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Euripides short biography. National and world significance of Euripides

Euripides short biography. National and world significance of Euripides

15.06.2019

XII. EURIPID

1. Biography.

Euripides (c. 480-406 BC), one of the greatest playwrights, was a younger contemporary of Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was born on the island of Salamis. Biographical information about Euripides is scarce and contradictory. Aristophanes in his comedy "Women at the Feast of Thesmosphoria" says that the mother of Euripides was a greengrocer, but the later biographer Philochor denies this. There is no doubt that the family of Euripides had the means and therefore the great tragedian was able to get a good education: he studied with the philosopher Anaxagoras and the sophist Protagoras, the Roman writer Aul Gellius (Attic Nights) speaks about this. In 408, Euripides, at the invitation of King Archelaus, moved to Macedonia, where he died.

2. Creative way

Euripides began in the heyday of the Athenian policy, but most of his activity takes place already in the years of the decline of this slave-owning republic. He witnessed the long and exhausting Peloponnesian War for Athens, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC. This war was equally aggressive both from Athens and from Sparta, but still it is necessary to note the difference in the political positions of these two policies: Athens, as a democratic slave-owning state, introduced the principles of slave-owning democracy into the areas conquered during the war, and Sparta everywhere planted an oligarchy. Euripides, in contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles, did not hold any public office. He served his country with his work. He wrote more than 90 tragedies, of which 17 have come down to us (the 18th tragedy "Rhea" is attributed to Euripides). In addition, one satyr drama by Euripides "Cyclops" has come down to us and many fragments of his tragedies have been preserved.

Most of the tragedies of Euripides have to be dated only approximately, since there is no exact data on the time of their production. The chronological sequence of his tragedies is as follows: Alkes-ta - 438, Medea - 431, Hippolytus - 428, Heraclides - ca. 427, "Hercules", "Hecuba" and "Andromache" - c. 423-421, "Petitioners" - probably 416, "Ion", "Troyanka" - 415, "Electra", "Iphigenia in Tauris" - c. 413, "Elena" - 412, "Phoenician women" - 410 - 408, "Orest" - 408, "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia in Aulis" were staged after the death of Euripides.

3. Criticism of mythology.

Euripides is extremely radical in his views, approaching the Greek natural philosophers and sophists regarding their criticism of traditional mythology. For example, he believes that at first there was a common undivided material mass, then it was divided into ether (sky) and earth, then plants, animals and people appeared (fragment 484).

His critical attitude to mythology as the basis of the folk Greek religion is known. He recognizes some kind of divine entity that rules the world. No wonder the comedian Aristophanes, a contemporary of Euripides, who considers this tragedian the destroyer of all folk traditions, laughs evilly at him and in the comedy "The Frogs" says through the mouth of Dionysus that he has gods "of his own special coinage" (885-894).

Euripides depicts the gods almost always from the most negative sides, as if wanting to inspire viewers with distrust of traditional beliefs. So, in the tragedy "Hercules" Zeus appears evil, capable of disgracing someone else's family, the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus, - vengeful, bringing suffering to the famous Greek hero Hercules only because he is the natural son of Zeus. The god Apollo is cruel and treacherous in the tragedy Orestes. It was he who forced Orestes to kill his mother, and then did not consider it necessary to protect him from the revenge of Erinyes (this interpretation differs sharply from the interpretation of Aeschylus in his Oresteia trilogy). Just as heartless and envious as Hera, the goddess Aphrodite in the tragedy Hippolytus. She is jealous of Artemis, who is revered by the beautiful Hippolytus. Out of hatred for the young man, Aphrodite kindles in the heart of his stepmother, Queen Phaedra, a criminal passion for her stepson, due to which both Phaedra and Hippolytus perish.

Critically portraying the gods of popular religion, Euripides expresses the idea that such images are not the fruit of the imagination of poets. So, through the mouth of Hercules, he says:

In addition, I did not believe and do not believe that God would eat the forbidden fruit, that God would have bonds in his hands, And one god would command the other. No, the deity is self-sufficient: All this is nonsense of impudent singers 3 . ("Hercules", 1342-1346.)

4. Anti-war tendencies and democracy.

Euripides was a patriot of his native polis and tirelessly emphasized the superiority of democratic Athens over the oligarchic Sparta. More than once, Euripides portrayed his people as the defenders of weak, small states. So, using the myth, he carries out this idea in the tragedy "Heraclides". The children of Hercules - Heraclides, who were expelled from their native city by the Mycenaean king Eurystheus, none of the states, fearing the military power of Mycenae, gave shelter, did not stand up for them. Only Athens protects the offended, and the Athenian ruler Demophon, expressing the will of his people, says to the envoy of the Mycenaean king, who was trying to drag the children away from the Athenian altars:

But if anything excites Me, then this is the highest argument: honor. After all, if I allow some foreigner to tear off those praying from the altar by force, then farewell, Athenian freedom! Everyone will say, That out of fear of Argos - I insulted the plea of Treason. Worse than the loop is Consciousness (242-250).

The Athenians defeated the troops of Eurystheus and return the Heraclides to their hometown. At the end of the tragedy, the choir sings the glory of Athens. The main idea of the tragedy is expressed by the luminary of the choir, saying: "It is not the first time that the Athenian land stands for the truth and the unfortunate" (330).

The tragedy of Euripides "The Petitioners" is also patriotic. It depicts the relatives of the soldiers who fell under the walls of Thebes during the fratricidal war between Eteocles and Polyneices. The Thebans do not allow the families of the dead to take the corpses for burial. Then the relatives of the dead soldiers turn to Athens for help. The conversation between the Athenian king Theseus and Adrastus, the envoy of the relatives of the dead soldiers, is the glorification of democratic Athens, the defender of the weak and oppressed. The choir sings:

You help mothers, help, O city of Pallas, May they not trample on common laws, - You observe justice, alien to injustice, You are the patron of everyone, no matter who was dishonorably offended (378-381).

In the same dialogue, through the mouth of Theseus, the aggressive wars started by the rulers because of their own selfish interests are condemned. Theseus says to Adrastus:

Those are eager for glory, these inflate the Game of war and corrupt citizens, Those aim at generals, those - at the authorities, Show their temper, and those are attracted by profit - They do not think about the disasters of the people (233-237).

Euripides reflected the hatred of the Athenians for Sparta in the tragedies "Andromache" and "Orestes". In the first of these tragedies, he portrays the cruel Menelaus and his no less cruel wife Helen and daughter Hermione, who treacherously broke their word, did not stop before killing the child of Andromache, born of her son Achilles Neoptolemus, to whom she was given as a concubine after the fall of Troy. . Andromache sends curses on the head of the Spartans. Peleus, father of Achilles, also curses the arrogant and cruel Spartans. The anti-Spartan tendencies of the Andromache tragedy met with a lively response in the soul of the Athenian citizens, everyone knew the cruelty of the Spartans towards prisoners and enslaved helots. The same ideas are carried out by Euripides in the tragedy "Orestes", drawing the Spartans as cruel, treacherous people. Thus, Clytemnestra's father Tyndar demands the execution of Orestes for the murder of his mother, although Orestes says that he committed this crime on the orders of the god Apollo. Pitiful and cowardly Menelaus. Orestes reminds him of his father Agamemnon, who, like a brother, came to the aid of Menelaus, went with his troops to Troy to save Helen and, at the cost of great sacrifice, saved her, returned Menelaus his lost happiness. Recalling his father, Orestes asks Menelaus to help him now, the son of Agamemnon, but Menelaus replies that he does not have the strength to fight the Argos and can only act by cunning. Then Orestes bitterly remarks:

Nothing like a king, but a worthless coward at heart Having left friends in trouble, you run! (717-718)

The tragedies of Euripides with anti-Spartan tendencies closely adjoin tragedies in which the author expresses his anti-war views and condemns aggressive wars. These are the tragedy "Hecuba", staged around 423, and the tragedy "Trojanka", staged in 415.

The tragedy "Hecuba" describes the suffering of Priam's family, which, together with other captives, after the capture of Troy, the Achaeans lead to Greece. Hecuba's daughter Polyxena is sacrificed in honor of the murdered Achilles, and her only surviving son Polydorus is killed by the Thracian king Polymestor, to whom the child was sent to protect him from the horrors of war. Hecuba humbly asks Odysseus to help her save her daughter, but he is relentless. Euripides draws Polyxena as a proud girl who does not want to humiliate herself in front of the Greek victors and goes to her death:

What promises me The temper of my future masters? Some savage, having bought me, will make Grind the wheat, the house of revenge... ... And the weary day will end, and the purchased slave will desecrate my bed... (358-365). I have nothing and no reason to fight (371). ... Life will become a burden for us when there is no beauty in it (378).

As a great connoisseur of the human soul, Euripides depicts the last minutes of Polyxena's life, proudly going to her death; but it’s hard to die in the prime of life, and she, clinging to her mother, sends greetings to her sister Cassandra, who became the concubine of Agamemnon, and her little brother Polydor. Polyxena dies as a heroine. Her last words were:

You, sons of Argos, That my city was destroyed! By my will I die. Let no one hold Me... ...But let me die Free, I conjure the gods. Just like I was free. The princess is ashamed to descend as a slave to the shadows (545-552).

The tragedy of Hecuba is pessimistic in its mood, the author, as it were, wants to say that human life is hard, injustice, violence, the power of gold reign everywhere - such is the law of life and such are the last words of the tragedy: "necessity is adamant."

The tragedy of Troyanka is close to this tragedy in its anti-war tendencies and even in its plot. It also describes the suffering of captive Trojan women, among whom are the women of the family of King Priam.

This tragedy, like the tragedy of Hecuba, depicts a war between the Greeks and the Trojans, contrary to the usual mythological interpretation that glorifies the exploits of the Achaeans. The Trojan Women depicts the insane suffering of women and children after the fall of Troy.

A messenger from the victorious Greeks informs the family of Priam that the wife of King Hecub will be a slave of Odysseus, her eldest daughter Cassandra will become the concubine of Agamemnon, the younger Polixena will be sacrificed at the grave of Achilles, Hector's wife Andromache will be given as a concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus.

Andromache is deprived of her baby son Hector, although she begs to leave him to her, since the child is not guilty of anything before the Greeks. The victors kill the child, throwing it off the wall, and the corpse is brought to his grandmother, Hecuba, distraught from suffering.

The unfortunate old woman, who has lost her homeland and all her loved ones, screams over the corpse of her grandson:

Blood is flowing from the crushed skull... I'll keep silent about the worst... About hands, Exactly like father's! The joints are all Shattered... O sweet mouth... (1177-1180). ...What will the poet write on your tombstone? "The Argives killed this boy Out of fear" - a verse shameful for Hellas (1189-1191).

In many tragedies where the idea of patriotism is promoted, Euripides depicts heroes sacrificing their lives for the sake of their homeland. So, in the tragedy "Heraclides" the daughter of Hercules, young Macaria, sacrifices herself, saving her native city, her brothers and sisters.

In the tragedy "Phoenician Women" (staged between 410-408), the son of Creon, the young man Menekey, sacrifices his life for the sake of the victory of the motherland over the enemies. The father persuades the son not to go on such a feat, but to go somewhere far away, outside the homeland. Menekey pretends to agree with the will of his father, but in his heart he has already firmly decided to give his life for the sake of saving his homeland.

Euripides was very upset by the entire course of the Peloponnesian War, the hardships and military defeats of his fellow citizens. He saw that the principles of the democratic polis system were collapsing, that privileged social groups, the rich, money dealers, owners of land and enterprises were coming to the helm of the state. Therefore, the playwright in his tragedies defends the principles of Athenian democracy with such passion and stigmatizes tyranny. He considered the middle social groups, that is, small free workers, peasants and artisans, to be the basis of Athenian democracy. In the tragedy "The Petitioner" its main character Theseus, the spokesman for the views of Euripides himself, says:

There are three kinds of citizens: some are rich And useless, everything is always not enough for them, Others are poor, in eternal lack. They are terrible, they are seized by envy, And in anger they aptly sting the rich. They are driven down by the bad tongues of the Troubles. The third kind is the middle one, Support of the state and protection of the Law in it... (238-246).

Aristotle adhered to the same views ("Politics", VI, 9).

Free small workers Euripides depicted with deep sympathy, especially the toilers of the earth. The old honest farmer in the tragedy "Electra", to whom Queen Clytemnestra marries her daughter in order to remove her from the palace, as she is afraid of her daughter's revenge for her murdered father, understood the plan of the insidious Clytemnestra, considers his marriage fictitious, protects the honor of Electra and treats her like a daughter. The peasant is kind and hardworking, he says: “Yes, whoever is lazy, let the words of prayers not leave his lips, but he will not take bread” (81).

The same image of an honest farmer, the custodian of the democratic principles of Athens is given in the tragedy "Orestes". Only he alone spoke in defense of Orestes at a public meeting, demanding indulgence for this young man, since the murder of Clytemnestra was committed by him on the orders of the god Apollo. This is how Euripides characterizes this citizen, dear to his heart:

Here stands the orator - not a handsome man, But a strong husband; not often leaving a footprint On the square of Argive, He plows his land - on such Now the country rests. He is not poor in mind, if there is sometimes a chance To measure themselves in a verbal contest. And in life he is an impeccable husband (917-924).

5. Social dramas.

The tragedies of Euripides should be divided into two groups: on the one hand, tragedies in the full sense of the word, and on the other, social and everyday dramas, which depict not heroes who are outstanding in their thoughts and deeds, but ordinary people. A comic element will be introduced into these dramas, which the classical ancient tragedy absolutely did not allow, and a happy denouement, which also contradicts the canon of the tragic genre. These should include such, for example, plays as "Alkesta", "Elena", "Ion".

a) Alkesta.

Alcesta was staged in 438; of the works of Euripides that have come down to us, this is the earliest. The hero of the drama is the Thessalian king Admet, whom the gods promised that his life could be extended if someone voluntarily agreed to die for him. When Admet fell seriously ill and was threatened with death, none of his relatives, even his elderly parents, wanted to die in his place, and only his young wife, the beautiful Alcesta, agreed to such a sacrifice.

Euripides depicts with great skill the last moments of Alcesta's life, her farewell to her husband, children, slaves. Alkesta loves life, and it is hard for her to die, but even in her dying delirium she thinks about the fate of her husband and children.

Alkesta's husband, Tsar Admet, is an ordinary person, not a hero: a good family man, loves his wife and children, is hospitable to friends, a hospitable host, but an egoist and loves himself most of all. Admet curses himself for accepting the sacrifice of his wife, but is not capable of self-sacrifice, of a feat.

There is a scene in the play that really convinces that there is only one step from the tragic to the comic - when the father of Admet Feret brings a veil and wants to cover the corpse of the deceased with it. Admet is outraged by the behavior of his father, who did not sacrifice his fading life to save his only son, but reproaches his father for selfishness, and the father, in turn, scolds his son for relying on self-sacrifice from his parents. The old man accuses his son of living, in essence, at the expense of his wife, who sacrificed her young life. This quarrel between two egoists is both comical and bitter. Euripides very vividly conveys it with the help of short, ordinary, catchy phrases:

Admet (pointing to the corpse of Alcesta) You see your guilt there, old man. Feret Il bury her for me, you say? Admet You will need me too, I hope. Feret Change your wives more often, you will be more whole. Admet You are ashamed. Why did you spare yourself? Feret Oh, this god's torch is so beautiful. ADMET And this is the husband? A disgrace among men... Feret I'd become a laughing stock for you when I died. Admet You will die, too, but you will die ingloriously. Feret Infamy does not reach the dead. Admet Such an old man... And even a shadow of shame... (717 - 727).

Admet and Feret are ordinary people as they are. No wonder Aristotle noted that Sophocles depicts people as they should be, and Euripides - as they are ("Poetics", 25).

The playwright draws Hercules not in a halo of exploits, but as an ordinary good person who knows how to enjoy life, capable of a deep sense of friendship. Euripides tells how Hercules, on the way to Thrace, comes to Admetus, and he, not wanting to upset his friend, does not tell him about the death of his wife, but arranges a treat in one of the remote rooms of the palace. Hercules gets drunk, sings songs loudly, and this behavior outrages the slave who served him, who mourns for Alces. Hercules is at a loss and delivers a whole speech in which he tells his worldly sges! About what to live, they say, is necessary for fun, for love, for enjoyment. But when Hercules learns from a slave that Alcesta has died, then for the sake of his friend he descends into Hades, beats off Alcesta from the demon of death and returns her to Admet, distraught with joy.

b) Elena.

Euripides' play "Helen", staged in 412, should also be attributed to the same genre of social dramas. It uses a little-known myth that Paris took with him to Troy not Helen, but only her ghost, and the real Helen, by the will of Hera, was transferred to Egypt to King Proteus. The son of this king, Theoclymenos, wants to marry Elena, but she persists, wanting to remain faithful to her husband. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus takes a ship home; the storm wrecked his ship, but Menelaus, with several comrades and the ghost of Helen, escaped and was thrown onto the coast of Egypt. Here he accidentally meets the real Elena at the gate, who comes up with a cunning escape plan. She tells Theoclymenus that she will become his wife, but only asks for one favor - to allow her, according to Greek custom, to perform a funeral rite at sea in honor of the deceased Menelaus. The king gives her a boat, rowers, and now Elena in a mourning dress gets into the boat, the rowers enter there, among them Menelaus and his comrades, all dressed in Egyptian clothes. When the boat was already far from the shore, Menelaus and his friends killed the Egyptian rowers, their corpses were thrown overboard and, with raised sails, headed for the shores of Hellas.

Before us is again not a classic Greek tragedy, but an everyday drama with a happy ending, with ups and downs of an adventure nature, with the idea of glorifying true conjugal love. The Helena of this drama is not at all like the Helena depicted in the tragedies "Andromache", "The Trojan Women" and "Orestes", where she appears before us as a narcissistic beauty, cheating on her husband and throwing herself into the arms of Paris. This image is also far from the Homeric image of the beautiful Helen, forcibly taken away by Paris to Troy, languishing away from her homeland, but not taking any steps to return to her family.

c) Ion.

In terms of social drama created by Euripides and the play "Ion". It depicts the son of Apollo, Ion, born of Creusa, the victim of this god. To hide his shame, Creusa throws the baby into the temple. Subsequently, she marries the Athenian king Xuthus and by chance, thanks to the preserved swaddling clothes in which the child was once thrown, she finds her son, who has already become a young man. The plot of an abandoned child later, in the era of Hellenism, would become the most popular among Greek comedians, who generally believed that they "came out of the dramas of Euripides", since in terms of ideological content, in terms of depiction of characters, in composition, Hellenistic comedies are undoubtedly very close to social - everyday dramas of Euripides. In the dramas of Euripides, one of the most important guiding forces is no longer fate, but an accident that has befallen a person. As is known, the role of chance will be especially significant in Hellenistic literature.

6. Psychological tragedy.

Among the works of Euripides, the famous tragedies with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the great interest of the playwright in the personality of a person, with all its contradictions and passions, stand out especially.

a) Medea

One of the most remarkable tragedies of Euripides - "Medea" was staged on the Athenian stage in 431. The enchantress Medea is the daughter of the Colchis king, the granddaughter of the Sun, who fell in love with Jason, one of the Argonauts who came to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. For the sake of a loved one, she left her family, her homeland, helped him master the Golden Fleece, committed a crime, and came with him to Greece. To her horror, Medea learns that Jason wants to leave her and marry the princess, heir to the throne of Corinth. It is especially difficult for her, because she is a "barbarian", lives in a foreign land, where there are no relatives or friends. Medea is outraged by the clever sophistical arguments of her husband, who is trying to convince her that he is marrying the princess for the sake of their little sons, who will be princes, heirs to the kingdom. Offended in her feelings, a woman understands that the driving force behind her husband's actions is the desire for wealth, for power. Medea wants to take revenge on Jason, who ruthlessly ruined her life, and destroys her rival, sending her a poisoned outfit with her children. She decides to kill the children, for the sake of the future happiness of which, according to Jason, he enters into a new marriage.

Medea, contrary to the norms of polis ethics, commits a crime, believing that a person can act as his personal aspirations and passions dictate to him. This is a kind of refraction in everyday practice of the sophistical theory that "man is the measure of all things", a theory undoubtedly condemned by Euripides. As a deep psychologist, Euripides could not but show a storm of torment in the soul of Medea, who planned to kill the children. Two feelings struggle in it: jealousy and love for children, passion and a sense of duty to children. Jealousy prompts her decision - to kill the children and thereby take revenge on her husband, love for the children makes her discard the terrible decision and take a different plan - to escape from Corinth with the children. This painful struggle between duty and passion, depicted with great skill by Euripides, is the climax of the entire chorus of the tragedy. Medea caresses the children. She decided to leave their lives and go into exile:

Alien to you, I will drag out the days. And never, having changed a different life, you will not see me, which carried you ... With these eyes. Alas! Alas! Why are you looking at me and laughing with your last laugh?.. (1036-1041).

But the involuntarily escaped words "with the last laugh" express another, terrible decision, which has already matured in the recesses of her soul - to kill the children. However, Medea, touched by their appearance, tries to convince herself to abandon the terrible intention dictated by insane jealousy, but jealousy and offended pride take precedence over maternal feeling. And a minute later, we again have a mother who convinces herself to abandon her plan. And then the pernicious thought of the need to take revenge on her husband, again a storm of jealousy and the final decision to kill the children ...

So I swear by Hades and all the underworld power, That the enemies of my children, Abandoned by Medea for mockery, cannot be seen ... (1059-1963).

The unfortunate mother caresses her children for the last time, but realizes that the murder is inevitable:

Oh sweet hugs, The cheek is so tender, and the mouth A pleasant breath... Go away... Go away quickly... There is no strength to look at you... I am crushed by flour... What I dare, I see... Only anger is stronger than me , and there is no more ferocious and more zealous executioner for the kind of mortals (1074-1080).

Euripides reveals the soul of a man tormented by an internal struggle between duty and passion. Showing this tragic conflict, without embellishing reality, the playwright comes to the conclusion that passion often takes precedence over duty, destroying the human personality.

b) In terms of the idea, dynamics and character of the main character, the tragedy "Medea" is close to the tragedy "Hippolytus", staged in 428. The young Athenian queen, Theseus' wife Phaedra, passionately fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. She understands that her duty is to be a faithful wife and an honest mother, but she cannot tear out a criminal passion from her heart. The Nurse asks Phaedra for her secret and informs Hippolytus of Phaedra's love for him. The young man in anger brands his stepmother and sends curses on the head of all women, considering them the cause of evil and debauchery in the world.

Offended by the undeserved accusations of Hippolytus, Phaedra commits suicide, but in order to save her name from shame and protect her children from it, she also leaves her husband a letter in which she accuses Hippolytus of encroaching on her honor. Theseus, after reading the letter, curses his son, and he soon dies: the god Poseidon, fulfilling the will of Theseus, sends a monstrous bull, in horror from which the horses of the young man rushed, and he breaks on the rocks. The goddess Artemis reveals to Theseus the secret of his wife. In this tragedy, as in the tragedy of Medea, Euripides skillfully reveals the psychology of the tormented soul of Phaedra, who despises herself for her criminal passion for her stepson, but at the same time only thinks about her beloved, tirelessly dreams of meeting and intimacy with him.

Both tragedies are similar in composition: the prologue explains the reason for the situation, then the heroines are shown in the grip of a painful conflict between duty and passion, the whole tragedy is built on this high tension, realistically revealing the secrets of the heroines' souls. But the outcome of the tragedies is mythological: Medea will be saved by her grandfather, the god Helios, and she, with the corpses of the killed children, flies away on his chariot. The goddess Artemis appears to Theseus and reports that his son is not guilty of anything, that he was slandered by Phaedra. Such endings, where the knot of the conflict is resolved with the help of the gods, sometimes contradicting the entire logical course of tragedies, is usually called in the practice of the ancient theater deus ex machipa, characteristic of Euripides, the master of complex, intricate situations.

7. Special interpretation of the myth.

Euripides in his tragedies often changes old myths, leaving them, in fact, only the names of the heroes. The great tragedian, using mythological plots, expresses in them the thoughts and feelings of his contemporaries, raises topical issues of his time. He, if I may say so, modernizes the myth. And this is the great difference between Euripides and Aeschylus and Sophocles. The difference in the artistic system of the playwrights is especially noticeable when comparing the tragedy of Euripides "Electra" with the tragedy of the same name by Sophocles and with the tragedy of Aeschylus "Choephora", which is the second part of his trilogy "Oresteia". The plot in them is the same - the murder of Clytemnestra by her children Orestes and Electra as revenge for the murdered father.

In Aeschylus, both heroes, Orestes and Electra, are still completely dominated by religious principles, they fulfill the order of Apollo to kill their mother because she killed their father, her husband, the head of the family and the state, violating the priority of the paternal principle.

Aeschylus still has great respect for the myth, with him the gods to a large extent decide the fate of people. For Sophocles, Electra and Orestes are also champions of the laws given by the gods, for Euripides, they are just unfortunate children abandoned by their mother for the sake of Aegisthus' lover. Wishing to strengthen his position, Clytemnestra deliberately passes off Elektra as an old poor farmer, so as not to have pretenders to the throne from his daughter. Orestes and Electra kill their mother because she deprived them of the joy of life, deprived their father.

The whole interpretation of the murder by Orestes and Elektra of their mother by Euripides is revealed more vitally, psychologically more deeply.

In the tragedy "Electra", Euripides condemns the methods by which Aeschylus and Sophocles recognize Elektra's brother: by a lock of Orestes' hair, cut off by him and laid on his father's grave, by the trace of his feet near this grave. In Euripides, when Uncle Orestes suggests that Electra put the lock of hair found on the grave to her locks, she, expressing the arguments of the author himself, laughs at him.

And this strand? But could the color of the hair of the Tsarevich, who grew up in the palestra, And the delicate color of the maiden's braids cherished by a comb, could preserve the resemblance? (526-530)

When the old man invites Electra to compare the footprint on the ground near the grave with the footprint of her foot, the girl again says with a sneer:

On the stone footprint? What are you saying, old man? Yes, if his trace had remained, Is it really possible for a brother and sister to match the size of their legs? (534-537)

The old man asks Elektra that maybe she recognizes her brother by the clothes of her work, in which Orestes was once sent to a foreign land. Euripides laughs at this too, putting the following sarcastic objections into the mouth of Electra:

Are you delirious? Why, then, old man, I was a child: Will my brother put on this chlamys even now? Or maybe clothes grow with us? (541-544)

Quite differently from Aeschylus, he depicts Euripides and the scene of the murder of his mother by Orestes. Without hesitation, even with malice, he kills her lover Aegisthus, as the culprit of all the suffering of his family, but it is terrible and painful for him to kill his mother. Aeschylus shows only the moment of Orestes' hesitation before the murder of his mother. Euripides depicts the terrible torment of his son, who cannot raise his hand against his mother, and when Electra reproaches him for cowardice, he, covering his face with a cloak so as not to see his mother, strikes her with a sword ...

After the murder, Orestes is tormented by pangs of conscience. In the tragedy "Orestes", which was staged in 408 and which reveals the same plot as the tragedy "Electra", only slightly expanding it, the sick Orestes to the question: "What ailment is tormenting?" - directly answers: "His name is and the villains have a conscience."

In Aeschylus, in the trilogy "Orestes" Erinyes, terrible goddesses, defenders of maternal rights, pursue Orestes, in Euripides, in the tragedy "Orestess" - this is a sick young man suffering from seizures, and after the murder, during delirium, it only seems to him that Erinyes is around wishing for his death. And in Medea, contrary to the myth, Euripides forces the mother to kill her children. What is important here for Euripides is not the mythology of tragedy, but the closeness of characters and life situations.

8. "Iphigenia in Aulis" - an example of a pathetic tragedy.

Posthumous tragedies of Euripides were the tragedies of "Bacchae" with its complex religious and psychological problems and "Iphigenia in Aulis". Both of them were staged at the feast of the city's Dionysius in 406. For the tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis", the author was awarded the first prize. "Iphigenia in Aulis" is one of the perfect tragedies of Euripides. It depicts the Achaean army, ready to sail on ships from Aulis to Troy. The goddess Artemis, insulted by Agamemnon, does not send a fair wind. In order for the wind to blow and the Greeks to reach Troy, and therefore conquer it, it is necessary to sacrifice the eldest daughter of Agamemnon Iphigenia to Artemis. Her father calls her together with her mother under the pretext of the girl’s marriage to Achilles, but the goddess Artemis herself saves Iphigenia and, invisibly to everyone around, during the sacrifice, transfers her to her temple, to distant Tauris.

If in the tragedies of Euripides "Hecuba", "Andromache", "Trojan women", "Electra" and "Orestes" the Greek campaign in Troy is depicted as an aggressive war, the purpose of which is to defeat Troy and take Helen, the wife of Menelaus, then in the tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis" the war of the Greeks with the Trojans is covered from Homeric positions, that is, as a war for the honor of Hellas. Such an interpretation, raising the patriotic spirit of the Greeks, was especially relevant in the last years of the 5th century. BC. for Hellas and the policies depleted by the Peloponnesian war. People sacrificing themselves for the sake of their homeland were more than once portrayed in the tragedies of Euripides: Macarius in the tragedy "Heraclides", Menekey in the tragedy "Phoenician Women", Praxiteus in the tragedy "Erechtheus" (only a fragment reached) - but there these images were not the main ones.

Iphigenia, the central character of this tragedy, sacrifices her life for the sake of her motherland. She is shown surrounded by people who are experiencing a painful conflict between duty and personal happiness. So, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter for the victory of Greece, but he does not dare to do this. Then, after painful torments, he nevertheless sends a letter to his wife so that she brings Iphigenia to Aulis, since Achilles allegedly wooed the girl. Soon Agamemnon comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to sacrifice his daughter and writes a second letter to his wife that there is no need to come with Iphigenia, since the wedding is postponed. This letter was intercepted by Menelaus, he reproaches Agamemnon for selfishness, for lack of love for the motherland. Meanwhile, Clytemnestra, having received her husband's first letter, arrives with Iphigenia in Aulis. Agamemnon suffers greatly when he meets his daughter, but the sense of duty wins. He knows that the entire army understands the inevitability of this sacrifice. Agamemnon convinces Iphigenia that her homeland needs her life, that she must die for her honor. In contrast to Agamemnon, Clytemnestra cares only about the happiness of her family and does not want to sacrifice her daughter for the common good.

Achilles indignantly learns that Agamemnon deliberately lied in a letter to his wife about his marriage to their daughter, but he is touched by the beauty of the girl, her defenselessness, and he offers her his help. However, Iphigenia has already decided on the sacrifice and refuses his offer. Achilles is struck by the nobility of the girl's soul, her heroism, and love for Iphigenia is born in his heart. After some time, he already persuades her to refuse self-sacrifice, since he puts personal happiness above duty to the motherland. Thus, the people around Iphigenia are depicted by Euripides as immersed in the conflict between duty and personal happiness. Iphigenia herself plays the main role in resolving this conflict. Her image is revealed by the author with high pathos and love, and the achievement of Euripides is that it is not static, like most images of ancient tragedies, but given in its internal development. At the beginning of the tragedy, we are simply a sweet, glorious girl, happy from the consciousness of her youth, full of joy from the upcoming marriage with the glorious hero of Hellas, Achilles. She is glad to meet her beloved father, but she feels that her father is worried about something. Soon she learns that she was brought to Aulis not for marriage with Achilles, but for a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis, and that this sacrifice is needed by her homeland. But the girl does not want to bring life to the altar of her homeland, she wants to live, just live, and begs her father not to destroy her: “After all, looking at the world is so sweet, and descending into the underworld is so scary - have mercy” (1218 et seq.). Iphigenia recalls to her father the days of her childhood, when she, caressing, promised to rest him in her old age:

I keep everything in my memory, all the little words; And you forgot, you are glad to kill me (1230 ff.).

Iphigenia forces her little brother Orestes to kneel and beg his father to spare her, Iphigenia. Then she exclaims in despair:

What else can I say? It is gratifying for a mortal to see the sun, And it's so scary underground... If someone does not want to live, he is sick: the burden of life, All torment is better than the glory of a dead man (1249-1253).

Further, Euripides shows the indignation of the army, which is eager to go under Troy, and demands that Iphigenia be sacrificed, otherwise there will be no fair wind, otherwise you will not reach the enemy and defeat him. And now, seeing warriors eager to defend the honor of their homeland, ready to give their lives for it, Iphigenia gradually realizes that it is shameful for her to put her happiness above the common good of warriors, that she must give her life to defeat the enemy. Even when Achilles tells her of his love and offers to secretly run away with him, she firmly declares her readiness to die for the honor of the fatherland. So Iphigenia from a naive frightened girl turns into a heroine who realizes her sacrifice.

9. General conclusion.

Euripides in his tragedies raised and resolved a number of topical issues of his time - the question of duty and personal happiness, the role of the state and its laws. He protested against aggressive wars, criticized religious traditions, and promoted the ideas of a humane attitude towards people. His tragedies depict people of great feelings, sometimes committing crimes, and Euripides, as a deep psychologist, reveals the breaks in the soul of such people, their painful suffering. No wonder Aristotle considered him the most tragic poet ("Poetics", 13).

Euripides is a great master of constructing the ups and downs of tragedies, they are always causally motivated, vitally justified.

The language of tragedy is simple and expressive. The choir no longer plays a big role in his tragedies, he sings beautiful lyrical songs, but does not participate in resolving the conflict.

Euripides was not fully understood by his contemporaries, since his rather bold views on nature, society, and religion seemed to go too far beyond the usual framework of the ideology of the majority.

But this tragedian was highly appreciated in the era of Hellenism, when his social and everyday dramas began to enjoy special popularity, undoubtedly having a great influence on the dramaturgy of Menander and other Hellenistic writers.

en.wikipedia.org

Biography

The great playwright was born on Salamis, on the day of the famous victory of the Greeks over the Persians in a naval battle, September 23, 480 BC. e., from Mnesarchus and Kleito. Parents were on Salamis among other Athenians who fled from the army of the Persian king Xerxes. The exact linking of Euripides' birthday to victory is an embellishment that is often found in the stories of ancient authors about the great. So in the Court it is reported that the mother of Euripides conceived him at the time when Xerxes invaded Europe (May, 480 BC), from which it follows that in September he could not have been born. An inscription on Parian marble identifies the year of the playwright's birth as 486 BC. e., and in this chronicle of Greek life, the name of the playwright is mentioned 3 times - more often than the name of any king. According to other evidence, the date of birth can be attributed to 481 BC. e.

Euripides' father was a respected and apparently wealthy man, Kleito's mother was engaged in the sale of vegetables. As a child, Euripides was seriously engaged in gymnastics, even won competitions among boys and wanted to get to the Olympic Games, but was rejected because of his youth. Then he was engaged in drawing, without much, however, success. Then he began to take lessons in oratory and literature from Prodicus and Anaxagoras and lessons in philosophy from Socrates. Euripides collected books for the library, and soon began to write himself. The first play, Peliad, hit the stage in 455 BC. e., but then the author did not win because of a quarrel with the judges. Euripides won the first prize for skill in 441 BC. e. and from then until his death he created his creations. The public activity of the playwright was manifested in the fact that he participated in the embassy in Syracuse in Sicily, apparently supporting the goals of the embassy with the authority of a writer recognized by all Hellas.

The family life of Euripides developed unsuccessfully. From his first wife, Chloirina, he had 3 sons, but divorced her because of her adultery, writing the play Hippolytus, where he ridiculed sexual relations. The second wife, Melitta, was no better than the first. Euripides gained fame as a misogynist, which gave reason to joke with him to the master of comedy Aristophanes. In 408 BC e. the great playwright decided to leave Athens, accepting the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus. It is not known exactly what influenced Euripides' decision. Historians are inclined to think that the main reason was, if not persecution, then the resentment of a vulnerable creative person against fellow citizens for not recognizing merit. The fact is that out of 92 plays (75 according to another source), only 4 were awarded prizes in theater competitions during the author's lifetime, and one play posthumously. The popularity of the playwright among the people is evidenced by the story of Plutarch about the terrible defeat of the Athenians in Sicily in 413 BC. e.:

“They [the Athenians] were sold into slavery and branded on their foreheads in the form of a horse. Yes, there were those who, in addition to captivity, had to endure this as well. But even in such an extreme, they benefited from self-esteem and self-control. The owners either set them free or highly valued them. And some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside of Attica, honored the talent of Euripides. When visitors delivered to them small excerpts from his works, the Sicilians delightedly learned them by heart and repeated them to each other. It is said that at that time many of those who returned safely home warmly greeted Euripides and told him how they gained freedom by teaching the owner what was left in the memory of his poems, or how, wandering after the battle, they earned their food and water by singing songs from his tragedy."

Archelaus showed honor and demonstrative respect to the famous guest to such an extent that signs of disposition were the cause of the death of the king himself. Aristotle in the work "Politics" reports on a certain Dekamnikh, who was given out to scourge Euripides for the offense he had inflicted, and this Dekamnich organized a conspiracy in retaliation, as a result of which Archelaus died. This happened after the death of Euripides himself in 406 BC. e. The death of such a remarkable person gave rise to the legends set forth in the Court:

“Euripides ended his life as a result of the conspiracy of Arrhidaeus from Macedonia and Crateus from Thessaly, poets jealous of the glory of Euripides. They bribed a courtier named Lysimachos for 10 minutes to unleash the royal hounds on Euripides, which he followed. Others say that Euripides was torn to pieces not by dogs, but by women, when he hurried at night to rendezvous with Crater, the young lover of Archelaus. Still others claim that he was going to meet Nicodice, Areth's wife."

The version about women is a rude joke with a hint of Euripides' play "The Bacchae", where distraught women tore the king apart. About the love of the aged writer for young men, Plutarch reports in "Quotes". The modern version is more mundane - the body of the 75-year-old Euripides simply could not stand the harsh winter in Macedonia.

The Athenians requested permission to bury the playwright in his native city, but Archelaus wished to leave the tomb of Euripides in his capital, Pella. Sophocles, having learned about the death of the playwright, forced the actors to play the play with uncovered heads. Athens erected a statue of Euripides in the theater, honoring him after his death. Plutarch passed on the legend: lightning struck the tomb of Euripides, a great sign that only Lycurgus was awarded among famous people.

Tragedies of Euripides

Of the 92 plays attributed to Euripides in antiquity, the names of 80 can be restored. Of these, 18 tragedies have come down to us, of which "Res" is believed to have been written by a later poet, and the satirical drama "Cyclops" is the only surviving example of this genre. The best ancient dramas by Euripides are lost to us; of the survivors, only Hippolyte was crowned. Among the surviving plays, the earliest is Alcesta, and the later ones include Iphigenia in Aulis and The Bacchae.

The preferred development of female roles in tragedy was an innovation by Euripides. Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Andromache, Macarius, Iphigenia, Helen, Electra, Medea, Phaedra, Creusa, Andromeda, Agave and many other heroines of the legends of Hellas are complete and vital types. The motifs of conjugal and maternal love, tender devotion, violent passion, female vindictiveness, combined with cunning, deceit and cruelty, occupy a very prominent place in Euripides' dramas. The women of Euripides surpass his men with willpower and brightness of feelings. Also, the slaves in his plays are not soulless extras, but have characters, human traits and show feelings like free citizens, forcing the audience to empathize. Only a few of the surviving tragedies satisfy the requirement of completeness and unity of action. The strength of the author is primarily in psychologism and deep elaboration of individual scenes and monologues. In the diligent depiction of mental states, usually tense to the extreme, lies the main interest of the tragedies of Euripides.

List of fully extant plays by Euripides:

Alcesta (438 BC, 2nd place) text New translation (2008) by Vlanes: or
Medea (431 BC, 3rd place) text New translation (2009) by Vlanes: or
Heraclides (430 BC) text
Hippolytus (428 BC, 1st) text
Andromache (425 BC) text
Hecuba (424 BC) text
Petitioners (423 BC) text
Electra (420 BC) text
Hercules (416 BC) text
Trojan women (415 BC, 2nd place) text
Iphigenia in Tauris (414 BC) text
Ion (414 BC) text
Helena (412 BC) text
Phoenician Women (410 BC) text
Cyclops (408 BC, satirical drama) text
Orestes (408 BC) text
The Bacchae (407 BC, 1st place posthumously with "Iphigenia in Aulis") text
Iphigenia at Aulis (407 BC) text
Res (attributed to Euripides, with which some literary scholars disagree) text

Biography

Origin

According to legend, Euripides was born on September 27, 480 BC. - on the day of the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the decisive naval battle of the Greco-Persian wars near the island of Salamis, where his parents, like other Athenians, found refuge. However, such a dating is doubtful, because it indicates the intention of ancient critics to connect all 3 tragedians with the Salamis victory. A more probable date for the birth of Euripides should be considered 485 BC: it is this year that is noted in the more reliable Parian Chronicle (Marmor Parium). From the ancient biography of Euripides, it is known that his parents were Mnesarchus, or Mnesarchides, and Clito, who sold herbs in the market. But this tradition also inspires doubts, since it relies on "facts" from the comedies of Aristophanes, the Athenian comedian who parodied and ridiculed Euripides. From other ancient evidence, it is known that Euripides served for some time at the temple of Apollo Zosterius, and therefore belonged to a noble and wealthy Athenian family.

Education and dramaturgy

Euripides received an excellent education, attending the lectures of Anaxagoras and Protagoras, possessed the richest library, and was a friend of the famous philosophers - Socrates, Archelaus, and Prodicus. Euripides did not take any visible part in the social and political life of Athens, which, however, did not prevent him from responding to the most pressing issues of our time: most of the playwright's plays were written during the difficult Peloponnesian War (431 BC - 404 BC). e.). However, initially Euripides was preparing to become a professional athlete, for some time he was engaged in drawing, but at the age of 25 he devoted himself to dramaturgy, staging the tragedy "Pelias" (455 BC) at a festival dedicated to Dionysus. Until the end of his life, Euripides wrote about 90 plays: 18 have come down to us in full, the rest have been preserved in fragments. The earliest of his reliably dated tragedies, Alcesta, dates from 438 BC. The remaining 17 plays were written between 431 BC and 431 BC. and 406 BC: Medea - 431 BC, Heraclides - about 430 BC, Hippolytus - 428 BC, Cyclops, Hecuba, "Hercules", "Suppliants" - between 424 BC and 418 BC, "Troyanki" - 415 BC, "Electra" - about 413 BC, "Ion", "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Helen" - about 412 BC. e., "Andromache" and "Phoenician women" - about 411 BC, "Orest" - 408 BC, "Iphigenia in Aulis" - 407 BC, "Bacchae" - 406 BC .e.. The plots of the dramas are taken from different mythological cycles, and 9 of them are connected with the history of the Trojan War. During his life, Euripides participated in poetry competitions 5 times, but only 3 times received the first award during his lifetime, and 2 times after his death ("Bacchae", "Iphigenia in Aulis").

Last years

The unfavorable situation that developed for Euripides in Athens forced the playwright to leave his native city in 408 BC. and after a short stay in Thessalian Magnesia, he accepted the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus. In Pella, Euripides wrote 2 tragedies - "Archelais" in honor of the legendary Temen, the mythical ancestor of his patron, the founder of the Temenid dynasty and the first Macedonian capital of Eg, and also - "Bacchae". In Macedonia, Euripides died at the age of 74 in 406 BC. In the same year, Sophocles, shortly before his death, honored the memory of Euripides in the proagon before the feast of Dionysius in Athens. The Athenians honored the memory of Euripides by erecting an empty tomb (cenotaph) for him.

Political and moral aspects of Euripides' work

The works of Euripides reflect the conflicting public sentiments in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. In several of the dramatist's tragedies, rather sharp attacks were made against the opponents of Athens. So, in "Andromache" in the most unattractive light, the king of Sparta Menelaus and his wife Helen with her daughter Hermione are exposed, who, having treacherously broken their word, do not stop before killing Andromache's child, born of her son Achilles Neoptolemus. The speeches of Andromache, sending curses on the head of the Spartans, undoubtedly expressed the negative attitude of the author himself and his contemporaries towards Sparta. Everyone knew the cruelty of the Spartans towards prisoners and enslaved helots. In "Orestes" the Spartans are also depicted as cruel and treacherous people. Thus, Clytemnestra's father Tyndar demands the execution of Orestes for the murder of his mother, although it is known that Orestes committed this crime at the behest of the god Apollo. Disgusting in his meanness and cowardice and Menelaus. When Orestes reminds him of the help of his father Agamemnon in the war against Troy and asks for support, Menelaus replies that he does not have the strength to fight the inhabitants of Argos and can only act by cunning. In The Petitioners, in Iolaus's declaration on behalf of the Heraclides that they should never take up arms against the Athenians as their saviors, the accusations of the actions of Sparta and Argos in the early years of the Peloponnesian War are also clearly traced. The same play depicts the relatives of the soldiers who fell under the walls of Thebes during the fratricidal war between Eteocles and Polyneices. The Thebans do not allow the families of the dead to take the corpses for burial, and then the relatives turn to Athens for help. This is a direct allusion to the events after the Battle of Delia in 424 BC, when, after the victory over the Athenians, the Thebans refused to give up the corpses of the killed soldiers for burial. For Euripides, this act is a violation of the universally recognized moral law.

In the era of incessant wars, Euripides examined the issues of war and peace through the prism of mythological subjects. The tragedy of "Hecuba" is permeated with anti-war sentiments, it depicts the immense suffering of defeated, innocent wives, mothers and children. After the capture of Troy, the Achaeans take the relatives of King Priam into captivity, and Euripides admires the greatness of the spirit of the Trojan women. The proud daughter of Hecuba, Polyxena, prefers to die than to live in slavery. "Trojan Women" is also dedicated to the war of the Greeks with the Trojans, but the traditional mythological interpretation is changed by the author and instead of praising the exploits of the Achaeans, they are depicted as cruel people who inhumanly treat captured Trojan women. The messenger informs the family of Priam that the wife of King Hecub will become a slave of Odysseus, her eldest daughter Cassandra will be the concubine of Agamemnon, the youngest daughter Polyxena will be sacrificed at the grave of Achilles, Hector's wife Andromache will be given as a concubine to Achilles' son Neoptolemus. The victors also kill the son of Andromache, although the child is not guilty of anything before the Greeks. Euripides condemns the war of conquest, believing that the truth is on the side of the Trojans who defended their homeland, while the Greeks went to war against Troy because of the depraved Helen, who, carried away by the beauty and fabulous wealth of Paris, herself threw herself into his arms. It is quite possible that the tragedy of the "Trojanka", set before the people of Athens in 415 BC, was a warning against the campaign started by Alcibiades in Sicily, which turned into 413 BC. a monstrous catastrophe, when most of the Athenians were captured and sold into slavery, and the strategists Nicias and Demosthenes were executed.

Euripides allowed war only as a means of defense and defense of justice. In The Petitioners, Theseus, the exponent of the poet's views, wages war against the Thebans only until he defeats them, but stops his army when it could already break into the defeated city. And in the Heraclides, the Athenians insist on the release of the captured Eurystheus, in contrast to Alcmene, who personifies Spartan cruelty. One must know, says the poet, that victory does not bring lasting happiness. “Mad is that mortal who destroys cities, temples and graves, the shrines of the dead: having betrayed them, he will later die,” such a warning is made by Poseidon at the beginning of the Trojans.

The patriot of Athens, Euripides, sang of the self-sacrifice of citizens for the sake of saving their native city. So, in the tragedy "Heraclides" the daughter of Hercules, young Macaria, sacrifices herself to save her native city and her brothers and sisters. In The Phoenicians, Menekey, the son of Creon, having learned that for the victory of the homeland over enemies, it is required to sacrifice him, without hesitation, secretly from his father, gives his life. Self-sacrifice is the main motif of the tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis", where the heroine voluntarily sacrifices herself for the good of Greece. In the tragedy Erechtheus, which has not come down to us, a mother sacrificed her daughter to save Athens.

In some tragedies, under the guise of events of the mythological past, Euripides showed the noble deeds of the Athenian state, always ready to stand up for the trampled justice. So, once Athens stood up for the children of Hercules ("Heraclides"), achieved the retribution of funeral honors to the dead participants in the campaign of the seven against Thebes ("The Petitioner").

The ideal state system for Euripides is democracy, as evidenced by one of the scenes in The Petitioners, where Theseus takes under his protection the wives and mothers of the soldiers who fell under Thebes. When a negotiating ambassador comes from this city to Athens, the playwright introduces a dispute on the topic of the best state structure into the play. The Theban ambassador proves the unsuitability of democracy in view of the fact that power belongs to the crowd, which is run by clever demagogues. Theseus, in response to this, exposes the vileness of tyranny, glorifies the freedom and equality that reign in a democratic state.

Euripides considered the middle social strata of small proprietors and artisans to be the basis of Athenian democracy. The type of such a citizen who lives by the fruits of his labor is shown in the form of a peasant, the fictitious husband of Electra. Electra herself notes his high nobility, and Orestes, having met him, reflects on the discrepancy that is observed in the natures of people. The son of a noble father turns out to be worthless, and a person from a poor and insignificant family turns out to be noble. Therefore, it is not the origin that should be valued higher, but the moral properties of people ("Electra", 367-398). The outward position will not change the moral qualities: the unfit will always remain unfit, but no misfortune will ever corrupt the noble. Of considerable importance in this is education ("Hekuba", 595-602).

At the same time, Euripides understood the danger of demagoguery influencing Athenian society, considering it fertile ground for the emergence of tyranny. In "Orestes" the image of an orator is written out - an impudent screamer, which, as ancient critics already believed, was written off from one of the contemporary demagogues of Euripides, maybe from Cleophon. The playwright repeatedly presented Odysseus as a similar demagogue ("Hecuba", 130-131, 254-257; "Trojans", 277-291; "Iphigenia in Aulis", 525-527).

National and world significance of Euripides

When the ridicule of comedians lost its relevance over time, and the dramas of Aeschylus and Sophocles lost their novelty, the tragedies of Euripides in their spirit turned out to be surprisingly modern for the Greeks already in the 4th BC, firmly entering the golden fund of classical Greek literature. From the era of Hellenism, the work of Euripides gained even greater popularity and spread widely throughout the ancient world. The understanding of the human soul, the originality of the plot, the interesting vision of intrigue, the simplicity of the language and the elegance of colloquial speech were close and understandable to connoisseurs of high art and ordinary people. The plays touched the audience so much that even the tyrant Alexander Fersky, who calmly buried his enemies alive in the ground, wept at the performance of "Troyanok", and the inhabitants of Abdera, according to Lucian's story, after the production of "Andromeda" came into such a feverish state that they literally became obsessed with tragedy . All of them were pale and thin, and uttered iambs and shouted loudly, most often performing monologues from Euripides' Andromeda. This state continued with them for a long time, until winter began and the onset of severe cold stopped their delirium.

For critics and grammarians of Alexandria, the simplicity of Euripides' language was not so interesting, but they enthusiastically studied variations of the plots of famous myths and tried to rid the texts of plays from later interpolations. The Athenian scholar Philochor, known for his work on the history of Attica, wrote one of the first biographies of Euripides, while Dicaearchus and Callimachus systematized the corpus of the tragedian's writings. Euripides also became quite early known in Rome: already the first Roman educator Livius Andronicus, who translated Greek poetry into Latin, first of all sought to acquaint the Roman public with the tragedies of Euripides. Prominent Roman poets - Ennius, Ovid, Seneca - creatively processed the dramas of Euripides.

After a break in the Middle Ages, interest in Euripides re-emerged during the Renaissance and Classicism. The tragedies of Euripides influenced Corneille, Racine and Voltaire. The ancient playwright was highly valued by Goethe and Schiller. The romantics Tik, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson were also fond of Euripides. In Russia, the dramas of Euripides were imitated (for example, Andromache by Peter Katenin), and some of his works were also translated. The main merit in the translation of the dramas of Euripides into Russian belongs to Innokenty Annensky

Ancient Greek literature

Euripides

Biography

In 408 BC e. the great playwright decided to leave Athens, accepting the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus. It is not known exactly what influenced Euripides' decision. Historians are inclined to think that the main reason was, if not persecution, then the resentment of a vulnerable creative person against fellow citizens for not recognizing merit. The fact is that out of 92 plays, only 4 were awarded prizes at theatrical competitions during the life of the author, and one play posthumously. The popularity of the playwright among the people is evidenced by the story of Plutarch about the terrible defeat of the Athenians in Sicily in 413 BC. e.:

“They were sold into slavery and branded on their foreheads in the form of a horse. Yes, there were those who, in addition to captivity, had to endure this as well. But even in such an extreme, they benefited from self-esteem and self-control. The owners either set them free or highly valued them. And some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside of Attica, honored the talent of Euripides. When visitors delivered to them small excerpts from his works, the Sicilians delightedly learned them by heart and repeated them to each other. It is said that at that time many of those who returned safely home warmly greeted Euripides and told him how they gained freedom by teaching the owner what was left in the memory of his poems, or how, wandering after the battle, they earned their food and water by singing songs from his tragedy."

The Athenian playwright Euripides was born on Salamis on September 23, 480 BC. e. His parents, the Athenians Mnesarchus and Kleito, fled to Salamis from Athens, fleeing the army of the Persian king Xerxes.

Euripides' father was a wealthy and respected man, and Kleito's mother was a vegetable trader. In his youth, Euripides was engaged in gymnastics and drawing, took lessons in oratory from Prodicus and Anaxagoras, and studied philosophy from Socrates. Euripides' first play, Peliad, was performed on stage in 455 BC. e.

In 441 BC the writer won the first prize for his work. Since then, he has not stopped writing. He also participated in the embassy to the Sicilian city of Syracuse, thus showing his social activity.

With his first wife, who bore him three sons, Euripides divorced because of her infidelity and composed the play Hippolytus, where he ridiculed intimate relationships. His second wife also did not differ in exemplary behavior. Disappointed in family life, Euripides became a misogynist, which made him the butt of jokes of the comedy master Aristophanes.

In 408 BC the great playwright left Athens and went to Macedonia at the invitation of King Archelaus, where he died in 406 BC. e. There were many legends about the cause of his death, which claimed that Euripides was the victim of a conspiracy. However, most likely, the elderly playwright simply could not stand the harsh Macedonian winter. Euripides was buried in Pella, the capital of Macedonia, although the Athenians asked permission to return his body to their homeland. In the theater of Athens, in memory of the great playwright, his statue was erected.

CHAPTER
VIII

EURIPID

Biography of Euripides (485/4-406 BC).
General characteristics of the dramaturgy of Euripides.
"Alkest".
"Medea".
"Hippolyte".
"Hercules".
"Pleading".
"And he".
"Iphigenia in Tauris".
"Electra".
"Orest".
"Iphigenia in Aulis".
Satyr drama Cyclops.
The significance of the dramaturgical activity of Euripides

BIOGRAPHY OF EUREPIDES (485-406 BC)

Euripides was the youngest of the three glorious Greek tragedians of the 5th century. BC e.: according to the Parian Chronicle 1, he was born in 485/4 BC. e. (According to other sources - in 480 BC) His father, Mnesarchides, was a small merchant, and his mother, Cleito, was a greenery seller and that, therefore, Euripides did not belong to the noble and wealthy sections of the population. However, some scholars consider this information to be a fiction of comedy poets, referring both to the good education received by Euripides and his participation in some festivities accessible only to people of noble birth. Euripides reveals in his tragedies an excellent knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy; he was well acquainted with the teachings of the philosophers Anaxagoras, Prodicus and Protagoras, and, apparently, was on friendly terms with Socrates. According to information dating back to antiquity, Euripides also knew painting well, but he did not write music for his plays, instructing the musician Timocrates of Argos to do this, and did not perform on stage - in contrast to Aeschylus and Sophocles.
Not taking a direct part in the socio-political life of his state, Euripides preferred to indulge in solitude to poetic creativity. But this avoidance of social and political activity did not mean that the playwright was not interested in the affairs of the Athenian state. His tragedies are full of political discourses and allusions; the theater was a real political platform for Euripides. At twenty-five, he took part in tragic competitions, but received only the third award. According to evidence coming from antiquity, in his entire life Euripides won the first five victories (one of them posthumously), while from seventy-five to ninety-eight dramatic works were attributed to him.
In 408, Euripides moved to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus and lived here, surrounded by honor, until his death, which followed in 406 (a few months before the death of Sophocles).

1 The Parian Chronicle is a marble slab found at the beginning of the 18th century. on the island of Paros, on which 93 incomplete lines have been preserved. The Chronicle cites facts from the political and cultural history of Ancient Greece. So, it contains data about competitions, holidays, about poets.

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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRAMATURGY OF EUREPIDES

Seventeen tragedies and one satyr drama have come down to us from Euripides. Almost all of the surviving plays were written by Euripides during the Peloponnesian War. During this period of strong social upheaval, faith in the old gods fluctuates, new trends in philosophy appear, and a number of new questions are raised and discussed. Euripides very clearly reflected in his work this turning point in Greek history. All the burning issues of our time are touched upon by the playwright in his tragedies. But first of all, it must be said that the tragedy itself became different with Euripides than it was with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Euripides brought his heroes closer to real life. According to Aristotle, Euripides depicted people as they really are. This desire of Euripides for a realistic depiction of characters did not please the Athenians, it seemed to them a violation of the traditional nature of the tragedy and was one of the reasons for Euripides' failures in dramatic competitions. But there were other reasons as well. The Athenians were confused by the free attitude of Euripides to myths. Taking any ancient myth, Euripides changed it not only in details, but also in essential features. In addition, in a number of tragedies of Euripides,

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criticism of old religious beliefs. The gods turn out to be more cruel, insidious and vindictive than people. Even where there is no direct criticism, the poet's skeptical attitude towards ancient beliefs is often visible. This is due to the fact that the philosophy of the sophists had a strong influence on the work of Euripides. The thoughts of the sophists on various issues of public life, their criticism of old religious beliefs are reflected in the tragedies of Euripides, and therefore some researchers call him a "philosopher from the stage." And one more trait passed into the tragedies of Euripides from the sophists: for the most part, his heroes reason a lot and subtly and turn out to be very skillful in the methods of sophistic proof.
In his political views, Euripides was a supporter of moderate democracy. He does not approve of the extreme democracy of his time, depicting it as the rule of the mob and calling it a "terrible scourge." On the other hand, he does not like the aristocracy, boasting of their noble origin and wealth. In his eyes, the "middle" class is the most solid foundation of the state. And above all, this is a farmer who cultivates the land "with his own hands." In the tragedy “Electra”, a simple farmer who showed hospitality to Orestes and showed himself to be generous, is called noble, because, according to Orestes, true nobility lies in the nobility of the soul.
In a number of his tragedies, Euripides expresses ardent patriotic feelings, glorifying Athens, their gods and heroes, their nature, respect for guests and petitioners, justice and generosity. In the plays of Euripides there are constant allusions to contemporary political events to the playwright. The latter even become a direct impetus for the creation of drama. In connection with the Peloponnesian War, questions are raised about treaties, about allies, more than once a feeling of hostility towards the Spartans is expressed, and at the same time, the disasters and suffering generated by the war, and especially the suffering of women, are depicted. In his tragedies, Euripides touches upon the question of the position of women, which was very disturbing at that time in Athenian society, and puts, for example, into the mouth of the heroine of the tragedy Medea, a number of deep thoughts about the female lot.
The attitude of Euripides towards slaves is characteristic. They do not occupy an inferior position in his plays and often act as confidants of their masters. Slaves in Euripides take on the same significance that servants have on the modern European scene. In the tragedy "Elena" (v. 727 and following), the idea, radical for that time, is directly expressed that a good, pure-hearted slave is the same person as a free one.
The dramatic skill of Euripides is characterized by the following features. He not only confronts his characters in sharp dramatic conflicts (Aeschylus and Sophocles did this before him), but also forces the audience to be present at the subtlest spiritual experiences of his characters. He knows how to choose and vividly depict the amazing moments of each situation and at the same time give an in-depth psychological characterization of his characters.
The severity of dramatic conflicts, which usually leads to the death of the hero or his loved ones, in combination with this in-depth psychological characteristic makes Euripides "the most tragic

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from poets. That is what Aristotle 1 calls him, pointing out that many of Euripides' tragedies end in misfortune, although he reproaches him at the same time for the composition of some plays. Indeed, the straightforward development of the action in Euripides is sometimes hindered by a number of side episodes that slow down the movement of the drama. Therefore, with regard to the unity of action, Euripides is inferior to Aeschylus and Sophocles.
When staging his tragedies, Euripides, like Sophocles, used three actors. However, he also has plays where two actors perform. The chorus in Euripides no longer has such a close connection with the development of the action as in Sophocles. At times, he is only a passive contemplator of ongoing events. Sometimes the choir either expresses sympathy for the heroes in their suffering, or tries to reconcile the warring parties, or simply expresses their opinion about the events taking place. At times, in choral parts, Euripides expresses, without even trying to hide it, his own favorite views and thoughts. In addition to the songs of the choir, there are also monodies in the tragedies of Euripides. They are already found in Sophocles, but only Euripides began to use them widely. One must think that these monodies made a great impression on the viewer and listener,2 but it is difficult for us to judge their musical merit: we do not know the melody underlying them, as well as the actors' plastic play associated with them.
A few more remarks need to be made about Euripides' prologues and denouements. They have their own character. Sometimes in the prologues, Euripides not only gives the plot of the tragedy, but also tells in advance all of its content. It is quite obvious that such a construction of the prologue is less grateful in a purely artistic sense than that of Aeschylus or Sophocles. But Euripides treats myths so freely, removing from them what is known to everyone and, on the contrary, adding his own, that without such an introduction, sometimes even revealing the content of the tragedy, much for the viewer would simply remain unclear.
When studying the prologues of Euripides, the following can be noted. Having put forward a proposition in the prologue, he returns to it more than once in the course of the tragedy, covering it with more and more evidence and making it more and more convincing through logical reasoning and purely artistic means.
Differ in features and outcomes of the tragedies of Euripides. They are not always skillfully built, and therefore one has to unravel the tangled tangle of events with the help of a deity that appears on the eorem (“god from the machine”). Resorting to such outcomes, Euripides probably wanted to pay a certain amount of attention to the deities in his tragedies, since he did not always give them a place in the development of the action of the tragedy itself.

1 Aristotle, On the Art of Poetry, Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1957, p. 89.
2 We know that monody arias from the tragedies of Euripides were also performed in the Hellenistic era.

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"ALKESTA"

In Alces, Euripides depicts the image of a devoted wife who decided to give her life for the life of her husband. As a reward for the piety of the Thessalian king Admetus, Apollo won special favor for him from the maidens of fate Moir: when the day of his death comes, he will be able to stay alive if someone close to him agrees to die instead of him. This day has come, but none of the relatives of Admet did not want to give their lives for him, and only his faithful wife Alcesta voluntarily goes to death for the sake of her husband's life. Apollo tells about this in the prologue, referring to the palace of Admet, in front of which the action of the play is played out. Apollo is about to leave his dear home so that the filth of death does not touch him. The subsequent appearance of the demon of death in black clothes and with a sword in his hand and the dispute about the life of Alcesta between him and Apollo enhance the drama of the prologue. When Apollo retires, the demon of death enters the palace to take his victim. The character of the heroine and her emotional experiences are vividly depicted in the scene of farewell to loved ones, and her death takes place in this play, contrary to generally accepted dramatic rules, in front of the audience. Admet takes his wife out of the palace, supporting her in his arms. They are accompanied by a crowd of servants and maids. Here are the children of Alkesta - a boy and a girl. The monody of Alkesta follows; she turns to the sky, daylight, to the clouds running in the sky, to the roof of the palace and to the maiden bed of her native Iolk. Then she speaks with horror about the vision that presented itself to her, it seems to her that the carrier to the kingdom of the dead Charon hurries her to quickly set off with him. Alcesta, at her request, is lowered onto a bed. She turns to Admet with the expression of her last will. She says that she considers his life more worthy than her own, and therefore she decided to die for him. But she does not want to taste happiness in separation from him. In return for her sacrifice, Admet should not bring a new wife into the house, so as not to give the children a stepmother. The last will is expressed, the forces gradually leave Alcesta, and she dies. Admet gives orders for the funeral, everyone should put on mourning clothes. The body of Alcesta is taken to the palace.
After some time, a new character appears on the orchestra - Hercules, who entered Thera 2 on his way to Thrace. He will be the culprit of the happy ending of the drama, which Apollo hinted at in the prologue. Hercules sees the signs of mourning, but Admet hides the truth from his friend, telling him that an outsider, although a woman close to the family, has died. From the point of view of the ancient Greek, this was a pious lie, since the duty of hospitality was considered one of the ancient Hellenic institutions. Hercules wants to leave in order to find another hearth for himself, but Admet convinces him to stay. By order of Admetus, a servant introduces Hercules through a side door into the guest chamber of the palace.

1 The life of a man, as a father of a family and a warrior, was considered more precious than a woman's life. 2 Thera is an ancient city in Thessaly.

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Conventionally, during the period of time during which Hercules was received in this chamber, preparations were underway in another part of the palace for the removal of the body. A short time after the funeral procession leaves the palace and heads along with the choir of the Ferey elders to the burial place of Alcesta, Hercules appears on the orchestra with a wreath on his head and a cup of wine in his hands. First of all, he expresses dissatisfaction with the gloomy appearance of the servant who ordered his refreshments, and then preaches a kind of philosophy of life: one must rejoice in one's being, sing, live for today, leaving the rest to fate, and honor the most pleasant of all goddesses - Aphrodite. For tragedy, as the Greeks understood it, this scene is indisputably reduced. The uneven speech of a tipsy person falling into an instructive tone is well conveyed. But how Hercules changes when he finally learns from a servant that it was not an outside woman who died, but Alcesta! There is no trace of drunkenness. When the servant leaves, Hercules utters a short monologue in which he addresses his much-tested heart. In gratitude for the hospitality, he must return Admet's wife. And Hercules tells about his plan: he will go to the grave of Alcesta, attack the demon of death from an ambush there, squeeze him in his mighty arms and force him to return Alcesta.
The last part of the play is devoted to a happy ending. It should have been perceived with especially great interest by the audience, since before that it was shown the deep despair that seizes Admetus, who returned from the funeral, at the sight of an empty palace. Then follows the mystification of Admetus by Hercules, who appears in the orchestra, leading a woman wrapped in a long veil. Reproaching Admet for deceit, Hercules asks him to take this woman into the house before his return; she got him as a reward at public games. Admet does not agree to fulfill this request, because after the funeral of his wife he would not want to see women in his palace, moreover, the stranger with her figure surprisingly reminds him of Alcesta. After the stubborn insistence of Hercules, Admet finally, in disgust, takes the woman's hand in order to lead her into the palace. At this moment, Hercules pulls off the veil from her - and Admet sees Alcesta in front of him. At first, he does not believe his eyes and thinks that there is a ghost in front of him. But Hercules assures his friend that this is his true wife, and tells how he recaptured her on the grave from the demon of death.
This play occupies a special place not only in the surviving heritage of Euripides, but in general in ancient dramaturgy, which was already noted in antiquity. It is known that in the tetralogy she was in fourth place, that is, she was supposed to play the role of a satyr drama. However, there is no choir of satyrs in it, and it is very far from the unconstrained and unbridled fun that this choir brought to the stage with it. Yet one feature is characteristic of "Alcesta" to a much greater extent than other plays of Euripides: this is a conscious combination of tragic and comedic style. The scene between Hercules and the servant is on the verge of tragedy and comedy, especially at the beginning. The hoax of Hercules at the end of the play also has a touch of comedy. However, in general, the dramatic situation between Alcesta and Admet, Admet and Hercules is interpreted with great

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seriousness and extreme pathos. This especially applies to the scene of Alcesta's death and to the scene of Admet's return after his wife's funeral, when, in the apt expression of I. F. Annensky, "Admet realized through suffering that there is a life that is worse than death."
Euripides touches on a motive in the play, which he will repeatedly touch on in his other dramas. Admet's unconscious selfishness and love of life are vividly contrasted with women's devotion and self-sacrifice in the play. In the scene of farewell to Alcesta, he begs his wife not to leave him, forgetting that he himself agreed to accept her sacrifice. The unconscious egoism of Admet comes out even more clearly in the scene of his argument at the body of Alcesta with his father Feret. Admet does not allow his father, who came with funeral gifts, to the body of Alcesta. Between the son and the father there is a sharp explanation. Admet considers his parents, who did not want to die for him, to be the true culprits in the death of Alcesta.
Feret is also an egoist, but an egoist who is perfectly aware of his love of life. He finds it quite natural - after all, the old man has so little left to live. And everyone is cheerful, Feret says. The best example of this is Admetus himself, who bought his life at the cost of the death of his wife.
"Alcesta" is one of the best plays by Euripides, both in terms of the fascinating construction of the plot, which develops a motif characteristic of the folklore of many peoples (the return to the life of a deceased person), and in terms of the charming image of a tender and loving wife, sacrificing herself for the life of her husband. And the purely spectacular side of the tragedy, closely connected with the development of the plot and the characters depicted in it, already provides a number of such means of theatrical expression, which Euripides later uses in other dramas. These include the scene of the death of the heroine in front of the audience, the funeral ceremony, the showing of children on stage, the performance of monodies in the most pathetic places.

"MEDEA"

In this tragedy, staged on stage in 431 BC. e., Euripides draws a different female image, very different from the image of Alcesta. Alkesta is a devoted wife and tender mother. Her self-sacrifice testifies to her strong will, aimed at saving the life of the head of the family, giving him the opportunity to raise their children. Medea is not only strong-willed, but also passionate, endowed with a stormy temperament and unable to forgive the offense inflicted on her. Having fallen in love with the Argonaut Jason, she helps him get the Golden Fleece and flees with him to Greece. But when after a few
years, Jason decides to marry the daughter of the Corinthian king and abandons Medea, and the king of Corinth Creon wants, in addition, to expel her with her children from the city, Medea cruelly takes revenge on her traitor husband, and Creon, and his daughter. With the help of magical gifts, she first destroys the princess and her father, and then, wanting to take revenge on Jason more painfully, kills her children born from him and flies away with their bodies on a chariot drawn by winged dragons.
The scene depicts the house of Jason and Medea in Corinth. In the prologue, a nurse speaks, telling about the misfortune that befell Medea, whom she left

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Jason. Refusing food, Medea sheds tears on her bed day and night and shouts that her husband has treacherously violated his oath. Even the children began to hate her. Knowing Medea's character, the nurse expresses fear for the future. Her anxiety increases even more when she learns from the teacher, who appears in the orchestra with two boys, the sons of Medea, that a new misfortune has befallen her mistress: Creon expels her with the children from Corinth. Offstage, the screams of Medea are heard, calling death to her. The nurse advises the children to hide and not show themselves to the eyes of their mother, seized with anger and rage. Screaming is heard again from behind the stage. Medea curses both the children and the father who gave birth to them. A choir of Corinthian women appears to the voice of Medea. They came to comfort Medea in her grief. Thus, Euripides very skillfully prepares the performance of the choir in the prologue - parods. Medea's screams behind the scenes continue after the parod. When, at the request of the choir, Medea leaves the house, the explosion of rage has already passed and she more calmly talks about the misfortune that has befallen her. Medea speaks bitterly to the chorus about the plight of a woman who must be a weak-willed slave of her husband and look into his eyes even when he on the side amuses his heart with love. Medea: after all, she is in a foreign land, she has no home, no relatives, no friends. Medea asks the chorus for only one thing: let him not interfere with her if she finds any means to take revenge on her husband. From that moment on, all the actions and deeds of Medea are determined by the desire to carry out her revenge. She asks Creon to let her stay in Corinth for at least one day to figure out where to go with her children and how to arrange them. When Creon gives this permission, Medea, turning to the choir, says that she needs one day of respite in order to accomplish revenge.
In the explanation that follows between Medea and Jason, the characters of both main characters are well revealed. The meeting of a husband and his rejected wife is one of the most powerful scenes in the tragedy. Jason very cleverly avoids the main question about the reasons for Medea's hatred. He starts his speech with an attack. For his malice, for his loose tongue, Medea receives, according to Jason, too little punishment: for such crimes, even exile is good. Calling himself a true friend, Jason offers Medea help so that she and her children do not remain in a foreign land without funds. In a strong and vivid speech, Medea accuses Jason of shamelessness. Having done so much harm to his loved ones, he can still look them in the eye. Medea remembers everything she did for Jason. She talks about her crimes, committed out of love for him. And what? As a reward for all this, he forgot about his vows and cheated on her. She point-blank puts the question to Jason, where should she go with the children.
Objecting to Medea, Jason resorts to the most shameless sophisms. In vain does Medea exalt her services; he himself believes that he owes everything to Cyprida, who ignited love for him in Medea. Moreover, he has long

1 In these reasonings of Medea one can feel the echo of the social disputes of that time; the patriarchal family was being destroyed, and, perhaps, for the first time in history, the women's question arose before Athenian society.

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and more than paid his debt to his wife. Medea no longer lives among the barbarians, but in Greece and enjoys fame. As for marriage, he entered into a new marriage in order to arrange himself and strengthen the position of his children through their brothers, who will be born to him from a new wife. What greater happiness could fall to the lot of an exile than an alliance with a princess? Medea refutes Jason's last argument - an honest man would first persuade his relatives and only then marry, while Jason married first. Medea indignantly refuses any help that Jason offers her.
After the song of the choir about the terrible power of the Eros and about the destruction that they brought to the life of Medea, a foreigner, the Athenian king Aegeus, enters the orchestra. At first glance, the scene with Aegeus seems to have little to do with the development of the plot of the play. In fact, this is the last push that helps to finally decide on Medea's revenge plan. And the point is not only that Medea is now getting a place where she can flee from Corinth. Aegeus is childless, which is why he was in Delphi and asked God to grant him offspring. From the point of view of the ancient Greek, childlessness was considered the greatest misfortune. And here, in a conversation with Aegeus, Medea has the idea to inflict this greatest misfortune on Jason and deprive him of offspring by killing his children. After Aegeus leaves, a triumphant Medea tells the chorus of her plan for revenge. She will call Jason back and pretend to agree with Creon's verdict. She will ask Jason to leave their children in Corinth. What about children
help her kill the princess. She will send gifts with them: a poisoned ash of wondrous work and a diadem. As soon as the princess puts them on, she will be engulfed in flames and die in agony; whoever touches it will perish. Medea, after that, will have to kill the children - she will uproot Jason's house. Chorus tries to talk Medea out of her decision. The corypheus of the chorus asks if she will dare to kill her children. Medea answers this with a question:

How can I hurt more than Jason? 1

In the scene of the second explanation of Jason and Medea, on the one hand, the imaginary meekness of Medea, as if only now understanding what her blessing is, and Jason's complacency, frankly rejoicing that an unpleasant business comes to a happy ending, are well shown.
The audience learned about what happened behind the scenes from the story of the messenger, who reported the terrible death of the princess and her father from the gifts of Medea. After the messenger's story, Medea decides to kill the children immediately. However, this decision is followed by painful hesitation. Caressing the children on the stage, Medea leaves her terrible plan, then returns to him again. But finally the decision has been made. Addressing herself, Medea says:

Today you
Do not mother them, no, but tomorrow the heart is crying
You will saturate. you kill them
And you love. Oh, how unhappy I am, wives! -

Medea speaks the last words to the chorus, who during the whole scene reveals amazing passivity. Medea takes the children behind the stage, from where

1 Euripides, Plays, M., Art, 1960, p. 69.
2 Ibid., p. 84.

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after a few moments, their cries, crying and words are heard:

Rather, for God's sake, they will kill us! ..
Iron now will compress us networks

Jason promptly enters the orchestra and asks the choir where the villain Medea is. However, Jason now thinks not so much about her - she still cannot escape punishment - but about her children. He is afraid that the relatives of Creon will not take revenge on them for the crime of their mother. Chorus informs Jason that Medea killed the children. Jason orders the servants to break open the doors of the palace, but at that moment Medea appears in the air on a chariot drawn by winged dragons, with the bodies of the murdered boys. To the curses of Jason, Medea replies that, having avenged him, she painfully touched his heart, and her own pain is easy for her if now he cannot laugh at her. Jason, cursing the murderer,

1 Euripides, Plays, p. 86.

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begs to give him children for burial. Medea refuses him this: she herself will bury the children in the sacred grove of the goddess Hera. Jason pleads in vain for Medea to let him at least embrace the bodies of the children. The air chariot takes off.
The significance of this tragedy for the history of the Greek stage was well defined by the famous French scientist of the last century, A. Patin. Calling the performance terrible and tearing apart the soul, he regards it as a revolution in the Greek theater, changing the face of the Greek stage, since in Medea the place of the old predestination of fate has been replaced by the predestination of passion. Indeed, the real basis of action in this tragedy is the passions that dominate the soul of Medea. They are not inspired from above, and in the very course of events there is no intervention of a deity that could create a situation favorable for the manifestation of human passion or, on the contrary, preventing this manifestation. The heroine is fully responsible for her actions, which, as she herself is well aware of, bring about the complete collapse of her own life.
Developing a mythological plot, Euripides, naturally, retains a number of such traits in the character of Medea and such actions that myths gave him: she is a sorceress, she puts the dragon to sleep, commits terrible crimes - she kills her brother while fleeing from Colchis and then destroys Pelias in Iolka. All this, however, takes place before the beginning of the play, but in the play itself, she carries out her revenge on the princess with the help of magic. At the same time, in the passionate and unrestrained character of Medea, there is something reminiscent of the fact that she is a foreigner, born and raised among the barbarians. However, this is not what brings the playwright to the fore, drawing the image of Medea. Already in the first episode, when Medea comes out to the choir, she is not the sorceress of Colchis, but an abandoned and completely desperate woman, a contemporary of the playwright, and the audience is, in essence, present at a terrible family drama. The suffering of Medea, in whose soul there is a struggle between maternal love and a thirst for revenge, is depicted with great pathos and psychological persuasiveness. In the end, the thirst for revenge suppresses all other human feelings, and the crime is committed. However, the viewer, before whose eyes all the vicissitudes of the collision of the main characters of the tragedy passed, feels compassion for Medea and begins to understand how she could come to her terrible crime.
This is all the more remarkable because, from the point of view of an ordinary Greek, Jason acted quite consistently and correctly. He decided to strengthen the position of both his own and his children, and in this case (and, indeed, in all others) he had every right to disregard the feelings of the woman he was leaving. Jason is represented in the tragedy as a selfish and self-satisfied person who cares partly about himself, partly about the interests of the family and is not at all interested in what is happening in the soul of Medea. And only in the last scene, where he is shown completely broken by the terrible revenge of Medea, does the viewer feel compassion for him.
Medea contains a number of political allusions. Thus, in the words of Stasimus I, “the sanctity of oaths has disappeared...” (vv. 412-413), some researchers see an indication of the political situation on the eve of the Peloponnesian War.

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It was a time of mutual hostility and distrust, violation of treaties and feverish preparations for war. The tragedy received the third prize. The reasons for this assessment are not clear to us. But on the other hand, at a later time, Medea was recognized as one of the best plays by Euripides.

"IPPOLIT"

This tragedy was on the Athenian stage in March 428 BC. e. It was part of the tetralogy, awarded the first award. The play is based on the myth of Hippolytus, the natural son of the Athenian king Theseus from the Amazon Antiope, and of his stepmother Phaedra's unhappy love for him. The very date of the production of "Hippolytus" indicates that after "Medea" the playwright was carried away by the idea of portraying a strong human passion - this time love, leading to the death of both Phaedra, seized with passion, and the one she loves. A comparison of the plot of both plays allows us to establish some similarities between them. Medea's ardent love for Jason gives rise to a feeling of passionate indignation in her after Jason's betrayal, and then a thirst for revenge. In Medea, revenge and the experiences associated with its implementation come to the fore, while love for Jason is not revealed in detail, although it is mentioned several times in the drama. In Hippolytus, on the contrary, Euripides depicts Phaedra's love passion, a feeling of boundless despair associated with rejected love, and finally, fear of exposure and inevitable shame. But the desire that flared up in Phaedra to take revenge on Hippolytus and draw him into inevitable death is motivated and depicted extremely briefly.
The myth of Hippolyta became widespread in Greece in the 5th century. BC e. exclusively thanks to the Athenian theater, since it left almost no traces in previous literature. Lyric poetry does not seem to know him. It is only known that in the picture of the underworld, executed for the Delphic temple (between 480 and 476), Polygnotus depicted Phaedra among criminal women - obviously, as the culprit of the death of Hippolytus. On the contrary, in the next century the legend of Hippolytus and Phaedra became the subject of numerous images. Attic tragedy introduced it into literature and art and immortalized it in the form in which we now know it from the tragedy of Euripides.
The myth of Hippolyta was localized in the Peloponnesian city of Troezen. The author of the Description of Hellas, the Greek traveler Pausanias (II century AD), saw in Troezen a temple in honor of Artemis, erected, according to legend, by Hippolytus. A beautiful corner with a temple and a statue was dedicated to Hippolytus in Troezen. A priest appointed for life was in charge of the cult of Hippolytus, in whose honor annual sacrifices were made. Local custom required, in addition, that young girls devote a lock of their hair to him before marriage. The memory of Hippolytus remained closely connected with the memory of Phaedra. In Troezen was the tomb of Phaedra, not far from the tomb of Hippolytus. There was also a temple of Aphrodite in Troezen, from where Phaedra seemed to look at the young man when he was doing physical exercises in the stadium that bears his name and is located

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near the temple. Pausanias testifies to the existence of the tomb of Hippolytus near the Acropolis, located in front of the temple of Themis.
The tragedy takes place in the city of Troezen, where Theseus had to retire for a year of exile for shedding the blood of his relatives. The scene depicted a palace belonging to Theseus; in front of the palace were two statues - Artemis and Aphrodite. In the prologue, containing not only the plot of the drama, but also setting out its plot in the main lines, Aphrodite appears. Naming herself, she speaks of the glory of her name both in heaven and on earth. Everywhere she exalts those who bow before her power, and punishes her enemies. Among these enemies is Hippolyte. Only he alone in Troezen calls her the worst of all goddesses, honoring the daughter of Zeus, the maiden Artemis, above all immortals. Hippolytus sinned against Aphrodite and must now be punished. The goddess has already managed to inspire the stepmother of Hippolyte Phaedra with a passion for her stepson. This love will destroy Hippolytus, as well as Phaedra. Hippolytus will die from the curse of Theseus when he learns of his shame.
Offstage, a hymn in honor of Artemis is heard. Hippolyte, together with his companions, returns from hunting. Leaving the stage, Aphrodite once again speaks of the inevitable death of Hippolytus. Ippolit leaves with his companions. Here before us - as far as can be judged from the surviving tragedies - is the only case of a second, secondary choir, consisting of hunters, comrades of Hippolytus, performing in the prologue. The choir sings a hymn in honor of Artemis. Hippolyte approaches the statue of the goddess and asks to accept a wreath from him. He plucked it in a reserved meadow, which only people who are pure by nature can enter. The old slave asks Hippolytus to honor Aphrodite as well. Hippolytus' answer sounds insulting to the goddess:

From a distance, as pure, I honor her.

Offensive and his following words:

God, honored only in darkness, is not dear to me.

After the departure of Hippolyta, the servant asks the goddess to forgive the young man for these impudent words:

We are not for that, you gods, and wiser 2.

The slave does not even suspect how bitter irony his words sound - the death of Hippolytus is already a foregone conclusion by Aphrodite.
The parod is skillfully connected with the prologue. A chorus of women from Trezen appears, to whom the news of the suffering of the queen has reached; the third day she does not eat food, languishing in an unknown torment. But then the door of the palace opens. Phaedra appears, supported by a nurse. The maids place a bed near the door, on which they lay the queen. In love delirium Phaedra asks to take her to the mountains,

Where is the predatory pack behind the spotted doe
chasing eagerly 3.

She would like to throw a Thessalian dart or drive four Venetian horses. But little by little Phaedra comes to her senses, and she becomes ashamed of her words. Nurse tries to find out the causes of suffering

1 Euripides, Plays, p. 101.
2 Ibid., p. 102.
3 Ibid., p. 102.

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Phaedra. But all in vain - Phaedra is silent. However, in the end, after the persistent plea of the nurse, Phaedra reveals to her the secret of her illness: she loves Hippolytus. The Nurse, hearing this confession, falls into despair and wishes herself dead. Addressing the choir, Phaedra says that she tried to fight her passion for a long time, but all in vain. There is only one thing left for her now - to die, otherwise she will cover her husband and children with disgrace.
There comes a wonderful scene of the temptation of Phaedra by the nurse, who wants to save her mistress.
Phaedra speaks of honor and pride - the nurse, with the confidence of an experienced sophist, speaks of prudence, which ordered not to fight with passion, about the flow of Aphrodite, which cannot be stopped. Everywhere, she will insinuatingly assure, love reigns, to which everything in the world owes its life; love both people and gods. And Phaedra does not need to resist love, but a happy outcome should be found. It is necessary to find out as soon as possible how Hippolytus relates to her feelings, and therefore it is necessary to tell him everything bluntly. Such is the course of the nurse's rhetorically constructed reasoning. Phaedra strongly objects, calling them shameful; she also rejects the nurse's offer to reveal her feelings to Hippolyte. But then, little by little, she gives in, especially when the nurse says that she has an effective harmless remedy that will heal Phaedra without offending her honor. The text at this point (vv. 509-524) suggests that Phaedra is thinking of a potion that would cure her of her pernicious passion, but the nurse's plan is to tell Hippolytus about everything. The nurse leaves, and the choir sings a song about the omnipotence and cruelty of Eros. With the last words of the song, some voices are heard from the palace. Phaedra listens and then tells the chorus that she clearly heard Hippolytus call the wet nurse a pimp. The secret of her love is revealed, and Phaedra sees inevitable death before her. An excited Hippolyte comes out to the orchestra, the nurse runs behind, clinging to his clothes. She begs Hippolytus not to divulge secrets, as he has sworn to her not to tell her what he hears. This is followed by Hippolytus' reply:

The mouth swore, but the mind is not bound by an oath

Hippolytus is outraged by the act of Phaedra and the nurse, who dared to offer her son the sacred bed of his father. He delivers a passionate diatribe against women in general. After the departure of Hippolytus, Phaedra's monody follows, in which she sings about her bitter female fate and that there is no way out for her. Phaedra decides to die. She leaves for the palace, and after a few minutes, filled with the singing of the choir, the cry of the nurse is heard from the palace that Phaedra has hanged herself.
Theseus returns from the pilgrimage, accompanied by his retinue, and learns from the choir about Phaedra's suicide. He orders the slaves to knock down the locks at the doors. The locks are knocked down, and the doors are finally opened. Inside the palace, the corpse of Phaedra is visible on a couch. There are maids around her. While mourning his wife, Theseus notices a letter in her hand. In it, Phaedra names Hippolytus as the culprit of her death, allegedly

1 Euripides, Plays, p. 122. This elaborate formula, which contrasts the spirit of ethics with its letter, was very famous in antiquity, drawing the ire of traditionalists like Aristophanes.

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dishonoring her. Indignant, Theseus curses his son. He turns to Poseidon, who once promised Theseus to fulfill his three wishes, with a plea to destroy Hippolytus. Hippolytus, who came to his father's cry, justifies himself in vain; Theseus does not believe him. He accuses Hippolytus of hypocrisy, that under the guise of purity he hid his sensuality. But now he is no longer a mystery to anyone. Theseus orders Hippolytus to leave the Athenian land immediately. Refuting the words of his father, Hippolyte delivers a long defensive speech, but, bound by his oath, does not say anything about Phaedra's love for him. After this, Hippolyte retires into exile. About how he died when the horses carried the chariot, frightened by the monstrous bull thrown out by the sea, the audience learned from the story of the messenger.
Theseus orders to bring his son to him, although his anger has not yet subsided. The choir sings the second song about the power of Aphrodite. Exodus follows. Artemis appears above. Turning to Theseus, the goddess says that his son is not guilty of anything, and tells him the whole truth about Phaedra's love for Hippolytus. Hippolytus, wounded and tormented, is brought on a stretcher. Unbearably suffering, he begs to bring him a sword in order to quickly part with his life. Artemis comforts her dying friend. Hippolyte realizes that he, Phaedra and his father are the victims of Aphrodite. He pities his father more than himself. In her last word, Artemis threatens to remind Aphrodite of her cruel anger, saying that the day will come - and the one whom Aphrodite loves the most will die at the hands of her, Artemis 1. She promises Hippolytus to honor him on eternal times in Troezen: before the wedding, brides will dedicate part of their hair to him. Artemis disappears. Hippolyte dies, forgiving his father before his death.
The tragedy Hippolytus was to interest the Athenian audience primarily with its plot, since it was the first time that a voice of unbridled passion sounded in it, until then unknown to the Attic scene. True, in the denouement of Sophocles' Antigone, love comes into its own, and Haemon commits suicide because of love for Antigone, but in all the previous parts of the play it plays almost no role. And the jealousy of Dejanira, so well depicted in the Trachinians. is the jealousy of a legal wife, standing up for her rights, rather than a woman in love. In any case, if the Greek tragedy dealt with love, then it was spoken of in very restrained terms. True, the lyrics at one time violated this peculiar prohibition, and Sappho, for example, vividly depicted love experiences. But showing them directly on stage still shocked the Greek audience and seemed indecent to him.
A bold innovation of Euripides was the depiction on stage, among other emotional experiences and feelings of love. Apparently, he sometimes managed to overcome the prejudice of his contemporaries in this respect, which is clear from the fact that the trilogy, which included Hippolyta, received the first award by the verdict of the judges.

1 These words allude to the impending doom of Adonis. According to the myth, this was a beautiful young man whom Aphrodite fell in love with and whom she mourned when he died hunting from the fangs of a boar.

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although the tragedy depicted criminal love.
The central figure of this tragedy is not Phaedra, but Hippolytus. The very fact that he was the son of Theseus from the Amazon Antiope left a special imprint on him, in the eyes of the ancient Greek. Like his mother, he is distinguished by some severity, tries to get closer to nature and spend all his time in the forests and fields, in the circle of a select few peers. Hippolytus' greatest aspiration is to be virtuous, but his virtue is very different from the usual Greek idea of a man who might be called καλός κ "αγαθός 1. He sees her in absolute chastity. This ideal of severe asceticism appears in Hippolytus as a form of his piety. The deity to whom he devotes himself, because it corresponds to his ideas of perfect purity, is the virgin goddess Artemis.In the solitude of the forests, he hears the voice of the goddess with delight and enjoys communication with her, which is not given to other mortals.This asceticism of Hippolytus was alien to the vast majority the Greeks of that time, who considered it quite natural to use moderately all the joys of life, including the gifts of Aphrodite. Aphrodite punishes Hippolytus precisely because he refused to recognize her power, which extends to all living things. The ancient Greek would not have accepted Hippolytus' departure from public interests, and in particular from engaging in politics.Meanwhile, for the hero of the tragedy, the only form of connection with society is only participation in all-Hellenic competitions.
However, this desire to leave society and get closer to nature is a reflection of the social mood of that era. In the scene where Hippolytus justifies himself to his father, he asks him the following question: maybe he needed rapprochement with Phaedra in order to take over the kingdom? But, according to Hippolytus, the madman is the one who is seduced by the highest power. His dream is different - to be the first in the Hellenic competitions. He would like to live among his chosen friends, he does not need the disturbing power of the king. This desire to get away from the surrounding life was an indicator of the approaching crisis of the ancient slave society.
However, Hippolytus is not a calm contemplative of nature, in which there are only some features of severity. He reacts passionately to everything that seems dishonorable to him, and in his indignation is able to reach injustice and cruelty. Outraged by the confession of the nurse, Hippolytus falls with all his sarcasm and insulting words on all women in general. All of them turn out to be worthless creatures, and the best among them is the one that is endowed by nature with a lesser mind; at least it will be less deceitful. Hippolyte says all this, as if outwardly addressing the nurse. But Phaedra is also at this time in the orchestra, and it is quite obvious that these words are addressed primarily to her. Phaedra is silent when Hippolytus heaps insults on her, and her silence is one of the most expressive silent scenes in Greek drama. In his unbridled indignation, he does not want to hear even

1 καλός κ "αγαθός literally - beautiful and virtuous, that is, in all respects a perfect person, in whom excellent physical qualities and beautiful appearance are combined with inner nobility and valor.

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something from Phaedra herself and moves away, cursing all women.
At the same time, Hippolytus is convinced that he alone possesses the truth and, in his virtue, stands above other people. In response to his father's accusations, he responds not only with excuses for the misconduct attributed to him, but also with an arrogant assertion of his own perfection.

Look around at the ground where you step
Your foot, in the sun that her
Lives, and you will not find a single soul
More sinless than mine, at least you
And argued, the king 1.

The presence of such shortcomings in the character of Hippolyte lowers this image from ideal heights and makes it more original and vital.
Before writing her suicide letter, Phaedra appears to be a woman not only with a strong, but also a noble character. Being under the power of passion generated by Aphrodite, she strives to remain pure for Theseus and her children. And this is not only because of the fear of exposure. Her honor is based on the proud recognition of her purity, she looks at her involuntary passion as a shame deserving punishment. The consciousness of her fall would be unbearable for her. She rejects all secret love and sends a curse to those women who give their lovers a criminal embrace. With all the strength of her soul she resists the passion that has seized her. Exhausted from the struggle she had to fight with herself. Phaedra sees the only way out in death. But here, in the form of a demon-tempter, a nurse appears - and Phaedra succumbs to her, not even understanding properly what the saving means of her comforter will be. But how, then, to reconcile with such a character of Phaedra her deathbed cruelty towards Hippolytus, whom she basely slanders? In this regard, some researchers directly speak of the incongruity committed by Euripides and consisting in the fact that he forces a woman with a noble character and refined feelings to commit a low deed. But they usually forget that Phaedra writes a letter in a fit of despair, a few minutes before her death, seized at the same time by an irresistible desire to take revenge on Hippolytus for the terrible insult that he inflicted on her in the scene of the explanation with the nurse, enrolling her in the category of hypocritical women who find happiness in stolen love. Feeling inexpressible shame at the thought that Hippolytus knows her passion, and maddened by undeserved cruel insults, she rushes to the palace, writes a letter in which she falsely accuses Hippolytus, and then immediately kills herself, leaving not a single moment for calm reflection.
The gods in this tragedy appear in an unattractive form. Certainly. Hippolytus sinned against Aphrodite, but the punishment was immensely cruel. Aphrodite is not only a harsh, but also devoid of any compassion avenger. In essence, Artemis is also negatively characterized, which, although she rehabilitates her devoted servant before death, does not prevent his death, because among the gods there is a custom not to go against each other. Artemis, however, is shown somewhat more humane than Aphrodite, but in the last scene she is also going to take revenge on Afro-

1 Euripides, Plays, M., Art, 1960, p. 137.

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and strike with your arrow the one who will be dearest to this goddess.
It is necessary to dwell briefly on the question of fate in Euripides' Hippolytus. Phaedra says that she is dying as a victim of fate. And several more times in the tragedy there is a mention of fate, only in the sense of fatal passion. True, this passion for Hippolytus is engendered in Phaedra by Aphrodite, but in the very course of the tragedy the playwright depicts the experiences of a woman in love so vividly that the question of the divine origin of passion is somehow relegated to the background. The strong human passion of Phaedra comes to the fore. It is this passion that destroys both heroes of the drama - Hippolyte and Phaedra, and in this sense it can be called fatal. Thus, fate in this tragedy of Euripides, as it were, descends to earth, humanizes and destroys its victims through the passion that seized the soul of the heroine.
How was the appearance of Artemis staged in this tragedy in terms of stage? By analogy with the denouement of other plays by Euripides, we can conclude that Artemis appeared in the sky - probably on a special elevation on the roof of the skene. She could not appear below in the orchestra, where other characters are playing, since her appearance and the first words addressed to Theseus turn out to be completely unexpected for him. Besides, if Artemis was downstairs, she could approach Hippolytus, but he doesn't even see her. And, finally, at the end of the play, Artemis announces the future to Theseus, and in such cases the gods usually addressed people from the height of the skene.
Euripides worked on the myth of Hippolyte twice. From the first version, only nineteen passages have come down to us, making together 50 verses. Phaedra, seized by her passion, herself confessed her to Hippolytus. This version of the tragedy about Hippolytus in ancient times was called "Hippolytus the Closing", no doubt, because during the love explanation of Phaedra, he covered his head with a cloak out of shame. In contrast to this first version, the tragedy that has come down to us was called “Hippolytus the Crowned” (in the prologue, Hippolytus appears with a wreath on his head). In the summary of the content of the play that has come down to us, it is said that the playwright eliminated in the second drama everything obscene and giving rise to slander. Probably, such moments that revolted the audience in the first drama were Phaedra's direct appeal to Hippolytus, her words that her master is Eros, an invincible god who teaches insolence, etc.
The second "Hippolytus" enjoyed great success in antiquity. Monuments of fine art willingly reproduce individual episodes of the drama. Alexandrian critics considered the second "Hippolytus" one of the best tragedies of Euripides. However, the Roman playwright of the 1st c. n. e. Seneca in his tragedy "Phaedra" used the first version of "Hippolytus" by Euripides: in Seneca, Phaedra herself confesses her love to Hippolytus. The popularity of the myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra in imperial Rome is evidenced by numerous images on sarcophagi and the performance of pantomimes on this plot. But they are all based on the second version of Euripides' Hippolytus. Numerous borrowings from "Hippolytus" are available in the Byzantine drama for reading in the 12th century. "Christ the Passion-Bearer".
The plot of "Hippolytus" was borrowed by Racine for the tragedy "Phaedra" (1677).

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As the title itself shows, the main character in Racine was not Hippolytus, but Phaedra. In the preface to Phaedra, he talks about the changes that he made to the plot of the play and to the characters of the characters. He considered it impossible to put slander into the mouth of a queen who otherwise displayed such noble feelings. This baseness seemed to him more suitable for a nurse, who could have slavish inclinations and resort to false accusation only for the purpose of saving the life and honor of her mistress. Like Seneca, Racine Phaedra herself reveals her passion to Hippolyte. But she makes this confession after she received the news (which later turned out to be false) about the death of Theseus.
While the ancient authors accused Hippolytus of committing violence against his stepmother, Racine, softening this detail, speaks only of an attempt to commit violence. In Racine, Hippolytus is not represented as such a decisive enemy of Aphrodite as in Euripides: he loves the Athenian princess Arisia, the daughter of Theseus' mortal enemy. Phaedra's experiences, the struggle in her soul between passion and duty are complicated by jealousy for Arisia. After the death of Hippolytus, Phaedra at Racine commits suicide by taking poison and revealing the whole truth to Theseus before death.

"HERCULES"

In this tragedy, staged on the stage, in all likelihood, ca. 423 BC e., is being developed, - however, with significant changes - the old myth about the murder of Hercules of his children in a fit of madness sent down on him by Hera. Thus, like Hippolytus and Phaedra, Hercules is also represented as a victim of the gods. The playwright set himself a difficult task. He shows the hero at the pinnacle of glory, after accomplishing his last feat, descending into Hades, but it is at this moment that madness strikes him. The sick consciousness kindles to burning hatred a feeling of resentment against the insignificant Eurystheus, whom Hercules had to serve all his life, and, thinking that he is cracking down on the enemy's family, the hero kills his children and wife. After an explosion of madness, a sobering-up sets in and Hercules' mental anguish begins. In tragedy, with even greater force than before, the playwright's skill in depicting the emotional experiences of a person appears.
Perhaps the newest writer would have nothing to add to the depiction of the state of madness: the playwright gives a vivid and true picture of mental pathology. The moral anguish of Hercules after the attack is also described with the greatest psychological persuasiveness. But in "Hercules" there is something else, which allows us to talk about a new moment in the work of Euripides. The tragedy adjoins a number of heroic-patriotic plays begun by the Heraclides. But in comparison with the last tragedy, the patriotic theme in "Hercules" receives a more intense and vivid display. The changes that Euripides made to the myth were determined by the playwright's desire to create a patriotic play, at the same time enhancing its drama and purely scenic

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possibilities. The most significant of these changes is the introduction of Theseus into the drama. When Hercules, to whom his mind returns, finds out that he is the murderer of his family, and as retribution for this terrible deed wants to kill himself, the Athenian king Theseus appears, who, out of gratitude and in the name of humanity, saves Hercules' life and takes him away to Athens. Another change in the myth was the introduction into the play of the image of the evil insolent Face, which was absent in the old mythology. The playwright makes Lycus a Euboean, which is explained by the hostile relations between Athens and Euboea that developed in 424 BC. e.
We should dwell on one more change made by Euripides to the plot of the play. Old myths attributed the murder of children to the time before the service of Eurystheus, and the service itself was seen as atonement for this sin. After completing his twelve labors, Hercules got out of the power of Hera, who harbored anger at him for being the illegitimate son of Zeus. In Euripides, the murder of children occurs after the accomplishment of all twelve labors and is the last act of the evil revenge of Hera. Returning to his homeland in a halo of glory, saving his family and delivering Thebes from the usurper, Hercules, apparently, could count on it.

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that now he will be able to enjoy the happiness he deserves. But almost immediately the hero experiences such a spiritual collapse, from which, apparently, there is no way out. This is the most striking example of tragic irony.
The action of the tragedy takes place in Thebes in front of the palace of Hercules. On the steps of the altar of Zeus are the father of Hercules Amphitrion, the wife of Hercules Megara and the three young sons of the hero. From the prologue, in which Amphitryon and Megara spoke, the audience learned about the state of affairs. Taking advantage of the absence of Hercules, who was performing his last feat at that time, the Euboean Lycus seized power in his own hands.
Fleeing from his persecution, Amphitrion, Megara and the children of Hercules seek refuge at the altar of Zeus. The choir of the tragedy consists of Theban elders. They express sincere sympathy for Amphitrion and Megara, but due to their age they cannot fight the warriors of Lycus, who wants to kill Megara and the sons of Hercules. Lik feels his complete impunity, because he believes that Hercules is no longer alive. The tyrant orders the soldiers to light a fire around the altar so that Hercules' family will suffocate in the smoke. Megara declares to Lik that she is ready to die, but asks for one favor: let her be allowed to put mourning clothes on the children before their death. Having received the consent of Lika, Megara leaves with the children and with Amphitrion to the palace. The choir sings about the exploits of Hercules, regretting that he did not return after his last feat - the descent into Hades.
Lik's victims return from the palace; the sons of Hercules are wearing mourning clothes (of course, this dressing up was supposed to increase the excitement of the audience). Megara begins a plaintive song. But this is followed by a stage effect - Hercules suddenly appears, who was considered already dead. He frees his loved ones and wants to immediately deal with the Face. However, Amphitrion advises him to wait for the return of the usurper, who should now appear to carry out the execution, and Hercules obeys his father. He tells him about the descent into the underworld and that he brought Theseus out of there, who has now returned to Athens. Hercules gently comforts his children, who cling to him and do not want to let him go. Everyone except Amphitryon retires to the palace. The Face comes to claim its sacrifices. Since Amphitrion does not want to take on the heavy duty of taking the wife and children of Hercules out of the palace for execution, Lycus himself enters the palace, from where his death cries are soon heard. The choir sings a song of praise in honor of Hercules, considering the death of Lycus deserved. But now there is a turning point in the development of the action. Above the palace, the messenger of the gods Irida and the goddess of madness Lissa appear in the air. The latter has the appearance of a Gorgon: she has snakes in her hair. The audience learned from the goddesses that Hera, harboring anger against Hercules, as the son of Zeus and Alcmene, would force the hero to shed the blood of his loved ones. Lissa. who considers Hera's decision unfair, but powerless to resist him, speaks of the inevitable drama that will play out in the palace as soon as she enters there.
And indeed, soon Amphitryon's cry is heard from the palace, and the tragedy reaches its extreme tension. The choir responds to the cries of the old man defending the children against

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their father. Pallas Athena 1 appears in the air for a moment.
A messenger arrives and tells of what happened in the palace. Hercules was preparing to cleanse his palace from the spilled blood of a tyrant with a sacrifice at the Zeus altar. Suddenly he stopped and fell silent. His eyes were filled with blood, and thick foam began to drip from his lips onto his beard. Then he laughed terribly and began to say crazy words that he would get the head of Eurystheus and then wash the spilled blood from his hands. He began to demand from the slaves that they give him a bow with arrows and a club. Then the madman began to portray how he rides a chariot. In his delirium, he listed the places that he allegedly passed, and finally it seemed to him that he was already in Mycenae and now should begin reprisal against the enemies. So in madness Hercules kills his children. Megara also died saving the children from her husband. Only Amphitryon survived. Pallas saved him by throwing a huge stone into Hercules' chest and then plunging him into a deep sleep. Then the servants in the palace rushed to the aid of Amphitryon and tied Hercules to the column of the palace so that he could not, when he wakes up, commit new troubles.
The doors of the palace open, and Hercules is seen sleeping among the ruins, tied to a column of the palace. Around him lie the corpses of his sons and Megara. When the hero awakens, he does not immediately remember everything that happened. At that moment, when he finally understands what he has done and mourns his crime, the Athenian king Theseus appears. Rumors reached him that Lik was oppressing the family of Hercules, and he came to the aid of his friend. Amphitrion tells Theseus about everything. Hercules sits aside at this time, covering his head in shame. Theseus comforts his friend and dissuades him from committing suicide, which he has planned. He invites him to Athens with him, promising to give him a part of the Athenian land. Hercules remembers how Hera haunted him all his life. What country would want to accept it now after an unheard-of crime? In the end, he agrees with Theseus' persuasion, not wanting anyone to think that he is cowardly fleeing from moral suffering. In a lengthy speech, Hercules says goodbye to the dead, calling them, like himself, the victims of Hera. Then he embraces Amphitryon, asking him to take care of the burial of the dead, and departs with Theseus.
Some researchers noted the lack of unity of action in this tragedy and pointed out that it breaks up into two separate plays. The first play depicts the fate of the family of Hercules, the plot of the second - the fate and suffering of the hero himself. However, this is not entirely fair. The tragedy "Hercules" as noted by some researchers, gives the unity of the "highest order". Given the apparent bifurcation of the plot of the play, the first part of it is unquestionably necessary for the second. If in the first part there weren’t these exhausted children who waited for Hercules for so long, dreamed of him so much, and then, having lost hope, were preparing to die for the honor of their father’s name, his terrible reprisal against them in the second part of the play would not have produced such an effect on the audience. strong impression and they would not have felt the depth of the despair that had taken possession of the hero, pushing

1 Her appearance was accompanied by some kind of stage effect, as the chorus says that the hurricane is shaking the house and the roof is collapsing.

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him even to the thought of suicide. The main character connects both parts of the play.
The creation of the image of the heroic Hercules belongs to Euripides. Before him, he appears in the theater almost exclusively as a comic character - in a comedy or a satyr drama.
The playwright, with great psychological persuasiveness, showed in the messenger's story the moment of transition from innocent delirium to terrible madness and the crime that followed it. Equally expressive is the scene that takes place before the eyes of the audience, when the hero gradually comes to his senses. It is difficult to add anything to the excellent analysis of this scene by I. F. Annensky 1. First, the consciousness of life awakens in Hercules. By external signs - the light of the sun - Hercules concludes that he is alive. The first thing he notices around him is a bow and arrows. In the corpses, he still does not distinguish between his victims, but when he sees them, he has an assumption that he is in Hades. Consciousness gradually returns to him, he begins to understand the environment, but the loss of memory turns his condition into a real torture. The scene begins with the father. The atmosphere of sympathy on the part of Amphitryon and the choir brings him back to reality. In a rhyming conversation with his father, little by little he tries out a terrible secret from him, until he finally finds out that he himself killed his children and wife. Then the judge and the avenger wakes up in him. His first decision is to be ready to die. The arrival of the Athenian king Theseus adds a new drop to the cup of Heracles' suffering. The shame of recent madness becomes even more burning in the presence of a man who has just been saved by him and a recent witness to his glory. Dialogue with Theseus gradually leads him to a new thought. The thought of suicide struggles in him with the desire to find the highest form of retribution for what he has done. He gradually becomes convinced that he faces the most difficult feat - to save life as a way of suffering redemption.
In this tragedy, Euripides used the "motive of the savior" who comes to the aid of those in distress. Hercules saved Theseus (this is outside the events of the tragedy), Theseus, in gratitude, saves Hercules not only from physical death, but also from the deepest spiritual crisis.
With great dramatic power and warmth, Attic humanity, friendship and hospitality are depicted, embodied in the image of Theseus. The more terrible and unbearable the disasters into which the deity plunges Hercules, the brighter the human essence of Theseus appears. For the Athenian viewer, this motive of friendship and the salvation of a dying person sounded even stronger than for a modern reader or viewer. After all, from the point of view of the ancient Hellenes, the very touch to a person who shed blood already threatened to desecrate the one who touches it. Before his purification, the murderer did not even have to address anyone with a word. Therefore, for the viewer of the 5th century. BC e. such actions on the stage of Theseus, as the fact that he opens his face to a friend, gives him a hand, etc., seemed to be a symbol of true Attic friendship. The highest manifestation of hospitality lies in the fact that Hercules not only finds refuge in Athens, but he is promised an inheritance and part of the Athenian land.

1 "The Theater of Euripides" in 3 volumes, vol. II, translated with an introduction and afterwords by I. F. Annensky, ed. and with comments Φ. F. Zelinsky, M., 1916-1921, pp. 127-128.

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Moreover, Theseus speaks of the honor that will be given to Hercules after death: the whole Athenian land will honor the hero with an altar, and she herself, in turn, will gain fame in her offspring for helping her famous husband in misfortune. At the same time, it must be remembered what enormous force of persuasiveness the argument had for the ancient Greeks that after death they would honor his memory.
The tragedy was written towards the end of the Archidamic War, which brought the greatest disasters to both belligerents. Nevertheless, Euripides draws in "Hercules" a mythical model of friendship between Attica and the Doric Peloponnese, exposing the Dorian in the same humanly attractive form as the Athenian. Despite the terrible catastrophe that befell Hercules and almost led to his death, the ending of the tragedy sounds enlightened, glorifying Attic humanity and friendship.

"PLEASANT"

In this patriotic play, staged on the stage, in all likelihood, already after the conclusion of the Peace of Nikiev in 420 BC. e., the main plot was the myth of the struggle of the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, for the Theban throne (the plot used by Aeschylus in "Seven Against Thebes" - see above). Eteocles seized the throne and expelled Polynices from Thebes, but the latter found shelter with the Argive king Adrast, who married his daughter to him. Then Polynices gathered six friends and, relying on the help of Adrast, undertook a campaign against Thebes, which ended in the death of all seven leaders, and both sons of Oedipus fell in a mortal duel with each other. However, these events lay outside the tragedy, the tragedy itself begins with the prayer of the mothers of the fallen heroes, addressed to the mother of Theseus Efre.
The action of the tragedy, unfolding in front of the temple of Demeter in Eleusis, begins with a very colorful scene. At the large altar, to which the steps lead, stands Ephra, the mother of Theseus, who came to the sacred enclosure of the temple for sacrifice before plowing the land. Ephra and appears in the prologue, setting out the exposition of the drama. It turns out that seven leaders have already found death under the walls of Thebes. The mothers of the heroes wanted to bury the bodies of their sons, but the new Theban ruler Creon refused to give them the corpses. And so the women came to Eleusis to beg Theseus to get the Thebans to hand over the corpses. Prostrated on the steps of the altar and groaning, the mothers of Argos stretch out to Ephra olive branches wrapped in white bandages. Adrastus also lies on the steps of the altar; next to him are the boys, the sons of the fallen heroes, who make up a side choir.
Enter Theseus. He is amazed at the sight that presented itself to him: the black clothes of women, their sobs, their hair cut as a sign of mourning - all this is not very suitable for a sacrifice in honor of Demeter. Ephra briefly informs Theseus about the request of the Argive mothers and then gives the floor to Adrastus, who, rising and stopping his moaning, begins to speak. But Theseus coldly meets the request of Adrast, reproaching him for recklessness and disregard for the will of the gods; he led the Argive

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campaign, despite bad omens, carried away by several young people, greedy for glory and seeing in the war only a means to achieve power and wealth. But then, convinced by the arguments of his mother, Theseus decides to help those who ask and achieve the issuance of corpses, primarily through negotiations, and if this fails, then with the help of weapons. Since the Theban herald demands Theseus to drive Adrast away before sunset and refuse to bury the dead, the Athenian king orders, with the consent of the National Assembly, to prepare for war. Soon a messenger comes from the battlefield and talks about the brilliant victory of the Athenian army. A funeral procession appears on the orchestra, Athenian soldiers carry funeral beds. Mothers and Adrast raise a cry for the dead. Adrastus, at the request of Theseus, tells about the fallen leaders, and his story turns into a real funeral praise. In the characterization of the seven leaders, one can clearly feel the hidden polemic with Aeschylus and the influence of the then sophistry and rhetoric. In the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" all the characters, with the exception of the soothsayer Amphiaraus, are depicted as people filled with exorbitant pride, in a kind of militant frenzy rushing to storm Thebes. We see something quite different in Euripides. Adrastus begins with a characterization of Capaneus, who was struck down by Zeus' lightning. In Aeschylus, this is a huge strong man with superhuman arrogance; he threatens to incinerate the city, and even the lightning of Zeus does not frighten him. In The Begging, according to Adrastus, Kapanei had great wealth, but it did not make him haughty or proud. Capaneus said that virtue lies in a simple life, modesty, in true friendship, in friendliness to people. Other leaders in the image of Adrast also act as people endowed with various virtues.
The funeral procession to the sounds of the mournful song of the choir moves back behind the stage - conditionally to the place where the bodies of the fallen leaders will be burned. Suddenly, on a rock towering above the temple and above the fire of Capaneus (of course, he was invisible to the audience), his wife Evadna appears in festive clothes, ready to throw herself into the fire, on which her husband's body is burned. The tragedy of the situation is even more intensified when Evadne's father, old Iphis, appears in the orchestra. There is double mourning in his family, as his son Eteocles (not to be confused with Eteocles, the son of Oedipus!) and son-in-law Kapanei died under the walls of Thebes. Down below, Iphis is powerless to prevent Evadne from fulfilling her intention. Rejoicing that the flame of the fire will unite her with her husband, Evadna throws herself off a cliff. Iphis mourns his cruel fate, the chorus echoes him.
The play ends with a funeral ceremony. Theseus, Adrastus and boys enter the orchestra, carrying urns with the ashes of their fathers. Addressing Adrastus and the women of Argos, who are about to leave for their homeland in a funeral procession, Theseus urges them to remain forever grateful to Athens for their help. The goddess Athena appears above. However, her appearance does not serve the purpose of ending the tragedy, it is rather a political conclusion. Athena instructs Theseus to demand from Adrastus. that he, on behalf of the Argos, swear an oath never to oppose Athens and to keep gratitude for the good deed done to them.

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Even in ancient times, scholarly critics believed that the tragedy "The Begging" is a praise to Athens. This glorification of Athens is largely carried out by the exaltation of the image of Theseus. Theseus is shown as an ideal ruler who gave the right to vote to the people. All affairs in the state are decided by the People's Assembly and elected officials, who are replaced by annual elections. There is complete unity between the king and the people, the king is the leader and adviser of his people. Theseus is an excellent warrior, and all Athenian citizens are ready to defend the fatherland. Along with this, his prudence and peacefulness are emphasized: the ruler, like his people, is inclined to resolve matters peacefully - but if it comes to protecting a just cause, he is not afraid to go to war. Theseus is also endowed with eloquence - a quality necessary for a leader in such a state, where the most important matters are decided in the People's Assembly. He enters into a political dispute with a Theban herald about the best form of government and easily overcomes his opponent. Speaking against the Theban herald, who defends the sole form of government, Theseus points out that for the state there is nothing more hostile to tyranny. Under it, the law no longer protects citizens, one person manages everything according to his own arbitrariness, equality does not exist. On the contrary, in a democracy, both the poor and the rich have the same rights. The people are free: when citizens are asked which of them wishes to offer something for the good of the state, anyone who wishes can take the floor. Who has nothing to say, he remains silent. Where else can you find such equality? Where the people govern themselves, they use the services of good citizens. On the contrary, the tyrant, trembling for his power, tries to destroy those whom he considers capable of thinking. Why accumulate wealth and earn bread for your children if you have to work only to enrich the tyrant? Why bring up a daughter in chastity in her mother's house, if she is destined to serve the whims of a tyrant? It is better to die than to see your daughters betrayed.
All these qualities of Theseus the ruler are of particular importance due to the fact that they are associated with his religious and moral views. Theseus is depicted in the tragedy as a bearer of ancient Attic religiosity and morality. At the same time, the Athenian king also acts as a champion of the religious and moral foundations of all Hellas. The general laws of the Greeks - that's what he defends, defending the Argives. The tragedy emphasizes the deep religiosity of Theseus, who is convinced that man needs divine guidance and must obey him unconditionally. But if the image of Theseus is interesting in the historical and cultural sense, then it is not very expressive from a purely dramatic side. Theseus is too flawless and somewhat cold. However, in his attitude towards Ephra, as well as towards the mothers of fallen heroes, the playwright put some warmth.
The role of Ephra is an invention of Euripides himself. In the face of Ephra, the playwright gives an example of female virtue. This is the heroic Athenian mother. She is filled with a feeling of pity for the mothers of Argive. But not only this guides her when she implores Theseus to help those who ask. She appeals to the sense of honor, patriotism and to the mind of Theseus. She emphasizes the greatness of the work that lies ahead of him.

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accomplish and which surpasses in its religious and moral significance the former exploits of Theseus. The role of Ephra is of great importance in the development of the action of the tragedy and the character of Theseus himself. It is Ephra who influences Theseus, who was afraid to intercede for people who despised the divine omen, and eventually leads him to realize the higher role of the defender of human rights. When he adopts this point of view, all his doubts disappear, and he only wants the decision that has matured in him to be approved by the people.
Much in the composition of the play is reminiscent of the tragedy of Aeschylus. The play has little action; a significant place is occupied by lamentation for the dead and complaints from mothers and households. The detailed story of the messenger about the battle also resembles the features of the epic composition of Aeschylus. The battle is drawn on the model of Homeric battles: chariots rush at each other, whirlwinds of dust rise to the sky, racing horses draw warriors entangled in the reins, the earth is irrigated with streams of blood. Everywhere overturned or broken chariots, and those who were on them are thrown to the ground or perish under their debris. The dynamic development of the action is also hindered by the lengthy speeches of Theseus, Adrast and the Theban herald. However, it must be remembered that the Athenian spectator of the 5th century. BC BC, accustomed to the skillful performances of orators in the National Assembly, apparently followed with interest the verbal competitions of the characters in the drama in the theater.
All researchers agree that the play reflected the defeat of the Athenians at Delium, a small town in Boeotia, by Theban troops. The Athenians lost about a thousand heavily armed soldiers in the battle, but Delius still remained in their hands. After the battle, the Athenians sent a herald to Thebes with a request for the issuance of the corpses of fallen soldiers and a truce for their burial. It was not until the seventeenth day that the Athenians succeeded in fulfilling their demands, since Delius had already fallen. It suffices to re-read Thucydides' account of the defeat of the Athenians at Delia to discover a great similarity between the facts he reports and the situation of the "Pleading". Under the fresh impression of the bloody events at Delia, the Theban herald and, in general, all Thebans are depicted in a very unsightly light. They are portrayed in the drama as arrogant, intoxicated by their accidental victory, which they do not deserve at all, trampling on divine laws.

"AND HE"

From the beginning of the 420s. BC e. one feature in the work of Euripides can be noted: he begins to create plays with an intricate plot, which includes a conspiracy. Such a dramatic device, obviously, was intended to enhance the stage impact of the tragedy on the audience. An example of such a play is "Ion", staged, in all likelihood, in 418 BC. e. This work of Euripides, in comparison with others, has a number of features. The main culprit of the dramatic events unfolding in Iona is Apollo, and the action takes place in front of the sanctuary of the god at Delphi. The play to a large extent has the features of everyday life.

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a drama in which there is violence against a girl, and an abandoned child, and identification of him when he has become an adult. Apollo, who himself does not appear on the stage and on behalf of whom Hermes and Athena speak, is brought out in Iona by a rapist who dishonored the daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus, Creusa. Having given birth to a boy in the palace and fearing disgrace, the princess secretly carried him to the same grotto where God had taken possession of her, and left her there to certain death. Indeed, when she came to the cave the next day, Creusa did not find the child in it, and from that time on she was firmly convinced that he had become the prey of predatory animals. In fact, Apollo asked his brother Hermes to take the boy to Delphi and place the basket in which he lay on the threshold of the temple. Here the Pythia found him and, taking pity, she took him in and raised him at the temple. When the boy became an adult, the Delphians made him the keeper of the god's treasures and a servant (neokor) at the temple. Creusa, meanwhile, married a foreigner Xuthus, to whom she went as an honorary reward for the victory he won during the war of the Athenians with the inhabitants of Euboea. All these years, Creusa was tormented by a double grief: her long-term marriage to Xuthus remained childless and at the same time she was haunted by thoughts of a dead child.
All these events that took place even before the beginning of the tragedy and which Hermes briefly talks about in the prologue, are very reminiscent of an ordinary everyday drama that is very difficult for a woman. Hermes also reports on how the action will unfold further. It turns out that Xuthus and Creusa are in Delphi to receive Apollo's oracle of offspring. When Xuthus enters the prophetic sanctuary, the god will give him his own son, but Xuthus will be convinced that he is the father of the young man (in his youth, the king had a love affair in Delphi, and the time that has elapsed since then coincides with the age of the Neokor). So, without revealing the secrets of his paternity, Apollo will give his son a glorious life. All Greece will call him Ion (that is, the Coming One).
When Creusa learns that Apollo gave Xuthus a son, she is overcome with despair. Under the influence of the misfortune that has befallen her, Creusa decides to reveal her secret to the choir, consisting of her maids, and the old slave. She is ashamed of her shame, she still has some hesitation, but soon she leaves them. With whom can she now compete in virtue? With your husband? But he betrayed her, she has no home, no children, all her hopes, for the sake of which she hid the secret, disappeared. She will say everything and thus lighten her soul. Calling herself the unfortunate victim of men and gods acting ignoblely and treacherously towards the women they loved, she accuses Apollo in the face of heaven and then tells her sad story.
Creusa, with the full support of the choir, decides to poison Ion, considering him an enemy of her home and city, seeking to destroy her and illegally take possession of Athens. Passing the poison to the old devoted slave, Creusa orders him to go to the feast and there try to pour the poison into the young man's goblet. However, this attempt ends in failure, and the authorities of the city sentence Creusa to death for trying to kill the attendant of the Delphic temple. She seeks salvation at the altar. Ion and his friends hesitate to grab Creusa, who is leaning against the altar. The appearance of the Pythia in the last episody

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prepares the scene of recognition. The Pythia shows Ion an old basket, entwined with bandages, in which she once found him and which she kept at the suggestion of Apollo until this hour. The basket contained the child's underwear and conspicuous signs. Creusa is convinced that this is the same basket in which she once put her boy. With a swift movement, Creusa leaves his shelter and, running up to Ion, embraces him as his son. An outraged Ion believes Creusa is lying and questions her about the contents of the basket. She lists all items. Recognition built with such art is complete. Ion is convinced that his mother is in front of him, and warmly embraces her.
At the end of the play, Athena appears in a chariot above, declaring that she has hastily arrived at Delphi from Apollo. He himself did not want to appear for fear that he would be reproached in front of everyone for the past. He sent her to say that Ion was indeed his son from Creusa, and that by giving him to Xuthus he did not pass Ion on to another father, but wished to introduce him into the most famous family. Further divine broadcasts and predictions of the future destiny follow. Creusa must go with Ion to Athens and put him on the throne of the Athenian kings. He will be glorious throughout Hellas.
"Ion" is not only a tragedy about an abandoned woman and her son abandoned by her, with whom she meets many years later, but also a patriotic, political play.
The fact is that, according to the mythical genealogy of the Greeks, Ion was considered the ancestor of the Ionian tribe, just as Achaeus was the ancestor of the Achaeans and Dor - Dorians. All Greeks thought so. However, Euripides gives a new genealogical tree of the Greek tribes, which places Ion clearly above his brothers on the mother - Achaea and Dora. Ion was born from Apollo, and Dor and Achaeus from Xuthus 1. At the same time, thanks to a double alliance, with a god and a mortal, the daughter of the Attic king Erechtheus Creusa became the progenitor of all Greek tribes, and the play emphasizes the close unity of the Athenians with the Ionians and their predominant importance compared with other tribes: while the Ionians, descended from Apollo and Creusa, are people of pure Athenian origin, the Dorians and Achaeans are people of mixed blood, descended from the Aeolo-Achaean Xuthus (Euripides makes Xuthus the son of Aeolus) and the Athenian Creusa. This modification of the traditional genealogy of the Greek tribes, which found only weak support in some myths and had no effect on further mythological tradition, was necessary for Euripides to justify the Athenian claims to hegemony throughout the Greek world. Indeed, the position of the Athenians was greatly strengthened after the conclusion in 420 BC. e. alliance with Argos, Elis and Mantinea. Sparta seemed powerless, and the Athenians hoped to peacefully consolidate their supremacy throughout Greece. Not a single tragedy of Euripides so sharply emphasized the idea of a privileged tribe, which should dominate by virtue of its very origin.
The main character of the drama Ion is one of the best characters created-

1 According to the old epic genealogy, Dor, Xuthus and Eol were brothers. From the marriage of Xuthus with Creusa, Ion and Achaeus were born. Thus, Ion was considered the son of a mortal, not a god.

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nyh Euripides. He is full of piety, zealously and joyfully serves God. The Delphic temple became his home. The very conditions of his life contributed to the early formation of the character of a young man who did not know real childhood. When he tells Xuthu about the difficulties that will inevitably arise in connection with his new position, a sober practical mind and a subtle understanding of the human soul are reflected in his reasoning. Observation, the ability to understand complex human relationships, a kind of worldly tact were the result of everyday communication of this kind of ancient “novice” with people who came from different places in Greece to the Delphic temple of Apollo. Ion developed a certain life ideal: this is service to God, a moderate life and free from torment and anxiety. He does not crave either power or wealth, since their owners do not know peace. His life at Delphi seems to him a true happiness. He prayed to the gods and entered into communion with mortals, bringing joy rather than sorrow to those he served. But the most significant thing he sees is that nature and law have united together to make him a virtuous servant of Apollo.
Common sense and well-known skepticism do not allow Jon to take on faith everything he hears. Therefore, he directly tells Creusa that the story of her friend (in reality, Creusa is talking about herself) seems suspicious to him. These same properties of the mind do not allow him to close his eyes to the behavior of Apollo, and he counts his god almost amicably for an unseemly act. The temple attendant throws an ironic remark about love affairs and other gods. In the person of Ion, Euripides brought to the stage an interesting human type of a representative of a contemplative life, in which a sincere religious feeling is combined with calmness and a clear mind, with an admixture of a certain amount of skepticism. At the same time, this servant of God has energy, resourcefulness and the ability to act quickly and decisively. All these qualities are manifested at the time of the assassination attempt on him and in the subsequent accusation and persecution of Creusa.
However, Ion has his own pain: these are the thoughts that he is an illegitimate abandoned child, and longing for maternal affection. However, in these experiences of the young man, no, no, and even the egoistic thought penetrates that, perhaps, there is no need to strive to search for the mother, since she may turn out to be a slave.
The image of Creusa is very expressive. The poet depicts with great persuasiveness the experiences of an abandoned mistress, an unhappy mother forced to abandon her child, and a lawful wife betrayed by her husband. True, the plan of revenge that she conceives with the choir and the old slave cannot arouse any sympathy from the modern reader, but the Athenians of the 5th century. BC e. were more lenient in this case. Creusa's revenge seemed to them an act of self-defense against an encroachment on the ancestral Athenian lands of a stranger, moreover, a person with a dark origin.
As for Xuthus, he is not at all endowed with a tragic character, but is the tin of an average person, at times almost an inhabitant.
The tragedy "Ion" occupies a special place in the dramaturgy of Euripides. Her everyday plot, based on the motives

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violence, the abandoned child and the subsequent "recognition", directly anticipates the artistic practice of the so-called new Attic comedy, which was to emerge towards the end of the 4th century. BC e.

"IFIGENIA IN TAVRIDA"

The new dramatic technique is used by Euripides in "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Electra" and "Orestes". The plot of "Iphigenia in Tauris" is borrowed from the myth of the sacrifice of Iphigenia. The exact date of the performance is unknown, but, in all likelihood, the tragedy was on stage in 414.
The action takes place in Taurida (that is, in the Crimea) - a country that seemed wild and harsh to the Greeks. Skene depicted the temple of Artemis. In front of him was an altar covered in bloodstains. Human skulls were attached to the frieze of the temple. The decoration itself, thus, indicated the cruel customs of the country and the human sacrifices performed here. The plot of the tragedy develops as follows.
Having replaced Iphigenia with a doe during the sacrifice, Artemis transfers the girl to Tauris and makes her a priestess in her temple. Here Iphigenia must perform a bloody ritual. The Tauride barbarians have long had this custom: if a Greek appeared among them, he was sacrificed to Artemis. The obligation to perform this sacrifice lay with Iphigenia, while the very same slaughter of the victim inside the temple was performed by another person. All this is told in the prologue by Iphigenia herself, disturbed by a bad dream, which, as she firmly believes, gives her news of the death of her brother. But it is on this day that Orestes arrives in Tauris, accompanied by his friend Pylades. Orestes arrived in Tauris after the murder of his mother, obeying the oracle of Apollo, who promised to save him from bouts of insanity if he kidnapped in Tauris and brought to Athens a statue of Artemis. On the seashore, Orestes and Pylades are noticed by shepherds. They see how Orestes begins an attack of madness. This madness is described in completely realistic and even naturalistic terms. Orestes begins to raise and lower his head, his hands tremble, he groans and then begins to scream furiously at invisible ghosts, like a dog hunter. It seems to him that snakes are crawling on him. In a fit of rage, he rushes to the herd and begins to beat him, thinking that he is fighting monsters. Finally, he collapses to the ground, exhausted, and his chin is covered in foam. All this happens behind the scenes, and the audience will learn about it from the story of the herald. The shepherds seize Orestes and Pylades and take them to the king of Tauris Foant. He sends them to the slaughter to Iphigenia. And now both young men are standing in front of Iphigenia. There is a situation of extreme drama: the sister is ready to send to death, without knowing it, her brother. The tragic tension gradually builds up, but the scene of recognition skillfully moves away. When asked by Iphigenia where he comes from, Orestes replies that he is an Argive, but does not say his name, calling himself "unfortunate." Upon learning that the stranger comes from Argos, Iphigenia begins to question him about the fate of Troy and the fate of her relatives. Orestes reluctantly

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tells her, Iphigenia learns that Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra and that she, in turn, was killed by Orestes, who returned to his homeland, in revenge for the death of his father. Finally, Iphigenia asks if Orestes, the son of the murdered father, is alive. Orestes answers in the affirmative. Iphigenia expresses her desire to send a letter to Argos. He will be carried by one of the captives, who will be given life as a reward. But the second prisoner will have to die. When Iphigenia leaves for the temple, the choir, consisting of young Greek slaves, mourns the fate of the one of the two young men who is destined to die. Between Pila-dom and Orestes there is a competition in the noble readiness to accept death. Orestes proves that Pylades has no right to go to death, since he received his sister Electra as his wife; she will give birth to children for him, and the house of Agamemnon will not fade away. Iphigenia comes out of the temple. Before handing the writing tablets to Pylades, she reads the contents of the letter aloud in case it gets lost. Addressing Orestes in this letter, Iphigenia reports that she is alive, although in Greece they consider her dead: the goddess threw a doe in her place at the very moment when her father plunged his sharp knife into the victim. Iphigenia asks Orestes to save her from bloody sacrifices and return her to her homeland. She gives the letter to Pylades, who gives it to his companion, calling him Orestes. But Iphigenia still doubts that her brother is in front of her. And only when Orestes informs her about the family feud of Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, with Fiesta, about the cloak she woven and about the strand of her hair that she presented to Clytemnestra, Iphigenia is finally convinced that she sees her brother Orestes in front of her. This is how the scene of recognition unfolds in this tragedy. After the hearty outpourings caused by recognition, the pathos disappears from the tragedy, and the rest of it, which tells about the abduction of the statue of Artemis and the flight of Orestes, Pylades and Iphigenia from Tauris, approaches to some extent comedy. Iphigenia comes up with a way to deceive the king of the barbarians Foant. She will tell Foant that it is impossible to sacrifice these Hellenes, since one captive has the blood of his mother, and the second was his assistant. The victims must first be washed in the sea. In the same place it is necessary to wash the statue of the goddess, which they defiled with their touch. Having received the consent of Foant, they will go to the seashore, where Orestes' ship is hidden, and sail away on it from Taurida. This plan is almost successful. But as soon as the ship leaves the harbor for the open sea, it is carried back to the shore by the wind, since Poseidon, hostile to Atrids, decided to betray Foant Orestes and Iphigenia into the hands. Foant sends his people to the seashore; they manage to capture both the ship and the fugitives. But the goddess Athena suddenly appears at the top of the skene. She orders Foant to release the fugitives, saying that Orestes appeared in Tauris, obeying the command of Apollo. In order to please Athena, Poseidon decides not to put any obstacles to a safe voyage. Foant must send the Greek captives to their homeland. Athena orders Orestes, who is already far away, but hears her voice, to found a temple in honor of Artemis Tauropolis1.

1 That is, Artemis of the Bull. However, the word "tauros" could mean not only a bull, but also a Taurian: in this case, Artemis Tauropol means Artemis Tauride.

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Iphigenia is to become a priestess in the Attic house of Bravron. Foant obeys the order and goes to the palace. The choir expresses its joy at the rescue of Iphigenia, Orestes and Pylades and the impending release from captivity.
The appearance of the goddess Athena at the end of the tragedy not only helps formalize the denouement in a purely technical way, but also solves certain political problems. Euripides wanted to give the old Argive myth an Athenian character. And in this tragedy - as in others - he takes the opportunity to glorify Athens, her political institutions and her festivities.
The play, especially its second half, has a noticeable adventure character: this should have been vividly felt by the Greek audience, who had a rather vague idea of Tauris. The kingdom of Foant seemed to him a wild country, full of all kinds of dangers. According to the development of the plot, "Iphigenia in Tauris" reveals a close relationship with "Helena": both plays deal with the salvation of the Greeks from a barbarian country. Greek intellect and ingenuity triumph over the primitive consciousness and naivete of the barbarians. Iphigenia is depicted as a stern priestess, such was her service to the goddess, demanding human sacrifices. However, these priestly duties are difficult for her, and she treats the Greeks with compassion, whom she is forced to send to death. But on this day, as it seems to her, a feeling of pity will leave her: Orestes is not alive, and her soul has hardened. When she sees the captured Greeks in front of her, who also seem to her noble people, she is again seized with compassion for her victims. The playwright draws the emotional experiences of the heroine with psychological persuasiveness and authenticity. It is noteworthy that there is a protest against the cruel cult that she serves. Iphigenia says that she doesn't understand Artemis. If any of the people touches blood, a corpse, or even a woman in labor, he is considered unclean, he is forbidden to approach the altar of the goddess, and yet she finds joy in human sacrifices. Iphigenia cannot imagine that Latona could give birth to such a monster from Zeus; she thinks that the bloody inhabitants of the country transferred their own cruelty to the goddess, since she does not allow any god to be bad. The inner essence of the conflict of the tragedy boils down to the fact that the idol of Artemis, who fell from the sky, must be transferred to Athens, where he will be honored not according to the custom of the barbarians, but according to the custom of the Greeks, and the heroine herself, who kept the memory of her homeland all the time, must also return to Hellas, getting rid of participation in the bloody cult of the goddess in Tauris. In the implementation of these goals, the main role belongs to Orestes, who came to Tauris on the orders of Apollo. It is with the appearance of him and Pylades that the development of the action begins. True, it was not he who came up with the escape plan, but Iphigenia, but Orestes has people and a ship to carry out this plan. And if in the future, in order for the ship to safely head to the shores of Greece, the intervention of a deity is still required, then this intervention corresponds to the plan conceived by people. The external side of the clash between the three Hellenes and the king of the barbarians is conveyed with great expressiveness both in the story of the messenger Foantu and in the action itself, since the beginning of the implementation of the flight plan takes place even at the head.

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zah spectators. In the presence of Foant Iphigenia with a statue of Artemis in his hands, the bound captives, guards and servants of the king go to the seashore, where the rite of purification was to take place. Everyday features are wedged into the messenger's story about what happened on the seashore.
It turns out that a real fight took place near the Orestes ship, fists were used, so some of Foant's people return with bruises.
"Iphigenia in Tauris" was very popular in antiquity. Aristotle in his Poetics praises her for her well-formed recognition. Numerous images of episodes from this tragedy have been preserved on sarcophagi, on vases, in painting; taken together, they illustrate almost the entire play.

"ELECTRA"

The play was staged, in all likelihood, in 413. For Electra, Euripides takes a plot that his great predecessors had already used. By the way he develops it, one can see the difference in the creative approach of Euripides to this topic in comparison with Sophocles and Aeschylus. First of all, Euripides transfers the action from the city to the countryside. Proskenius depicts the front wall of a poor village hut. The action starts at dawn. The tragedy opens with the prologue of a farmer, Electra's husband, who tells about the events in the house of Agamemnon, about the fate of Orestes and Electra. It turns out that Elektra lives in a remote village, on the border of Argos, married by Aegisthus to a simple farmer. By this marriage, Aegisthus wanted to humiliate Electra, and, moreover, the children from such a marriage could not challenge the power he had seized from him. But in fact, this marriage turns out to be fictitious. A noble farmer would consider it dishonorable to be Electra's husband just because chance gave him her as a wife.
Leaving the hut, Elektra takes a jug and goes to fetch water. The farmer goes to work in the field. When Electra and the farmer leave the orchestra, Orestes appears with Pi-lad (a character without words) and several servants accompanying them. In obedience to the oracle of Apollo, Orestes, accompanied by Pylades, comes to Argos to punish the murderers of his father. He has already heard about his sister's marriage and now wants to find her in order to involve her in his plans. However, at first, Orestes does not call himself Elektra, and the appearance of Elektra with a jug of water on her shoulder forces Orestes and his companion to take cover. The monody of Electra, which Orestes hears from his hiding place, reveals to him who is in front of him.
The choir of girls from Argive enters and invites Elektra to take part in the feast of Hera. She refuses, referring to the fact that she constantly mourns for her dead father and for her living brother, who wanders like a beggar somewhere in a foreign land. She also points out that her clothes are in tatters and her hair is in disarray. Orestes comes out of his hiding place. The frightened girls are already ready to flee from an unknown stranger, but, turning to Elektra, Orestes pretends to be an ambassador from her brother. Hearing that his brother is alive, Elektra in his

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the queue tells the imaginary messenger about his marriage and about his life. The farmer who appeared at the orchestra, having learned from Electra that the strangers are messengers from her brother, cordially invites travelers to his place, but he does not have any refreshments at home, and Electra is embarrassed by this. She convinces her husband to go quickly to the old uncle of Agamemnon and borrow supplies from him. The old man himself brings Electra a lamb and other food and says that he had just been to the grave of Agamemnon and saw signs of sacrifice there. He also found a lock of golden hair on the grave. Was it not Orestes at the grave? The old man asks Elektra to put a curl in her hair. One could also compare the footprint of sandals. But Elektra says that the hair of a man who exercises in the palestra cannot be as delicate as that of a girl. There are no traces left on the stone, and even if they were, the legs of a brother and sister cannot be the same size. Here one can clearly feel the cry-

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tic of Aeschylus's dramatic devices. With Euripides, recognition is different: the old uncle recognizes Orestes by the scar under the eyebrow Orestes received in childhood when he fell while chasing a heifer with his sister. Recognizing each other, the brother and sister decide to take revenge on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus with the assistance of their uncle. The first to die, like Aeschylus, is Aegisthus. Orestes strikes him during a sacrifice in a garden outside the city. The Herald describes this murder in painful and vile detail. Elektra rejoices at this news. When the corpse of Aegisthus is brought to the orchestra, she exposes the defeated enemy to reproach. Now it's the turn of Clytemnestra, whom Elektra summoned to her by deceit, informing her that it was already the tenth day since she gave birth to her grandson. Orestes is horrified when he hears about the approach of his mother. He does not know how he will raise his sword against her. It seems to him that some evil spirit, acting under the guise of Apollo, gave this terrible command. Elektra encourages Orestes, and he retires to the hut.
A rich chariot with Clytemnestra enters the orchestra. But in "Electra" this is not at all the woman murderer, stunning in her cruelty, which Aeschylus draws in "Agamemnon". In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra is not ashamed of her crime and herself informs the people about it. In Euripides, she is afraid to appear before the eyes of the citizens of Argos, because she knows that they hate her. According to her, she would be ready to forgive Agamemnon for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, if he was forced to do this in order to save his homeland or his home and other children. But Iphigenia was sacrificed for the vicious Helen. In addition, on his return from Troy, Agamemnon brought a captive, Cassandra, and began to keep two wives. She killed her husband, turning to the help of his enemies, and thinks that he deserved to die. Elektra gives a sharp rebuke to her mother, accusing her of having killed the most famous person in all of Hellas. The pretext was the desire to take revenge on Agamemnon for the death of his daughter. But she, Elektra, knows her mother like no one else. Even before the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as soon as Agamemnon left the palace, the mother was already sitting in front of the mirror and styling her blond curls. Why would she exhibit her beauty outside the palace if she did not strive for something else? In addition, she was one of all Greek women who rejoiced at the successes of the Trojans and was upset by their failures. Because of her passion for Aegisthus, she did not at all want the return of Agamemnon from under Troy. If the murder is to entail retribution and punishment for the killer, then it is necessary that the children of Clytemnestra, avenging the death of their father, put her to death. Clytemnestra calmly responds to Elektra's accusation. This calmness is explained by the fact that after the marriage of her daughter to a poor farmer and her removal from the palace, Clytemnestra has nothing to fear from Electra; a boy born of such a marriage cannot in any way become a contender for royal power. The argument ends and Elektra invites her mother to enter the hut. Soon, Clytemnestra screams from behind the stage, pleading for mercy. Blood-splattered Orestes and Electra emerge from the hut and inform the chorus of how the murder itself took place. Just like Aeschylus. Clytemnestra bares her chest. But there are other details: Clytemnestra crawls on her knees in front of her son - and Orestes drops his sword. Lifting

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him, he hides his face in the folds of his cloak and plunges the blade into his mother's chest. Elektra says that she and her brother raised his sword.
Above, Castor and Pollux appear - the divine twins of Dioscuri ("Children of Zeus"), brothers of Clytemnestra and Helen. Their judgment about the revenge carried out by Orestes is interesting: Clytemnestra was worthy of punishment, but not from Orestes. Further, the Dioscuri twins express their judgment about Apollo:

About the Apollo
As about my king, I will keep silent,
Or the wise cannot transgress the mind? 1

Now Orestes needs to obey fate and Zeus. He must pass off Elektra to Pylades. After the murder of his mother, he himself can no longer remain in Argos: he will be driven by the terrible Kera 2. Arriving in Athens, he will have to fall to the sacred idol of Pallas. She will protect him from Erinyes' persecution. Orestes will be acquitted by the court of the Areopagus and will then settle in Arcadia on the banks of the Alpheus. The Chorus asks the Dioscuri if they can be addressed with a word. Asks about this and Orestes. The Dioscuri allow the choir and even Orestes, defiled by the murder, to ask them a question:

Apollo lifts the blame
And blood and evil 3.

A truly tricky question follows:

You are gods, and you were brothers
Murdered wife...
Why didn't you save her from Ker?
- Heavy mlat fate fettered
Bad speech for prophetic lips 4 -

Castor answers.
After these words, Electra and Orestes say goodbye to each other, and the Dioscuri set off for the Sicilian Sea; - save the sailors from the storm. The last words contain, probably, an allusion to the Sicilian expedition.
The tragedy, which begins in the atmosphere of some bucolic surroundings, ends, as in Aeschylus and Sophocles, with a terrible bloody revenge. In its implementation, as in Sophocles, Electra plays the main role. She shows herself immeasurably more cruel and vengeful than Orestes. Euripides' Elektra is a more effective character than both of his predecessors. And this is understandable, since in Euripides Orestes from the very beginning is opposed to the order given to him by Apollo to kill his mother. Aeschylus in his Orestea raises and resolves the issue of the struggle between paternal and perishing maternal right. Orestes is acquitted by the human court of the Areopagus, after he was persecuted and persecuted by the Erinyes. Sophocles in his "Electra" gives the tragedy of retribution committed by the son for the terrible crime of his mother, and does not even raise the question of the guilt of Orestes: the latter carried out only the command of Phoebus. As for Euripides, in his tragedy he definitely wants to emphasize the enormity of the crime of Orestes and Electra. Describing the murder of Clytemnestra, Euripides even seems to deliberately exaggerate, using purely naturalistic methods of description to make the crime even more disgusting. Orestes thinks

1 Euripides, Plays, p. 277.
2 Kera - the goddess of death, as well as the goddess of retribution.
3 Euripides, Plays, p. 278.
4 Ibid., pp. 278-279.

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Is it not an evil spirit instead of Apollo commanded him to do this truly terrible deed. The Dioscuri are already directly criticizing the command of Phoebus, calling it "unreasonable." Although the punishment of Clytemnestra is just, yet it was not Orestes who should have judged her. This motif is later repeated in the tragedy "Orestes", where the father of Clytemnestra, Tyndar, sharply condemns the massacre, even if for arbitrarily terrible crimes. Euripides reveals a peculiar rationalism in the approach to the myth itself and transfers the center of gravity to the question of whether Orestes had the right to kill his mother - and, based on the ethical norms of his time, gives a negative answer to this.

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In "Electra" one can clearly feel the desire of the playwright to portray the old Argos in sympathetic terms. All the sympathetic characters of the tragedy - Agamemnon's uncle, the farmer, the girls of the choir (not to mention Electra and Orestes) - are all primordial Argos. Perhaps this reflects the desire of the poet to emphasize the need for an agreement between Athens and Argos for the success of the Sicilian expedition.
True, in The Trojan Women Euripides expresses his negative attitude towards this expedition, but since it nevertheless began and lasted for about two years, he could not help but think about its successful completion.

"OREST"

The tragedy was staged in 408. According to its content, it constitutes, as it were, a continuation of Elektra. The play takes place in Argos, in front of the palace of Menelaus, on the sixth day after the murder of Clytemnestra. From Electra, speaking in the prologue, the audience learns that Orestes is experiencing terrible torment: he does not eat anything and does not refresh his body with washing. At times he is attacked by madness. After the seizures, Orestes usually falls asleep. So it is now - Orestes is sleeping, and Electra is sitting at his head, afraid to wake her brother. It is possible that a curtain was used in this play, which initially hid Electra and Orestes from the public. But now Orestes wakes up, and this time, in front of the public, he again begins a fit of madness. When he passes, Orestes reproaches Apollo for pushing him to the most unholy deed.
Meanwhile, it is on this day that the fate of Orestes and Electra in the National Assembly should be decided. Clytemnestra's father, Tyndar, appears. He insists on committing them both to death. However, Tyndar also condemns Clytemnestra for the murder of her husband. Menelaus, represented in the play as a coward, does not want to interfere in this matter and help Orestes and Electra in any way. Pylades arrives, determined to share the fate of his friends. He carries Orestes, who cannot move from weakness, to the People's Assembly. Orestes and Pylades are returning from the People's Assembly, which has sentenced their brother and sister to death. A turning point occurs in the development of the action. If until now the action of the play has unfolded along the lines of everyday drama, now the tragedy is acquiring the features of an adventurous play. Electra, Orestes and Pylades decide to take revenge on Helen for all the evil she has done to Greece. Orestes and Pylades will now have to enter the palace, hiding their swords in the folds of their cloak, and there kill Helen. After that, they will capture Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, and, raising their swords over her, will demand from Menelaus that he take an oath not to prosecute them for the murder of Helen. Orestes and Pylades manage to capture Hermione, but then the tragedy turns into, in essence, a tragicomedy. A Phrygian slave, a eunuch, frightened to death, runs out of the palace. From the story of this comic character, the audience learned what exactly happened in the palace. At that moment, when Orestes and Pylades swung their swords at Elena, she mysteriously disappeared somewhere.
The last scene was probably very spectacular in terms of spectacle.

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Shenia. On the roof of the palace, Orestes and Pylades hold swords over Hermione. Orestes demands from Menelaus, who is below, a guarantee that they will not be put to death. Their excited explanation is interrupted by Apollo announcing that Helen has been taken to heaven and become a new constellation. Menelaus should take another wife for himself, and Orestes should go to Athens, where the gods will judge him on the hill of Ares. He will marry Hermione, and Pylades will marry Electra. Apollo ends his speech with an appeal to honor the goddess of the World - the most beautiful of all goddesses.
In Orestes, Euripides still acts as a fine connoisseur of the human soul. The suffering of the mother-killer and the experiences of Elektra caring for her brother are conveyed very vividly. But in some places this tragedy is reduced to the level of everyday drama. Here we have Elena, who asks Electra to make a libation on the grave of Clytemnestra. She herself does not want to go there, fearing hostile attacks from the people.
But at first she does not want to send her daughter there, as it is inconvenient to let the girl into the crowd. In "Orestes", in addition, one can notice the desire to introduce an adventurous element into the development of the action, and at times to give the tragedy some melodramatic features, for example, in the episode with the capture of Hermione. All these features will meet later in the new everyday comedy, which borrowed them precisely from the theatrical heritage of Euripides, which turned out to be very effective in the changed historical conditions.

"IFIGENIA IN AVLIDA"

The plot of this play is based on the well-known myth of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia. Euripides made some changes to the traditional myth. He introduced the role of Achilles and strengthened, and perhaps also introduced the role of Clytemnestra. But the most important change affected the image of the heroine. Both the epic poets and, in all likelihood, Aeschylus and Sophocles, presented the sacrifice of Iphigenia as a violent act. Euripides depicted her going to her death voluntarily. The text of the tragedy has come down to us in a badly corrupted form. Apparently, Euripides himself did not have time to finish it, and "Iphigenia in Aulis" was finalized and staged on stage after the death of the playwright by his son, also Euripides. In more recent times, this play has undergone further changes. Despite the poor state of the text, there is no doubt that the basis of the play itself is purely Euripides and that this tragedy should be classified among his best works.
The action of the tragedy begins before dawn in Aulis, from where the Achaean army should sail to Troy, near the camping tent of Agamemnon. Unlike those prologues of Euripides, where the plot of the drama is given in a monologue by one of the characters, the prologue to "Iphigenia in Aulis" is dramatic. From the dialogue of Agamemnon with the old slave, the audience learned that some time ago the king wrote a letter to Clytemnestra with an order to bring Iphigenia to Aulis in order to marry her to Achilles. However, the marriage was only a pretext. In fact, by-

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obeying the soothsayer Calhant, Agamemnon must sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis. But now he has changed his mind and wrote a new letter in which he asks his wife not to come with her daughter to Aulis. Handing over the letter to the old slave, Agamemnon tells him to quickly hit the road and hand the letter to Clytemnestra. A choir follows, consisting of 1 women from Chalcis, who came to look at the Greek camp. The first part of the parod gives a picture of the life of the Greek camp, the second contains a list of ships that went to Troy 2.
Meanwhile, Agamemnon's letter is intercepted offstage by Menelaus. Between the brothers, already in front of the audience, there is a stormy explanation, accompanied by mutual reproaches. At this time, a messenger appears and informs Agamemnon that Clytemnestra with Iphigenia and the baby Orestes arrived at the camp. Agamemnon and Menelaus are crushed by this message. Menelaus repents of the insulting words he has just spoken. He proposes to disband the army and leave Aulis. Agamemnon's answer sounds tragic hopelessness. He praises his brother’s words, but says that necessity forces him to commit the cruel murder of his daughter: the soothsayer Calhant and Odysseus know about the promise to sacrifice Iphigenia, and through them the army learns about the divination, and it, having killed Agamemnon and Menelaus, will still bring Iphigenia to sacrifice.
After the song of the choir, glorifying those who moderately and chastely use the gifts of Aphrodite, as well as recalling the insane passion of Paris and Helen, a chariot enters the orchestra. Clytemnestra stands on it, in her arms is the sleeping Orestes (a face without speeches), next to her is Iphigenia. To meet them, Agamemnon, surrounded by soldiers, comes out of the tent. There is a scene of Agamemnon's meeting with his wife and daughter, strong in its veracity and theatrical expressiveness. Iphigenia's love for her father and the joy of meeting him are perfectly shown. On the contrary, Agamemnon is confused and depressed by this meeting. A number of remarks indicating his difficult state of mind, he gives aside. Some of his words are ambiguous. So, he tells his daughter that separation awaits them, referring to her death; Iphigenia thinks that her father is preparing her marriage. Having sent his daughter to his tent, Agamemnon asks his wife to return to Argos and take care of her daughters; it is indecent for a woman to be in the camp, among the army; he himself will raise the marriage torch of Iphigenia. Clytemnestra replies to this with a decisive refusal; she, according to custom, will attend her daughter's wedding. Clytemnestra goes into the tent. Agamemnon retires towards the camp, wishing to consult with the soothsayer Calhant. An extremely painful situation arises. What will Agamemnon do now, who failed to send his wife back to Argos? Will he be able to resist the demand of the troops when the sacrifice is ready? How will the deceived Clytemnestra behave? What will Achilles, whose name has been so abused, do? Achilles and Clytemnestra simultaneously recognize

1 Chalcis - the most significant city of Euboea at the Strait of Euripus, opposite Amida. 2 This list of ships is considered a later interpolation, which is an imitation of the II song of the Iliad.

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about the deception of Agamemnon. This is given in a live scene, not without a touch of comedy. Achilles comes to ask the king when the Greek army will finally move on Troy. His soldiers raise a murmur: they demand that Achilles either lead them to Troy, or let them go home. At the voice of Achilles, Clytemnestra leaves the tent. She names herself and, when Achilles wants to leave, she affably extends her hand to him. But Achilles does not dare to touch her hand, decency does not allow him, since she is the wife of Agamemnon. “But you are wooing my daughter,” the queen objects with surprise. Amazed, Achilles says that he never wooed Iphigenia and Atrids never spoke to him about this marriage. Clytemnestra is startled by Achilles' answer. An old slave who came out of the side door of the tent reveals the whole truth to Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra implores Achilles to save Iphigenia. Achilles resents Agamemnon for using his name for the sake of his deceit, but out of pity for Clytemnestra and her daughter, he promises her to save Iphigenia, but gives advice first to try to persuade Agamemnon not to sacrifice his daughter.
One of the most powerful and scenically expressive moments is coming. Clytemnestra comes out of the tent. From her words, the audience will learn that she has already told Iphigenia about everything. Agamemnon appears from the right parod. He still continues to lie and talk about the upcoming wedding of Iphigenia and Achilles. Then Clytemnestra calls her daughter out of the tent. Dressed in a wedding dress, weeping Iphigenia comes out; she takes Orestes with her. Clytemnestra asks Agamemnon if he is thinking of killing his daughter. At first, Agamemnon tries to avoid answering, but then he is forced to confirm what his wife and daughter already know. Clytemnestra persuades Agamemnon to abandon his intention. Why kill your own daughter? For Menelaus to get Helen back? But how can a dissolute woman be redeemed at the cost of the lives of her own children? Clytemnestra's speech even contains a hidden threat of revenge on Agamemnon (v. 1178 et seq.). Then follows the prayer of Iphigenia herself. This is one of the best scenes in the entire tragic legacy of Euripides.
The magic lips of Orpheus 1 are not given, my Father, your daughter, so that the rocks Crowded around her and people's hearts touched with a song ... Then I would begin to speak, but nature Judged me one art - tears, And I bring this gift to you ... 2.
Iphigenia remembers the time when she was still a baby. She was the first to say "father" to him, and he said "daughter" to her. She gently climbed into his lap. He wished to see her as a happy bride in the future. She remembers all the words of her father, but he forgot everything and wants to kill her. But Agamemnon does not answer her and does not even look at her. Iphigenia asks to look at her affectionately and kiss her, so that, dying, she can take with her the memory of this caress, if her words cannot be heeded. She turns to the help of Orestes, who silently pleads with her father. Both of them touch their faces with their hands.

1 Orpheus is a mythical singer who tamed wild animals with his singing and set trees and rocks in motion.
2 Euripides, Plays, pp. 420-421.

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Agamemnon. Her prayer ends with these words:

What else can I say?
It is good for a mortal to see the sun,
And it's so scary underground... If anyone
Does not want to live - he is sick: the burden of life,
All suffering is better than the glory of a dead man.

Showing his daughter all the ships and the army, Agamemnon answers her that it is impossible for the Greeks to take Troy if Iphigenia is not sacrificed.

Not Menelaus will
Like a slave, I create ... Hellas tells me
To kill you... your death is pleasing to her,
Whether I want to or not, she doesn't care;
Oh, you and I are nothing before Hellas;
But if the blood, all our blood, child,
Need her freedom to barbarian
He did not reign in it and did not dishonor wives,
Atrid and Atrid's daughter will not refuse 2.

After these words, Agamemnon leaves.
The next episody shows Iphigenia at the moment of the highest heroic upsurge, when the decision to give her life for the glory of her fatherland ripens in her. Achilles appears at the head of a detachment of armed warriors. He informs Clytemnestra about the rebellion that began in the Greek army, which demands that Iphigenia be brought to the slaughter; he has come to save Iphigenia, but he faces a fierce struggle. Hearing these words, Iphigenia intervenes in the conversation. She refuses the help of Achilles, saying that anyway he will die uselessly in the fight against his squad. She has already decided to die for the glory of Hellas, and her death will be a punishment for the Trojans. If Artemis is pleased with her death, then it is not fitting for her to argue with the goddess. Iphigenia's decision to sacrifice her life entails a complete change in Achilles' attitude towards her. Up to this point, defending Iphigenia, he was guided only by a feeling of pity and indignation at the unworthy game in his name, now, when he sees a kindred soul in front of him, he feels an ardent desire to call Iphigenia his wife. He wants to help her and take her to his house. Iphigenia replies to Achilles that she was determined to save Hellas. Achilles calls Iphigenia's decision noble, her feelings testify to a courageous soul. He now leaves the thought of immediately protecting the girl from the Achaean army, since her will to self-sacrifice is irresistible, and leaves, saying, however, that if there, at the altar, Iphigenia changes her mind and her heart trembles, then he, along with his people, will help her.
Iphigenia asks her mother not to wear mourning for her. She is happy that she is saving Hellas. She hugs Orestes for the last time and asks her mother not to hate her father for his act. Then follows the scene of the tragic dance, which Iphigenia performs together with the choir. In this dance, as it were, the rite of the forthcoming sacrifice is depicted. Iphigenia sings that she is the conqueror of Troy. Saying goodbye to life, she praises the goddess Artemis and asks her to safely deliver the Greek army to the Trojan land. Having finished her ritual dance, Iphigenia goes to the slaughter.
The exodus that has come down to us (the final part of the tragedy, the “exodus”) contains the story of a messenger who witnessed the sacrifice. The messenger tells of a miracle that happened at the very moment of the slaughter. In the meadow, near Alta

1 Euripides, Plays, p. 422
2 Ibid., pp. 422-423.

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rya lay, shuddering, doe, from which blood flowed, while Iphigenia miraculously disappeared. After the messenger's story, Agamemnon comes, who tells Clytemnestra that Iphigenia now lives among the gods.
It is now generally accepted that this exodus could not have been written by Euripides himself: in addition to errors in language and versification, contrary to Art. 1337-1432, a very active role in the rite of sacrifice of Iphigenia is assigned to Achilles. Exodus was written by some learned Byzantine. Several verses preserved by Aelian 1 indicate the existence of another outcome in antiquity, in which Artemis appeared and informed Agamemnon or Clytemnestra that she replaced Iphigenia with a doe on the altar during the sacrifice. However, it is not known whether this exodus belonged to Euripides himself or was written later.
In this tragedy, Euripides gave a vivid, unforgettable image of a girl sacrificing herself for her homeland. And most remarkable of all, he showed with amazing artistic persuasiveness the growth of heroism in Iphigenia. At first, in front of the viewer is a tender girl, almost a child. She brought with her only the love of her father. She would like to always be with him and therefore naively asks to leave the war and return to Argos. And when she finds out that death awaits her, she just as touchingly and naively asks to spare her. It is so gratifying to see the sun and so afraid to die. What does she care about Paris and Helen! But then, before the eyes of the audience, a genuine heroine grows out of a tender girl, begging for mercy. Refusing the help of Achilles, Iphigenia tells her mother that she has experienced a lot in her soul. All Hellas is looking at her. In her death, everything is for the Greeks: both a fair wind and victory over Troy. And the war itself between the Greeks and the Trojans appears to her as a struggle between Greek freedom and Trojan slavery. Thus, the pathos of love for the father turns into the pathos of love for the motherland. And the playwright did not sin against the psychological truth: it is in young and pure natures, like Iphigenia, that such spiritual transitions take place rapidly and violently.
The rest of the characters in this play in many ways of their character resemble average people - contemporaries of Euripides. Such is Agamemnon with his constant mental fluctuations, with his ambitious plans and very low diplomacy to achieve them, with his lies in relation to Clytemnestra and Iphigenia. In a dialogue with Menelaus, speaking of the inevitability of sacrifice, he points to a fatal set of circumstances: Iphigenia will be torn out even from the walls of Argos. In the scene with her daughter, when she begs not to kill her, another motive sounds: Hellas demands the death of Iphigenia. and the father is obliged to obey this demand. In the mouth of Agamemnon, these words turn out to be somewhat unexpected and the transition to a new understanding of one's duty to Hellas is not entirely motivated. The voluntary decision of Iphigenia, who performs not only a patriotic feat in the pan-Hellenic sense, but also a feat of daughter love, relieves her vacillating father of any responsibility for her death. In that negative characteristic, which

1 Claudius Elian - writer of the II century. n. e., an Italian by origin, writing in Greek.

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ruyu gives Agamemnon Menelaus, undoubtedly some features of the contemporary playwright demagogues stand out.
Menelaus is also an ordinary person, sometimes frankly selfish, sometimes repenting of his selfishness. He possesses extraordinary eloquence and delivers a skillful accusatory speech against Agamemnon, without saying, however, a word about the fact that he himself is an interested party and that his main aspirations are aimed at regaining Helen. The main dramatic function of the image of Menelaus is to sharply emphasize the helplessness and spinelessness of Agamemnon. After the first episode, Menelaus disappears and does not appear on the scene again.
Clytemnestra in no way resembles in this play the superhuman image of the tragedies of Aeschylus. Under normal living conditions, she still retains royal dignity. But when misfortune falls upon her, all her pride disappears, and in front of the audience is just a suffering woman who throws herself at the feet of Achilles with a plea to save her daughter. Nevertheless, hints of her future revenge on Agamemnon slip through the tragedy.
We can agree with I. F. Annensky that "Achilles is the palest of the faces of the play" 1. He hardly reminds us of the hero we know from the Iliad. In his speech, in which he consoles Clytemnestra, there is a lot of rhetoric, reasoning and some dozens of worldly experiences. There is something cold in his very nobility. He himself says of himself (v. 919 et seq.), that sorrows and joys moderately stir his soul, and that his guide is reason. But his teacher, the centaur Chiron, brought up in him the directness of the soul. He believes that Clytemnestra and her daughter suffered untold suffering, and is ready to fight to disgust him, as much as he can. At this point (v. 933 ff.) his speech sounds sincere, and his anger against Agamemnon and the oath to prevent the sacrifice of Iphigenia are reminiscent of the epic Achilles in their passion. In the dialogue with Iphigenia in the fourth episode, when she declares her readiness to die and refuses the help of Achilles, the cold nobility of the hero again comes to the fore. He praises Iphigenia for having wisely judged, following her duty, that he cannot object to her decision, and leaves, promising once again, in case of need, his help at the altar. In this whole scene, Achilles is presented rather palely. In the characterization of Achilles, the influence of sophistic philosophy is felt in this tragedy, his nobility is basically rationalistic and in good harmony with Achilles' desire to develop peace of mind in himself. The seal of the spirit of the times also lies on this character, from whom the epic made in its time the embodiment of heroic wholeness.
In Iphigenia in Aulis, the playwright's attitude to the Trojan War is noticeably different than it was in Euripides' previous plays - Andromache, Hecuba. "Trojans". She is now the first link in a long chain of conflicts between Greeks and barbarians, turning into a great pan-Hellenic undertaking for the liberation of Greece and the overthrow of Trojan arrogance. The play expresses the idea of the justice of the rule of the Greeks over the barbarians, since the Greeks -

1 The Theater of Euripides, vol. III, p. 18.

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free people, and the barbarians are a people of slaves. In such a reassessment of the Trojan War, one should probably see the influence of political events contemporary to the poet. Perhaps, towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, Euripides began to fear that the mutual exhaustion of Athens and Sparta would lead to the strengthening of Persia. In emphasizing the superiority of the Greeks over the barbarians, there is perhaps an indirect censure of both belligerents, each of which sought to win over the Persians to its side, that is, to make judges in their cases precisely those barbarians with whom the Greeks once victoriously fought.
In ancient times, there were many works of fine art dedicated to the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Since the exodus of the tragedy has come down to us in a badly corrupted form, it is difficult to say to what extent these works have their source in the play of Euripides. The drawing of one of the Pompeian frescoes, in all likelihood, goes back to the famous Timanf painting in antiquity (beginning of the 4th century BC). In this picture, which has not come down to us, according to the ancients, the sadness of Kalhant is beautifully shown, and Agamemnon is depicted with his head covered with a cloak, hiding his grief from prying eyes.
The tragedy of Euripides "Iphigenia in Aulis" was subsequently imitated by the Roman playwright Ennius (see below). He came up with an original idea to replace the choir of women with a choir of warriors, complaining about the aimless stay in Aulis.
In 1674 he wrote "Iphigenia" Racine. In the preface to the play, he says that he could not end it either with the murder of a virtuous girl, or with the appearance of a goddess in a car and a transformation that could be believed in ancient times, but which no one would believe in our day. Therefore, Racine introduced a new character: Erifila, daughter of Theseus, rival of Iphigenia, seeking the love of Achilles, and an intriguer. The oracle of Calhant falls on her, and she herself commits suicide on the sacrificial altar.

SATIR'S DRAMA "CYCLOPS"

This is the only one of the satyr dramas that has come down to us in full. Only on the basis of the Cyclops and Pathfinders by Sophocles, significant fragments of which have been preserved for us by the Oxyrhynchus papyrus found in 1912, can one get an idea of this dramatic genre of Ancient Greece.
The date of the production of Cyclops is unknown to us. The opinions of scholars on this issue differ greatly, but some of them place the date of staging between approximately 428 and 422 years. It is also unknown what tetralogy this play was part of. The plot of the Cyclops is borrowed from the IX song of the Odyssey. However, Euripides somewhat changes him compared to Homer. So, in the Odyssey, the country of the Cyclopes is not named by name and they live somewhere at the end of the world. Euripides transfers the action to Sicily. In addition, the Homeric Cyclopes are very far from human appearance, while in Euripides they have a number of purely human features. Euripides, in addition, introduced a new character into his drama - the father of the satyrs, Silenus.
The action of the drama takes place on the seashore at the foot of Etna, in front of the cave

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Cyclops. In the prologue, Silenus speaks about how he and his children, the satyrs, were captured by the Cyclops. Upon learning that Dionysus has been kidnapped by Tyrrhenian pirates, Silenus and his sons go in search of the god, but a storm brings them to Sicily and they are captured by Cyclops. In the parody on the orchestra, in front of the cave of Cyclops, satyrs appear, driving sheep and goats into the fence. The parod of the choir, which is a kind of working song, is distinguished by amazing lightness and grace. The singing was obviously accompanied by mimic movements, showing how the satyrs are trying to drive the herd into the cave. In the long epod, a contrast is given between the happy past, when the satyrs served their master Dionysus, and the difficult present, when they are in slavery to the Cyclops. Since the choir had to remain on the stage, the work of the satyrs was apparently completed by an additional mute choir of servants, to whom the satyrs were ordered to drive the sheep under the arch of the rock (v. 83). Silenus suddenly sees that a ship has landed on the shore. Enter Odysseus with his companions. They are looking for food supplies, which they are completely running out of. Odysseus has a bottle of wine hanging over his shoulders. He tells Silenus his name, says that a contrary wind brought him here when returning from Troy, and also asks about the inhabitants of the country and their customs. Odysseus asks Silenus and the satyrs to sell them food. He gives Silenus a skin of fine wine, and he begins to drink greedily. The satyrs, in turn, question Odysseus about the fate of the beautiful Elena, at the same time making several obscene remarks about her.
Baskets with food are already being taken out of the cave, but Odysseus fails to take them, since at that moment the terrible owner of the cave himself returns. He takes Odysseus and his companions for robbers who wanted to steal goods from him. Silenus out of cowardice confirms Cyclops' guess. The satyrs themselves resent the shameless lies of their father. In a speech full of dignity, Odysseus asks Cyclops to show hospitality to the unfortunate wanderers. At the same time, he refers to the fact that the gods themselves prescribed the law of hospitality to people. But Cyclops' rude reply follows this burying constructed speech. He says that he does not care about the gods, he himself does not consider himself weaker than Zeus, and for the wise there is only one god - wealth. Cyclops even develops a kind of worldly philosophy, the meaning of which boils down to the fact that it is necessary to please your womb in every possible way. He forces Odysseus and his companions to enter the cave, intending to eat them. A little later, Odysseus runs out in horror and tells the chorus about the death of two of his companions. He tells the satyrs his plan of revenge, which consists in gouging out the eye of Cyclops with a club burned on fire, and convinces them to help him in this matter.
Cyclops emerges from the cave. After tasting a hearty dinner, he came in a good mood. He asks Odysseus about his name and receives in response, as in Homer: "No one." A very lively comic scene follows. Cyclops is constantly applied to the cup of wine that Odysseus gave him, but Silenus does the same very cleverly, taking advantage of the sluggishness and intoxication of Cyclops. Completely intoxicated, Cyclops finally leaves for the cave.

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and takes Silenus with him, intending to have fun with him with unnatural love. This kind of obscenity was, apparently, an integral part of satyr dramas, as can be judged from the reviews of some ancient writers. Finally Cyclops falls asleep in his cave, and the hour of revenge arrives. But the cowardly satyrs renege on their promise with comic horror. Odysseus has to do his own thing. After some time, Cyclops runs out of the cave with a bloody face. There is no doubt that the actor who played the role of Cyclops changed his mask before this scene. Odysseus reveals his real name to Cyclops. The satyrs congratulate each other on the fact that now they have no other master but Dionysus. Thus, the drama, having begun with the name of Dionysus, returns again to him.
Euripides made a bright comic character out of the terrible Polyphemus. I had to rework the image created by Homer. The Cyclops of Euripides became somewhat humanized. Although it is still a terrible giant, heaping tree trunks on his fire and filling a huge crater of ten amphorae for his meal, yet he is no longer the wild hermit of the Odyssey. Cyclops Euripides is distinguished by talkativeness, he knows something, for example, about the abduction of Helen and about the Trojan War; he is not even averse to philosophizing. It can be thought that in the image of Cyclops a caricature is given of the degenerate representatives of sophistry and rhetoric, who, having drawn extreme conclusions from Protagoras' position on the relativity of human knowledge, began to assert that the individual person himself establishes what is for him the truth, the law and the norm of social behavior. From here there was one step to the preaching of naked willfulness, not taking into account any social institutions. It must be said that such views did not remain only in the sphere of abstract reasoning, but also penetrated into politics, meeting sympathy among the supporters of the oligarchy. From this side, the play not only amused, but also acquired certain satirical and accusatory features.
The father of the satyrs, Silenus, is well depicted in the drama, a liar, a coward and a drunkard, ready to give all the herds of the Cyclopes for a cup of wine. Cowardice is combined in Silenus with unbridled flattery and servility towards Cyclops, which find a lively comedic expression. When Cyclops says that he has already eaten enough meat of lions and deer, but has not eaten human meat for a long time, Silenus helpfully remarks that the same dishes for every day are boring and a new dish in this case is very pleasant. Odysseus retains all the virtues of a tragic hero: he remembers his merits at Troy and considers it shameful to evade dangers. His serious tone is perfectly contrasted by the ironic attitude to the events of the Trojan War by Silenus, satyrs and Cyclops, who calls the war because of one woman shameful. The choir of satyrs takes a great part in the development of the action of the play. He is very mobile and expressive even at the moment when he avoids helping Odysseus, that is, from action: the choreutes begin to limp and rub their eyes, complaining that they are covered with dust or ash that has come from somewhere.
Cyclops required three actors for its performance.

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DRAMATURGIC ACTIVITY OF EURIPIDES

Almost all the tragedies of Euripides that have come down to us were written during the Peloponnesian War. With its beginning, that general crisis was revealed, in which all the contradictions of Hellenic life that had grown in the previous period came out with full force: slave uprisings, the intensification of the struggle between supporters of democracy and the oligarchy, clashes within democracy itself between its right and left wings, as well as the complication relations between Athens and its allies. It is quite natural that this crisis manifested itself most strongly in the advanced Greek state - Athens. The social crisis is also reflected in the spiritual life of society. The usual views and concepts of society are destroyed or questioned: religious, philosophical, legal. Belief in the old gods fluctuates; in philosophy, many sophists defend the principle of subjectivism in morality, from which others draw extreme conclusions. The right of the strong was proclaimed as the basis for the activity of an individual. It is interesting that this principle was also often transferred to the field of politics; so, proceeding from it, the Athenians, as Thucydides repeatedly testifies to this, justified their domination over the allies. The prolonged war gave rise at times to the Athenian society a feeling of weariness and a desire for peace. This feeling was especially seized by the peasants, whose fields were systematically devastated by the Spartans. The war, on the other hand, gave rise to a strong bitterness against each other of the fighting parties. The movement among the allies was suppressed by the Athenians with cruelty not justified by considerations of state necessity. Thucydides repeatedly spoke of the blunting of the feeling of pity and of the manifestations of extreme bitterness during the war.
Some of these contradictions of modern life Euripides found direct reflection in his works. In a number of his tragedies, a hostile attitude towards Sparta is clearly heard. All contemporaries were well aware that the "Trojan Women" depicted the disasters generated by the war. Euripides was not afraid here to condemn the cruelty of the Athenians towards the allied island of Melos. In The Pleaders, democracy is defended with great skill against tyranny. If we recall that during the Peloponnesian War - especially in the second half - a lively activity of aristocratic secret communities (geteria) unfolded, it will be impossible not to recognize these disputes about the form of government as very relevant for that time, and not only for Athens.
However, by the very nature of his talent, Euripides is more interested in the spiritual world of his heroes. The dramatic activity of Euripides is closely connected with the new trend in philosophy (the poet, however, remained free from the extremes of sophistry with its arbitrary play of concepts) and, in general, with the cultural life of Athens in the second half of the 5th century. Following this direction, Euripides seeks to transform the Athenian tragedy, to make it descend from ideal heights to the world of everyday life. The sound of the heroic theme in the tragedies of Euripides decreases, but at the same time, attention to the psychological world of a person and the phenomena of his surrounding life increases.

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Above, Aristotle's evidence has already been cited that Sophocles himself, evaluating the dramaturgy of Euripides, said that the latter portrayed people as they are in life. In the comedy of Aristophanes "The Frogs", the words are put into the mouth of Euripides that he aims to teach the audience about worldly affairs; he gives in tragedies an image of the ordinary and everyday, so that viewers can more easily judge their own deeds. Of course, Aristophanes expounds Euripides' views on the tasks of tragedy in a caricature, but the fact that Euripides made it his task to reproduce everyday life is correctly grasped.
Ancient Greek historian, writer and critic of the 1st c. BC e. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his treatise On Imitation, also attributes to Euripides the desire to reproduce life, capturing its negative sides as well. “Sophocles, in depicting passions, was distinguished by respect for the dignity of persons. Euripides, on the other hand, was pleased only with the truthful and corresponding to modern life, which is why he often bypassed the decent and elegant and did not correct, as Sophocles did, the characters and feelings of his characters in the direction of nobility and sublimity. He has traces of a very accurate depiction of the obscene, sluggish, cowardly.
Speaking about the depiction of the poet's contemporary life, it is necessary to make a reservation, applicable, however, to all Greek tragedians. Modern life is reflected in them through a mythological plot, which undoubtedly fetters the completeness of its depiction in the sense of the events themselves. Greater scope opened up in the depiction of characters and the world of spiritual experiences of a person, and it must be said that Euripides achieves greater perfection here compared to Sophocles.
In accordance with the views on the tasks of his poetry, Sophocles gave heroic characters raised above reality, while Euripides, in the generalized images of his tragedies, showed contemporary people with their thoughts, feelings, aspirations, sometimes contradictory in one and the same person, with their subtle emotional experiences. . Myth for Euripides became only the material or basis, enabling his contemporaries to express themselves. This ability of Euripides to give an in-depth psychological description of his contemporaries, which in many respects is of great interest to us, makes him more intelligible and understandable for the modern reader. Conversely, the closeness of Euripides' heroes to life revolted some defenders of the old tragedy, as can be seen from the criticism of Aristophanes in The Frogs. However, it can be assumed that contemporaries were more embarrassed by the skeptical attitude of the playwright to the old religion and myths. It is possible that considerations of a political nature also took place here: in a period of severe military trials, the manifestation of free-thinking in relation to such foundations of the state as traditional religion and old myths could seem dangerous. When analyzing individual tragedies of Euripides, it has already been pointed out that the gods are derived from him in a number of cases in a very unattractive form. In non-

1 Cited. according to the "History of Greek Literature", vol. I, edited by S. I. Sobolevsky et al., M., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1946, p. 416.

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In the play “Bellerophon”, which has come down to us, the hero rises to heaven on a winged horse to find out whether there are gods or not: whoever sees violence and evil on earth, Bellerophon notes, will understand that there are no gods and that everything told about them is an empty fairy tale (fragm. 286). True, Bellerophon is punished, he falls to the ground and breaks, but the viewer heard in the theater echoes of the same thoughts that were expressed by contemporary philosophy. Of course, Euripides was not an atheist in today's sense of the word, but there is no doubt about his skeptical attitude towards old religious beliefs.
The variety of characters bred by Euripides, the amazing dramatic situations in which his heroes find themselves, the depiction of their subtlest experiences were discussed in the analysis of individual tragedies of the playwright. True to his desire to truthfully reflect life, Euripides was not afraid to introduce characters into tragedies that act as representatives of brute physical strength or personal egoistic aspirations. Such, for example, is the Face in the tragedy "Hercules" or Eurystheus in the tragedy "Heraclides", cruelly persecuting his children after the death of Hercules, Menelaus, brought out by a low man in the tragedy "Orestes", and others.
It would be wrong, however, without reservations to equate tragedy in the form it received in the hands of Euripides with everyday drama. Characters such as Iphigenia ("Iphigenia in Aulis"), Hercules in the tragedy of the same name, Hippolytus, Pentheus in the Bacchae and others are truly tragic characters. The decline of the heroic theme in the work of Euripides does not at all mean the transformation of tragedy into an everyday drama, although some of his plays very much resemble it.
The new nature of the drama in Euripides often required new means of theatrical expression, which before him were either not used at all, or were used much less frequently. First of all, Euripides began to use modes in theatrical music that had not been used before, such as, for example, “mixed Lydian”. The Lydian mode was generally perceived as plaintive, mournful and intimate. From this mode, as well as from others, some derivative modes were also built. Unfortunately, we cannot - due to insufficient knowledge of ancient Greek music in general - appreciate the musical side of the tragedies of Euripides. However, it apparently made a strong impression on his contemporaries, since new means of musical expression, more appropriate to the spirit of his plays, were used here. In the Hellenistic era, solo arias and duets of soloists and chorus from the tragedies of Euripides were performed separately.
The new content of the tragedies of Euripides also required a new style. Indeed, this syllable in the dialogic parts and the stories of the messengers is very close to the then colloquial speech. Aristotle in the Rhetoric praises Euripides for composing his speeches from expressions taken from everyday life. The agonies, in which Euripides brings together opposing opinions and aspirations so well, show the influence of sophistry and rhetoric especially clearly. To us, these speeches, however, sometimes seem dry, rationalistic, straying into "common places." Some of Euripides' contemporaries, as far as one can judge from the attacks

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Aristophanes, they seemed to be woven from intricacies, with the help of which individual characters of the tragedy tried to justify their bad deeds, passed off the false and immoral as true and moral. But, on the other hand, there is no doubt that such speeches were very popular with people who went towards the new philosophical movement in Athens at that time, sometimes perceiving the negative features of sophistry and rhetoric (for example, the belief in the possibility and permissibility of proving the truth with the help of formal arguments). or the falsity of any statement). Euripides also reveals great art in the use of the so-called stichomythia (dialogue in which each replica takes one verse). These poems achieve greater theatrical expressiveness than those of Sophocles. We are struck by their extremely skillful display of various human experiences, the passion of tone, the ability to hit the enemy in the most painful place, the psychologically justified inconsistency of the thought of a given character, etc.
The spectacular side of the tragedies of Euripides, as far as we can get an idea about it on the basis of the text of the plays themselves, was closely connected with the combination of events and with the characters depicted, took into account the requirements of the stage and helped to more fully reveal the main idea of the work by specifically theatrical means. The spectacular part of the tragedies of Euripides includes some scenes that before him were either not shown at all in the theater in front of the audience, or were shown much less frequently. These include, for example, scenes of death, depictions of illness, physical suffering, scenes of madness, mourning ceremonies, bringing children on stage, disguising characters, showing on stage the feelings and experiences of a woman in love, decoupling tragedies by using a flying machine or the appearance of gods and much more.
During his lifetime, Euripides, as already mentioned, was not successful. He was an innovator, striving both in content and in form to bring his dramas out of the narrow framework that had been inherited by tradition. This innovation was apparently unacceptable to many of his contemporaries. Indeed, during his lifetime, Euripides could not compare in glory with either Aeschylus or Sophocles. But as soon as he descended into the grave, he overshadowed the glory of both of them. Aeschylus for the next century becomes a majestic, but no longer fully understood giant of drama. Sophocles has always been admired, but he was too Attic a poet and belonged entirely to the age of Pericles. He gave ideal images that could not retain their significance in the Hellenistic era, which made completely different demands on the drama. Euripides, an artist whose work found a more vivid expression of realistic tendencies, was to win fame in all parts of the civilized Mediterranean world. Starting from the IV century. BC e. and until the fall of the ancient world, Euripides was more admired and studied more than any other playwright. However, even during his lifetime, Euripides found many imitators. He was eagerly imitated by the Greek, and later by the Roman tragedians, he was quoted and commented on even at a later time. Euripides had a great influence on the new Attic (everyday) comedy.

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This is directly evidenced by evidence coming from antiquity. The tragedies of Euripides were performed long after his death and in the countries of the East. So, Plutarch ("Crassus", ch. 33) reports the execution in 53 BC. e. at the court of the Armenian king Artavazd II in Artashat, an excerpt from the tragedy of Euripides "Bacchae". In the 17th century playwrights of classicism take a lot from Euripides. Creating his tragedies "Phaedra", "Iphigenia" and "Andromache", Racine was strongly influenced by the plays of Euripides. Euripides met with high praise from Goethe and Schiller. Byron, Shelley, Grillparzer, Lecomte de Lille, Verharn and many other poets were also fond of it. A complete translation of the tragedies of Euripides (except for "The Begging") and the satyr drama "Cyclops" was given by the outstanding Russian poet I.F. Annensky, who was in love with the sharpness of Euripides' psychologism and imitated it in his own original work (for example, the tragedy "Famira-kifared", etc. ). A modern variation on the motifs of "Medea" by Euripides is given by "Medea" by the modern French playwright J. Anouilh.

Euripides was born c. 480 BC e. in a wealthy family.

Since the parents of the future playwright did not live in poverty, they were able to give their son a good education.

Euripides had a friend and teacher Anaxagoras, from whom he studied philosophy, history and other humanities.

In addition, Euripides spent a lot of time in the company of sophists. Although the poet was not interested in the social life of the country, there were many political sayings in his tragedies.

Euripides, unlike Sophocles, did not take part in the staging of his tragedies, did not act in them as an actor, did not write music for them.

Other people did it for him.

Euripides was not very popular in Greece. For all the time of participation in competitions, he received only the first five awards, one of them posthumously.

During his lifetime, Euripides wrote approximately 92 dramas.

18 of them have come down to us in full.

In addition, there are many more excerpts.

Euripides wrote all the tragedies somewhat differently than Aeschylus and Sophocles.

The playwright portrayed people in his plays as they are.

All his heroes, despite the fact that they were mythological characters, had their own feelings, thoughts, ideals, aspirations and passions.

In many tragedies Euripides criticizes the old religion.

His gods often turn out to be more cruel, vindictive and evil than people.
This attitude towards religious beliefs can be explained by the fact that Euripides' worldview was influenced by communication with the sophists.

This religious free-thinking did not find understanding among ordinary Athenians.

Apparently, therefore, the playwright did not enjoy success with his fellow citizens.

Euripides was a supporter of moderate democracy.

He believed that the backbone of democracy was the small landowners.

In many of his works, he sharply criticized and denounced demagogues who seek power with flattery and deceit, and then use it for their own selfish purposes.

The playwright fought against tyranny, the enslavement of one person by another.

He said that it is impossible to divide people by origin, that nobility lies in personal virtues and deeds, and not in wealth and noble origin.

Separately, it should be said about the attitude of Euripides to slaves.

He tried in all his works to express the idea that slavery is an unjust and shameful phenomenon, that all people are the same, and that the soul of a slave is no different from the soul of a free citizen if the slave has pure thoughts.

At that time, Greece was waging the Peloponnesian War.

Euripides believed that all wars are senseless and cruel.

He justified only those that were carried out in the name of defending the motherland.

The playwright tried to understand the world of spiritual experiences of the people around him as best as possible.
In his tragedies, he was not afraid to show the basest human passions and the struggle between good and evil in one person.

In this regard, Euripides can be called the most tragic of all Greek authors.

The female images in the tragedies of Euripides were very expressive and dramatic; it was not for nothing that he was rightly called a good connoisseur of the female soul.

The poet used three actors in his plays, but the choir in his works was no longer the main character.

Most often, the songs of the choir express the thoughts and feelings of the author himself.

Euripides was one of the first to introduce the so-called monodies into tragedies - arias of actors.

Even Sophocles tried to use monodia, but they received the greatest development precisely from Euripides.

At the most important climaxes, the actors expressed their feelings through singing.

The playwright began to show the public such scenes that none of the tragic poets had introduced before him.
For example, these were scenes of murder, illness, death, physical torment.

In addition, he brought children to the stage, showed the viewer the experiences of a woman in love.

When the denouement of the play came, Euripides brought to the public a “god in a car”, who predicted fate and expressed his will.

Euripides' most famous work is the Medea.

He took the myth of the Argonauts as a basis. On the ship "Argo" they went to Colchis to extract the golden fleece.

In this difficult and dangerous business, the leader of the Argonauts, Jason, was helped by the daughter of the Colchis king, Medea.

She fell in love with Jason and committed several crimes for him.

For this, Jason and Medea were expelled from their native city. They settled in Corinth.

A few years later, having made two sons, Jason leaves Medea.

He marries the daughter of the Corinthian king. From this event begins, in fact, the tragedy.

Seized with a thirst for revenge, Medea is terrible in anger.

First, with the help of poisoned gifts, she kills Jason's young wife and her father.

After that, the avenger kills her sons, born from Jason, and flies away on a winged chariot.

Creating the image of Medea, Euripides several times emphasized that she was a sorceress. But her unbridled character, violent jealousy, cruelty of feelings constantly remind the audience that she is not a Greek, but a native of the country of barbarians.

The audience does not take the side of Medea, no matter how much she suffers, because they cannot forgive her terrible crimes (primarily infanticide.

In this tragic conflict, Jason is Medea's opponent.

The playwright portrayed him as a selfish and prudent person who puts only the interests of his family at the forefront.

The audience understands that it was the ex-husband who brought Medea to such a frenzied state.

Among the many tragedies of Euripides, one can single out the drama Iphigenia in Aulis, which is distinguished by civil pathos.

The work is based on the myth of how, at the behest of the gods, Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

This is the plot of the tragedy. Agamemnon led a flotilla of ships to take Troy.

But the wind died down, and the sailboats could not go further.
Then Agamemnon turned to the goddess Artemis with a request to send the wind.

In response, he heard an order to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

Agamemnon summoned his wife Clytemnestra and daughter Iphigenia to Aulis.

The pretext was the courtship of Achilles.

When the women arrived, the deception was revealed.

Agamemnon's wife was furious and did not allow her daughter to be killed.

Iphigenia begged her father not to sacrifice her.

Achilles was ready to defend his bride, but she refused to help when she learned that she must be martyred for the sake of her fatherland.
During the sacrifice, a miracle happened.

After being stabbed, Iphigenia disappeared somewhere, and a doe appeared on the altar.

The Greeks have a myth that tells that Artemis took pity on the girl and transferred her to Tauris, where she became a priestess of the temple of Artemis.

In this tragedy, Euripides showed a courageous girl, ready to sacrifice herself for the good of her homeland.

It was said above that Euripides was not popular with the Greeks.

The public did not like the fact that the playwright sought to depict life as realistically as possible in his works, as well as his free attitude to myths and religion.

It seemed to many viewers that by doing so he violated the laws of the tragedy genre.

And yet the most educated part of the public enjoyed watching his plays. Many of the tragic poets who lived at that time in Greece followed the path opened by Euripides.

Shortly before his death, Euripides moved to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus, where his tragedies enjoyed well-deserved success.

At the beginning of 406 BC. e. Euripides died in Macedonia.

This happened a few months before Sophocles' death.

Glory came to Euripides only after his death.

In the IV century BC. e. Euripides began to be called the greatest tragic poet.

This statement remained until the end of the ancient world.

This can only be explained by the fact that the plays of Euripides corresponded to the tastes and requirements of people of a later time who wanted to see on stage the embodiment of those thoughts, feelings and experiences that were close to their own.