Who is Euripides in ancient Greece. 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

Euripides (485 or 480–406 BC), Greek poet, author of tragedies, considered (along with Aeschylus and Sophocles) one of the pillars of Greek drama

There are few reliable accounts of Euripides' life. Many of the stories passed down about him by later writers have, in the course of time, come to seem credible, while most of them are unreliable, and some are manifestly unfounded. A true Athenian both by birth and citizenship, Euripides lived permanently in his homeland, with the exception of the last year or two, when he was a guest at the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus.

Euripides' parents were not among the richest or most prominent aristocratic Athenian families. In the comedy Women at the Thesmophoria (p. 387), Aristophanes calls Euripides' mother a "vegetable merchant." Euripides was not poor, although, of course, he could not earn money by writing plays. There is no reason to assume that Euripides took a particularly active part in the socio-political life of Athens, even though his plays show an interest in rhetorical argumentation and, perhaps, Euripides himself was trained in rhetoric. His dramas undoubtedly testify to the author's persistent convictions on many issues of public life. In addition, they indicate his interest in modern theoretical thought and make quite convincing the traditional version of the closeness of Euripides to the Athenian natural philosopher Anaxagoras. Less likely is his friendship with Socrates.

The great comedian Aristophanes disapproved of many of the ideas and techniques of Euripides, which is especially clearly evidenced by the comedy of the Frog. However, these attacks should not be given much importance. In ancient times, they tried to explain the move of Euripides from Athens to Macedonia by the desire to escape from criticism or even threats from opponents. However, moving to Macedonia, Euripides could well count on the warm welcome of King Archelaus, who tried to attract prominent Greeks to his court, so the opportunity to leave the city, exhausted by war and internal strife, was in itself a sufficient reason for such a step. Euripides lived in Macedonia long enough to complete his great tragedy of the Bacchae.

Critical Assessment

Euripides is usually spoken of as the third most important among the three great playwrights, whose tragedies mainly made up the glory of Athens in the 5th century. BC. Aeschylus lived in the first half of this century, and his work ended almost fifty years earlier than the work of the other two playwrights. Sophocles was somewhat older than Euripides and outlived him. It should be noted that ancient literature has preserved more passages from Euripides than from Aeschylus and Sophocles combined.

The works of Euripides differ in many ways from the tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus, but first you need to point out the features that are characteristic of any Greek tragedy. To a person who first turned to Greek tragedy, these common features are striking rather than differences, if only because Greek drama is so unlike contemporary works. Its structure is constant: episodes (dialogues in verse between two or three actors) are interspersed with songs of the choir (written in lyrical poetry). The members of the choir are formally the characters of the tragedy, but in fact they are something between the actors and the audience, they can rather be likened to the choir, which is in some religious ceremonies in the middle between the clergy and the parishioners. Dialogue is often preceded by a lyrical part of the actor, performed solo or accompanied by a choir.

The plot of the tragedy, as a rule, is borrowed from the myth. Story Trojan War, fate, pursuing the Mycenaean and Theban dynasties, and many other more or less well-known legends from the distant past, provided the authors of tragedies with abundant material. Despite the fact that the outline of the plot is known in advance, its details can change at the request of the poet. In this, the plays of Euripides are similar to those of other Greek playwrights, both in terms of form and content. What indisputably and sharply distinguished them was the difference in the spirit and aims of tragedy. The main difference in form is the frequent use of prologues and epilogues, which are written in the verse usually used in dialogues and are spoken either by one of the characters in the drama or (and this happens more often) by a deity who did not take part in it. The explicit purpose of the prologue is to set out the state of affairs in which the action begins, sometimes hints are made here as to what will happen in the future. The explicit purpose of the epilogue is to make changes in the fate or behavior of the characters and tell the story to the end.

Euripides' worldview

The content of the tragedies, their focus and meaning - that's what distinguishes Euripides from the other two great playwrights. He doesn't idealize his characters. Sophocles allegedly said that he himself depicts people as they should be portrayed, and Euripides as they really are. In the hands of Euripides, traditional myths are subjected to such interpretations and changes that the heroes lose their heroic features, turning into ordinary people. Only the humble and contemptible characters of Euripides - women (especially young girls), peasants, etc. - are sometimes able to rise above the general level, having accomplished a feat of courage, loyalty and selflessness. In addition, the Athenians understood and sympathized with Euripides' characters not only because they were realistically depicted and reminded them of themselves, but also because, in essence, he portrayed his contemporaries in tragedies.

The theme of the tragedy is the misfortunes and suffering that fall to the lot of people. What is their reason? Aeschylus' answer can be summarized as follows: this is the punishment for sin. Sophocles sees the reason in the combination of human pride with stubbornness and their collision with an accident (moreover, the gods sanction what is happening rather than adjust it). Euripides, on the other hand, saw the reason exclusively in human nature: this is the ignorance and stupidity of the people themselves, their unbridled passions and feelings, their greed, ambition and cruelty, which ruin both their own lives and the lives of loved ones. Euripides' view of life can be called sad, but by no means cynical: evil and error can be opposed by virtue and common sense. Too often, however, evil triumphs and misfortune breaks out. Be that as it may, the gods do not interfere in the lives of people in any way. We ourselves are responsible (of course, within the limits allotted to us) for everything good and bad that happens to us in life.

tragedy

Under the name of Euripides, 19 plays have been almost completely preserved to this day. One of them, Res, is an inept arrangement of the Xth Canto of the Iliad and is almost certainly not by Euripides. Another, Cyclops, belongs to the genre of not tragedy, but drama and is the only completely surviving play of this kind, despite the fact that all tragedians wrote satyr dramas. These merry, comical parodies of the tragedy, in which the choir was made up of satyrs, were staged at drama competitions in honor of the feast of the Great Dionysius, as an appendix to the tragic trilogy. The remaining 17 tragedies, about a fifth of all written by Euripides, belong to the mature period of his work. The dating of most of them is doubtful, although some linguistic features make it possible to distinguish early works from later ones.

Alkesta

Being a tragedy in form, the content of Alkest is rather a fairy tale with a happy ending. Admetus, king of Ther in Thessaly, is doomed to die if no one gives his life for him. Only his wife Alcesta agrees to die for him. She dies and her body is placed in the tomb. Soon, Hercules turns up in Fera, who spends the night visiting his old friend Admet. Upon learning of his misfortune, Hercules lies in wait near the tomb of the god of death Thanatos, overcomes him and returns Alcesta to life.

Medea is a story of female revenge. Jason, who returned from Colchis as a winner, with the Golden Fleece, brought with him the Colchis princess Medea. They settled in Corinth and lived happily there for many years. But now Jason is going to marry a Corinthian princess (a foreigner is not recognized as his legal wife). Jason is not a hero here, but it would be unfair to perceive him as a scoundrel worthy of contempt, as Medea believes, and most modern readers with her. Jason claims, and not without reason, that new marriage will ensure the safety of Medea, and their children, and Jason himself. However, Medea, whom Jason's betrayal throws into a frenzy, thinks only of revenge. She manages to exterminate the princess by sending her a poisoned cloak as a gift. Then, having endured a difficult struggle with maternal feelings, Medea inflicts a truly crushing blow on Jason, killing her own and his sons. In the finale, we see Medea, who flies up on a winged chariot sent to her by her grandfather, the god of the Sun, and revels in the grief and horror of Jason, who is deprived even of the opportunity to punish her for the crime.

Hippolytus is the story of a pure young man prone to asceticism, the son of Theseus from an Amazon. Hippolytus incurred the wrath of the goddess of love Aphrodite with his contempt for her and exclusive devotion to Artemis, the patroness of hunting. To destroy the young man, Aphrodite makes Phaedra, Theseus' wife and stepmother Hippolytus, fall in love with him. Phaedra is ready to die of love rather than discover her passion. However, the old nurse Phaedra, wanting to save her, initiates Hippolytus into the secret, he listens to her story with horror and disgust. Phaedra commits suicide, but resentment prompts her to leave a note in which she accuses Hippolytus of encroaching on her honor. Theseus finds this message and sends his son into exile. This curse must inevitably come true - as Poseidon promised Theseus at one time, and it really becomes the cause of the death of Hippolytus. The dying youth is brought back to Athens, and Artemis appears in the epilogue and reveals the truth, but too late.

CHAPTER
VIII

EURIPID

• Biography of Euripides (485/4-406 BC).
• general characteristics 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, Kleito, 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 excellent knowledge 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 he 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 seclusion 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 various issues 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 feature 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.
By their own 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 dead charon urging her to go with him as soon as possible. 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, albeit 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 the charming image of a gentle and loving wife sacrificing herself for her husband's life. 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, so that he can 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 the husband and the wife he rejected is one of the most powerful scenes of 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.
About what happened behind the scenes, the audience learned from the story of the messenger, who reported on terrible death 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! -

Last words Medea speaks to the choir, who, during this whole scene, reveals a marvelous 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. Paten. 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 preserves 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, this is not the sorceress of Colchis, but an abandoned and completely desperate woman, a contemporary of the playwright, and the audience is present, in essence, with a terrible family drama. The suffering of Medea, in whose soul there is a struggle between maternal love and a thirst for revenge, are depicted with great pathos and psychological persuasiveness. In the end, the desire for revenge overwhelms all others. 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. So, in the words of Stasimus the first, “the sanctity of oaths disappeared ...” (vv. 412-413), some researchers see an indication of political environment 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 about Hippolytus, the natural son of the Athenian king Theseus from the Amazon Antiope, and about the unhappy love for him of his stepmother Phaedra. 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 apparently does not know him. It is only known that in the picture underworld, performed 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 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 knew 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 the Phaedra, he talks about the changes that he made to the plot of the play and to the characters actors. 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 to 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 a prime example 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 underworld and that he led 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 were not 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 poetic conversation with his father, he little by little asks him terrible secret until he finally learns that he 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 terrible catastrophe, which fell upon Hercules and almost led him to 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 we are talking about defending 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 has 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 house 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 marks. 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 really his son from Creusa, and that, giving him to Xuthus, he did not pass Ion on to another father, but wanted 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 had a certain life ideal: this is service to God, life is moderate 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 cruel morals countries and the human sacrifices performed there. 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 of the tragedy disappears, 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. Foant's kingdom seemed to him wild country full of all sorts 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 bloody inhabitants countries have transferred their own cruelty to the goddess, since they do 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 vindictive 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, proceeding from ethical standards 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.
Last scene, was probably very spectacular in terms of spectacular

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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 household 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 has written 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 chorus 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 flour better than fame dead man 1.

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 given to Achilles. Exodus was written by some learned Byzantine. A few 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 pronounces a skillful indictment 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: Eriphyla, 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 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 dignity tragic hero: he remembers his merits under 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 of activity 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 well understood 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. Dramaturgical activity 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. sound heroic theme in the tragedies of Euripides, it decreases, but at the same time, attention to the psychological world of a person and the phenomena of the life around him 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 about own affairs. 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, she apparently strong impression on his contemporaries, since new and more appropriate means of musical expression 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. Agons in which Euripides so well pushes opposing opinions and aspirations, especially clearly reveal the influence of sophistry and rhetoric. 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 liked by people who went towards a new philosophical movement in Athens at that time, sometimes perceiving negative traits sophistry and rhetoric (for example, the belief in the possibility and permissibility of using formal arguments to prove the truth or falsity of any position). 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.

Ancient Greece gave mankind three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and

Euripides. Euripides is the last and youngest in their line. By the time he appeared

Aeschylus' work has already established tragedy as the leading literary genre.

The mocker Aristophanes said that Aeschylus "was the first of the Greeks to pile up majestic

words and introduced a beautiful hype of tragic speech.

Euripides facilitated the language of tragedy, modernized it, brought it closer to colloquial speech,

therefore, apparently, he was more popular with subsequent generations than with his own,

accustomed to "stately words"

The beginning of the creative activity of Euripides fell on the period of the highest heyday

the Athenian state, which led the union of many small states and islands

Aegean archipelago during the reign of Pericles in 445-430 BC, and the second

half of his life coincided with the beginning crisis at the time of the Peloponnesian War

(431 - 404 BC) when democratic Athens faced another

powerful association - the oligarchic Sparta. The hatred of the Athenians for Sparta

became the emotional content of the tragedy of Euripides "Andromache", where the Spartan

King Menelaus, his wife Helen, the culprit of the Trojan War, and their daughter Hermione

bred by treacherous and cruel people.

In the "age of Pericles" Athens became the main cultural center of all Greek

world, attracting creative people from all over. It also contributed to

Pericles himself, an unusually educated man for his time, a wonderful

orator, talented commander, subtle politician Under him, Athens was rebuilt,

the Parthenon was erected, the wonderful sculptor Phidias led the construction work

and decorated the temple with his sculptural works. Long lived in Athens historian

Herodotus, the philosopher Anaxagoras, the sophist Protagoras (who owns the famous

formula: "Man is the measure of all things") At that time, Hippocrates began to create

medicine, Democritus and Antiphon developed mathematical science, flourished

oratory. .

Athens was called the "school of Greece", the "Helles of Hellas" It is not surprising that

patriotic enthusiasm was reflected in many works of art of that

time, among them were those especially marked by a patriotic sense of tragedy

Euripides - "Heraclides", "Suppliants", "Phoenician Women".

The ancient "Biographies" of Euripides claim that he was born on the day of victory in

The Battle of Salamis (where the Phetic fleet defeated the Persians) in 480 BC. e. on

the island of Salamina. In this battle

Aeschylus participated, and the sixteen-year-old Sophocles performed in the choir of young men,

celebrating the victory. So it was represented by the ancient Greeks

chroniclers of the succession of the three great tragedians - too beautiful to be

True, the Parian Chronicle calls the birth date of Euripides 484 BC. e.,

which researchers believe to be more reliable.

The "Biographies" say that Euripides was the son of the shopkeeper Mnesarchus and

vegetable vendor Clito. And scientists question this information, because they

taken from the comedy of Aristophanes ("Women at the Feast of Thesmophoria"), famous

with his attacks on the tragedian: he also hinted at his low origin from a simple

greengrocers, and his wife's infidelity, etc.

According to other sources, which are considered more reliable, Euripides came from

noble family and even served at the temple of Apollo Zosterius. He got great

education, had one of the richest libraries of his time, was friends with

the philosophers Anaxagoras and Archelaus, the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. This is bigger

seems to be true - for the excess of scientific reasoning in his tragedies, contemporaries

called Euripides "the philosopher on the stage." Confirms last biographical

version and the Roman writer Aulus Gellius in the Attic Nights, where he says that

Euripides had the means and studied with Protagoras and Anaxagoras.

Euripides is described as a withdrawn, gloomy man, prone to solitude, plus

everything else and a misogynist. Gloomy, he is also depicted on the surviving

portraits. If we translate the ancient characteristics of Euripides into the language of our

concepts, we can say that he was extremely ambitious (however, this is one of

conditions of creativity), exacerbated by an impressionable and touchy person Is it possible

Aristophanes) Even the "demonic" Medea Euripides allows you to pronounce the words, for

for many centuries anticipating the Nekrasov theme of "women's share":

Yes, between those who breathe and who think, We, women, are not more unhappy For our husbands We

we pay cheap. And buy, So he is your master, not a slave And the first second grief

more. And most importantly - you take it at random. Is he vicious or honest, how do you know? A

meanwhile, go away - shame on you, And you don’t dare to remove your spouse

(Translated by I. Annensky)

Euripides had enough reasons for a gloomy state of mind. His works are rarely

enjoyed success with contemporaries. In the competitions of poets adopted in ancient

Greece, Euripides won only three times (and two after his death - for the tragedy

"Bacchae" and "Iphigenia in Aulis", staged by his son). For the first time his tragedy

("Peliades") appeared on the scene in 455 BC. e., and he won the first victory

only in the 441st. For example, Sophocles emerged victorious eighteen times.

Euripides maintained closeness with the outstanding minds of his time, welcomed

all innovations in the field of religion, philosophy and science, for which he was attacked

moderate social circles. The Attic was the spokesman for their views.

comedy, the most prominent representative of which was a contemporary of the tragedian Aristophanes. IN

in his comedies, he ridiculed both social views and artistic techniques, and

private life of Euripides.

Perhaps these circumstances explain the fact that in his declining years, in 408

year BC e., Euripides accepted the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus and

moved to Macedonia. There he wrote the tragedy "Archelaus" in honor of the ancestor

his patron, as well as "Bacchae" - under the impression of a local cult

Dionysus. In Macedonia, he died in 406 BC. e. Even his death was

surrounded by rumors and gossip. According to one version, he was allegedly torn to pieces by dogs,

on the other - women. Here you can hear echoes of the same comedy by Aristophanes "Women

at the feast of Thesmophoria". According to her story, women angry at Euripides for

that he makes them too unsightly in his tragedies, conspire with him

kill. In the comedy, lynching did not take place, but it "decorated" the biography of the tragedian.

Euripides owns 90 tragedies, of which 18 have come down to us. Their chronology

Appearance on the stage, the researchers determine approximately: "Alcestis" (438

BC e.), "Medea" (431), "Heraclides" (about 430), "Hippolytus" (428),

Cyclops, Hecuba, Hercules, Petitioners (424-418), Trojan Women (415),

"Electra" (about 413), "Ion", "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Helena" (about 412),

"Andromache" and "Phoenician women" (about 411), "Orestes" (408), "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia

in Aulis" (405).

Plots for his tragedies, like his predecessors, Euripides drew from the legends

Trojan and Theban cycles, Attic legends, myths about the campaign of the Argonauts,

exploits of Hercules and the fate of his descendants. However, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles,

he has a completely different understanding of the myth. He departed from the tradition of the exalted,

normative images and began to depict mythological characters as earthly people

With all passions, contradictions and delusions.

Euripides developed new principles human images showing

psychological motives of actions, and not typologically provided, as it was

before: the hero acts heroically, the villain - villainously. He succeeded first

present a psychological drama when the struggles, confusion of the feelings of the characters

are transmitted to the audience and cause sympathy, and not just condemnation or admiration.

Perhaps this is most clearly expressed in the tragedy "Medea".

At the heart of "Medea" is a plot from the myth of the campaign of the Argonauts. Jason mined in Colchis

the golden fleece with the help of the daughter of the Colchis king, the sorceress Medea. bright personality,

strong, uncompromising, she, under the influence of passion for Jason, leaves her native

house, betrays his father, kills his brother, dooms himself to an unbearable existence in

foreign country, where she is despised as the daughter of a "barbarian" people. Meanwhile, Jason

owes her both life and the throne. When he leaves Medea to marry

the heiress of the Corinthian king Glauca, resentment and jealousy so blind Medea,

that she is planning the most terrible revenge - the murder of their children. The torment of Medea, in

madness rushing between maternal feelings and the power of a vengeful impulse,

so terrible that they involuntarily arouse sympathy. Here tragedy, rock in the pure

view - Medea is doomed, she has no way out. She can't go home and

cannot stay in Corinth, from where Jason expels her due to a new marriage. Not

she is also confident in the future of her children, even if she leaves them with her father, because they are for

the Greeks are the children of the "barbarian". And Medea decides:

So I swear

I am Hades and all the underground power, What can not be seen by the enemies of my children, Abandoned

Medea for mockery...

"Medea", an unsurpassed tragedy in all world literature, has not yet been

leaves the scene. One of the brightest modern performers of Medea -

wonderful actress Lyubov Selyutina at the Taganka Theater in Moscow, where this

tragedy invariably comes with a full house.

Glory came to Euripides, alas, after death. Contemporaries failed to appreciate it.

The only exception was the island of Sicily. Ancient Greek historian Plutarch

his "Comparative Lives" tells how individual Athenian

soldiers captured and enslaved during the unsuccessful Sicilian campaign,

managed to escape to their homeland: "... some were saved by Euripides. The fact is that

the Sicilians, probably more than all the Greeks living outside Attica, honored

talent of Euripides ... They say that at that time many of the blessings

Euripides warmly greeted those who returned home and told him

how they gained freedom by teaching the master 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. No, therefore, there is nothing incredible in the story that in

Kavne, at first, a ship was not allowed to hide in the harbor from pirates, and then

they let him in when, after questioning, they made sure that the sailors remembered by heart

poems by Euripides" ("Nikias and Krase").

A century later, the tragedies of Euripides began to enjoy great success and he

homeland, while Aeschylus and Sophocles began to lose popularity. Later to

The tragedies of Euripides were repeatedly treated by Roman playwrights. Eg,

"Medea" was processed by Ennius, Ovid, Seneca. In the era of classicism, Euripides

influenced Corneille ("Medea"), Racine ("Phaedra", "Andromache", "Iphigenia",

"Fi-vaida, or Brothers-enemies"). Voltaire based on his tragedies wrote "Merop"

and "Oresta". Schiller based on the "Phoenician women" by Euripides created the "Messinian bride".

In Russia, interest in Euripides arose long ago - "Andromache" by P.A. Katenin is known, and

also numerous translations One of the best translators of Euripides Innocent

Annensky also wrote several imitations, using plots that have not come down to us.

tragedies

The gloomy Euripides, who once suffered so much because of his rare victories in competitions

poets, won the main victory - over time, and to this day his tragedy

decorate theater stages.

Brief information:

Euripides (also Euripides, 480, Salamis - 406 BC) is a Greek poet, considered (together with Aeschylus and Sophocles) one of the pillars of Greek drama, a representative of the new Attic tragedy, in which psychology prevails over the idea of ​​​​divine fate.
The outlook of Euripides, in comparison with the other two great playwrights: E. does not idealize his characters. Sophocles portrays people as they should be portrayed, and Euripides as they really are. In Euripides, the heroes in traditional myths turn into ordinary people. The Athenians understood the characters of Euripides, because. he portrayed his contemporaries in tragedies.
The reason for the unhappiness of people according to Aeschylus: this is the punishment for sin. According to Sophocles: the combination of human pride with stubbornness and their clash with an accident (moreover, the gods "sanction" what is happening, they do not adjust it). According to Euripides: ignorance and stupidity of the people themselves, their vices. Euripides' look is sad, but not cynical. The gods do not interfere in people's lives, they themselves are responsible for everything good and bad in their lives.
Euripides was occupied with the dynamics of passion and feeling. female image, believed Euripides, gives more material. Women live naturally and sincerely.
The image of the struggle of feelings and internal discord is something new that Euripides introduced into Attic tragedy. Along with this - numerous arguments about the family, marriage, fatherhood, about the fatality of passions.

"Medea", summary (431 BC):
Medea, the sorceress princess, the daughter of the king in Colchis, saved the hero Jason when he and his friends were mining the sacred golden fleece. Medea gave Jason magical potions, thanks to the cat. Jason plowed arable land on fire-breathing bulls, helped put the dragon guard to sleep. When Jason and Medea, who fell in love with each other, set sail from Colchis, Medea killed her brother and scattered pieces of his body along the shore in order to detain the Colchian pursuers. When they returned to Iolk, Medea, in order to save Jason from the deceit of Pelias (Jason's elder relative who had seized power), persuaded the daughters of Pelias to slaughter their old father, promising to resurrect him young after that. Medea reneged on her promise, and the parricide daughters fled into exile. However, the people rebelled against the foreign sorceress, and Jason, Medea and two young sons fled to Corinth. The old Corinthian king offered him his daughter and kingdom as his wife, so that he could divorce the witch. Jason accepted the offer: after all, a new marriage would ensure the safety of Medea, their children, and Jason himself. On a solar chariot sent to her by her grandfather, the god of the Sun, harnessed by dragons, Medea fled to Athens, and ordered her children to give her stepmother a “wedding gift” - a cloak and a bandage that were soaked in poison: she manages to kill the princess. She then kills her own children as well. Jason vainly prays to Zeus, but Medea's revenge has already come true.
"Hippolytus", summary (431 BC):
The son of Theseus from the Amazon, Hippolyta, wants to punish Aphrodite for pride and contempt for love. Hippolytus is devoted to fasting to Artemis, the patroness of hunting, he comes out with a wreath in his hands and dedicates it to Artemis - "pure from pure." To destroy the young man, Aphrodite makes Phaedra, Theseus' wife and stepmother Hippolytus, fall in love with him. Phaedra is sick and delirious. The old nurse of Phaedra, wanting to save her, initiates Hippolytus into the secret, he listens to her story with horror and confesses: “Oh, if only it were possible to continue your race without women! A husband spends money on a wedding, a husband receives in-laws, a stupid wife is difficult, a smart wife is dangerous - I will keep the oath of silence, but I curse you! Phaedra commits suicide, but resentment prompts her to leave a note in which she accuses Hippolytus of encroaching on her honor. Theseus finds this message and asks Poseidon to fulfill his third wish: to send his son into exile. Hippolyte tries to convince his father of his innocence, but in vain. The curse comes true when Hippolytus rides a chariot between the rocks and the seashore. The dying young man is brought back to Athens, Artemis appears in the epilogue and reveals the truth, but too late: Hippolytus dies, forgiving his father, and Athena proclaims eternal memory to Hippolytus: before marriage, every girl will have to sacrifice a strand of hair to him.

"Electra" summary:
Elektra was given by her parents Aegisthus and Clytemnestra to marry a poor Mycenaean plowman. but this marriage remains a fictitious one, because the peasant is conscious that he did not rightfully receive Electra. Electra goes to fetch water and meets Orestes at the spring, who, together with Pylades, secretly arrived in Argos and, from a conversation between Electra and the choir, recognized her as her sister. Elektra is frightened at first, then she recognizes her brother in him from the scar and from the evidence of Aegisthus. A revenge plan is drawn up, and Orestes is confused, not knowing how to deal with Aegisthus and his mother at the same time. Elektra offers her help in relation to the mother, she makes a plan herself. She must lure Clytemnestra into the house on the pretext of having her first child. Before the arrival of Clytemnestra, Orestes is horrified and doubtful, he is completely ready to abandon the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bkilling her, and only the perseverance and inflexibility of Elektra returns him to the original plan. Elektra meets Clytemnestra with full hatred and reproaches with a speech and escorts her to the house where Orestes kills her. Immediately after the murder of the mother, the brother and sister raise a cry about what they have done, and Elektra takes all the blame.

"Iphigenia in Aulis", summary:
At the very beginning of the action, Agamemnon is talking to his faithful old slave. Agamemnos doubts whether to lead the army to victory and propitiate Artemis or save his daughter, who was intended to be sacrificed to the goddess. Agamemnon sent an order to Argos to bring Iphigenia to Aulis (as if for a wedding with Achilles), then writes a letter canceling this order and sends the old man on his way. But when leaving the camp he meets King Menelaus; who took away the secret letter. He reproaches Agamemnon for betraying the army. The brothers are arguing, but Clytemnestra and Iphigenia have already arrived. Agamemnon fails to convince Clytemnestra to leave for Argos, leaving her daughter with her father. Clytemnestra and welcomes Achilles as a future son-in-law. Achilles is at a loss, then the old slave reveals to them all the deception.
Knetimnestra and Iphigenia fail to convince Agamemnon to change his mind. The warriors demand the princess as a sacrifice, but Achilles is ready to fight against everyone. But Iphigenea decides to voluntarily go to death for the sake of the fate of her homeland.

"Bacchantes", summary;
The Theban king Pentheus and his mother Agave do not believe in divine origin Dionysus, they say that the mother of Dionysus suffered from a mere mortal, but she invented about Zeus. And in general they are against the cult of Dionysus. They don't like the fact that women break loose en masse in bacchanalia several times a year. Pentheus grabs Dionysus, disguised as a wanderer, ties him up and locks him in a barn.

Dionysus is offended: mortals have raised their voice against God! To begin with, he organizes a small earthquake, destroys the palace of Pentheus, deprives Agave of his mind, makes her his passionate follower, obsessed with a maenad, sends her to the mountains with a crowd of other distraught women, plunges her into an abyss of revelry and orgies. The distraught mother, being under the spell sent to her by Dionysus, kills Pentheus, her own son, tears him to pieces and returns to the city with his head impaled on the thyrsus - the rod of Dionysus. Agave, stupefied by Dionysus, thinks that she has attacked a lion, and considers her son's head to be a lion's head. She terrifies the townspeople. Dionysus gives the mother to come to her senses and understand the horror of what happened. This is followed by the lamentation of Agave: Agave conquers her religious fear and, with weeping, kisses separate pieces of Pentheus' body. Dionysus turns Agave's father into a dragon, his old wife into a snake, and Agave and his sisters, with whose hands he tore Pentheus to pieces, he sends into exile.

(484 BC - 406 BC)

Ancient Greece gave mankind three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Euripides is the last and youngest in their line. By the time of his appearance, the work of Aeschylus had already established tragedy as the leading literary genre. The mocker Aristophanes said that Aeschylus "was the first of the Greeks to pile up majestic
words and introduced a beautiful hype of tragic speech.

Euripides facilitated the language of tragedy, modernized it, brought it closer to colloquial speech, therefore, apparently, it was more popular with subsequent generations than with his own, accustomed to "stately words."

The beginning of the creative activity of Euripides fell on the period of the highest heyday of the Athenian state, which led the union of many small states and islands of the Aegean archipelago under the rule of Pericles in 445-430 BC, and the second half of his life coincided with the beginning crisis at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431 - 404 BC), when democratic Athens clashed with another powerful association - the oligarchic Sparta. The hatred of the Athenians for Sparta became the emotional content of the tragedy of Euripides "Andromache", where the Spartan king Menelaus, his wife Helen, the culprit of the Trojan War, and their daughter Hermione are bred as insidious and cruel people.

In the "age of Pericles" Athens became the main cultural center of the entire Greek world, attracting creative people from all over. This was facilitated by Pericles himself, an unusually educated person for his time, an excellent orator, a talented commander, a subtle politician. Under him, Athens was rebuilt, the Parthenon was erected, the wonderful sculptor Phidias led the construction work and decorated the temple with his sculptural works. The historian Herodotus, the philosopher Anaxagoras, the sophist Protagoras (who owns the famous formula: “Man is the measure of all things”) lived in Athens for a long time. At that time, Hippocrates began to create medicine, Democritus and Antiphon developed mathematical science, oratory flourished.

Athens was called the "school of Greece", the "Hellas of Hellas". It is not surprising that patriotic enthusiasm was reflected in many works of art of that time, among them were the tragedies of Euripides, especially marked by a patriotic feeling - "Heraclides", "The Petitioner", "Phoenician Women".

The ancient "Biographies" of Euripides claim that he was born on the day of the victory in the battle of Salamis (where the Fecian fleet defeated the Persians) in 480 BC. e. on the island of Salamis. Aeschylus participated in this battle, and the sixteen-year-old Sophocles performed in the choir of young men who glorified the victory. This is how the ancient Greek chroniclers presented the succession of the three great tragedians - too beautifully to be true. The Parian Chronicle calls the birth date of Euripides 484 BC. e., which researchers seem to be more reliable.

In the "Biographies" it is said that Euripides was the son of the shopkeeper Mnesarchus and the vegetable merchant Clito. And scientists question this information, since they are taken from the comedy of Aristophanes ("Women at the Thesmophoria"), known for his attacks on the tragedian: he hinted at his low origin from a simple greengrocer, and his wife's infidelity, etc.

According to other sources, which are considered more reliable, Euripides came from a noble family and even served at the temple of Apollo Zosterius. He got great
education, had one of the richest libraries of his time, was friends with the philosophers Anaxagoras and Archelaus, the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. This is more like the truth - for the excess of scientific reasoning in his tragedies, contemporaries called Euripides "a philosopher on the stage." The latest biographical version is also confirmed by the Roman writer Aulus Gellius in the Attic Nights, where he says that Euripides had the means and studied with Protagoras and Anaxagoras.

Euripides is described as a withdrawn, gloomy man, prone to solitude, plus a misogynist. Gloomy, he is depicted in the surviving portraits. If we translate the ancient characteristics of Euripides into the language of our concepts, we can say that he was extremely ambitious (however, this is one of the conditions for creativity), a sharply impressionable and touchy person. Can we consider him a misogynist? It seems unlikely (and here Aristophanes could not do without). Even the "demonic" Medea Euripides allows to pronounce words that for many centuries anticipated Nekrasov's theme of "women's share":

Yes, among those who breathe and who think, We women are not more unhappy For our husbands We pay dearly. And buy, So he is your master, not a slave And the first second grief is greater. And most importantly - you take it at random. Is he vicious or honest, how do you know? In the meantime, go away - you are a shame, And you do not dare to remove your spouse.
(Translated by I. Annensky)

Euripides had enough reasons for a gloomy state of mind. His works were rarely popular with contemporaries. In the competitions of poets, adopted in Ancient Greece, Euripides won only three times (and two after his death - for the tragedies "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia in Aulis", staged by his son). For the first time, his tragedy ("Peliades") appeared on the stage in 455 BC. e., and he won his first victory only in 441. For example, Sophocles emerged victorious eighteen times.

Euripides maintained closeness with the outstanding minds of his time, welcomed all innovations in the field of religion, philosophy and science, for which he was attacked by moderate social circles. The spokesman for their views was the Attic comedy, the most prominent representative of which was a contemporary of the tragedian Aristophanes. In his comedies, he ridiculed both public views, and artistic techniques, and the personal life of Euripides.

Perhaps these circumstances explain the fact that in his declining years, in 408 BC. e., Euripides accepted the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus and moved to Macedonia. There he wrote the tragedy "Archelaus" in honor of the ancestor of his patron, as well as "Bacchae" - under the impression of the local cult of Dionysus. In Macedonia, he died in 406 BC. e. Even his death was
surrounded by rumors and gossip. According to one version, he was allegedly torn to pieces by dogs,
on the other - women. Here echoes of the same comedy by Aristophanes "Women at the Feast of Thesmophoria" are heard. According to her story, women, angry at Euripides for making them too unattractive in his tragedies, conspire to kill him. In the comedy, lynching did not take place, but it "decorated" the biography of the tragedian.

Euripides owns 90 tragedies, of which 18 have come down to us. Researchers determine the chronology of their appearance on stage approximately: Alcestis (438 BC), Medea (431), Heraclides (about 430- go), Hippolytus (428), Cyclops, Hecuba, Hercules, Petitioners (424-418), Trojan women (415), Electra (about 413), Ion, "Iphigenia in Tauris", "Helen" (about 412), "Andromache" and "Phoenician women" (about 411), "Orestes" (408), "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia
in Aulis "(405). The plots for his tragedies, like his predecessors, Euripides drew from the legends of the Trojan and Theban cycles, Attic traditions, myths about the campaign of the Argonauts, the exploits of Hercules and the fate of his descendants. However, unlike Aeschylus and Sophocles, he a completely different understanding of the myth.He moved away from the tradition of sublime, normative images and began to depict mythological characters as earthly people - with all the passions, contradictions and delusions.

Euripides also developed new principles for depicting a person, showing the psychological motives of actions, and not typologically provided, as it was before: the hero acts heroically, the villain - villainously. He was the first to present a psychological drama, when the struggles, confusion of the characters' feelings are conveyed to the audience and evoke sympathy, and not just condemnation or admiration.

Perhaps this is most clearly expressed in the tragedy "Medea".

At the heart of "Medea" is a plot from the myth of the campaign of the Argonauts. Jason got the Golden Fleece in Colchis with the help of the daughter of the Colchis king, the sorceress Medea. The personality is bright, strong, uncompromising, she, under the influence of passion for Jason, leaves native home, betrays her father, kills her brother, dooms herself to an unbearable existence in a foreign country, where she is despised as the daughter of a "barbarian" people. Meanwhile, Jason
owes her both life and the throne. When he leaves Medea to marry
the heiress of the Corinthian king Glaucus, resentment and jealousy blind Medea so much that she conceives the most terrible revenge - the murder of their children. The torments of Medea, rushing in madness between maternal feelings and the power of a vengeful impulse, are so terrible that they involuntarily arouse sympathy. Here is tragedy, rock in its purest form - Medea is doomed, she has no way out. She cannot return home and cannot stay in Corinth, from where Jason expels her due to a new marriage. She is not sure about the future of her children, even if she leaves them with their father, because for the Greeks they are the children of the "barbarian". And Medea decides:

So I swear by Hades and all the underground power, That the enemies of my children, Abandoned by Medea to mockery, cannot see ...

"Medea", an unsurpassed tragedy in all world literature, still does not leave the stage. One of the brightest modern performers of Medea is the wonderful actress Lyubov Selyutina at the Moscow Taganka Theater, where this tragedy invariably goes with a full house. Glory came to Euripides, alas, after death. Contemporaries failed to appreciate it. The only exception was the island of Sicily. The ancient Greek historian Plutarch, in his Comparative Biographies, tells how individual Athenian soldiers, captured and enslaved during an unsuccessful Sicilian campaign, managed to escape to their homeland: "... 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 ... They say that at that time many of those who returned home safely greeted Euripides warmly and told him how they gained freedom by teaching the owner what was left in the memory from his poems or how, wandering after the battle, they earned their food and water by singing songs from his tragedies.There is, therefore, nothing incredible in the story that in Cavne a ship was first not allowed to hide in the harbor from pirates, and then let him when, after questioning, they made sure that the sailors remembered by heart the poems of Euripides" ("Nikias and Krase").

A century later, the tragedies of Euripides began to enjoy great success in his homeland, while Aeschylus and Sophocles began to lose popularity. Later, Roman playwrights repeatedly turned to the tragedies of Euripides. For example, "Medea" was processed by Enniy, Ovid, Seneca. In the era of classicism, Euripides influenced Corneille ("Medea"), Racine ("Phaedra", "Andromache", "Iphigenia", "The Waida, or Brothers Enemies"). Voltaire, based on his tragedies, wrote Merope and Orestes. Schiller based on the "Phoenician women" by Euripides created the "Messinian bride". In Russia, interest in Euripides arose long ago - "Andromache" by P. A. Katenin, as well as numerous translations are known. One of the best translators of Euripides, Innokenty Annensky, wrote several imitations, using plots of tragedies that have not come down to us.

The gloomy Euripides, who once suffered so much because of his rare victories in poetic competitions, won the main victory - over time, and to this day his tragedies adorn the theater stages.