The Trojan Women and Hippolytus (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Summary: A pair of cynical Greek tragedies from Euripides
Review: This Dover Thrift Edition presents two classic Greek tragedies by Euripides, "The Trojan Women" and "Hippolytus," which is certainly an interesting combination. I would have much rather seen "Iphigenia at Aulis" and "The Trojan Women" together as a superb prequel/sequel set for Homer's "Iliad," while "Hippolytus" would make a nice analog with "Medea."

"The Trojan Women" is Euripides most passionate anti-war play. Around 416 B.C. the island of Melos refused to aid Athens in the war against Sparta. The Athenians then slaughtered the men and enslaved the women and children, an atrocity never before inflicted on one Greek city-state by another. As preparations were made for the ruinous expedition against Syracuse, Euripides wrote "The Trojan Women," as a plea for peace. Consequently there is a strong rhetorical dimension to the play, which prophesies that a Greek force would sail across the sea after violating victims and meet with disaster. However, there the play also has a strong literary consideration in that the four Trojan Women--Hecuba, Queen of Troy; Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priestess of Apollo; Andromache, widow of Hector; and Helen--all appear in the final chapter of Homer's epic poem the "Iliad," mourning over the corpse of Hector, retrieved by his father Priam from the camp of the Acheans.

"The Trojan Women" reflects the cynicism of Euripides. Of all the Achean leaders we hear about in Homer, only Menelaus, husband of Helen, appears. He appears, ready to slay Helen for having abandoned him to run off to Troy with Paris, but we see his anger melt before her beauty and soothing tones. In this play the Greeks do more than enslave women: they have already slain a young girl as a sacrifice to the ghost of Achilles and they take Astyanax, the son of Hector, out of the arms of his mother so that he can be thrown from the walls of Troy. Even the herald of the Greeks, Talthybius, cannot stomach the policies of his people. The play also reminds us that Helen was a most unpopular figure amongst the ancient Greeks, and there is no satisfaction in her saving her life. The idea that all of these men died just so that she could be returned to the side of her husband is an utter mockery of the dead.

"Hippolytus" opens with Aphrodite declaring her power over all mankind and her intention to ruin Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, because he alone has had the audacity to scorn love. Instead, the young prince has devoted himself to hunting and Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt. As the instrument of Hippolytus' downfall, Aphrodite selects his stepmother Phaedra, by making her fall in love with him. What becomes interesting in Euripides' telling of the tale is how Phaedra resists the will of Aphrodite, having resolved to starve herself to death rather than ever reveal her infatuation. However, Phaedra's secret is revealed when in a state of semidelerium she confesses to her nurse. The nurse, out of love for Phaedra, tries to solicit an appropriate response from Hippolytus, who is horrified that his stepmother wants him as her lover. Mortified that her secret is now known, Phaedra hands herself, but trying to spare the reputation of her children she leaves a note accusing Hippolytus of having tried to rape her. When Theseus returns from a long journey only to find his wife dead at her own hand and his son implicated in her suicide, he pronounces a deadly curse upon Hippolytus.

Ironically, despite the tragic fate that awaits him, Hippolytus is not a sympathetic figure. Certainly his devotion to Artemis does not require him to spurn the ways of love and an Athenian audience would not look kindly upon him as a martyr to the idea of chastity. Of course, this is a story by Euripides, which means readers have to look for another level of meaning. In this regards "Hippolytus" is similar to "Medea." The latter dealt with how the Greeks in general and the Athenians in particular viewed foreigners, while the former deals with the stigma of illegitimacy. After all, Hippolytus is the bastard son of Theseus and the Queen of the Amazons. Consequently, it seems reasonable that Hippolytus has a real hatred for Aphrodite since it was the goddess of love who was responsible for the illegitimacy that makes him unlike other men. Meanwhile, Phaedra becomes the truly tragic character in the tale, who has her dignity taken away from her by a vengeful goddess and a friend with the best of intentions, surely as potent a combination of dangerous characters as you can find in literature.

Another consideration is the portrayal of Theseus, generally accounted the wisest and best of the heroes of classical mythology. Yet in this story the man whose objectivity and sense of fairness made him give Oedipus a resting place (at least as the tale is told by Sophocles in "Oedipus at Colonus") gives way to an angry impulse worthy of Heracles. If we take into account how highly the Athenians esteemed Theseus, then "Hippolytus" again shows the frequent trend in Euripides' plays to attack the city-state in which he lived. Of course, the same is true of "The Trojan Women" with its implicit argument against the Peloponnesian War. I might prefer to see each of these plays in a different combination, but this is still an affordable volume presenting two classic Greek tragedies by Euripides.