Hippolytus And The Bacchae: Translated By Gilbert Murray

by Euripides

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Genres: Classics, Plays, Fiction, Dark Academia, Mythology, Drama, Literature

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 406

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

[Rylee Davidson]

woman kills herself because her virgin woman hating step son rejected her.

[Sabrina K · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 / 5 stars

Euripides is always a fun break from Shakespeare, and it reminds me of how much I enjoy reading plays - whether they be from the Early Modern Period or the Classical 'Athens' period...

Unlike Medea, Euripides' Hippolytus made me feel angry at the power and hubris of the gods, rather than the hubris of mortals.

I felt both Hippolytus and Phaedra to be such wretched victims of the gods' own vain desires. Although you could characterize Hippolytus' piety as being borderline conceited, his devotion to virtue is unlike many other Greek men of his time, and although Phaedra had lied in her note to Theseus about Hippolytus' innocence, her actions were a desperate attempt to protect the reputation of her children...

Aphrodite and Artemis have no emotional connection to the mortals: Artemis' way of avenging Hippolytus is killing Aphrodite's favourite mortal - Adonis. The gods do not interfere with each other's actions, they only act on vengeful spite and when they finish lashing out, the mortals are left to mourn and pick up the pieces...

I have respect for both Hippolytus and Phaedra, and I sympathize with poor Theseus... These poor men and women deserved better.

[Zara Neville · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bacchae

Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility return to his birthplace in Thebes in order to clear his mother's name and to punish the insolent city-state for refusing to allow people to worship him. The background to his return is presented in the prologue, in which Dionysus tells the story of his mother, Semele, once a princess in the royal Theban house of Cadmus. She had an affair with Zeus, the king of the gods, and became pregnant.

As revenge, Zeus's jealous wife Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to appear in his divine form. Zeus, too powerful for a mortal to behold, emerged from the sky as a bolt of lightning and burnt Semele to a cinder. He managed, however, to rescue his unborn son Dionysus and stitched the baby into his thigh. Semele's family claimed that she had been struck by lightning for lying about Zeus and that her child, the product of an illicit human affair, had died with her, maligning her name and rejecting the young god Dionysus.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plays about the folly and arrogance of those who do not worship the gods, and how mercilessly the gods retaliate, showing no remorse. It’s those whom survive their vegeance, the gods’ mortal tools in their wrath whom show the remorse and growth, giving them layers of development the gods cannot, being immortal, demanding worship, even though they are capable of bestowing great gifts to those in their favor and are cruel in their retribution against those who deny them. All this was softened by the beauty of the chants of the chorus, of Dionysus’s worshippers, and the intriguing element of imbalance in his detractor. The beauty made the read a pleasure, even though the worship of Dionysus was given a harsh element of righteous censure which felt curious combined with the frenzied nature of the worship itself.

[Robin Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bacchae By:Euripides

The action of the play begins with Dionysus's return to Thebes years later. He arrives in town disguised as the stranger, accompanied by a band of bacchants, to punish the family for their treatment of his mother and their refusal to offer him sacrifices. During Dionysus's absence, Semele's father, Cadmus, had handed the kingdom over to his proud grandson Pentheus. It was Pentheus's decision to not allow the worship of Dionysus in Thebes. Dionysus tells the audience that when he arrived in Thebes he drove Semele's sisters mad, and they fled to Mt. Cithaeron to worship him and perform his rites on the mountainside.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action of the play begins with Dionysus's return to Thebes years later. He arrives in town disguised as the stranger, accompanied by a band of bacchants, to punish the family for their treatment of his mother and their refusal to offer him sacrifices.

[Fafi Lafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn, that was dark.

[katherine ୭̥⋆*｡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating is just for hippolytus!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read The Bacchae to see if I wanted to audition for a part because my alma mater is doing it this summer. It was okay. I prefer Euripides when his gods action are more indirect and there is more psychological anguish in his mortal characters. The scene where Agave comes in with her prize is when it really got good. If only there had been more of that.

[Tim Sexton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to reread the bachea but I remember it being great. Hyppolytus I gave a quick read before I saw a production with Willem Defoe in it at act - how can you go wrong with him.

[Seawood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read The Bacchae for Greek & Roman Mythology, Coursera, 2012.

This is amazing. So many layers, so much to see - I think you'd get a different idea every time you read it.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars. Only read Hippolytus from the Great Books.