Who is Euripides and his works. Tragedies of Euripides
Euripides (485 or 480–406 BC), Greek poet, author of tragedies, considered (along with Aeschylus and Sophocles) one of the pillars of Greek drama
There are few reliable accounts of Euripides' life. Many of the stories passed down about him by later writers have, in the course of time, come to seem credible, while most of them are unreliable, and some are manifestly unfounded. A true Athenian both by birth and citizenship, Euripides lived permanently in his homeland, with the exception of the last year or two, when he was a guest at the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus.
Euripides' parents were not among the richest or most prominent aristocratic Athenian families. In the comedy Women at the Thesmophoria (p. 387), Aristophanes calls Euripides' mother a "vegetable merchant." Euripides was not poor, although, of course, he could not earn money by writing plays. There is no reason to assume that Euripides took a particularly active part in the socio-political life of Athens, even though his plays show an interest in rhetorical argumentation and, perhaps, Euripides himself was trained in rhetoric. His dramas undoubtedly testify to the author's persistent convictions on many issues of public life. In addition, they indicate his interest in modern theoretical thought and make quite convincing the traditional version of the closeness of Euripides to the Athenian natural philosopher Anaxagoras. Less likely is his friendship with Socrates.
The great comedian Aristophanes disapproved of many of the ideas and techniques of Euripides, which is especially clearly evidenced by the comedy of the Frog. However, these attacks should not be given much importance. In ancient times, they tried to explain the move of Euripides from Athens to Macedonia by the desire to escape from criticism or even threats from opponents. However, moving to Macedonia, Euripides could well count on the warm welcome of King Archelaus, who tried to attract prominent Greeks to his court, so the opportunity to leave the city, exhausted by war and internal strife, was in itself a sufficient reason for such a step. Euripides lived in Macedonia long enough to complete his great tragedy Bacchantes.
Critical Assessment
Euripides is usually spoken of as the third most important among the three great playwrights, whose tragedies mainly made up the glory of Athens in the 5th century. BC. Aeschylus lived in the first half of this century, and his work ended almost fifty years earlier than the work of the other two playwrights. Sophocles was somewhat older than Euripides and outlived him. It should be noted that ancient literature retained more passages from Euripides than from Aeschylus and Sophocles combined.
The works of Euripides differ in many ways from the tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus, but first you need to point out the features that are characteristic of any Greek tragedy. To a person who first turned to Greek tragedy, these common features are striking rather than differences, if only because Greek drama is so unlike contemporary works. Its structure is constant: episodes (dialogues in verse between two or three actors) are interspersed with songs of the choir (written in lyrical poetry). The members of the choir are formally the characters of the tragedy, but in fact they are something between the actors and the audience, they can rather be likened to the choir, which is in some religious ceremonies in the middle between the clergy and the parishioners. Dialogue is often preceded by a lyrical part of the actor, performed solo or accompanied by a choir.
The plot of the tragedy, as a rule, is borrowed from the myth. Story Trojan War, fate, pursuing the Mycenaean and Theban dynasties, and many other more or less well-known legends from the distant past, provided the authors of tragedies with abundant material. Despite the fact that the outline of the plot is known in advance, its details can change at the request of the poet. In this, the plays of Euripides are similar to those of other Greek playwrights, both in terms of form and content. What indisputably and sharply distinguished them was the difference in the spirit and aims of tragedy. The main difference in form is the frequent use of prologues and epilogues, which are written in the verse usually used in dialogues and are spoken either by one of the characters in the drama or (and this happens more often) by a deity who did not take part in it. The explicit purpose of the prologue is to set out the state of affairs in which the action begins, sometimes hints are made here as to what will happen in the future. The explicit purpose of the epilogue is to make changes in the fate or behavior of the characters and tell the story to the end.
Euripides' worldview
The content of the tragedies, their focus and meaning - that's what distinguishes Euripides from the other two great playwrights. He doesn't idealize his characters. Sophocles allegedly said that he himself depicts people as they should be portrayed, and Euripides as they really are. In the hands of Euripides, traditional myths are subjected to such interpretations and changes that the heroes lose their heroic features, turning into ordinary people. Only the humble and contemptible characters of Euripides - women (especially young girls), peasants, etc. - sometimes able to rise above general level, having accomplished a feat of courage, loyalty and selflessness. In addition, the Athenians understood and sympathized with Euripides' characters not only because they were realistically depicted and reminded them of themselves, but also because, in essence, he portrayed his contemporaries in tragedies.
The theme of the tragedy is the misfortunes and suffering that fall to the lot of people. What is their reason? Aeschylus' answer can be summarized as follows: this is the punishment for sin. Sophocles sees the cause in the combination of human pride with stubbornness and their collision with an accident (moreover, the gods sanction what is happening rather than adjust it). Euripides saw the reason solely in human nature: this is the ignorance and stupidity of the people themselves, their unbridled passions and feelings, their greed, ambition and cruelty, which ruin both their own lives and the lives of loved ones. Euripides' view of life can be called sad, but by no means cynical: evil and error can be opposed by virtue and common sense. Too often, however, evil triumphs and misfortune breaks out. Be that as it may, the gods do not interfere in the lives of people in any way. We ourselves are responsible (of course, within the limits allotted to us) for everything good and bad that happens to us in life.
tragedy
Under the name of Euripides, 19 plays have been almost completely preserved to this day. One of them, Res, is an inept arrangement of the Xth Canto of the Iliad and is almost certainly not by Euripides. Another, Cyclops, belongs to the genre of not tragedy, but drama and is the only completely surviving play of this kind, despite the fact that all tragedians wrote satyr dramas. These merry, comical parodies of the tragedy, in which the choir was made up of satyrs, were staged at drama competitions in honor of the feast of the Great Dionysius, as an appendix to the tragic trilogy. The remaining 17 tragedies, about a fifth of all written by Euripides, belong to mature period his creativity. The dating of most of them is doubtful, although some linguistic features make it possible to distinguish early works from the later ones.
Alkesta
Being a tragedy in form, the content of Alces is rather a fairy tale with happy ending. Admet, king of Ther in Thessaly, is doomed to die if no one gives his life for him. Only his wife Alcesta agrees to die for him. She dies and her body is placed in the tomb. Soon Hercules turns up in Fera, who spends the night visiting his old friend Admet. Upon learning of his misfortune, Hercules lies in wait near the tomb of the god of death Thanatos, overcomes him and returns Alcesta to life.
Medea is a story of female revenge. Jason, who returned from Colchis as a winner, with the Golden Fleece, brought with him the Colchis princess Medea. They settled in Corinth and lived happily there for many years. But now Jason is going to marry a Corinthian princess (a foreigner is not recognized as his legal wife). Jason is not a hero here, but it would be unfair to perceive him as a scoundrel worthy of contempt, as Medea believes, and with her the majority contemporary readers. Jason argues, and not without reason, that the new marriage will ensure the safety of both Medea and their children, and Jason himself. However, Medea, whom Jason's betrayal throws into a frenzy, thinks only of revenge. She manages to exterminate the princess by sending her a poisoned cloak as a gift. Then, having endured a difficult struggle with maternal feelings, Medea inflicts a truly crushing blow on Jason, killing her own and his sons. In the finale, we see Medea, who flies up on a winged chariot sent to her by her grandfather, the god of the Sun, and revels in the grief and horror of Jason, who is deprived even of the opportunity to punish her for the crime.
Hippolytus is the story of a pure young man prone to asceticism, the son of Theseus from an Amazon. Hippolytus incurred the wrath of the goddess of love Aphrodite with his contempt for her and exclusive devotion to Artemis, the patroness of hunting. To destroy the young man, Aphrodite makes Phaedra, Theseus' wife and stepmother Hippolytus, fall in love with him. Phaedra is ready to die of love rather than discover her passion. However, the old nurse Phaedra, wanting to save her, initiates Hippolytus into the secret, he listens to her story with horror and disgust. Phaedra commits suicide, but resentment prompts her to leave a note in which she accuses Hippolytus of encroaching on her honor. Theseus finds this message and sends his son into exile. This curse must inevitably come true - as Poseidon promised Theseus at one time, and it really becomes the cause of the death of Hippolytus. The dying youth is brought back to Athens, and Artemis appears in the epilogue and reveals the truth, but too late.
XII. EURIPID
1. Biography.
Euripides (c. 480-406 BC), one of the greatest playwrights, was a junior 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 Feast of Thesmosphoria" says that the mother of Euripides was a greengrocer, but the later biographer Philochor denies this. There is no doubt that the family of Euripides had the means and therefore the great tragedian was able to get a good education: he studied with the philosopher Anaxagoras and the sophist Protagoras, the Roman writer Aul Gellius (Attic Nights) speaks about this. In 408, Euripides, at the invitation of King Archelaus, moved to Macedonia, where he died.
Euripides began in the heyday of the Athenian policy, but most of his activity takes place already in the years of the decline of this slave-owning republic. He witnessed a long and exhausting for Athens Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC. This war was equally aggressive both from Athens and from Sparta, but still it should be noted the difference in political positions these two policies: Athens, as a democratic slave-owning state, introduced the principles of slave-owning democracy into the regions conquered during the war, and Sparta planted the oligarchy everywhere. Euripides, in contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles, did not hold any public office. He served his country with his work. He wrote more than 90 tragedies, of which 17 have come down to us (the 18th tragedy "Rhee" is attributed to Euripides). In addition, one satyr drama by Euripides "Cyclops" has come down to us and many fragments of his tragedies have been preserved.
Most of the tragedies of Euripides 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 - ca. 427, "Hercules", "Hecuba" and "Andromache" - c. 423-421, "Petitioners" - probably 416, "Ion", "Troyanka" - 415, "Electra", "Iphigenia in Tauris" - c. 413, "Elena" - 412, "Phoenician women" - 410 - 408, "Orest" - 408, "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia in Aulis" were staged after the death of Euripides.
3. Criticism of mythology.
Euripides is extremely radical in his views, approaching 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, then plants, animals and people appeared (fragment 484).
His critical attitude to mythology as the basis of the folk Greek religion is known. He recognizes some kind of divine entity that rules the world. No wonder the comedian Aristophanes, a contemporary of Euripides, who considers this tragedian the destroyer of all folk traditions, evilly laughs at him and in the comedy "The Frogs" says through the mouth of Dionysus that he has gods of "his own special coinage" (885-894).
Euripides depicts the gods almost always from the most negative sides, as if wishing to inspire the audience with distrust of traditional beliefs. So, in the tragedy "Hercules" Zeus appears evil, capable of disgracing someone else's family, the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, - vengeful, bringing suffering to the famous Greek hero Hercules only because he is the natural 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 Erinyes (this interpretation differs sharply from the interpretation of Aeschylus in his Oresteia trilogy). Just as heartless and envious as Hera, the goddess Aphrodite in the tragedy Hippolytus. She is jealous of Artemis, who is revered by the beautiful Hippolyte. Out of hatred for the young man, Aphrodite kindles in the heart of his stepmother, Queen Phaedra, a criminal passion for her stepson, due to which both Phaedra and Hippolytus perish.
Critically portraying the gods of popular religion, Euripides expresses the idea that such images are not the fruit of the imagination of poets. So, through the mouth of Hercules, he says:
In addition, I did not believe and do not believe that God would eat the forbidden fruit, that God would have bonds in his hands, And one god would command the other. No, the deity is self-sufficient: All this is nonsense of impudent singers 3 . ("Hercules", 1342-1346.)
4. Anti-war tendencies and democracy.
Euripides was a patriot of his native polis and tirelessly emphasized the superiority of democratic Athens over the oligarchic Sparta. More than once, Euripides portrayed his people as the defenders of weak, small states. So, using the myth, he carries out this idea in the tragedy "Heraclides". The children of Hercules - Heraclides, who were expelled from their native city by the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, none of the states, fearing the military power of Mycenae, gave shelter, did not stand 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 excites Me, then this is the highest argument: honor. After all, if I allow some foreigner to tear off those praying from the altar by force, then farewell, Athenian freedom! Everyone will say, That out of fear of Argos - I insulted the plea of Treason. Worse than the loop is Consciousness (242-250).
The Athenians defeated the troops of Eurystheus and return the Heraclides to their hometown. 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 choir, saying: "It is not the first time that the Athenian land stands for the truth and the unfortunate" (330).
The tragedy of Euripides "The Petitioners" is also patriotic. It depicts the relatives of the 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 dead 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, the envoy of the relatives of the fallen soldiers, is the glorification of democratic Athens, the defender of the weak and oppressed. The choir sings:
You help mothers, help, O city of Pallas, May they not trample on common laws, You observe justice, alien to injustice, You are the patron of everyone, no matter who was dishonorably offended (378-381).
In the same dialogue, through the mouth of Theseus, the aggressive wars started by the rulers because of their own selfish interests are condemned. Theseus says to Adrastus:
Those are eager for glory, these are inflating the Game of war and corrupting citizens, Those are aiming at generals, those - at the authorities, To show their temper, and those are attracted by profit - They do not think about the disasters of the people (233-237).
Euripides reflected the hatred of the Athenians for 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, did not stop before killing the child of Andromache, born of her son Achilles Neoptolemus, to whom she was given as a concubine after the fall of Troy. Andromache sends curses on the head of the Spartans. Peleus, 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 soul of the Athenian citizens, everyone knew the cruelty of the Spartans towards prisoners and enslaved helots. The same ideas are carried out by Euripides in the tragedy "Orestes", drawing the Spartans as cruel, treacherous people. Thus, Clytemnestra's father Tyndar demands the execution of Orestes for the murder of his mother, although Orestes says that he committed this crime on the orders of the god Apollo. Pitiful and cowardly Menelaus. Orestes reminds him of his father Agamemnon, who, like a brother, came to the aid of Menelaus, went with his troops to Troy to save Helen and, at the cost of great sacrifice, saved her, returned Menelaus his 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 Argos and can only act by cunning. Then Orestes bitterly remarks:
Nothing like a king, but a worthless coward at heart Having left friends in trouble, you run! (717-718)
The tragedies of Euripides with anti-Spartan tendencies closely adjoin tragedies in which the author expresses his anti-war views and condemns aggressive wars. These are the tragedy "Hecuba", staged around 423, and the tragedy "Trojanka", staged in 415.
The tragedy "Hecuba" describes the suffering of Priam's family, which, together with other captives, 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 relentless. Euripides draws Polyxena as a proud girl who does not want to humiliate herself in front of the Greek victors and goes to her death:
What promises me The temper of my future masters? Some savage, having bought me, will make Grind the wheat, the house of revenge... ... And the weary 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 for us when there is no beauty in it (378).
As a great connoisseur of the human soul, Euripides depicts the last minutes of Polyxena's life, 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 her sister Cassandra, who became the concubine of Agamemnon, and her little brother Polydor. Polyxena dies as a heroine. Her last words were:
You, sons of Argos, That my city was destroyed! By my will I die. Let no one hold Me... ...But let me die Free, I conjure the gods. Just like I was free. The princess is ashamed to descend as a slave to the shadows (545-552).
The tragedy of "Hekuba" is pessimistic in its mood, the author, as it were, wants to say that human life is hard, injustice, violence, the power of gold reign everywhere - such is the law of life and such are last words tragedy: "inexorable necessity."
The tragedy of Troyanka 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 the women of the family of King Priam.
This tragedy, like the tragedy of Hecuba, depicts a war between the Greeks and the Trojans, contrary to the usual mythological interpretation that glorifies 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 the family of Priam that the wife of King Hecub will be a slave of Odysseus, her eldest daughter Cassandra will become the concubine of Agamemnon, the younger Polixena will be sacrificed at the grave of Achilles, Hector's wife Andromache will be given as a concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus.
Andromache is deprived of her baby son Hector, although she begs to leave him to her, since the child is not guilty of anything before the Greeks. The victors kill the child, throwing it off the wall, and the corpse is brought to his grandmother, Hecuba, distraught from suffering.
The unfortunate old woman, who has lost her homeland and all her loved ones, screams over the corpse of her grandson:
Blood is flowing from the crushed skull... I'll keep silent about the worst... About hands, Exactly like father's! The joints are all Shattered... O sweet mouth... (1177-1180). ...What will the poet write on your tombstone? "The Argives killed this boy Out of fear" - a verse shameful for Hellas (1189-1191).
In many tragedies where the idea of patriotism is promoted, Euripides depicts heroes sacrificing their lives for the sake of their homeland. So, in the tragedy "Heraclides" the daughter of Hercules, young Macaria, sacrifices herself, saving her native city, her brothers and sisters.
In the tragedy "Phoenician Women" (staged between 410-408), the son of Creon, the young man Menekey, sacrifices his life for the sake of the victory of the motherland over the enemies. The father persuades the son not to go on such a feat, but to go somewhere far away, outside the homeland. Menekey pretends to agree with the will of his father, but in his heart he has already firmly decided to give his life for the sake of saving his homeland.
Euripides was very upset by the entire course of the Peloponnesian War, the hardships and military defeats of his fellow citizens. He saw that the principles of the democratic polis system were collapsing, that the privileged were coming to the helm of the state. social groups, rich people, money dealers, land and business owners. Therefore, the playwright in his tragedies defends the principles of Athenian democracy with such passion and stigmatizes tyranny. He considered the middle social groups, that is, small free workers, peasants and artisans, to be the basis of Athenian democracy. In the tragedy "The Petitioner" its main character Theseus, the spokesman for the views of Euripides himself, says:
There are three kinds of citizens: some are rich And useless, everything is always not enough for them, Others are poor, in eternal lack. They are terrible, they are seized by envy, And in anger they aptly sting the rich. They are driven down by the bad tongues of the Troubles. The third kind is the middle one, Support of the state and protection of the Law in it... (238-246).
Aristotle adhered to the same views ("Politics", VI, 9).
Free small workers Euripides depicted with deep sympathy, especially the toilers of the earth. The old honest farmer in the tragedy "Electra", to whom Queen Clytemnestra marries her daughter in order to remove her from the palace, as 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, whoever is lazy, let the words of prayers not leave his lips, but he will not take bread" (81).
The same image of an honest farmer, the custodian of the democratic principles of Athens is given in the tragedy "Orestes". Only he alone spoke in defense of Orestes at a public meeting, demanding indulgence for 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 stands the orator - not a handsome man, But a strong husband; not often leaving a footprint On the square of Argive, He plows his land - on such Now the country rests. He is not poor in mind, if there is sometimes a chance To measure himself in a verbal contest. And in life he is an impeccable husband (917-924).
5. Social dramas.
The tragedies of Euripides 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 include a comic element, which classical ancient tragedy absolutely did not allow, and a happy ending, which also contradicts the canon of the tragic genre. These should include such, for example, plays as Alkesta, Elena, Ion.
a) Alkesta.
Alcesta 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, whom the gods promised that his life could be extended if someone voluntarily agreed to die for him. When Admet fell seriously ill and was threatened with death, none of his relatives, even his elderly parents, wanted to die in his place, and only his young wife, the beautiful Alcesta, agreed to such a sacrifice.
Euripides depicts with great skill the last moments of Alcesta's life, her farewell to her husband, children, slaves. Alkesta 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.
Alkesta's husband, Tsar Admet, is an ordinary person, not a hero: a good family man, loves his wife and children, is hospitable to friends, a hospitable host, but an egoist and loves himself most of all. Admet curses himself for accepting the sacrifice of his wife, but is not capable of self-sacrifice, of a feat.
There is a scene in the play that really convinces that there is only one step from the tragic to the comic - when the father of Admet Feret brings a veil 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 his father for selfishness, and the father, in turn, scolds his son for relying on self-sacrifice from his parents. The old man accuses his son of living, in essence, at the expense of his wife, who sacrificed her young life. This quarrel between two egoists is both comical and bitter. Euripides very vividly conveys it with the help of short, ordinary, catchy phrases:
Admet (pointing to the corpse of Alcesta) You see your guilt there, old man. Feret Il bury her for me, you say? Admet You will need me too, I hope. Feret Change your wives more often, you will be more whole. Admet You are ashamed. Why did you spare yourself? Feret Oh, this god's torch is so beautiful. ADMET And this is the husband? A disgrace among men... Feret I'd become a laughing stock for you when I died. Admet You will die, too, but you will die ingloriously. Feret Infamy does not reach the dead. Admet Such an old man... And even a shadow of shame... (717 - 727).
Admet and Feret are ordinary people as they are. No wonder Aristotle noted that Sophocles depicts people as they should be, and Euripides - as they are ("Poetics", 25).
The playwright draws Hercules not in the halo of exploits, but in 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, comes to 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 mourns for Alces. Hercules is at a loss and delivers a whole speech in which he tells his worldly sges! About what to live, they say, is necessary for fun, for love, for enjoyment. But when Hercules learns from a slave that Alcesta has died, then for the sake of his friend he descends into Hades, beats off Alcesta from the demon of death and returns her to Admet, distraught with joy.
b) Elena.
Euripides' play "Helen", staged in 412, should also be attributed to the same genre of social dramas. It uses a little-known myth that Paris took with him to Troy not Helen, 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, Theoclymenos, wants to marry Elena, but she persists, wanting to remain faithful to her husband. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus takes a ship home; the storm wrecked his ship, but Menelaus, with several comrades and the ghost of Helen, escaped and was thrown onto the coast 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 do it at sea funeral rite in honor of the deceased Menelaus. The king gives her a boat, rowers, and now Elena in a mourning dress gets into the boat, the rowers enter there, among them 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 rowers, their corpses were thrown overboard and, with raised sails, headed for the shores of Hellas.
Before us is again not a classic Greek tragedy, but a domestic drama with a happy ending, with twists and turns of an adventure nature, with the idea of glorifying true conjugal love. The Helena of this drama is not at all like the Helena depicted in the tragedies "Andromache", "The Trojan Women" and "Orestes", where she appears before us as a narcissistic beauty, cheating on her husband and throwing herself into the arms of Paris. This image is far from the Homeric image beautiful Elena, forcibly taken away 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 drama created by Euripides and the play "Ion". It depicts the son of Apollo, Ion, born of Creusa, the victim of this god. To hide his shame, Creusa throws the baby into the temple. Subsequently, she marries the Athenian king Xuthus and by chance, thanks to the preserved swaddling clothes in which the child was once thrown, she finds her son, who has already become a young man. The plot of the abandoned child later, in the era of Hellenism, would become the most popular among Greek comedians, who generally believed that they "came out of the dramas of Euripides", since according to ideological content, in the depiction of characters, in composition, the Hellenistic comedies are undoubtedly very close to the social dramas of Euripides. In the dramas of Euripides, one of the most important guiding forces is no longer fate, but an accident that has befallen 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 great interest of the playwright in the personality of a person, with all its contradictions and passions, stand out especially.
a) Medea
One of the most remarkable tragedies of Euripides - "Medea" was staged on the Athenian stage in 431. The enchantress 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 a loved one, she left her family, her homeland, helped him master 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 throne of Corinth. It is especially difficult for her, because she is a "barbarian", lives in a foreign land, where there are no relatives or friends. Medea is outraged by the clever sophistical 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 to the kingdom. Offended in her feelings, a woman understands that the driving force behind her husband's actions is the desire for wealth, for power. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, who ruthlessly 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 the future happiness of which, 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 sophistical theory that "man is the measure of all things", a theory undoubtedly condemned by Euripides. As a deep psychologist, Euripides could not but show a storm of torment in the soul of Medea, who planned to kill the children. Two feelings struggle in it: jealousy and love for children, passion and a sense of duty to children. Jealousy prompts her decision - to kill the children and thereby take revenge on her husband, love for the children makes her discard the terrible decision and take a different plan - to escape from 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 leave their lives and go into exile:
Alien to you, I will drag out the days. And never, having changed a different life, you will not see me, which carried you ... With these eyes. Alas! Alas! Why are you looking at me and laughing 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 feeling. And a minute later, we again have a mother who convinces herself to abandon her plan. And then the pernicious thought of 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 underworld power, That the enemies of my children, Abandoned by Medea for mockery, cannot be seen ... (1059-1963).
The unfortunate mother caresses her children for the last time, but realizes that the murder is inevitable:
Oh sweet hugs, Cheek so tender, and mouth A pleasant breath... Go away... Go away quickly... No strength to look at you... I am crushed by flour... What I dare, I see... Only anger is Stronger than me, and there is no more ferocious and zealous executioner for the kind of mortals (1074-1080).
Euripides reveals the soul of a man tormented by an 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 "Medea" is close to the tragedy "Hippolytus", staged in 428. The young Athenian queen, the wife of Theseus Phaedra, passionately fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. She understands that her duty is to be faithful wife and an honest mother, but cannot tear out the criminal passion from the heart. The Nurse asks Phaedra for her secret and informs Hippolytus of Phaedra's love for him. The young man in anger brands his stepmother and sends curses on the head of all women, considering them the cause of evil and debauchery in the world.
Offended by the undeserved accusations of Hippolytus, Phaedra commits suicide, but in order to save her name from shame and protect her children from it, she also leaves her husband a letter in which she accuses Hippolytus of encroaching on her honor. Theseus, after reading 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 horses of the young man rushed, and he breaks on the rocks. The goddess Artemis reveals to Theseus the secret of his wife. In this tragedy, as in the tragedy of Medea, Euripides skillfully 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 situation, then the heroines are shown in the grip of a painful conflict between duty and passion, the whole tragedy is built on this high tension, realistically revealing the secrets of the heroines' souls. But the outcome of the tragedies is mythological: Medea will be saved by her grandfather, the god Helios, and she, with the corpses of the killed children, flies away on his chariot. The goddess Artemis appears to Theseus and reports that his son is not guilty of anything, that he was 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 tragedies, is usually called in practice ancient theater deus ex machipa, are characteristic of Euripides, the master of complex, intricate situations.
7. Special interpretation myth.
Euripides in his tragedies often changes old myths, leaving them, in fact, only the names of the heroes. The great tragedian, using mythological plots, expresses in them the thoughts and feelings of his contemporaries, raises topical issues of his time. He, if I may say so, modernizes the myth. And in this big difference Euripides by Aeschylus and Sophocles. The difference in the artistic system of the playwrights is especially noticeable when comparing the tragedy of Euripides "Electra" with tragedy of the same name Sophocles and with the tragedy of Aeschylus "Choephors", 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 the murdered father.
In Aeschylus, both heroes, Orestes and Electra, are still completely dominated by religious principles, they fulfill the order of Apollo to kill their mother because she killed their father, her husband, the head of the family and the state, violating the priority of the paternal principle.
Aeschylus still has great respect for the myth, with him the gods to a large extent decide the fate of people. For Sophocles, Electra and Orestes are also champions of the laws given by the gods, for Euripides, they are just unfortunate children abandoned by their mother for the sake of Aegisthus' lover. Wishing to strengthen his position, Clytemnestra deliberately passes off Elektra as an old poor farmer, so as not to have pretenders to the throne from his daughter. Orestes and Electra kill their mother because she deprived them of the joy of life, deprived their father.
The whole interpretation of the murder by Orestes and Elektra of their mother by Euripides is revealed more vitally, psychologically more deeply.
In the tragedy "Electra", Euripides condemns the methods by which Aeschylus and Sophocles recognize Elektra's brother: by a lock of Orestes' hair, cut off by him and laid on his father's grave, by the trace of his feet near this grave. In Euripides, when Uncle Orestes suggests that Electra put the lock of hair found on the grave to her locks, she, expressing the arguments of the author himself, 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 by a comb, could 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 a sneer:
On the stone footprint? What are you saying, old man? Yes, if his trace had remained, Is it really possible for a brother and sister to match the size of their legs? (534-537)
The old man asks Elektra 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 delirious? Why, then, old man, I was a child: Will my brother put on this chlamys even now? Or maybe clothes grow with us? (541-544)
Quite differently from Aeschylus, he depicts Euripides and the scene of the murder of his mother by Orestes. Without hesitation, even with malice, he kills her lover Aegisthus, as the culprit of all the suffering of his family, but it is terrible and painful for him to kill his mother. Aeschylus shows only the moment of Orestes' hesitation before the murder of his mother. Euripides depicts the terrible torment of his son, who cannot raise his 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 slightly expanding it, the sick Orestes to the question: "What ailment is tormenting?" - directly answers: "His name is and the villains have a conscience."
In Aeschylus, in the Orestes trilogy, Erinyes, terrible goddesses, defenders of maternal rights, pursue Orestes, while in Euripides, in the Orestes tragedy, it is a sick young man suffering from seizures, and after the murder, during delirium, it only seems to him that Erinyes are around, thirsting for his death. And in Medea, contrary to the myth, Euripides forces the mother to kill her children. What is important here for Euripides is not the mythology of tragedy, but the closeness of characters and life situations.
8. "Iphigenia in Aulis" - an example of a pathetic tragedy.
Posthumous tragedies of Euripides were the tragedies of "Bacchae" with its complex religious and psychological problems and "Iphigenia in Aulis". Both of them were staged at the feast of the city's Dionysius in 406. For the tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis", the author was awarded the first prize. "Iphigenia in Aulis" is one of the perfect tragedies of Euripides. 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 to Artemis eldest daughter Agamemnon Iphigenia. Her father calls her together with her mother under the pretext of the girl’s marriage to Achilles, but the goddess Artemis herself saves Iphigenia and, invisibly to everyone around, during the sacrifice, transfers her to her temple, to distant Tauris.
If in the tragedies of Euripides "Hecuba", "Andromache", "Trojans", "Electra" and "Orestes" the Greek campaign in Troy is depicted as an aggressive war, 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. Such an interpretation, raising the patriotic spirit of the Greeks, was especially relevant in the last years of the 5th century. BC. for Hellas and the policies depleted by the Peloponnesian war. People sacrificing themselves for the sake of their homeland were more than once portrayed in the tragedies of Euripides: Macarius in the tragedy "Heraclides", Menekey in the tragedy "Phoenician Women", Praxiteus in the tragedy "Erechtheus" (only a fragment reached) - but there these images were not the main ones.
Iphigenia, central character this tragedy, sacrifices his life for the sake of his 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 victory of Greece, but he does not dare to do this. Then, after painful torments, he nevertheless sends a letter to his wife so that she brings 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, for lack of love for the motherland. Meanwhile, Clytemnestra, having received her husband's first letter, arrives with Iphigenia in Aulis. Agamemnon suffers greatly when he meets his daughter, but the 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 indignantly learns that Agamemnon deliberately lied in a letter to his wife about his marriage to their daughter, but he is touched by the beauty of the girl, her defenselessness, and he offers her his help. However, Iphigenia has already decided on the sacrifice and refuses his offer. Achilles is struck by the nobility of the girl's soul, her heroism, and love for Iphigenia is born in his heart. After some time, he already persuades her to refuse self-sacrifice, since he puts personal happiness above duty to the motherland. Thus, the people around Iphigenia are depicted by Euripides as immersed in the 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 the achievement of Euripides is that it is not static, like most images of ancient tragedies, but given in its own internal development. At the beginning of the tragedy, we are simply a sweet, glorious girl, happy from the consciousness of her youth, full of joy from the upcoming marriage with the glorious hero of Hellas, Achilles. She is glad to meet her beloved father, but she feels that her father is worried about something. Soon she learns that she was brought to Aulis not for marriage with Achilles, but for a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis, and that this sacrifice is needed by her homeland. 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 world is so sweet, and descending into the underworld is so scary - have mercy” (1218 and following). Iphigenia recalls to her father the days of her childhood, when she, caressing, promised to rest him in her old age:
I keep everything in my memory, all the little words; And you forgot, you are glad to kill me (1230 ff.).
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 say? It is gratifying for a mortal to see the sun, And it's so scary underground... 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 under Troy, and demands that Iphigenia be sacrificed, otherwise there will be no fair wind, otherwise you will not reach the enemy and defeat him. And now, 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 warriors, that she must give her life to defeat the enemy. Even when Achilles tells her of his love and offers to secretly run away with him, she firmly declares her readiness to die for the honor of the fatherland. So Iphigenia from a naive frightened girl turns into a heroine who realizes her sacrifice.
9. General conclusion.
Euripides in his tragedies set and resolved a number of topical issues of its time - the question of duty and personal happiness, the role of the state and its laws. He protested against aggressive wars, criticized religious traditions, and promoted the ideas of a humane attitude towards people. His tragedies depict people of great feelings, sometimes committing crimes, and Euripides, as a deep psychologist, reveals the breaks in 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 ups and downs of tragedies, they are always causally motivated, vitally justified.
The language of tragedy is simple and expressive. The choir no longer plays a big role in his tragedies, he sings beautiful lyric songs but does not participate in conflict resolution.
Euripides was not fully understood by his contemporaries, since his rather bold views on nature, society, and religion seemed to go too far beyond the usual framework of the ideology of the majority.
But this tragedian was highly appreciated in the era of Hellenism, when his social and everyday dramas began to enjoy special popularity, undoubtedly having a great influence on the dramaturgy of Menander and other Hellenistic writers.
(484 BC - 406 BC)
Ancient Greece gave mankind three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Euripides is the last and youngest in their line. By the time of his appearance, the work of Aeschylus had already established tragedy as the leading literary genre. The mocker Aristophanes said that Aeschylus "was the first of the Greeks to pile up majestic
words and introduced a beautiful hype of tragic speech.
Euripides facilitated the language of tragedy, modernized it, brought it closer to colloquial speech, therefore, apparently, it was more popular with subsequent generations than with his own, accustomed to "stately words."
Start creative activity Euripida accounted for the period of the highest heyday of the Athenian state, who headed the union of many small states and islands of the Aegean archipelago during the reign of Perikla in 445-430 BC, and the second half of his life coincided with the beginning of the Peloponnesian war (431 - 404 BC), when democratic Athens encountered another powerful unit - oligarchs - oligarchs Sparta. The hatred of the Athenians for Sparta became the emotional content of the tragedy of Euripides "Andromache", where the Spartan king Menelaus, his wife Helen, the culprit of the Trojan War, and their daughter Hermione are bred as insidious and cruel people.
In the "age of Pericles" Athens became the main cultural center the whole Greek world, attracting creative people from all its ends. This was facilitated by Pericles himself, an unusually educated person for his time, an excellent orator, a talented commander, a subtle politician Under him, Athens was rebuilt, the Parthenon was built, the wonderful sculptor Phidias headed construction works and decorated the temple with his sculptural works. The historian Herodotus, the philosopher Anaxagoras, the sophist Protagoras (who owns the famous formula: "Man is the measure of all things") lived in Athens for a long time. At that time, Hippocrates began to create medicine, Democritus and Antiphon developed mathematical science, oratory flourished.
Athens was called the "school of Greece", the "Hellas of Hellas". It is not surprising that patriotic enthusiasm was reflected in many works of art of that time, among them were the tragedies of Euripides, especially marked by a patriotic feeling - "Heraclides", "The Petitioner", "Phoenician Women".
The ancient "Biographies" of Euripides claim that he was born on the day of the victory in the battle of Salamis (where the Fecian fleet defeated the Persians) in 480 BC. e. on the island of Salamis. Aeschylus participated in this battle, and the sixteen-year-old Sophocles performed in the choir of young men who glorified the victory. This is how the ancient Greek chroniclers presented the succession of the three great tragedians - too beautifully to be true. The Parian Chronicle calls the birth date of Euripides 484 BC. e., which researchers seem to be more reliable.
In the "Biographies" it is said that Euripides was the son of the shopkeeper Mnesarchus and the vegetable merchant Clito. And scientists question this information, since they are taken from the comedy of Aristophanes ("Women at the Thesmophoria"), known for his attacks on the tragedian: he hinted at his low origin from a simple greengrocer, and his wife's infidelity, etc.
According to other sources, which are considered more reliable, Euripides came from a noble family and even served at the temple of Apollo Zosterius. He got great
education, had one of the richest libraries of his time, was friends with the philosophers Anaxagoras and Archelaus, the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. This is more like the truth - for the excess of scientific reasoning in his tragedies, contemporaries called Euripides "a philosopher on the stage." The latest biographical version is also confirmed by the Roman writer Aulus Gellius in the Attic Nights, where he says that Euripides had the means and studied with Protagoras and Anaxagoras.
Euripides is described as a withdrawn, gloomy man, prone to solitude, plus a misogynist. Gloomy, he is depicted in the surviving portraits. If we translate the ancient characteristics of Euripides into the language of our concepts, we can say that he was extremely ambitious (however, this is one of the conditions for creativity), a sharply impressionable and touchy person. Can we consider him a misogynist? It seems unlikely (and here Aristophanes could not do without). Even the "demonic" Medea Euripides allows to pronounce words that for many centuries anticipated Nekrasov's theme of "women's share":
Yes, among those who breathe and who think, We women are not more unhappy For our husbands We pay dearly. And buy, So he is your master, not a slave And the first second grief is greater. And most importantly - you take it at random. Is he vicious or honest, how do you know? In the meantime, go away - you are a shame, And you do not dare to remove your spouse.
(Translated by I. Annensky)
Euripides had enough reasons for a gloomy state of mind. His works were rarely popular with contemporaries. In the competitions of poets, adopted in Ancient Greece, Euripides won only three times (and two after his death - for the tragedies "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia in Aulis", staged by his son). For the first time, his tragedy ("Peliades") appeared on the stage in 455 BC. e., and he won his first victory only in 441. For example, Sophocles emerged victorious eighteen times.
Euripides maintained closeness with the outstanding minds of his time, welcomed all innovations in the field of religion, philosophy and science, for which he was attacked by moderate social circles. The spokesman for their views was the Attic comedy, the most prominent representative of which was a contemporary of the tragedian Aristophanes. In his comedies, he ridiculed both public opinion and artistic techniques, And personal life Euripides.
Perhaps these circumstances explain the fact that in his declining years, in 408 BC. e., Euripides accepted the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus and moved to Macedonia. There he wrote the tragedy "Archelaus" in honor of the ancestor of his patron, as well as "Bacchae" - under the impression of the local cult of Dionysus. In Macedonia, he died in 406 BC. e. Even his death was
surrounded by rumors and gossip. According to one version, he was allegedly torn to pieces by dogs,
on the other - women. Here echoes of the same comedy by Aristophanes "Women at the Feast of Thesmophoria" are heard. According to her story, women, angry at Euripides for making them too unattractive in his tragedies, conspire to kill him. In the comedy, lynching did not take place, but it "decorated" the biography of the tragedian.
Euripides owns 90 tragedies, of which 18 have come down to us. The researchers determine the chronology of their appearance on stage approximately: Alcestis (438 BC), Medea (431), Heraclides (about 430), Hippolytus (428), Cyclops, Hecuba, Hercules, Petitioners (424- 418), "Troyanka" (415), "Electra" (about 413), "Ion", "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Helen" (about 412), "Andromache" and "Phoenician women" (about 411), "Orestes" (408), "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia
in Aulis "(405). Euripides drew plots for his tragedies, like his predecessors, from the legends of the Trojan and Theban cycles, Attic traditions, myths about the campaign of the Argonauts, the exploits of Hercules and the fate of his descendants. However, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles, he already has a completely different understanding of the myth. He moved away from the tradition of sublime, normative images and began to depict be mythological characters How earthly people- with all the passions, contradictions and delusions.
Euripides also developed new principles for depicting a person, showing the psychological motives of actions, and not typologically provided, as it was before: the hero acts heroically, the villain - villainously. He was the first to present a psychological drama, when the struggles, confusion of the characters' feelings are conveyed to the audience and evoke sympathy, and not just condemnation or admiration.
Perhaps this is most clearly expressed in the tragedy "Medea".
At the heart of "Medea" is a plot from the myth of the campaign of the Argonauts. Jason got the Golden Fleece in Colchis with the help of the daughter of the Colchis king, the sorceress Medea. The personality is bright, strong, uncompromising, she, under the influence of passion for Jason, leaves native home, betrays her father, kills her brother, dooms herself to an unbearable existence in a foreign country, where she is despised as the daughter of a "barbarian" people. Meanwhile, Jason
owes her both life and the throne. When he leaves Medea to marry
the heiress of the Corinthian king Glaucus, resentment and jealousy blind Medea so much that she conceives the most terrible revenge - the murder of their children. The torments of Medea, rushing in madness between maternal feelings and the power of a vengeful impulse, are so terrible that they involuntarily arouse sympathy. Here tragedy, rock in pure form- Medea is doomed, she has no way out. She cannot return home and cannot stay in Corinth, from where Jason expels her due to a new marriage. She is not sure about the future of her children, even if she leaves them with their father, because for the Greeks they are the children of the "barbarian". And Medea decides:
So I swear by Hades and all the underground power, That the enemies of my children, Abandoned by Medea to mockery, cannot see ...
"Medea", an unsurpassed tragedy in all world literature, still does not leave the stage. One of the brightest modern performers of Medea is the wonderful actress Lyubov Selyutina at the Moscow Taganka Theater, where this tragedy invariably goes with a full house. Glory came to Euripides, alas, after death. Contemporaries failed to appreciate it. The only exception was the island of Sicily. The ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his " Comparative biographies" tells how individual Athenian soldiers, captured and enslaved during an unsuccessful Sicilian campaign, managed to escape to their homeland: "... some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside Attica, honored the talent of Euripides ... They say that at that time many of those who returned safely home warmly welcomed Euripides and told him how they gained freedom by teaching the owner what was left in the memory of his poems, or how, wandering after the battle, they earned food and water by singing songs from his tragedies. No, therefore, there is nothing incredible in the story that in Cavne, at first, some ship was not allowed to hide in the harbor from pirates, and then they let it in when, after questioning, they made sure that the sailors memorized the poems of Euripides" ("Nikias and Beauty").
A century later, the tragedies of Euripides began to enjoy great success in his homeland, while Aeschylus and Sophocles began to lose popularity. Later, Roman playwrights repeatedly turned to the tragedies of Euripides. For example, "Medea" was processed by Enniy, Ovid, Seneca. In the era of classicism, Euripides influenced Corneille ("Medea"), Racine ("Phaedra", "Andromache", "Iphigenia", "The Waida, or Brothers Enemies"). Voltaire, based on his tragedies, wrote Merope and Orestes. Schiller based on the "Phoenician women" by Euripides created the "Messinian bride". In Russia, interest in Euripides arose long ago - "Andromache" by P.A. Katenin, as well as numerous translations One of the best translators Euripides Innokenty Annensky also wrote several imitations, using plots from tragedies that have not come down to us.
The gloomy Euripides, who once suffered so much because of his rare victories in poetic competitions, won the main victory - over time, and to this day his tragedies adorn the theater stages.
(480 BC-406 BC) ancient Greek poet and playwright
It was inherent in the ancients to bind together all things in the universe. They saw the Cosmos as a huge universe, all the constituent parts of which, from the position of the stars to the fate of the most insignificant of mortals, are inextricably interconnected. The birth of great people was usually associated with some great events that determined the development of a particular society for a long time.
The “Biography of Euripides”, preserved from ancient times, contains many anecdotal details about his origin and family life, which owe their appearance to Attic comedy, for which the work and personality of the poet were the subject of attacks and ridicule.
The ancient biographers of Euripides say that he was born on the day of the sea battle with the Persians near the island of Salamis on October 5, 480 BC. new era. Although according to other sources, he was born four years earlier. But the first date is considered generally accepted, and from it the long and difficult years of the life of the great tragedian are counted.
The few information that remains about Euripides' parents is rather contradictory. Tradition required that any person of any kind famous be of noble birth, so kings or even demigods were considered the ancestors of most of the great people and heroes of antiquity. The same thing happened with Euripides. Some believed that his mother belonged to an ancient family, while others claimed that she was a simple merchant of vegetables and herbs. Poets-comediographers never tired of reminding about this all their lives. Euripides himself casually mentions that his mother knew a lot about useful herbs.
As for the father of Euripides, here everyone agrees that he was a humble person and, apparently, not particularly wealthy, a merchant or an innkeeper with a not very good reputation.
Euripides' childhood passed in an atmosphere of upliftment of the spirit of the entire Athenian people, great hopes and hopes for new victories in the future. The poet grew up in an anxious and joyful awareness that he, even if he was still young, who still did not know how, was also a part of that glorious, invincible community, on whose stamina and courage the seemingly invincible ramparts of Eastern barbarism were broken. Euripides early felt himself a citizen of the great City, as the Greeks considered Athens, and was ready to do everything that this citizenship required.
Whatever the state and social position of Euripides' parents, he received a good upbringing and education, on which all biographers agree, although his father, of course, did not intend to raise a poet or philosopher from his son.
Traditional education included memorizing the sayings of the ancient sages, a kind of rules human life, which have absorbed the experience of many generations: “Keep the measure”, “Be the master of your pleasures”, “Overcome anger”, “Know thyself”, “It is difficult to be good”, “I carry everything with me”. And the most important of these sayings, the meaning of which the boys had yet to understand, realize, confirm with their whole lives: "Each person determines his own fate, but he himself pays for it."
Ancient authors report that as a young man, Euripides participated as a torch-bearer in a festival in honor of Apollo. This holiday was celebrated in Delphi, where young men, usually handsome and noble, came by galley with traditional gifts for the great god. When Euripides was twelve years old, he, as was customary in Athens, began to attend two schools at the same time: he spent the first half of the day at the music school, studying music, poetry, geography, rhetoric, and then went to the palestra. Taking off his clothes and rubbing his skin with olive oil, he, along with other boys, trained under the supervision of a coach in running, jumping, discus and javelin throwing, wrestling and horseback riding.
At the age of eighteen, Euripides was already considered an ephebe - a young man. He was included in the general list of Athenian citizens who were to serve in the military. According to tradition, it was supposed to take place outside the city - in villages, fortresses and camps on the border of Attica, where ephebes almost all day long carried out in the fields and mountains.
There is a version that Euripides was in the detachment that was sent to help the Athenian colony, besieged by the surrounding barbarian tribes. This was the first exit of Euripides outside the familiar Hellenic world. Subsequently, these impressions were reflected in his tragedy Rhea.
Although from the time of the ephebium Euripides fought for nearly forty years in defense of the interests of Athens, military service never became for him anything more than a civic duty, and he did not achieve any noteworthy success in this field. He also did not feel attracted to social activities, did not like to spend time in court or on the square, listening to famous speakers and discussing certain political events.
Like many talented people, Euripides tried himself in his youth in different arts, was engaged in painting and music - he kept this hobby for the rest of his life, and all his tragedies had a rich musical accompaniment. As for painting, there is even a version that some paintings painted by Euripides were later found in Megara.
Until very old age, the playwright retained a craving for knowledge, he always loved to read philosophical writings and treatises, thanks to which he became, according to his contemporaries, one of the most enlightened citizens of Athens. Perhaps, already in his youth, Euripides began to collect his famous library, although books, papyrus scrolls, were very, very expensive and only wealthy people could afford to buy them.
Euripides, probably, would have done a lot in any field, if he had not been attracted by a more difficult task - to combine philosophy with poetry, to make the theater an even greater school of enlightenment for fellow citizens, introducing them to those eternal truths that were revealed to him on the long path of knowing life.
Euripides begins to try his hand at the art of tragedy. He seeks to pour out his perception of the world in poetry. Like his predecessors, he drew plots for tragedies from epic poems composed over several centuries.
before him, and especially from "Cypria", which outlined the prehistory of the Trojan War, events from the life of the royal families and heroes of the Mycenaean time. For Euripides, as well as for his contemporaries in general, these events were as undeniable reality as the recent war with the Persians, mythological stories were accepted unconditionally and did not need proof.
He wanted to comprehend the main reasons that move people in this or that case, to reveal the diversity of their characters, spiritual impulses and feelings. In an effort to convey to the audience the main idea of the tragedy, he often quite arbitrarily changed the traditional plot, introducing new motives and images into it, corresponding to his creative plan. He was just as free in language, not embarrassed by simple, sometimes even common expressions, which seemed to adherents of ancient norms in theatrical art vulgar and unworthy of high poetry.
It is believed that Euripides staged his first tragedy, The Daughters of Pelias, in 456-455 BC, at the age of about twenty-five. With it, he begins a passionate apologia for a proud, deceived heart that does not forgive betrayal in love.
Euripides did not great success contemporaries: in his entire life he received only the first five awards, and the last - posthumously. 18 of his dramas have come down to us in full (in total he wrote from 75 to 92) and a large number of passages. Aristotle called Euripides - and no one has disputed this since - the most tragic of all Greek playwrights. This is explained by the fact that Euripides not only puts his heroes in acute dramatic situations (this was already done by Aeschylus and Sophocles), but also depicts the deepest contradictions in their spiritual world. He is especially expressive female images, he is rightly considered connoisseur female psychology.
The Medea staged in the spring of 431 aroused the indignation of the Athenians, they wondered why such plays were allowed on the stage at all. Not only is the mother represented in it as a child-killer, and the unfortunate babies are brought onto the stage, this wild barbarian also turns out to be more honest and higher than the Greek Jason. Since the production of Medea, the dubious fame of a detractor of women has strengthened for Euripides, and that enmity between him and his compatriots began, which provided abundant food for gossip and attacks by comedians.
The further time passed, the less Euripides identified his personal goals and objectives - serving Melpomene and the search for truth - with the needs of society, which more and more aroused contemptuous indignation in him. He was increasingly visited by thoughts that life was not lived the way he wanted. Therefore, Euripides was almost constantly in a gloomy frame of mind, indifferent to those petty joys and handouts of fate that brighten up the life of undemanding people.
The last fifteen years have been the most fruitful. Most of the playwright's surviving works date from this period. In the spring of 415 BC. Euripides presented the tragedies "Palamedes", "Alexander" and "The Trojan Women", in which he gave an answer to all the accusations brought against him, repaid everyone according to their deserts and said before the face of thousands of spectators what few dared to express in the square or in the Council. Unlike Sophocles, Euripides laid on the people themselves the entire measure of responsibility for the disorder of their being, leaving little or no room for gods and fate hostile to man, and for this he was not loved, considering the poet's wisdom unfair and evil.
In the spring of 413, Euripides staged the tragedy Elektra. Orestes and Electra execute the criminal mother, thereby fulfilling their terrible, but immutable duty and realizing that together with their mother they themselves perished forever. Thus, approaching the end of his days, Euripides, rebellious in mind and spirit, became more and more aware of that eternal Law on which the world is based - the Law of truth, justice and goodness - and from last strength tried to convey it to his contemporaries. He will also write Iphigenia in Tauris, Phoenician Women, Orestes. By the end of his life, it turned out that no one needed Euripides. No one seemed to care anymore about what he eats and drinks, how he sleeps. Realizing that he did not have much time left, and that very little had been done, he worked even more than in his youth.
Every year and every day the playwright felt more and more alien and unnecessary in Athens. He accepts the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus and leaves his native Athens - the brilliant city of his full of hope and proud youth, realizing that his life, in essence, ends there. So at the age of seventy-two, Euripides leaves the fatherland forever.
The pristine beauty of Macedonia struck him. Here he led the same way of life: he wrote a lot, read, walked around the neighborhood, admiring the beautiful nature that instilled calm in his sick soul. He wrote several tragedies in Macedonia: Archelaus, Iphigenia in Aulis, Bacchae, of which only the last two have come down to us, striking in the depth of their revelation and the perfection of craftsmanship.
Euripides died at the beginning of 406 BC, and his death, as well as his life, was accompanied by by no means benevolent rumors. The poet was buried in Macedonia, and after some time lightning struck his tomb, as once in the tomb of the Spartan legislator Lycurgus.
In the spring of 406, when they learned of the death of Euripides in Athens, Sophocles mourning clothes brought actors on stage without wreaths, mourning the death of a great brother in the service of the Muses. Archelaus refused to hand over the body of the poet for burial in Athens, and fellow citizens on the road to Piraeus erected a cenotaph in honor of Euripides with the following epitaph: “All Greece serves as the tomb of Euripides, while his body is in Macedonia, where he was destined to end his life. His fatherland is Athens and all Hellas. He enjoyed the love of the Muses and thus gained praise from everyone.
Ancient Greek playwright, the largest (along with Aeschylus and Sophocles) representative of the classical Athenian tragedy. He wrote about 90 dramas, of which 17 tragedies and the satyr drama Cyclops have come down to us.
The ancient "Biographies" of Euripides claim that he was born on Salamis, on the day of the famous victory of the Greeks over the Persians in a naval battle, September 23, 480 BC. e., from Mnesarchus and Kleito. An inscription on 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' father was a respected and apparently wealthy man, while Kleito's mother was a vegetable merchant. As a child, Euripides was seriously engaged in gymnastics, even won competitions among boys and wanted to get to the Olympic Games, but was rejected because of his youth. Then he was engaged in drawing, without much, however, success. Euripides received an excellent education - he was probably a student of Anaxagoras, he also knew Prodicus, Protagoras and Socrates. Euripides collected books for the library, and soon began to write himself. The first play, Peliad, hit the stage in 455 BC. e., but then the author did not win because of a quarrel with the judges. Euripides won the first prize for skill in 441 BC. e. and from then until his death he created his creations. The public activity of the playwright 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 by all Hellas.
The family life of Euripides developed unsuccessfully. 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, was no better than the first. Euripides gained fame as a misogynist, which gave reason to joke with him to the master of comedy Aristophanes.
In 408 BC e. the great playwright decided to leave Athens, accepting the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus. It is not known exactly what influenced Euripides' decision. Historians are inclined to think that the main reason was, if not persecution, then the resentment of a vulnerable creative person against fellow citizens for not recognizing merit. The fact is that out of 92 plays (75 according to another source), only 4 were awarded prizes in theater competitions during the author's lifetime, and one play posthumously.
Archelaus showed honor and demonstrative respect to the famous guest to such an extent that signs of disposition caused the death of the king himself. Aristotle in the work "Politics" reports on a certain Dekamnikh, who was given out to scourge Euripides for the offense he had inflicted, and this Dekamnich organized a conspiracy in retaliation, as a result of which Archelaus died. This happened after the death of Euripides himself in 406 BC. e. Death is so wonderful personality gave birth to the legends set forth in the Court:
“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 Lysimachos for 10 minutes to unleash the royal hounds on Euripides, which he followed. Others say that Euripides was torn to pieces not by dogs, but by women, when he hurried at night to rendezvous with Crater, the young lover of Archelaus. Still others claim that he was going to meet Nicodice, Areth's wife."
The modern version is more mundane - the body of the 75-year-old Euripides simply could not stand the harsh winter in Macedonia.
The Athenians requested permission to bury the playwright in his native city, 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 uncovered heads. Athens erected a statue of Euripides in the theater, honoring him after his death. Plutarch passed on the legend: lightning struck the tomb of Euripides, a great sign that only Lycurgus was awarded among famous people.
Of the 92 plays attributed to Euripides in antiquity, the titles of 80 can be restored. 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 this genre. The best ancient dramas by Euripides are lost to us; of the survivors, only Hippolyte was crowned. Among the surviving plays, the earliest is "Alcesta" (variant names: "Alcesta", "Alcestis"), and the later ones include "Iphigenia in Aulis" and "Bacchae".
The preferred development of female roles in tragedy was an innovation by Euripides. Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Andromache, Macarius, Iphigenia, Helen, Electra, Medea, Phaedra, Creusa, Andromeda, Agave and many other heroines of the legends of Hellas are complete and vital types. The motives of marital maternal love, tender devotion, stormy passion, female vindictiveness in an alloy with cunning, deceit and cruelty occupy a very prominent place in the dramas of Euripides. The women of Euripides surpass his men with willpower and brightness of feelings. Also, the 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 strength of the author is primarily in psychologism and deep elaboration of individual scenes and monologues. In a diligent image mental states, usually tense to the extreme, is the main interest of the tragedies of Euripides.
