The Tragedy Hecuba Which Was Written By Euripides Essay

Euripides’s plays often featured uncanny insight into the human condition and the struggle that his characters bore due to their expected roles within society.

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

Lysistrata by Aristophanes is seen to be a comical play used to show the impact of war not only on the ones physically in the war, but the ones mentally involved also. This play was written to help express the feeling the author had about the war occurring during the time the work was written. Lysistrata, the main character, is a strong woman who decides to become as what could be said as being “rebellious”. She does this by refusing to have sexual relations with the men in the city until it was agreed that peace would be declared between the two troops. She calls a meeting with the women in the city and include them in her vindictive ideas to bring the war to an end. This play is sure to bring a smile to the readers face due to the comical events that occur. However, comedy is not the only thing that becomes apparent within the play. Throughout the work of Lysistrata there are three themes that become apparent during this play: peace and harmony, control by gender, and politics.

The story is about Achilles and Patroclus meeting, becoming friends, and eventually lovers. This all occurs as Achilles trained to become a great warrior by his sea goddess mother. After the war begins in Troy, Patroclus dies in combat and Achilles avenges him.

During the time of Euripides, approximately the second half of the fifth century B.C., it was a period of immense cultural crisis and political convulsion (Arrowsmith 350). Euripides, like many other of his contemporaries, used the whole machinery of the theater as a way of thinking about their world (Arrowsmith 349). His interest in particular was the analysis of culture and relationship between culture and the individual. Euripides used his characters as a function to shape the ideas of the play (Arrowsmith 359).

Ulysses is a hero some say And built the trojan horse and won the troy war, now he must get back to his home island Ithaca. His most difficult opponent was the Cyclops Polyphemus. Polyphemus was the biggest, tallest and strongest Cyclops on the island. The Cyclops destroyed some rafts and he killed 2 men. Polyphemus was Poseidon's son so he could pray to him at anytime.

However Polyxena’s sacrifice takes place not out of a sense of romantic love and loss of self, but rather as a last sign of devotion to her lost country. Polyxena is to be scarified to the ghost of Achilles so that he may be appeased and take her as a bride in death thus allowing the Greeks to be able to continue on their journey home. In the sacrifice Polyxena does not show devotion to a marriage, such as Dido did, but rather a devotion to avenge her country, “Nor did her spirit fail as she dies. She threw herself upon the ground, face first as if attacking it in wrath to make the earth lie heavy on Achilles’ bones,” (Tro. 115-1159). Polyxena acts to not become the bride of Achilles. Rather she shows a final act of rebellion against a man who caused much suffering for her

At the beginning of the poem, the goddess Athena encourages Zeus, the king of the gods, to offer Odysseus special treatment. Zeus is more than amenable to reward Odysseus’ cleverness and commitment. After all, Odysseus did design the Trojan horse plan that led to the Greeks’ victory. The triumph was the precursor to all of the happenings of The Odyssey and a clear example of unconventional intelligence. Another illustration of his resourcefulness is his strategy to pierce Polyphemus’ eye while he is sleeping. Upon arousal the one-eyed monster asks who stabbed him and Odysseus replies cunningly that it is he or “Nobody” that did the evil deed. Polyphemus beseeches his friends to help him, “Nobody, friends. Nobody’s killing me now by fraud and not by force.” (BOOK9) This creates much confusion and little resolution for Polyphemus.

Hephaestus is credited of being the son of the king and queen of the gods, Zeus and Hera. He is the greek god of many different things, such as blacksmiths, forgery, fire, and volcanoes. Since he is the god of blacksmiths and forgery, he was able to craft many of weapons for the other gods. These weapons include Achilles armor, Hermes winged helmet and sandals, and Aphrodite's girdle. He also built the gold and silver dogs that guarded Alkinoos. “He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders.” (Wikipedia, 2). Though he was able to build all of these things, he was never without an obstacle throughout his life. Hephaestus had to deal with many things in

It is obvious that the most prominent character is the man whose name the play carries - Henry V. The entire story centers on his deeds. He serves as the catalyst for the action, the driving force behind all that takes place. Without him there is no

Greek tragedies Oedipus the King and Euripides’ Bacchae are both timeless stories in Greek literature. The engaging plot of both is what is most rememberable however the significance of the chorus is overlooked. The chorus can be defined simply as a group of dancers and singers that participate in dramas by singing poetically and lyrically in certain pauses of the play. The music, movements and gestures of the chorus symbolically define the mood and the themes of the play as the story line develops. The flow of Oedipus the King and Bacchae are dependent on the chorus, proving their significance.

Euripides' Medea Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in 431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. Eruipides was the first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his death('Norton Anthology';). Euripides showed his interest in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women ('World Book';). Euripides choice of women support characters such as the nurse and the chorus is imperative to the magnification of Medea's emotions.

one of the three great tragedians. The other two were Aeschylus, and Sophocles. According to the Encyclopedia, “Euripides was a Greek playwright whom Aristotle called the most tragic of the Greek poets. He is certainly the most revolutionary Greek tragedian known in modern times” (“Euripides”). He is well- known for transforming traditional Greek tragedies by using strong female characters and brilliant slaves. From the ninety- two plays Euripides wrote, only nineteen were saved in complete form. Euripides was a brilliant Greek playwright who was one of the most revolutionary tragedians known to this day,

Aristotle, a philosopher, scientist, spiritualist and passionate critic of the arts, spent many years studying human nature and its relevance to the stage. His rules of tragedy in fact made a deep imprint on the writing of tragic works, while he influenced the structure of theatre, with his analysis of human nature. Euripides 'Medea', a Greek tragedy written with partial adherence to the Aristotelian rules, explores the continuation of the ancient Greek tales surrounding the mythology of Medea, Princess of Colchis, and granddaughter of Helios, the sun god, with heartlessness to rival the infamous Circe. While the structure of this play undoubtedly perpetuates many of the Aristotelian rules, there are some dramatic structures which

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.