Euripides

Question 1

Euripides was a tragic play which was first staged thirteen years after the play known as Oresteia masterpiece by Aeschylus.  Euripides was born in a battle which was involving Aeschylus and Sophocles who was very old and could not be in a position to celebrate the boy’s victory. Vergil composed his in a cave on Salamis Island and the place historically signified that that place was like an isolation area. He concentrated most on the struggles which involved mostly the Athens and Sparta in Greece city. The tragic poems by the Euripides were frequently mocked by other poems such as comic poems. In his last three plays, “The Archarnians, Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs,” Vergil was scripted as a character in his own plays. A play that symbolized a tragedy that occurred to the Euripides was a significant work of Vergil and involved other participants such as Aristophanes, Teleclides and Socrates who were great philosophers. The play went on as follows;

“They sit at the feet of Socrates

Till they can’t distinguish the wood from the trees,

And tragedy goes to POT;

They don’t care whether their plays are art

But only whether the words are smart;

They waste our time with quibbles and quarrels,

Destroying our patience as well as our morals,

And making us all talk ROT” (Virgil 173)

In his first participation of the play, Vergil says that Euripides won the first prize there which was on 441 BC. Euripides plays had a large following and even after his death the plays still won in the competitions. The plays included, “The Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis” which won five times consecutively during the festivals. The plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, together with those of Euripides brought out clear differences among the three men because of the gap seen between the generation of the fifth generation.  The plays are said to have a certain order of how they are created because there could be changed according to different outlook and according to the audience tastes or choice.

Some of the lines that could do with a few changes in the play included, “an early period of high tragedy (Medea, Hippolytus), a patriotic period at the outset of the Peloponnesian War (Children of Hercules, Suppliants), a middle period of disillusionment at the senselessness of war (Hecuba, Women of Troy), an escapist period with a focus on romantic intrigue (Ion, Iphigenia in Tauris, Helen), a final period of tragic despair (Orestes, Phoenician Women, Bacchae)”

According to Vergil, 80% of Euripides’ plays had gone missing and the plays did not present a full picture of his total commitment to his job such as, “Iphigenia at Aulis is dated with the ‘despairing’ Bacchae, yet it contains elements that became typical of New Comedy.”

 In the play, “Bacchae”, Euripides restores the chorus and messenger speech to their original position in the tragic plot, and the play appears to have a smooth flow and one which is easily understandable. Bacchae is also said to dramatize a primitive side to Greek religion. Current scholars have therefore interpreted this particular play biographically as: “a kind of death-bed conversion or renunciation of atheism; the poet’s attempt to ward off the charge of impiety that was later to overtake his friend Socrates; evidence of a new belief that religion cannot be analyzed rationally.”

Euripides’ play “Medea” has a speech in it which he tries to signify defense himself though he has brought it out in the mouth of a heroine in the play. “If you introduce new, intelligent ideas to fools, you will be thought frivolous, not intelligent. On the other hand, if you do get a reputation for surpassing those who are supposed to be intellectually sophisticated, you will seem to be a thorn in the city’s flesh. This is what has happened to me.”— Medea, lines 298-302.

Vergil says that Euripides concentrates on positioning individual mental apart from social or physical conditions. Hence in Hippolytus a scene concerning a queen rationalizes the state she is in and she comes with a comment after reflecting on the advantages of adultery. “It was from noble families that this evil first started, and when shameful things seem to be approved by the fashionable, then the common people will surely think them correct…This only, they say, stands the stress of life: a good and just spirit in a man.”

The character of Euripides resembles that of Athenians apart from the heroic view of the myth.

“For achieving his end Euripides’ regular strategy is a very simple one: retaining the old stories and the great names, as his theatre required, he imagines his people as contemporaries subjected to contemporary kinds of pressures, and examines their motivations, conduct and fate in the light of contemporary problems, usages and ideals.”—Moses Hadas

Just as mouthpieces of important issues Vergil say that it seems as if he had learned a course in public speaking. It is from this that the dialogue contrasts strongly with the myths and the heroic setting. From the example in The Trojan Women, it clearly states the dialogue is a rationalized prayer meant to provoke Menelaus comments such as:

Hecuba: … O Zeus, whether you are the Law of Necessity in nature, or the Law of Reason in man, hear my prayers. You are everywhere, pursuing your noiseless path, ordering the affairs of mortals according to justice.

Menelaus: What’s this? You are starting a new fashion in prayer.

There was a competition between the tragic poets in the fifth century at the City Dionysia  using a three tragedies and a satyr play.

Question 2

Most of the languages used in the play being Greek and the most frequent used language favors the people from the region where Euripides comes from because so many people can be in a position to read and comprehend. Use of Greek language also results to motivating many singer and authors because they become aware that they can be in position to produce plays, songs poems in their own language. From Euripides more ideas are generated while others are modified in other ways in an aim to motivate so many. A good example is the “Medea” which he had originally composed for his city and it is mostly used as praise song because of its motivation message to so many.

Modern scholars have used similar materials in trying to join copies of the original plays but sometimes the ideas are usually almost lost. Hence for example the two plays, The Phoenicean Women and Iphigenia at Aulis, are mostly corrupted by interpolations (the latter possibly being completed post mortem by the poet’s son)

The use lyrics by Euripides in the areas where there are songs in his plays motivate many singers such Timotheus of Miletus. It also leads to the singer become popular among the so many people who did not recognize him there before because he becomes able to show his ability in coming up with better lyrics. Not this singer who benefits from knowing how to compose good lyric but they are so many who get knowledge from this point. This is mostly captured in the play “Bacchae” where use of lyrics is mostly applied.

Due to the work of Euripides he is given a status of a leader because of his work and he performs his duties as a leader very efficiently to ensure that everyone emulates him and become successful. He is termed as a good leader by his people because he leads as an example and listens to suggestions and this makes him to me loved even more.

He also plays a role of motivating the people he is living with hence so many people like Euripides because he shows them the way of becoming successful and not only figure out ways of becoming famous in whatever undertaking they come a cross.  He also acts as a mentor to so many people who eager to be like him and they try each time to be like him.

The plays by Euripides have passed different generations up the current one but in different forms. They are used by so many people while quoting their works such as few lines or several copies and also different types of work some are known because of the survival of part of a collection of summaries in types of work.

There is a two-volume selection of Euripides, with translation of the pages, introductions, and notes, based upon what were then believed to be the most likely reconstructions of the plays with an aim of making so many people who read Euripides work have a reference as they are going through his work and resolve any misunderstanding that they may come across. It has also made the modern authors and singer come up with well recognized areas that have detailed information of their work.

 The work of Euripides also illustrates how family should engage themselves in performing each person’s duty and he goes on to come up with an example in the play Medea where there is an illustration such as “Among many women, you might find a small class who are not uneducated. And I tell you that those who have no experience of children and parenthood are better off than those who do.”—Medea lines 1087-91.

Euripides is well recognized for his work and so many people and the upcoming authors and poets are encouraged to go through his work before indulging in their so that they can acquire a lot of knowledge in what they expect to face as they start they career in these related fields. Also as regard ton Euripides we can see that he came up with a better background of ensuring that he sets a good example to those who are behind him in order to excel in their work just as him. Everyone one should also view his work in order to acquire more knowledge and to learn more concerning the past.

          Works Cited

Virgil. “Aeneid.” Google eBook (2008): 1-6.