THE PLAYS OF EURIPIDES
Euripides…long before his death had acquired a great reputation throughout the Greek would. Plutarch in his Life of Nicias say that Athenian prisoners in Syracuse escaped death and even received their freedom if they could recite passages from the works of Euripides, and and that some of them, upon returning home, expressed their gratitude directly to the poet.
- from Euripides biographical note
MEDEA
Euripides wrote:
Medea.
…I would gladly take my stand in battle array three time o’er, than once give birth.
Euripides, Medea, pg. 214
Euripides wrote:
Medea.
…for such an one, confident that he can cast a decent veil of words o’er his injustice, dares to practice it;
Euripides, Medea, pg. 217
Euripides wrote:
Chorus of Corinthian Women.
…I do assert that they who…have never had children far surpass in happiness those who are parents. The childless because they have never proved whether children grow up to be a blessing or curse to men are removed from all share in many troubles; whilst those who have a sweet race of children growing up in their houses do wear away, as I perceive, their whole life through; first with the thought how they may train them up in virtue, next how they shall leave their sons the means to live; and after all this ‘tis far from clear whether on good or bad children they bestow their toil. But one last crowning woe… if … comes Death and bears the children’s bodies off…this further grief for all children lost, a grief surpassing all?
Euripides, Medea, pg. 221
HIPPOLYTUS
Euripides wrote:
Nurse of Phaedra.
O pardon me: to err is only human child.
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
Euripides wrote:
Hippolytus.
‘Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief, gives her a dower and packs her off; while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! His house’s wealth. For he is in this dilemma; say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or if he gets a good wife but useless relations, he tried to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as a wife a mere nobody, incapable from simplicity. I hate a clever woman; never may she set food in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger stone of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred.
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
Euripides wrote:
H.
How well I know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it!….Fairewell, city and land of Erechtheus; farewell, Toezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the spring of life; ‘tis my last sight of thee, farewell!
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
TROJAN WOMEN
Euripides wrote:
Andromache.
‘Tis all one, I say, ne’rer to have been born and to be dead and better far is death than life with misery. For the dead feel no sorrow any more and know no grief; but he who had known prosperity and has fallen on evil days feels his spirit straying from the scene of former joys. Now that child of thine is dead as though she ne’er had seen the light, and little she recks of her calamity; whereas I who aimed at fair repute, though I won a higher lot than most, yet missed my luck in life.
Euripides, Trojan Women, pg. 275
Euripides wrote:
Andromache.
…well I knew where I might rule my lord, and where ‘twas best to yield to him;
Euripides, Trojan Women, pg. 275
THE BACCANTES
I didn’t have any comment or quotes from this reading. I didn’t enjoy this one at all – Most of these are of war, defeat, vengeful gods, or jealous and revenging women that have been wronged. The mom destroys her son with her sisters, in a frenzy, not knowing what she has done – is under the delusion that he was a lion and she was hunting. Proud of having killed her prey with their bare hands, not using a weapon. She comes back to the celebration feast carrying the “lion’s head” which she finally discovers is her son’s head. The mother had been tricked by a god who had not been acknowledged as a god and was angry about it. No mercy, no forgiveness even when they cry for it.
Vocabulary - MEDEA
Perfidious, pg. 213
Treacherous, dishonest
Hapless, pg. 214
Having no luck, misfortune
Hap – chance, luck
Haply – by chance, perhaps, impossibility
Fain, pg. 218
Reluctantly willing, gladly, content, rejoice
Impious, pg. 218
Wicked, ungodly
Betides, pg. 218
To have happen to
Trow, pg. 219
To suppose
Prithee, pg. 219
I pray thee
Ere, pg. 220
Before, sooner than, rather than, before long
Craven, pg. 221
Base, coward
Flout, pg. 221
To scoff at
Scions, pg. 222
A twig, a child or a descendant
Throe, pg. 222
A violent pang, agony, agitation
Caitiff, pg. 223
A vile, wicked wretch, evil doer, bad man
Fie, pg. 224
An expression of impatience or disapproval
Dirge, pg. 224
A funeral hymn
Vocabulary – HIPPOLYTUS
Trow, pg. 229
To suppose
Acquiensce, pg. 229
To submit, assent, consent
Wight, pg. 230
A person
Pittheus, pg. 230 (not found)
Pith – vital part, substance, center, consequence, strength, subjectiveness
Pithiness – concentrated force, strength
Bandy, pg. 231
To exchange, contend, agitation, conversation
Effacement, pg. 231
The act of rubbing off of a surface, erasing, blotting out (as in a memory)
Menial, pg. 232
Household, for servants, servile, low, mean, domestic servant, a low person
Eke, pg. 232
(also), in addition, to make larger, longer, increase, to add something missing, supplement, to manage to make a living with difficulty
Viands, pg. 232
An article of food, choice dishes
Specious, pg. 233
Seeming to be good, sound, correct, without really being so
Calumny, pg. 233
Trickery, slander, a false malicious statement meant to hurt someone’s reputation.
Imprecation, pg. 236
To pray for evil misfortune, to invoke a curse, to curse
Vocabulary – TROJAN WOMEN
Fain, pg. 270
To rejoice
Bane, , pg. 270
Murder, hurt
Fraught, pg. 270
To lade a ship, charge for transport
Clime, pg. 271
Climate
Drone, pg. 271
Non-worker bee
Loth, pg. 273
Loathe, hateful, odious
Vocabulary – THE BACCHANTES
none
Euripides…long before his death had acquired a great reputation throughout the Greek would. Plutarch in his Life of Nicias say that Athenian prisoners in Syracuse escaped death and even received their freedom if they could recite passages from the works of Euripides, and and that some of them, upon returning home, expressed their gratitude directly to the poet.
- from Euripides biographical note
MEDEA
Euripides wrote:
Medea.
…I would gladly take my stand in battle array three time o’er, than once give birth.
Euripides, Medea, pg. 214
Euripides wrote:
Medea.
…for such an one, confident that he can cast a decent veil of words o’er his injustice, dares to practice it;
Euripides, Medea, pg. 217
Euripides wrote:
Chorus of Corinthian Women.
…I do assert that they who…have never had children far surpass in happiness those who are parents. The childless because they have never proved whether children grow up to be a blessing or curse to men are removed from all share in many troubles; whilst those who have a sweet race of children growing up in their houses do wear away, as I perceive, their whole life through; first with the thought how they may train them up in virtue, next how they shall leave their sons the means to live; and after all this ‘tis far from clear whether on good or bad children they bestow their toil. But one last crowning woe… if … comes Death and bears the children’s bodies off…this further grief for all children lost, a grief surpassing all?
Euripides, Medea, pg. 221
HIPPOLYTUS
Euripides wrote:
Nurse of Phaedra.
O pardon me: to err is only human child.
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
Euripides wrote:
Hippolytus.
‘Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief, gives her a dower and packs her off; while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! His house’s wealth. For he is in this dilemma; say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or if he gets a good wife but useless relations, he tried to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as a wife a mere nobody, incapable from simplicity. I hate a clever woman; never may she set food in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger stone of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred.
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
Euripides wrote:
H.
How well I know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it!….Fairewell, city and land of Erechtheus; farewell, Toezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the spring of life; ‘tis my last sight of thee, farewell!
Euripides, Hippolytus, pg. 230
TROJAN WOMEN
Euripides wrote:
Andromache.
‘Tis all one, I say, ne’rer to have been born and to be dead and better far is death than life with misery. For the dead feel no sorrow any more and know no grief; but he who had known prosperity and has fallen on evil days feels his spirit straying from the scene of former joys. Now that child of thine is dead as though she ne’er had seen the light, and little she recks of her calamity; whereas I who aimed at fair repute, though I won a higher lot than most, yet missed my luck in life.
Euripides, Trojan Women, pg. 275
Euripides wrote:
Andromache.
…well I knew where I might rule my lord, and where ‘twas best to yield to him;
Euripides, Trojan Women, pg. 275
THE BACCANTES
I didn’t have any comment or quotes from this reading. I didn’t enjoy this one at all – Most of these are of war, defeat, vengeful gods, or jealous and revenging women that have been wronged. The mom destroys her son with her sisters, in a frenzy, not knowing what she has done – is under the delusion that he was a lion and she was hunting. Proud of having killed her prey with their bare hands, not using a weapon. She comes back to the celebration feast carrying the “lion’s head” which she finally discovers is her son’s head. The mother had been tricked by a god who had not been acknowledged as a god and was angry about it. No mercy, no forgiveness even when they cry for it.
Vocabulary - MEDEA
Perfidious, pg. 213
Treacherous, dishonest
Hapless, pg. 214
Having no luck, misfortune
Hap – chance, luck
Haply – by chance, perhaps, impossibility
Fain, pg. 218
Reluctantly willing, gladly, content, rejoice
Impious, pg. 218
Wicked, ungodly
Betides, pg. 218
To have happen to
Trow, pg. 219
To suppose
Prithee, pg. 219
I pray thee
Ere, pg. 220
Before, sooner than, rather than, before long
Craven, pg. 221
Base, coward
Flout, pg. 221
To scoff at
Scions, pg. 222
A twig, a child or a descendant
Throe, pg. 222
A violent pang, agony, agitation
Caitiff, pg. 223
A vile, wicked wretch, evil doer, bad man
Fie, pg. 224
An expression of impatience or disapproval
Dirge, pg. 224
A funeral hymn
Vocabulary – HIPPOLYTUS
Trow, pg. 229
To suppose
Acquiensce, pg. 229
To submit, assent, consent
Wight, pg. 230
A person
Pittheus, pg. 230 (not found)
Pith – vital part, substance, center, consequence, strength, subjectiveness
Pithiness – concentrated force, strength
Bandy, pg. 231
To exchange, contend, agitation, conversation
Effacement, pg. 231
The act of rubbing off of a surface, erasing, blotting out (as in a memory)
Menial, pg. 232
Household, for servants, servile, low, mean, domestic servant, a low person
Eke, pg. 232
(also), in addition, to make larger, longer, increase, to add something missing, supplement, to manage to make a living with difficulty
Viands, pg. 232
An article of food, choice dishes
Specious, pg. 233
Seeming to be good, sound, correct, without really being so
Calumny, pg. 233
Trickery, slander, a false malicious statement meant to hurt someone’s reputation.
Imprecation, pg. 236
To pray for evil misfortune, to invoke a curse, to curse
Vocabulary – TROJAN WOMEN
Fain, pg. 270
To rejoice
Bane, , pg. 270
Murder, hurt
Fraught, pg. 270
To lade a ship, charge for transport
Clime, pg. 271
Climate
Drone, pg. 271
Non-worker bee
Loth, pg. 273
Loathe, hateful, odious
Vocabulary – THE BACCHANTES
none
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