of the theater.

It was after his death that Euripides’ work gained the greatest popularity and received a worthy assessment. He was considered the most popular and famous ancient playwright until the 5th century. BC e. The works of the youngest of the great triad had a noticeable influence on Roman tragedy, later European literature, in particular, the work of Voltaire, Goethe and other famous masters of the pen.

EURIPIDES (480 BC – 406 BC), ancient Greek playwright. According to other sources, the year of birth was 485–484 BC.

Euripides is considered one of the first three professional playwrights who formed one of the fundamental genres of drama - tragedy. However, turning to the work of his predecessors, Aeschylus and Sophocles, we encounter, first of all, the formation and development of the architectonics and structure of the genre. Thus, Aeschylus was the first to introduce a second actor into the tragedy; Sophocles significantly increased the volume of dialogues and introduced a third actor, which made it possible to sharpen the dramatic action. As for Euripides, he radically transformed the essential aspect of the tragedy - the problems and characters of its characters. The fundamental novelty of his work allowed tragedy to make a huge leap in its development - in fact, his plays already contain the principles of today's dramaturgy, modern theater. Many circumstances support this.

So, for example, if we rely only on chronology, it becomes clear that Euripides was by no means the successor and successor of Sophocles - they were contemporaries and worked simultaneously (Sophocles is no more than fifteen years older than Euripides, and he died even a little later than Euripides). However, in our minds, the work of Euripides is rightly attributed to a completely different, new theatrical era.

Staging the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles is a rarity for the modern stage; and, if such performances appear, then, as a rule, as part of an experiment and in a strongly revised form. However, the tragedies of Euripides periodically appear in the repertoire of today's theater - in any case, no less often than the ancient comedies of, say, Aristophanes or Plautus.

And finally, the fact that Euripides was ahead of his time is evidenced by the not very pleasant fact that his drama was not particularly successful among his contemporaries. Euripides' innovations (in particular, the realistic tendencies of his drama) often remained incomprehensible to the audience. In 405 BC, after the death of Euripides, the comedy of Aristophanes the Frog gained great popularity in Athens, in which the author harshly criticized the ideological foundations and visual means of Euripides. Comparing his dramaturgy with the work of Aeschylus, Aristophanes argues that if the tragedies of Aeschylus educate people, then the works of Euripides “spoil” them. Thus, Euripides's lifetime fame was incomparable with the popularity of either Aeschylus or Sophocles, whose works fully corresponded to the established dramatic canon. Euripides' work was truly appreciated after his death; and, until the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. AD, Euripides remained the most famous and popular playwright of antiquity. His works had a huge influence on the formation of Attic domestic comedy; to create Roman tragedy (in particular, Seneca worked under the serious influence of Euripides).

There is evidence that Euripides began working on tragedies at the age of eighteen. However, he first took part in a playwriting competition in 455 BC, when he was about thirty. In this competition he took third place. During his life, he managed to win only five first victories, and the last one was posthumous. Euripides, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles, did not perform on stage himself, and also, refuting established traditions, did not write music for his works, entrusting this to musicians. 17 tragedies of Euripides, one satyr drama and many dramatic fragments have been fully preserved (according to various ancient sources, from 75 to 92 works of drama are attributed to the authorship of Euripides).

Almost all of Euripides' surviving plays were created during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, which had a huge influence on all aspects of life in ancient Hellas. And the first feature of Euripides’ tragedies is the burning modernity: heroic-patriotic motives, hostile attitude towards Sparta, the crisis of ancient slave-owning democracy, the first crisis of religious consciousness associated with the rapid development of materialist philosophy, etc. In this regard, Euripides’ attitude to mythology is especially indicative: myth becomes for the playwright only material for reflecting modern events; he allows himself to change not only minor details of classical mythology, but also to give unexpected rational interpretations of well-known plots (for example, in Iphigenia in Tauris, human sacrifices are explained by the cruel customs of the barbarians). The gods in the works of Euripides often appear more cruel, insidious and vengeful than people (Hippolytus, Hercules, etc.). It is precisely because of this that the “dues ex machina” (“God from the machine”) technique became so widespread in the dramaturgy of Euripides, when at the end of the work, God who suddenly appears hastily dispenses justice. In Euripides' interpretation, divine providence could hardly consciously care about the restoration of justice.

However, the main innovation of Euripides, which caused rejection among most of his contemporaries, was the depiction of human characters. If in Aeschylus's tragedies actors the titans performed, and Sophocles had ideal heroes, in the playwright’s own words, “people as they should be”; then Euripides, as Aristotle noted in his Poetics, brought people onto the stage as they are in life. The heroes and especially the heroines of Euripides do not at all have integrity, their characters are complex and contradictory, and high feelings, passions, thoughts are closely intertwined with base ones. This gave the tragic characters of Euripides versatility, evoking a complex range of feelings in the audience - from empathy to horror. Thus, the unbearable suffering of Medea from the tragedy of the same name leads her to a bloody crime; Moreover, having killed her own children, Medea does not experience the slightest remorse. Phaedra (Hippolytus), who has a truly noble character and prefers death to the consciousness of her own fall, commits a low and cruel act, leaving a suicide letter with a false accusation of Hippolytus. Iphigenia (Iphigenia in Aulis) goes through a very difficult psychological path from a naive teenage girl to conscious sacrifice for the good of her homeland.

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Expanding the palette of theatrical and visual means, he widely used everyday vocabulary; along with the choir, increased the volume of the so-called. monody (solo singing by an actor in a tragedy). Monodies were introduced into theatrical use by Sophocles, but the widespread use of this technique is associated with the name of Euripides. The clash of opposing positions of characters in the so-called. Euripides aggravated agons (verbal competitions of characters) through the use of stichomythia, i.e. exchange of poems between participants in the dialogue. In the later tragedies of Euripides, everyday and comic elements, as well as elements of melodrama (Orestes, Electra, etc.) are strengthened.

Shortly before his death, Euripides (according to some accounts, due to lack of recognition from his compatriots) left Athens and moved to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus.

In the Middle Ages, the work of Euripides, as well as all the art of antiquity, was forgotten. A new wave of interest in his dramaturgy arose during the Renaissance, primarily in Italy, and had a serious influence on the formation of drama in the 16th century. Later, in the era of classicism, Racine repeatedly turned to the plots of Euripides. The influence of Euripides' dramaturgy is clearly noticeable in the works of many European artists of a later period - Voltaire, Goethe, Schiller, Grillparzer, Verhaeren, Wyspianski and many others.

He performed in the choir of young men who glorified the victory. This is how the ancient Greek chroniclers presented the continuity of the three great tragedians. The exact connection of Euripides' birthday with the victory is an embellishment that is often found in the stories of the greats by ancient authors. Thus, the Court reports that Euripides’ mother conceived him at the time when Xerxes invaded Europe (May, 480 BC), from which it follows that he could not have been born in September. An inscription on the Parian marble identifies the year of the playwright's birth as 486 BC. e. , and in this chronicle of Greek life the name of the playwright is mentioned 3 times - more often than the name of any king. According to other evidence, the date of birth can be attributed to 481 BC. e.

Euripides's father was a respected and apparently rich man, Cleito's mother was engaged in selling vegetables. As a child, Euripides was seriously involved in gymnastics, even won competitions among boys and wanted to get to the Olympic Games, but was rejected due to his youth. Then he took up drawing, without much success, however. Then he began to take lessons in oratory and literature from Prodicus and Anaxagoras and lessons in philosophy from Socrates. Euripides collected books for the library, and soon began to write himself. The first play, Peliad, appeared on stage in 455 BC. e. , but then the author did not win due to a quarrel with the judges. Euripides won the first prize for skill in 441 BC. e. and from then on until his death he created his creations. The playwright's social activity was manifested in the fact that he participated in the embassy in Syracuse in Sicily, apparently supporting the goals of the embassy with the authority of a writer recognized throughout Hellas.

Euripides' family life was unsuccessful. From his first wife, Chloirina, he had 3 sons, but divorced her because of her adultery, writing the play “Hippolytus,” where he ridiculed sexual relations. The second wife, Melitta, turned out to be no better than the first. Euripides gained fame as a misogynist, which gave the master of comedy Aristophanes a reason to joke about him.

« They [the Athenians] were sold into slavery and branded with a horse on their foreheads. Yes, there were those who, in addition to captivity, had to endure this. But even in such extremes, they benefited from self-esteem and self-control. The owners either set them free or highly valued them. And some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside Attica, revered the talent of Euripides. When visitors brought them small excerpts from his works, the Sicilians took pleasure in committing them to memory and repeating them to each other. They say that at that time many of those who returned home warmly greeted Euripides and told him how they received freedom by teaching their master what remained in their memory from his poems, or how, wandering after the battle, they earned food and water for themselves by singing songs from his tragedies.»

« Euripides ended his life as a result of the conspiracy of Arrhidaeus from Macedonia and Crateus from Thessaly, poets jealous of the glory of Euripides. They bribed a courtier named Lysimachus in 10 minutes to unleash the royal hounds he was watching on Euripides. Others say that Euripides was torn not by dogs, but by women, when he hurried at night on a date with Craterus, the young lover of Archelaus. Still others claim that he was going to meet Nikodika, Aref's wife.»

The version about women is a crude joke with a hint of Euripides’ play “The Bacchae,” where maddened women tore the king apart. Plutarch writes about the love of an elderly writer for young men in “Quotes”. The modern version is more down-to-earth - the body of 75-year-old Euripides simply could not withstand the harsh winter in Macedonia.

The Athenians asked permission to bury the playwright in hometown, but Archelaus wished to leave the tomb of Euripides in his capital, Pella. Sophocles, having learned about the death of the playwright, forced the actors to play the play with their heads uncovered. Athens erected a statue of Euripides in the theater to honor him after his death. Plutarch conveyed a legend: lightning struck the tomb of Euripides, a great sign that only Lycurgus among the famous people was awarded.

Euripides' innovation

Euripides changed his attitude towards mythological texts. His plays are not interpretations of mythology, but revelations of problems in the life of a modern polis. He deliberately chooses subjects that highlight “pain points”: the crisis of polis ideology, the decline of citizenship, growing individualism and selfishness; criticism of the institution of slavery; problem family relations(woman's position); attitude towards the gods (Euripides - skeptic).

Tragedies of Euripides

Of the 92 plays attributed to Euripides in antiquity, the titles of 80 can be reconstructed. Of these, 18 tragedies have come down to us, of which “Res” is believed to have been written by a later poet, and the satirical drama “Cyclops” is the only surviving example of this genre. The best ancient dramas of Euripides are lost to us; Of the survivors, only “Hippolytus” was crowned. Among the surviving plays, the earliest is Alceste, and the later ones include Iphigenia at Aulis and The Bacchae.

The preferential development of female roles in tragedy was an innovation of Euripides. Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Andromache, Macaria, Iphigenia, Helen, Electra, Medea, Phaedra, Creusa, Andromeda, Agave and many other heroines of the legends of Hellas are complete and vital types. Motifs of marital and maternal love, tender devotion, violent passion, female vindictiveness alloyed with cunning, deceit and cruelty occupy a very prominent place in the dramas of Euripides. Euripides' women surpass his men in willpower and intensity of feelings. Also, slaves and slaves in his plays are not soulless extras, but have characters, human traits and show feelings like free citizens, forcing the audience to empathize. Only a few of the surviving tragedies satisfy the requirement of completeness and unity of action. The author's strength lies primarily in psychologism and deep elaboration of individual scenes and monologues. The main interest of Euripides' tragedies lies in the diligent depiction of mental states, usually tense to the extreme.

List of fully extant plays by Euripides:

1. Alceste(438 BC, 2nd place) text
2. Medea(431 BC, 3rd place) text
3. Heracleidae(430 BC)text
4. Hippolytus(428 BC, 1st place) text
5. Andromache(425 BC) text
6. Hecuba(424 BC) text
7. Petitioners(423 BC) text
8. Electra(413 BC) text
9. Hercules(416 BC) text
10. Trojan women(415 BC, 2nd place) text
11. Iphigenia in Tauris(414 BC) text
12. And he(414 BC) text
13. Elena(412 BC) text
14. Phoenician women(410 BC) text
15. Cyclops(408 BC, satirical drama) text
16. Orestes(408 BC) text
17. Bacchae(407 BC, 1st place posthumously with “Iphigenia at Aulis”) text
18. Iphigenia in Aulis(407 BC) text
19. Res(attributed to Euripides, which most modern literary scholars disagree with) text
20. Phaeton(c. 420 BC) The tragedy has been partially preserved.

Musical activities

It is likely that Euripides himself wrote the music for his tragedies. A fragment of the first antistrophe from Orestes has been preserved on papyrus from the 3rd century. BC e. containing clearly distinguishable musical notes above the poetic text. A fragment of Euripides’ music confirms the fame attributed to him in a number of non-musical treatises as a daring composer-reformer, who, according to the testimony of the ancients, introduced chromaticism into tragedy and began to widely use the cithara (in more ancient examples of tragedy, only aulos was standardly used). The notation of the fragment, showing all three kinds of melos of the Greeks - diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic, testifies to the sophistication and complexity of Euripides' musical writing.

Another surviving fragment of Euripides - from “Iphigenia in Aulis” (choral epode from the second musical intermission; dated c. 280 BC) - is notable for the fact that in addition to letters indicating the pitch of sounds, the papyrus contains signs of rhythmic notation. Analysis of this fragment shows that the musical rhythm cheats rhythm of the verse. Thus, it becomes obvious that (accepted by tradition among philologists) recording the text of the tragedy as “pure” verse (without taking into account the chant) does not give a correct idea of ​​​​its sound.

Notes

Literature

Texts and translations

Russians (For translations of individual plays, see articles about them):

• Theater of Euripides. In 6 vols. / Transl. I. F. Annensky. (Series “Monuments of World Literature”). M.: Sabashnikovs. (Vols. 1-3 were published; the first edition of Vol. 1 was published in 1906 with a different composition)
  • T. 1. Alkesta. Andromache. Bacchae. Hecuba. 1916. 406 pp.
  • T. 2. Heracleides. Hercules. Elena. Hippolytus. 1917. 516 pp.
  • T. 3. Iphigenia of Aulis. Iphigenia Tauride. And he. Cyclops. 1921. 548 pp.
• Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. / Per. S. V. Shervinsky. // Tragedies. In 2 volumes (Series “Library of Ancient Literature”). M.: Artist. lit. 1969.
• Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. / Per. S. Apta. // Works. In 2 volumes (Series “Ancient Drama”). M.: Art. 1980.
• Euripides. Tragedies. / Per. Inn. Annensky, Art. M. L. Gasparova and V. N. Yarkho, approx. V. N. Yarkho. Rep. ed. M. L. Gasparov. (Series “Literary monuments”). In 2 vols. M.: Ladomir-Science. . (reprint: M.: Ladomir-Nauka. 2006)
  • T. 1. Alceste. Medea. Heracleidae. Hippolytus. Andromache. Pleading. Hecuba. Hercules. Trojan women. Iphigenia in Tauris (Iphigenia the Priestess). 656 pp.
  • T. 2. Electra. Elena. Phoenicians. And he. Orestes. Bacchae. Iphigenia in Aulis (Iphigenia the Sacrifice). Cyclops. 704 pp. (in the Appendix “Res” of Pseudo-Euripides and “The Bacchae” in translation by F. F. Zelinsky)
• Unfamiliar Euripides. Tragedies of intrigue and chance. / Per. and approx. V. N. Yarkho. // Bulletin of ancient history. 1995. No. 3-4. 1996. No. 1-2. (translation of fragments of 12 tragedies: “Aegeus”, “Cresphont”, “Alexander”, “Frixus” (“Frixus 1” and “Frixus 2”), “Wise Melanippe”, “Melanippe the Prisoner”, “Hypsipyle”, “Antiope” ", "Auga", "Alope", "Alcmaeon in Corinth")

English: The Loeb classical library has published the surviving plays (including “Res”) in 6 volumes (No. 12, 484, 9, 10, 11, 495) and fragments (Vol. 7, 8, No. 504, 506)

• Volume II.
• Volume III. Bacchae. Hercules is in madness. Heracleidae. Phoenicians. Pleading

French:

• The “Collection Budé” series published the surviving plays in 7 volumes (see) and fragments (vol. 8 in 4 parts, 1998-2003). Euripide. Tragedies:
  • Tome VIII, 1st part: Fragments. De Aigeus à Autolykos. Texte établi et traduit par F. Jouan et H. Van Looy. 2e circulation 2002. LXXXIII, 509 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00466-2
  • Tome VIII, 2ème partie: Fragments de Bellérophon à Protésilas. Texte établi et traduit par F. Jouan et H. Van Looy. 2e circulation 2002. 983 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00485-3
  • Tome VIII: 3e partie. Fragments. De Sténébée à Chrysippos. Texte établi et traduit par F. Jouan et H. Van Looy. 2002. 400 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00502-7
  • Tome VIII: 4e partie. Fragments de dramas non identifiés. Texte établi et traduit par François Jouan et Herman Van Looy. 2003. VIII, 308 p. ISBN 978-2-251-00510-2

Research

• Orbinsky R.V. Euripides and his significance in the history of Greek tragedy. St. Petersburg, 1853. 98 pp.
• Kotelov N. P. Euripides and the significance of his “drama” in the history of literature. St. Petersburg, 1894. 87 pp.
• Gavrilov A.K. Theater of Euripides and the Athenian Enlightenment: Source Study. Author's abstract. diss. ... d.i. n. St. Petersburg, 1995.
• Gavrilov A.K. Signs and action - mantika in “Iphigenia Tauride” by Euripides // Traditions and innovation in ancient literature. Philologia classica. Vol. 2 (Tolstoy collection). L., 1982. P. 88-101.

Scholium to Euripides

Sources and links

• Fragments of Euripides in Walker's edition, 1920. 72 pp. (Greek)
• Euripides, Encyclopædia Britannica on-line
• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

• Euripides (English). - in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Surviving ancient tragedies
Aeschylus	Seven against Thebes | Prayers | Persians | Prometheus chained Oresteia: Agamemnon | Hoefors | Eumenides
Sophocles	Oedipus the King | Oedipus at Colonus | Antigone | Ajax | Philoctetes | Electra | Fucking women | Pathfinders (satyr drama) ( partially preserved)
Euripides	Alceste | Medea | Heracleides | Hippolytus | Andromache | Pleading | Hecuba | Hercules | Trojan women | Iphigenia in Tauris | Electra | Elena | Phoenicians | Ion | Orestes | Bacchae | Iphigenia in Aulis | Cyclops (satire drama)
Seneca	Medea | Phaedra | Oedipus | Phoenicians | Hercules in Madness | Hercules on Eta | Fiesta | Trojan women | Agamemnon
Unknown authors	Res 1 | Octavia 2
1 Pseudo-Euripides, Greek author of the 4th century BC. e. 2 Pseudo-Seneca, Roman author, 1st century AD e.

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