Two Satyr Plays. Euripides-Cyclops. Sophocles-Ichneutai

by Euripides, Sophocles, E.V. Rieu (Editor)

95 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1957

About the author

Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (ca. 480 BC–406 BC) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the Suda says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (Rhesus is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined—he became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.
Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was "the creator of ... that cage which is the theatre of William Shakespeare's Othello, Jean Racine's Phèdre, of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg," in which "imprisoned men and women destroy each other by the intensity of their loves and hates". But he was also the literary ancestor of comic dramatists as diverse as Menander and George Bernard Shaw.
His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism. Both were frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence. Ancient biographies hold that Euripides chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia, but recent scholarship casts doubt on these sources.

Reviews

[Severin M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Satyr plays are really enjoyable, and the dithyrambs included afterwards are like the nice little bit of chocolate at the bottom of any decent ice cream cone. Regardless, the Sophocles Satyr play ('Ichneutai') is self-admittedly heavily patched up (lines 440 to 750 have been fabricated - the word the translator uses is "restored" - in dialogue with the Homeric Hymn). Other parts of it are also patched up but the translator states that to enhance the text's readability, any signifiers to allude to this have been omitted (though one wonders why endnotes would not have sufficed as was done for other notes, if brackets and footnotes would have been too invasive). It's a bit of a puzzling choice but, lacking the knowledge as to what the patchwork was, I can only say that the result is very readable, and thoroughly enjoyable.

As for the notion of the Satyr play itself, there is a nice introduction by the translator which contextualizes it well, as well as notes for each play noting divergences from the Homeric Hymns in question.

As a genre, the Satyr play is wonderful. The use of disruptive motif as defining feature of a genre is something deeply enjoyable and mischievous, without coming off as forced or overtly comedic (the Satyr play is closer to tragedy than comedy, but is not reducible to either, or a summation of the two, in any case as it possibly predates even the tragedy).

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only two satyr plays exist beyond a few scraps and quoted lines, and only one is complete. When Athenian playwrights competed, they typically submitted three plays and wrapped up with a comic Satyr play, usually touching on the same themes as the earlier plays. Presumably, they were to lighten the mood at the end of the tragedies.

Euripides’ Cyclops is the only complete satyr play to survive the centuries. About half of Sophocles’ Inchneutai (The Searching Satyrs) survives.

Green’s translation in heroic couplets nicely captures the spirit and energy of the satyr plays. His rhyming is quite deftly done. This could have gone wrong in a lot of ways. His considerable addition to Sophocles’ play is well done, but it’s impossible to say whether it follows the original.

This is a rather entertaining translation and I highly recommend it to lovers of Greek plays. It’s a very pleasurable read.

[maz · Rating 5 out of 5]

after watching the cambridge greek play of cyclops, i can’t help but picture odysseus in light up shoes