The Trojan Women and Other PlaysMy rating: 5 of 5 stars

I hadn’t read any Euripides since a college classics course. Of the three major Greek dramatists, I never really liked Aeschylus and didn’t read too much Euripides. Everyone focused on Sophocles, who was very good. But, having read this recent translation, Euripides has rocketed up into first place among these three (even though he won the fewest competitions when he was alive).

If I had to list these plays in order of my favorites, it would be Andromache, then Hecuba, then closely followed by The Trojan Women. In the Trojan Women, I loved Hecuba’s retort to Helen’s unwillingness to accept any blame for the destruction of Troy, when in reference to the Judgement of Paris, Hecuba says, “After all, why should the goddess Hera have conceived so great a desire to be beautiful? Was it so that she could win a better husband than Zeus? Was Athena in eager pursuit of a match with one of the gods? But she shunned marriage and asked her father to let her stay a virgin. Don’t try to give respectability to your crime by making the goddesses out to be fools” (p. 65, lines 975-981). As a footnote mentions, contemporary belief in the judgement of Paris is not questioned, but the “rationalizing of myth for the sake of argument is thoroughly Euripidean” (p. 142).

In Andromache, there are many excellent lines were Andromache and Peleus put Hermione and Menelaus in their places. Andromache says to Hermione, in reference to her mother Helen, “Do not try to outdo your mother, lady, in the love of men. All sensible children should steer clear of the ways of bad mothers” (p. 82, lines 229-231). Peleus chews out Menelaus several times, partly reflecting the real world fact that Athens was at war with Sparta when Euripides produced this particular play.

The pathos of these plays, the stories, the characters, all spoke out loudly across the ages. While certainly having political as well as dramatic significance when they were first produced, these plays still resonate today with issues of war, violence, inner strength, and ego. I thoroughly recommend them.