Iphigenia at Aulis

This story should be before “Iphigenia among the Tauri” if the stories in the Great Book series were chronological.  It occurs when her father Agamemnon is at Aulis, apparently becalmed and unable to continue sailing towards Troy.  He and Menelaus and their army are on the way to attack Troy and attempt to retrieve Helen.  A seer has told Agamemnon that in order to continue to Troy and have success, he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis.

Agamemnon is horrified by this and doesn’t want to do it, but is afraid of what others will think if he doesn’t show that kind of commitment to the cause.  He knows his wife Clytemnestra will never agree to this so he sends a message that he has arranged a marriage between Achilles and Iphigenia.  He later sends his servant off with a message to ignore his prior message, but the servant is stopped by Menelaus who then confronts Agamemnon.

Not having received the second message, Clytemnestra and Iphigenia and their entourage arrive expecting a wedding celebration.  Agamemnon is hoping to carry out the sacrifice without Clytemnestra catching on, but she meets Achilles and tries to talk with him about his impending marriage to her daughter.  When he indicates he has no idea what she is talking about, they are both embarrassed.

 Once the truth is known, Achilles swears he will protect Iphigenia.  He is distressed that his name has been used in this deception.  Clytemnestra and Iphigenia both plead with Agamemnon, but there doesn’t seem to be any way out.  Iphigenia decides that if it means success for the army of her father, she is willing to sacrifice herself.  Although the retrieval of Helen doesn’t seem worth her sacrifice, the protection of the army and her homeland is worth it.

At the moment when the knife is put to Iphigenia’s throat, she disappears and a hind appears in her place to be sacrificed.  Iphigenia has been saved by and spirited away by the gods.

Interesting quotes:

Agamemnon:  I envy…every man who leads a life secure, unknown and unrenowned; but little I envy those in office.

None of mortals is prosperous or happy to the last, for none was ever born to a painless life.

A hateful thing the tongue of cleverness.

Thine is the madness rather in wishing to recover a wicked wife, once thou hadst lost her—a stroke of Heaven-sent luck.  (In other words, Agamemnon wishes Menelaus would just say ‘good riddance’ to Helen.)

He who is wise should keep in his house a good and useful wife or none at all.

Menelaus:  …he is enslaved by the love of popularity, a fearful evil.

Clytemnestra:  An honourable exchange, indeed, to pay a wicked woman’s price in children’s lives!  ‘Tis buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear.

Orestes by Euripides

At the end of the Trojan War, King Agamemnon returned home having been gone 10 years.  During his absence his wife Clytemnestra had taken a lover, so when he returned, she and her lover killed him.  His son Orestes and daughter Electra then entered into a plot to kill her and avenge their father.  This play opens about six days later.  Orestes has been driven mad with guilt even though he believes he was ordered by the gods to slay his mother.  Also, the people of the kingdom are about to vote on an appropriate punishment for him.  He and Electra expect to be stoned to death for the murder.

Menelaus returns home from the war and asks to see Orestes.  The cause of the Trojan War was that Menelaus’ wife Helen had run off with Paris of Troy.  Agamemnon had agreed with Menelaus that they were bound by their honor to go retrieve her.  The ten years of war had resulted in many deaths, and the war became increasingly unpopular.  (Apparently long wars always have been unpopular.)  Menelaus has secretly gotten Helen back into the city, because he fears the anger of the populace against her.

Menelaus is uncle to Orestes.  Orestes expects him to understand why he had to kill Clytemnestra and to attempt to sway the people in his favor and spare his life.  While they are talking, Tyndareus arrives.  He was Clytemnestra’s father and so is grandfather to Orestes.  However, he has no sympathy for Orestes and argues with Orestes and Menelaus.  Menelaus is torn, and after much discussion, he does not agree to help Orestes.  He is taking a wait-and-see approach.

Pylades then arrives on the scene.  He is a young man of the same age as Orestes and is one of his good friends.  He is betrothed to Electra and was in on the whole scheme against Clytemnestra.  He is from a neighboring kingdom and has been exiled by his father for his part in the murder, but at least his life was spared.  He declares that he will not abandon Orestes and is prepared to die with him.  He assists Orestes in getting to the court where his case is being heard.  They return knowing that the death sentence has been pronounced, but that Orestes and Electra are to be given the option of suicide.

The three friends (Orestes, Electra and Pylades) then come up with another plot.  They will kill Helen and take Hermione, daughter of Helen and Menelaus, hostage.  When Menelaus learns his wife is dead and his daughter’s life is on the line, they believe he will give in and help them.  They carry out this plan, but when they think Helen is dead, she suddenly disappears…spirited away by the gods.  (Keep in mind Helen is supposedly half god and half mortal.)  Menelaus arrives at the palace and seems willing to let Hermione die.  Pylades and Electra are ready to torch the palace, and Orestes is about to kill Hermione, when the god Apollo appears in the clouds with Helen by his side.

He pronounces that:

*Helen is to become immortal and stay with the gods.

*The lives of Orestes, Pylades and Electra are to be spared.

*Orestes is to marry Hermione, at whose throat he is presently holding a sword.

*Pylades is to marry Electra.

*Menelaus is to leave Argos to be ruled by Orestes, and he is to go to Sparta and rule there.

*No one is to blame anyone for the Trojan War.  The gods set it all up to decrease the population.

*Everyone is to make peace with everyone else and play nicely.

And….just like that, all loose ends are tied up and everyone obeys Apollo.  This is just too tidy an end to suit me.  The play and the problems build for 17 pages and then POOF, Apollo appears and everything is resolved in half a page.  This is worse than some TV dramas.  At least in those you can look back and see the beginning threads of the resolution.  This ending comes out of nowhere!

Interesting quotes:

             Menelaus:  What ails thee?  What is thy deadly sickness?

             Orestes:  My conscience; I know that I am guilty of an awful crime.

Orestes:  For such friends as desert us in the hour of adversity, are friends in name but not in reality.

Chorus:  His is an enviable lot, who is blest in his children, and does not find himself brought into evil notoriety.

             Menelaus:  …how can you win a great cause by small efforts?

Orestes:  I will cease praising thee, for there is something wearisome even in being praised to excess.

Apollo:  …for the gods by means of Helen’s loveliness embroiled Troy and Hellas, causing death thereby, that they might lighten mother Earth of the outrage done her by man’s excessive population.

The Phoenician Maidens by Euripides

There is a great deal of overlap in the stories told by the Greek playwrights, so most of the characters in this play have been met before.  The play should have perhaps been named the unending grief of Oedipus.  The Phoenician maidens only serve as the chorus in the play and are not really party to the action.

After Oedipus learned that his wife Jocasta was actually his mother, he gouged out his own eyes.  He lives in blindness in isolated quarters in the castle, and the land of Thebes is ruled by his son Eteocles.  An agreement was made that Eteocles and his brother Polynices would share the throne by ruling alternate years.  Eteocles, however, has refused to surrender the throne to Polynices at the end of his year and has forced Polynices into exile.

Polynices went to a neighboring country and married well.  He has now returned to Thebes with an army, intending to take by force what was promised to him.  Jocasta, mother of the two boys, sees it as her role to try to bring about an agreement.  Both sons agree to a temporary truce in order to discuss what is to happen.  Polynices is determined to have his turn at ruling, which seems perfectly fair since it was promised.  Eteocles is absolutely defiant.  He has tasted power, and he is not about to give it up.  Shall I become his slave, when I can be his master?  He also makes accusations against Polynices for the affront of coming against his own native city with an army.

Jocasta does her best to mediate.  Art thou so set on ambition, that worst of deities?  Better far, my son, prize equality that ever linketh friend to friend…and allies to each other; for equality is man’s natural law.  Her efforts are to no avail.

Meanwhile, Creon, brother of Jocasta, has sought the counsel of the prophet Teiresias, who says that the only hope for the city is if Creon sacrifices his son Menoeceus.  Creon intends to send Menoeceus away before someone overhears this and demands his life.  Menoeceus agrees to run away, but never intends to do so.  His plan is to sacrifice himself to the gods to save the city.  He follows through with this to Creon’s grief.

Polynices attacks the city gates with his army.  Eteocles has stationed men at each gate and they repel the army of Polynices even though it is larger.  Both sons survive this initial onslaught.  They then agree to avoid further bloodshed by meeting in individual combat.  One of them must die.

Jocasta calls Antigone, her daughter, to go with her to try and stop the duel between her sons, but she arrives too late.  They are both dead.  Jocasta grabs one of the swords and kills herself.

 

The bodies of Eteocles, Polynices and Jocasta are brought into the palace.  Creon now declares that Oedipus will be banished to remove the curse from Thebes and that Eteocles will be given proper burial, but Polynices will be thrown outside the city for the dogs and birds.  Antigone swears that she will bury her brother Polynices.  Creon declares she will be killed if she does, and that she must on the next day marry his son Haemon.  Antigone declares that if forced to do so, she will murder Haemon on the wedding night.  She plans to leave the city with her father Oedipus and help him in his blindness and exile.  Oedipus and Antigone leave as Oedipus declares, Weak mortal as I am, I must endure the fate that God decrees.

Interesting quotes:

Euripides seems to need to get in at least one nasty jab toward women in all of his plays.  The Old Retainer says, Now the race of women by nature loves scandal; and if they get some slight handle for their gossip they exaggerate it, for they seem to take a pleasure in saying everything bad of one another. 

Jocasta:  This is a slave’s lot that thou describest, to refrain from uttering what one thinks.

                Stay a moment; haste never carries justice with it.

                …lay aside your violence; two men’s follies, once they meet, result in very deadly mischief.

Menoeceus:  …if each were to take and expend all the good within his power, contributing it to his country’s weal, our states would experience fewer troubles and would for the future prosper.

Hecuba by Euripides

Hecuba is the widow of King Priam, who was killed by the Trojans.  She has become a slave to the conquerors, although she was previously a queen.  At the outset of the play, she believes that although some of her children were killed in the Trojan War, she still has 3 living children:  Cassandra, who is revered as a prophetess has become the wife of Agamemnon (the conquering Trojan king), Polyxena, who is with her mother in slavery, and a son Polydore, who was sent to live with the neighboring king of Thrace in order to escape the Trojans.

Odysseus arrives with the message that the Trojans are seeking to honor their hero Achilles by sacrificing Polyxena on his grave.  Hecuba begs Odysseus to spare her daughter, reminding him that she once spared his life.  He argues that the dead must be honored, and the sacrifice must occur.  Polyxena bravely accepts her fate and goes off with Odysseus.  

Hecuba begs for, and is granted, the privilege of preparing her daughter’s body for burial.

However, she is delayed from this task by the arrival of a young maiden accompanying a covered corpse.  Hecuba thinks it must be Polyxena, but learns, to her horror, that it is her son Polydore, who she thought to be safe in Thrace.  It turns out the Polydore was sent to Thrace with a large amount of gold, and the King of Thrace, Polymestor, decides the gold is worth more than keeping his promise to protect Polydore.  He has killed Polydore and thrown his body into the sea.  It washed up on the shore and was found by the young maiden who is bringing it to Hecuba.

Agamemnon arrives to inquire what is keeping Hecuba.  She convinces him to look the other way while she seeks revenge on Polymestor.  Agamemnon doesn’t see how a woman can do this, but of course, there is strength in numbers, and Hecuba enlists the help of the other captive women.

Polymestor and his sons are invited to visit Hecuba.  She inquires about Polydore’s well-being, and Polymestor lies and says he is well.  Hecuba claims that she wants to inform him about the whereabouts of additional gold, so he goes with her into a tent without his guards.  There his sons are killed and he is blinded by the captive women.

Polymestor appeals to Agamemnon, but it doesn’t get him anywhere.  Then he prophesies the death of Agamemnon and Cassandra.  Agamemnon thinks he is a raving maniac and doesn’t believe the prediction.  The play closes with Agamemnon anxious to catch the favorable wind and sail for home, where unbeknownst to him his wife Clytemnestra will indeed kill him for several reasons….one of which is that he has brought the lovely Cassandra home to replace her.

While Polyxena is praised for the bravery with which she faces death, Euripides once again displays negative attitudes toward women.

*Agamemnon inquires, “How are women to master men?” 

Hecuba responds, “Numbers are a fearful thing and joined to craft a desperate foe.”

Agamemnon:  “True; still I have a mean opinion of the female race”

*Polymestor commenting on women:  “for neither land or sea produces a race so pestilent, as whomsoever hath had to do with them knows full well.”

Other interesting quotes:

“’Tis never right that those in power should use it out of season, or when prosperous suppose they will be always so.”  (Hecuba)

“Ah!  There is not in the world a single man free; for he is either a slave to money or to fortune, or else the people in their thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following the dictates of his heart.”  (Hecuba)

“’Tis strange how each extreme doth meet in human life!  Custom determines even our natural ties, making the most bitter foes friends, and regarding as foes those who formerly were friends.”  (the Chorus)

“For the gods confound our fortunes, tossing them to and fro, and introduce confusion, that our perplexity may make us worship them.”  (Polymestor)

As I’ve said previously, I don’t have any use for the Greek gods!  They are morally no different than humans…they just live forever, supposedly.