Sophocles: Trachiniae (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Sophocles play on the death of Heracles
Review: I would certainly agree that this is the "worst" of the seven plays of Sophocles that still exist, but "Trachiniae" (a.k.a. "Trachinian Women" and "Women of Trachis") still has value, especially in terms of how it present Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. While he is running around doing his great labors, Heracles has neglected his family. Before his last departure he promised that if he was not back in fifteen months it probably meant he was dead. Well, those fifteen months are up and his wife Deianeira is starting to get worried. However, she soon learns that her husband has not only sacked Oechalia, but that he is in love with the Princess Iole, who has been sent home ahead of him as a captive; certainly there are echoes of the Agamemnon-Clytemnestra-Cassandra triangle following the Trojan War. Determined to save her marriage, Deianeira sends Heracles a garment treated with a special salve given to her long ago by the dying Centaur Nessus, who said it would prevent her husband's love from straying. However, she is but the victim of the Centaur's own plan for revenge, because the salve proves lethal. When she learns this from her son Hyllus, the remorseful Deianeira commits suicide.

In Greek mythology it was well established that Heracles "died" on a funeral pyre: as a demi-god he could not truly die, so the fire burned away his mortal side. But in the hands of Sophocles the tale takes a certain twist. Heracles demands that Hyllus marry Iole. Sophocles presents this not as an act of repentance, but rather as a last attempt to keep Iole, using his son as a surrogate. Ultimately the question Sophocles poses is whether Heracles deserves transfiguration. In this regard it is similar to his play "Ajax," although I do not think the verdict is as clear or as positive in this play, which was performed sometime after 458 B.C. While the psychology of the characters is certainly what we expect from Sophocles, there is a touch of the cynicism we usually associated with Euripides.