The Trojan Women of Euripides. Euripides

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       Euripides

      The Trojan Women of Euripides

      Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4057664652249

Table of Contents

       THE ATHENIAN DRAMA

       THE

       TROJAN WOMEN

       EURIPIDES

       GILBERT MURRAY, M.A., LL.D.

       INTRODUCTORY NOTE

       THE TROJAN WOMEN

       CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

       THE TROJAN WOMEN

       NOTES ON THE TROJAN WOMEN

       BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE ATHENIAN DRAMA

       Table of Contents

      FOR ENGLISH READERS

      A Series of Verse Translations of the Greek

       Dramatic Poets, with Commentaries and

       Explanatory Notes.

      Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 7s. 6d. each net.

       Each Volume Illustrated from ancient

       Sculptures and Vase-Painting.

      AESCHYLUS: The Orestean Trilogy. By Prof. G. C. Warr. With an Introduction on The Rise of Greek Tragedy, and 13 Illustrations.

      SOPHOCLES: Œdipus Tyrannus and Coloneus, and Antigone. By Prof. J. S. Phillimore. With an Introduction on Sophocles and his Treatment of Tragedy, and 16 Illustrations.

      EURIPIDES: Hippolytus; Bacchae; Aristophanes' 'Frogs.' By Prof. Gilbert Murray. With an Appendix on The Lost Tragedies of Euripides, and an Introduction on The Significance of the Bacchae in Athenian History, and 12 Illustrations. [Second Edition.

      ALSO UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE

      THE HOMERIC HYMNS. A New Prose Rendering by Andrew Lang, with Essays Critical and Explanatory, and 14 Illustrations.

      THE PLAYS OF EURIPIDES

      Translated into English Rhyming Verse, with Explanatory Notes, by Prof. Gilbert Murray. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. each net.

      The Trojan Women.

       Electra.[In the Press.

Hippolytus. Third Edition. Bacchae.

}

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THE

       Table of Contents

TROJAN WOMEN

       Table of Contents

      OF

      EURIPIDES

       Table of Contents

      TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE

      WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY

      >

GILBERT MURRAY, M.A., LL.D.

       Table of Contents

      EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY

       OF GLASGOW; SOMETIME FELLOW OF

       NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD

      LONDON

       GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD

       1905

      [All rights reserved]

      Printed by Ballantyne Hanson & Co.

       At the Ballantyne Press

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

       Table of Contents

      Judged by common standards, the Troädes is far from a perfect play; it is scarcely even a good play. It is an intense study of one great situation, with little plot, little construction, little or no relief or variety. The only movement of the drama is a gradual extinguishing of all the familiar lights of human life, with, perhaps, at the end, a suggestion that in the utterness of night, when all fears of a possible worse thing are passed, there is in some sense peace and even glory. But the situation itself has at least this dramatic value, that it is different from what it seems.

      The consummation of a great conquest, a thing celebrated in paeans and thanksgivings, the very height of the day-dreams of unregenerate man—it seems to be a great joy, and it is in truth a great misery. It is conquest seen when the thrill of battle is over, and nothing remains but to wait and think. We feel in the background the presence of the conquerors, sinister and disappointed phantoms; of the conquered men, after long torment, now resting in death. But the living drama for Euripides lay in the conquered women. It is from them that he has named his play and built up his scheme of parts: four figures clearly lit and heroic, the others in varying grades of characterisation, nameless and barely articulate, mere half-heard voices of an eternal sorrow.

      Indeed, the most usual condemnation of the play is not that it is dull, but that it is too harrowing; that scene after scene passes beyond the due limits of tragic art. There are points to be pleaded against this criticism. The very beauty of the most fearful scenes, in spite of their fearfulness, is one; the quick comfort of the lyrics is another, falling like a spell of peace when the strain is too hard to bear (cf. p. 89). But the main defence is that, like many of the greatest works of art, the Troädes is something more than art. It is also a prophecy, a bearing