Euripides IV: Helen, The Phoenician Women, Orestes (The Complete Greek Tragedies)
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN: 0226308960
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
shamed your divine brothers, nor did what you were rumored to. It all comes back to me, your marriage long ago, and I remember the torch I carried as I ran beside your four-horse chariot, where you, a bride, 725 rode from your noble house beside the master here. He is a poor thing who does not feel as his masters do, grieve in their grief, be happy in their happiness. I, though I wear the name of servant, yet aspire° to be counted in the number of the generous 730 slaves,
to wait by the seashore, follow from there 740 the progress of those trials of strength I see in store for me, and if we can steal my wife out of this place they must see to it that, joining our fortunes all in one, we get clear of these barbarians, if we have the strength. SERVANT It shall be done, my lord. Only, now I am sure 745 how rotten this business of prophets is, how full of lies. There never was any good in burning things on fires° nor in the voices of fowl. It is
pictorial art, with the exception of a striking wall painting in Ephesus from the second century CE, depicting two actors playing the roles of Electra and Orestes in the opening scene of the play, with Orestes lying on his sickbed. The popularity of Orestes in the Greek Middle Ages continued during the Renaissance in the West. But by the end of the eighteenth century its fortunes had already begun to decline. The increasing popularity of Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Sophocles’ Electra meant that for
other cities, built by the Cyclopes according to legend. Cypris: Aphrodite; according to some accounts she was born in the Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus and came first to land on that island; she was worshipped in an especially strong cult there. Cyprus: an important Greek and Phoenician island in the southeast Mediterranean off the south coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Danaans: descendants of Danaus, a hero who was one of the legendary founders of Argos; in general, Argives and, more
west of mainland Greece and southeast of Italy. Iphigenia: daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; when adverse winds blocked the Greek fleet at Aulis from sailing to Troy, Agamemnon had her brought there and was thought to have sacrificed her to Artemis (but in some versions Artemis spirited her away and put a deer in her place). Island of the Blest: a legendary, utopian island where a few heroes enjoyed a blissful life after death. Ismene: daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta; sister of Antigone