Hippolytus Euripides read. Summary of Hippolytus Euripides. The youth and education of Euripides

Once Theseus lived in Athens, he was a hero, he accomplished many feats, even killed a monster. The king was supposed to marry the princess, who somehow helped him, but he gave her as a wife to God. Aphrodite was angry with the king.

After this, Theseus married an Amazon. She died, leaving the king with a son, Hippolytus. He promised himself not to fall in love with women, which is why Aphrodite hated him.

Then Theseus married Phaedra. She fell in love with her husband's son. Theseus had to go away for a long time. Phaedra was in the same city with her stepson. Her love was so strong that Phaedra fell ill and almost never left the house. She was delirious. She had a nurse with her. Phaedra was sure that only death could save her. The persuasion and consolation of the nurse had no effect on the princess.

The nurse left. She revealed to Hippolytus the secret of Theseus' wife. He was terrified. He cursed all women on earth.

Theseus's wife was angry with her nurse. She wanted to die without losing honor. But she didn't succeed.

Phaedra committed suicide, she hanged herself. Theseus returned to his homeland. He was shocked and upset to see his wife's corpse. She left a note saying that Hippolyte had been molesting her. And she couldn't bear it. Theseus begged Poseidon to take revenge on his son.

The king scolded Hippolytus. The young man did not expect to see the corpse of his stepmother. The father drove his son away. Hippolytus tried to justify himself, but Theseus refused to listen to him, deciding that his son was lying.

Hippolyte did not want his father to have a bad opinion of him. He drove along the coast. A monster attacked him. His horses got scared, his chariot crashed on the rocks, and the young man’s body was dragged along the ground.

Hippolytus was brought to his father, but he still did not recognize his son’s innocence. Then Artemis appeared. She proved Theseus wrong. Ippolit did not understand why fate punished him so much. It turned out that Aphrodite played a cruel joke on the family. Artemis promised to take revenge on the unjust goddess. Theseus was inconsolable. But Hippolytus forgave him before his death.

The tragedy teaches you that you shouldn’t make hasty conclusions, otherwise you will regret it.

Picture or drawing of Euripides - Hippolytus

Origin of Euripides

The third great Athenian tragedian, Euripides, was born on the island of Salamis in 480 BC (Ol. 75, 1), according to legend, on the same day when the Athenians defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis - 20 voedromion or 5 October. The poet's parents, like most Athenians, fled from Attica during the invasion of Xerxes' hordes and sought refuge in Salamis. Euripides' father's name was Mnesarchus (or Mnesarchides), and his mother's name was Clito. There are remarkable, contradictory reports about them, which, perhaps, partly owe their origin to the mocking Attic comedy. Euripides' mother, as Aristophanes often reproached him, was, they say, a merchant and sold vegetables and herbs; the father is said to have also been a merchant or innkeeper (κάπηγοσ); they say that he, for some unknown reason, fled with his wife to Boeotia and then settled again in Attica. We read from Stobaeus that Mnesarchus was in Boeotia and there he was subjected to an original punishment for debts: the insolvent debtor was taken to the market, sat there and covered with a basket. By this he was dishonored and therefore left Boeotia for Attica. The comedians say nothing about this story, although they used everything they could to ridicule Euripides.

Euripides with an actor's mask. Statue

From everything reported, it seems that we can conclude that Euripides’ parents were poor people, from the lower class. But Philochorus, the famous collector of Attic antiquities who lived during the time of the Diadochi, in his work on Euripides, on the contrary, reports that Euripides’ mother came from a very noble family; Theophrastus (c. 312 BC) also speaks about the nobility of the poet’s parents, according to whom Euripides was once among the boys who, during the festival of Phargelia, poured wine for the singers - an activity for which only children from noble locals were chosen childbirth The remark of one biographer that Euripides was the torchbearer (πύρθορος) of Apollo Zosterius has a similar meaning. Therefore we must believe that Euripides came from a noble Athenian family. He was assigned to the district of Phlia (Φλΰα).

The youth and education of Euripides

Even if Euripides’s father was not rich, he nevertheless gave his son a good upbringing, which was fully consistent with his origin. The father especially tried to train his son in athletics and gymnastics, precisely because, as legend says, that at the birth of the boy, the father received a prediction from the oracle or from passers-by Chaldeans that his son would win victories in sacred competitions. When the boy's strength was already sufficiently developed, his father took him to Olympia for the games; but Euripides was not allowed to attend the games due to his youth. But later, as they say, he received an award for an athletic competition in Athens. In his youth, Euripides also studied painting; Subsequently, more of his paintings were located in Megara. In adulthood, he zealously took up philosophy and rhetoric. He was a student and friend of Anaxagoras of Clazomenos, who, during the time of Pericles, first began to teach philosophy in Athens; Euripides was on friendly terms with Pericles and with other remarkable people of that time, such as, for example, the historian Thucydides. The tragedies of Euripides show the deep influence that the great philosopher (Anaxagoras) had on the poet. His tragedies also sufficiently testify to his knowledge of rhetoric. In rhetoric, he used the lessons of the famous sophists Protagoras of Abdera and Prodicus of Keos, who lived and taught in Athens for a long time and were on good terms with the most remarkable people in this city, which then became a gathering point for all outstanding scientists and artists. In ancient biographies, Socrates is also mentioned among Euripides' teachers; but this is simply a chronological error. Socrates was a friend of Euripides, who was 11 years older than him; they had common views and common aspirations. Although Socrates rarely visited the theater, he came there every time a new drama by Euripides was played. “He loved this man,” says Elian, for his wisdom and for the moral tone of his works.” This mutual sympathy between the poet and the philosopher was the reason why comedians, ridiculing Euripides, claimed that Socrates was helping him write tragedies.

Dramatic activity of Euripides and the attitude of his contemporaries towards it

What prompted Euripides to leave his studies in philosophy and turn to tragic poetry is unknown to us for certain. Apparently, he took up poetry not out of inner motivation, but out of deliberate choice, wanting to popularize philosophical ideas in poetic form. He first performed the drama in the 25th year of his life, in 456 BC (Ol. 81.1), the year of the death of Aeschylus. Then he received only the third award. Even in ancient times they didn’t know exactly how many dramas Euripides wrote; most writers attributed 92 plays to him, including 8 satirical dramas. He won his first victory in 444 BC, the second in 428. In general, throughout his long-term poetic activity, he received the first award only four times; the fifth time he received it after his death, for didascalia, which put on stage on his behalf by his son or nephew, also named Euripides.

Euripides. Encyclopedia Project. Video

From this small number of victories it is clear that the works of Euripides did not enjoy special attention among his fellow citizens. However, during the life of Sophocles, who, being the favorite of the Athenian people, inseparably reigned on the stage until his death, it was difficult for anyone else to achieve fame. In addition, the reason for the insignificant successes of Euripides lay mainly in the peculiarities of his poetry, which, having left the solid ground of ancient Hellenic life, tried to acquaint the people with philosophical speculation and sophistry, therefore, took a new direction that did not like the generation brought up on old customs . But Euripides, regardless of the public’s reluctance, stubbornly continued to follow the same path, and in the consciousness of his own dignity sometimes directly contradicted the public if it expressed its displeasure with some of his bold thoughts, the moral meaning of some place in his works. So, for example, they say that once the people demanded that Euripides delete some place from his tragedy; the poet went on stage and declared that he was used to teaching the people, and not learning from the people. Another time, when, during the performance of Bellerophon, the whole people, having heard the misanthrope Bellerophon praising money above all else in the world, rose from their seats in anger and wanted to drive the actors off the stage and stop the performance, Euripides again appeared on stage and demanded that the audience We waited until the end of the play and saw what awaited the lover of money. The following story is similar to this. In Euripides’ tragedy “Ixion,” its hero, the villain, elevates injustice to a principle and with daring sophistry destroys all concepts of virtue and duty, so that this tragedy was condemned as godless and immoral. The poet objected, and only then removed his drama from the repertoire when he was forced to do so.

Euripides did not pay much attention to the verdict of his contemporaries, confident that his works would be appreciated later. Once, in a conversation with the tragedian Acestor, he complained that in the last three days, despite all his efforts, he managed to write only three poems; Akestor boasted that at this time he could easily write a hundred poems; Euripides remarked: “But there is a difference between us: your poems are written only for three days, but mine are written forever.” Euripides was not deceived in his expectations; as a supporter of progress, which increasingly attracted the younger generation, Euripides, from the time of the Peloponnesian War, began to meet little by little with more and more approval, and soon his tragedies became the common property of the Attic educated public. Brilliant tirades from his tragedies, pleasant songs and thoughtful maxims were on everyone’s lips and were highly valued throughout Greece. Plutarch, in his biography of Nicias, says that after the unfortunate outcome of the Sicilian expedition, many of the Athenians who escaped captivity in Syracuse and fell into slavery or were in poverty in another part of the island owed their salvation to Euripides. “Of the non-Athenian Greeks, the greatest admirers of the muse of Euripides were the Sicilian Greeks; they learned passages from his works by heart and gladly communicated them to one another. At least many of those who returned to their homeland from there joyfully greeted Euripides and told him, some how they freed themselves from slavery, having taught their master what they knew by heart from Euripides’ tragedies, others how they, singing his songs, received their own food when, after the battle, they had to wander without shelter.” In this regard, Plutarch tells how one day a ship, pursued by pirates, sought salvation in the bay of the city of Kavna (in Caria): the inhabitants of this city at first did not allow the ship into the bay; but then, asking the shipmen if they knew anything from Euripides and receiving an affirmative answer, they allowed them to hide from their pursuers. The comedian Aristophanes, a representative of the “good old times”, an enemy of all innovations, attacks Euripides especially strongly and very often laughs at passages from his tragedies; this proves how important Euripides was among his fellow citizens during the Peloponnesian War and how famous his poems were.

Personal character of Euripides

The dislike with which Euripides was greeted by his fellow citizens for a long time is partly explained by his personal character and way of life. Euripides was a completely moral person, which can already be seen from the fact that Aristophanes never cites a single immoral incident from his life; but by nature he was serious, gloomy and uncommunicative; like his teacher and friend Anaxagoras, whom no one had ever seen laughing or smiling, he hated all carefree enjoyment of life. And he was also not seen laughing; he avoided contact with people and never left a concentrated, thoughtful state. With such isolation, he spent time only with a few friends and with his books; Euripides was one of the few people of that time who had his own library, and quite a significant one at that. The poet Alexander Etolsky says about him: “The student of the strict Anaxagoras was grumpy and uncommunicative; an enemy of laughter, he did not know how to have fun and joke while drinking wine; but everything he wrote was full of pleasantness and attractiveness.” He withdrew from political life and never held public office. Of course, with such a lifestyle, he could not claim popularity; like Socrates, he must have seemed useless and idle to the Athenians; they considered him an eccentric, “who, buried in his books and philosophizing with Socrates in his corner, is thinking of remaking Hellenic life.” This is how Aristophanes presents him, of course, for the amusement of the Athenians, in his comedy “Acharnians”: Euripides sits at home and soars in the higher spheres, philosophizes and writes poetry, and does not want to go down to talk with Dicaeopolis, since he has no time; Only yielding to the urgent requests of the latter, he orders, for the sake of great convenience, to move himself out of the room. Paying some attention to the judgments of the crowd, Euripides in his "" advises smart people not to give their children an extensive education, "since a wise man, even because he loves leisure and solitude, arouses self-hatred among his fellow citizens, and if he invents something good, fools consider it a daring innovation.” But if Euripides moved away from public life, however, as is clear from his poetry, he had a patriotic heart; he tried to arouse love for the fatherland in his fellow citizens, he vividly felt the failures of his native city, rebelled against the machinations of the unscrupulous leaders of the mob, and even gave sound advice to the people in political matters.

On the island of Salamis they showed a lonely, shady cave with an entrance from the sea, which Euripides built for himself in order to retire there from the noisy light for poetic studies. In all likelihood, the gloomy and melancholic character of this cave, reminiscent of the personal characteristics of Euripides, prompted the Salamis people to name this cave after the poet born on the island. On one stone, which Welker speaks of (Alte Denkmäler, I, 488), there is an image relating to this Euripides cave. Euripides, a plump old man with a large beard, stands next to the muse, who holds a scroll in her hand and brings it to a woman sitting on a rock. This woman, as Welker explains, “is a nymph living in this coastal rock, a nymph of this cave, friendly receiving Euripides; the construction of a cave here for the solitary study of wise poetry is indicated by Hermes standing behind the nymph.”

The theme of women in Euripides

The gloomy and unsociable character of Euripides also explains the hatred of women for which the Athenians and especially Aristophanes reproached him in his comedy “Women at the Festival of Thesmophoria.” The women, irritated by Euripides’ bad reviews of them, want to take revenge on him and, having gathered for the festival of Thesmophoria, where complete agreement reigns between them, they decide to arrange a trial of the poet and sentence him to death. Euripides, in fear for his fate, is looking for one of the men who would agree to dress in women's dress, take part in a meeting of women and defend the poet there. Since the pampered, effeminate poet Agathon, whom Euripides asks to provide this service, does not want to be in danger, Mnesilochus, Euripides’ father-in-law, who has fully mastered the philosophical and oratorical techniques of his son-in-law, takes on this role and, dressing in a woman’s dress, delivered by Agathon , goes to the Thesmophorion temple. Here a trial takes place in which female speakers violently attack the son of a merchant who insults their sex; Mnesilochus ardently defends his son-in-law, but he is soon recognized and, on the orders of Prytan, who was called to the temple, he is tied to a stake, so that he can then be tried for criminal intrusion into female society. Euripides, who ran to the temple, tries in vain, using various tricks, to free his father-in-law; finally, he manages to free him when he promises the women never to scold them in the future, and, with the assistance of a flutist, distracts the attention of the Scythian standing on guard. Carried away by this comedy, later writers told as a historical fact that during the festival of the Thesmophoria, women attacked against Euripides and wanted to kill him, but he saved himself by giving them a promise that he would never say anything bad about them; talking about this, the biographer cites in confirmation several verses from Euripides’ drama “Melanippe”, which say: “The abuse uttered by men against women does not hit the target; I assure you that women are better than men.” According to another biographer, women attacked Euripides in the Salamis cave; they burst in, says the biographer, and wanted to kill him while he was writing the tragedy. How the poet calmed them down is not said; of course, with the help of the above promise.

Seated Euripides. Roman statue

Euripides paid special attention to the female sex and brought women to the stage much more often than other poets. The passions of a woman's heart, especially love and its clash with moral feelings, were often the subject of his tragedies; Thus, in his tragedies situations could easily appear in which the bad and dark sides of a woman’s heart were sharply outlined. Thus, often in entire plays and in many individual scenes, a woman appears in a bad light, although it cannot be said that these scenes express the poet’s firm conviction. The Athenians could be offended both by the fact that the poet generally depicted a woman on stage with all her innermost feelings and motives, and by the fact that women’s errors and depravity of character were depicted in such bright colors, and moreover, at a time when Attic women really stood morally not particularly high. This is the reason why Euripides acquired a reputation among the Athenians as a hater of women; we must admit that his attitude towards women does him at least as much honor as it does shame. In his dramas we meet many noble women, distinguished by their high love and self-sacrifice, courage and willpower, while men often appear next to them in a pitiful and secondary role.

Euripides' family relationships

If Euripides's harsh judgments about women are in most cases explained by the nature of the dramatic plot, then some of the sentences of this kind, apparently, were expressed by him quite sincerely. In his family life, the poet had to endure difficult trials. According to biographers, Euripides had two wives; the first was Chirila, the daughter of the above-mentioned Mnesilochus, from whom Euripides had three sons: Mnesarchides, who was later a merchant, Mnesilochus, who became an actor, and Euripides the Younger, a tragedian. Since this wife was unfaithful to Euripides, he divorced her and took another wife, Melito, who, however, turned out to be no better than the first and left her husband herself. This Melito is called by others the first wife of Euripides, and Chirilu (or Chirina) - the second; Gellius even says that Euripides had two wives at the same time, which, of course, is not true, since bigamy was not allowed in Athens. Chyrila is said to have had an affair with a certain Cephisophon, an actor who is said to be a young slave of Euripides, and of whom comedians say that he helped Euripides write dramas. Chyrila's infidelity prompted Euripides to write the drama Hippolytus, in which he particularly attacks women; Having experienced the same trouble from his second wife, the poet began to condemn women even more. Under such circumstances, of course, he could quite sincerely put such strange thoughts into Hippolytus’s mouth:

“Oh Zeus! You have darkened people's happiness by giving birth to a woman! If you wanted to support the human race, you would have to arrange it so that we do not owe our lives to women. We mortals could bring copper or iron or costly gold to your temples, and in return receive children from the hands of the deity, each according to his offering; and these children would grow up freely in their father’s house, never seeing or knowing women; for it is clear that woman is the greatest disaster.”

Departure of Euripides from Athens to Macedonia

In the last years of his life, Euripides left his hometown. This was shortly after the presentation of Orestes (408 BC). What prompted him to do this we do not know; Perhaps troubles in the family, or the constant bitter attacks of comedians, or the turbulent situation in Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War, or perhaps all this together made his stay in his homeland unpleasant. He first went to Thessalian Magnesia, whose citizens received him very hospitably and honored him with gifts. However, he did not stay there long and went to Pella, to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus. This sovereign was not distinguished by moral qualities; he paved his way to the throne with a triple murder; but he was very zealous about introducing Greek culture and morals into his country, especially about giving his court more shine by attracting Greek poets and artists. At his court lived, among others, the tragedian Agathon of Athens, the epic Chiril from Samos, the famous painter Zeuxis from Heraclea (in Magna Graecia), the musician and author of dithyrambs Timothy from Miletus. At the court of the hospitable and generous king, Euripides enjoyed pleasant leisure and, in honor of the Macedonian royal house, wrote the drama "Archelaus", which depicts the founding of the Macedonian kingdom by the descendant of Hercules Archelaus, the son of Temen. In Macedonia, Euripides wrote the drama “The Bacchae,” as can be seen from the allusions to local circumstances in this play. These plays were presented in Dion, in Pieria, near Olympus, where the cult of Bacchus existed and where King Archelaus staged dramatic competitions in honor of Zeus and the muses.

Probably, the poet Agathon also took part in these competitions, who left Athens and arrived in Pella almost at the same time as Euripides. As a joke, a story was invented that the handsome Agathon in his youth was the lover of Euripides, who was then about 32 years old, and that Euripides wrote his “Chrysippus” to please him. The story of how the old Euripides once, drunk at dinner with Archelaus, kissed the 40-year-old Agathon, deserves just as little faith, and when asked by the king whether he still considers Agathon his lover, he answered: “Of course, I swear by Zeus ; after all, beauties are given not only a wonderful spring, but also a wonderful autumn.”

Legends about the death of Euripides

Euripides did not live long at the court of Archelaus. He died in 406 BC (Ol. 93, 3), 75 years old. There are various stories about his death, which, however, have little credibility. The most widespread news was that he was torn to pieces by dogs. The biographer tells the following: In Macedonia there was a village inhabited by Thracians. One day the Molossian dog Archelaus came running there, and the villagers, according to their custom, sacrificed it and ate it. For this, the king fined them one talent; but Euripides, at the request of the Thracians, begged the king to forgive them for this act. A long time later, Euripides was walking one day in a grove near the city, in which the king was hunting at the same time. The dogs, escaping from the hunters, rushed at the old man and tore him to pieces. These were the puppies of the same dog that the Thracians ate; hence the Macedonians’ proverb “dog’s revenge.” Another biographer says that two poets, the Macedonian Arideus and the Thessalian Kratev, out of envy of Euripides, bribed the royal slave Lysimachus for 10 minutes so that he would unleash dogs on Euripides, who tore him to pieces. According to other news, it was not dogs, but women who attacked him on the road at night and tore him to pieces.

The news of Euripides' death was received in Athens with deep sorrow. They say that Sophocles, having received this news, put on mourning clothes, and during a performance in the theater led the actors onto the stage without wreaths; the people were crying. Archelaus erected a decent monument to the great poet in the romantic area between Arethusa and Wormiscus, near two springs. The Athenians, having learned about the death of the poet, sent an embassy to Macedonia with a request to hand over the body of Euripides for burial in his hometown; but since Archelaus did not agree to this request, they erected a cenotaph in honor of the poet on the road to Piraeus, where Pausanias later saw him. According to legend, the tomb of Euripides, like the tomb of Lycurgus, was destroyed by a lightning strike, which was considered a sign of the gods’ special attention to mortals, since the place where lightning struck was declared sacred and inviolable. The historian Thucydides or the musician Timothy is said to have decorated his cenotaph with the following inscription:

“The whole of Greece serves as the grave of Euripides, but his body is in Macedonia, where he was destined to end his life. His fatherland is Athens and all of Hellas; he enjoyed the love of the muses and thereby gained praise from everyone.”

Bergk believes that this inscription was not composed by the historian Thucydides, but by another Athenian of the same name from the house of Aherd, who was a poet and, apparently, also lived at the court of Archelaus. Perhaps this inscription was intended for the monument to Euripides in Macedonia.

Let us mention one more circumstance here. Soon after the death of Euripides, the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius, who gained dominance in the same year, bought from his heirs, for one talent, a string instrument that belonged to the poet, a board and a stylus, and donated these things, in memory of Euripides, to the temple of the muses in Syracuse.

From antiquity to our time, many busts of Euripides have survived, representing him either separately or together with Sophocles. A colossal bust of the poet in Parian marble is in the Vatican Chiaramonti Museum; this is probably a copy of a statue that was placed, by order of Lycurgus, in the theater, next to the statues of Aeschylus and Sophocles. “In the facial features of Euripides one can see that seriousness, gloominess and inhospitability for which the comedians reproached him, that dislike of fun and laughter, with which his love for solitude, for the remote Salamis cave, is so consistent. Along with seriousness, his figure expresses benevolence and modesty - the properties of a true philosopher. Instead of sophistic complacency and pride, something honest and sincere is visible in the face of Euripides.” (Welker).

Euripides. Bust from the Vatican Museum

Euripides and sophistry

For more details, see the article “Sophistic Philosophy” (section “The Influence of Sophistic Philosophy on Euripides”)

Euripides is a complete representative of the time when the Athenians fell in love with sophistry and began to flaunt sensitivity. His penchant for mental pursuits early distracted him from social activities, and he lived among philosophers. He delved into the skeptical ideas of Anaxagoras, he liked the seductive teachings of the sophists. He did not have the cheerful energy of Sophocles, who diligently performed civic duties; he shunned state affairs, shunned the life of society, whose morals he portrayed, and lived in a closed circle. His tragedies were liked by his contemporaries; but his ambition remained unsatisfied - perhaps that is why he left Athens in his old age, where comic poets constantly laughed at his works.

Related to it in tendency, in content, and probably close to it in time is the tragedy of “The Petitioner.” Its content is the legend that the Thebans did not allow the Argive heroes killed during the Campaign of the Seven against Thebes to be buried, but Theseus forced them to do so. The hints about modern political relations are also clear here. The Thebans also did not want to allow the Athenians to bury the soldiers killed in the battle of Delia (in 424). At the end of the play, the Argive king enters into an alliance with the Athenians; it also made political sense: soon after the Battle of Delium, the Athenians entered into an alliance with Argos. The chorus of “Petitioners” consists of the mothers of the murdered Argive heroes and their maids; then the sons of these heroes join them; The choir's songs are excellent. Probably, the scenery representing the Eleusinian Temple of Demeter, at whose altars the “petitioners”—the mothers of the murdered heroes—sit down, had a beautiful appearance. The scenes of the burning of those heroes, the procession of boys carrying urns with the ashes of the dead, the voluntary death of Capaneus’s wife, who climbed onto the fire to her husband’s body, were also good. At the end of the drama, Euripides, by deus ex machina, brings the goddess Athena onto the stage, who demands an oath from the Argives never to fight with the Athenians. Following this, the Athenian-Argive alliance was formalized, for the sake of the renewal of which in modern times “The Petitioners” were written.

Euripides – “Hecuba” (summary)

Some of the tragedies of Euripides that have come down to us are based on episodes from the Trojan War, in particular from the terrible events of the destruction of Troy; they depict strong emotions of passion with great energy. For example, in “Hecuba” the mother’s grief is first depicted, from whose embrace her daughter, Polyxena, the bride of Achilles, is torn out. Stopping after the destruction of Troy on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont, the Greeks decided to sacrifice Polyxena on the tombstone of Achilles; she willingly goes to her death. At this moment, the maid, who went to fetch water, brings Hecuba the body of Polydor, her son, who she found on the shore, killed by the traitor Polymestor, under whose protection Polydor was sent. This new misfortune turns Hecuba’s victim into an avenger; the thirst for revenge on her son’s killer merges in her soul with despair over the death of her daughter. With the consent of the main leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, Hecuba lures Polymestor into the tent and, with the help of slaves, blinds him. In carrying out her revenge, Hecuba shows great intelligence and extraordinary courage. In Medea, Euripides depicts jealousy; in Hecuba, revenge is depicted with the most energetic features. The blinded Polymestor predicts Hecuba's future fate.

Euripides – “Andromache” (summary)

Passion of a completely different kind constitutes the content of Euripides' tragedy Andromache. Andromache, the unhappy widow of Hector, at the end of the Trojan War, becomes the slave of Achilles' son, Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus's wife, Hermione, is jealous of her. The jealousy is all the stronger because Hermione has no children, and Andromache gives birth to a son, Molossus, from Neoptolemus. Hermione and her father, the Spartan king Menelaus, brutally persecute Andromache, even threatening her with death; but Neoptolemus’s grandfather, Peleus, saves her from their persecution. Hermione, fearing her husband's revenge, wants to kill herself. But Menelaus’s nephew, Orestes, who was previously Hermione’s fiancé, takes her to Sparta, and the Delphians, excited by his intrigues, kill Neoptolemus. At the end of the play, the goddess Thetis appears (deus ex machina) and foreshadows the happy future of Andromache and Molossus; this artificial denouement is intended to produce a calming impression in the audience.

The whole tragedy is imbued with hostility towards Sparta; this feeling was inspired in Euripides by modern relations; Sparta and Athens were then at war with each other. "Andromache" was probably staged in 421, somewhat earlier than the conclusion of the Peace of Nicias. Euripides with obvious pleasure depicts in Menelaus the severity and treachery of the Spartans, and in Hermione the immorality of Spartan women.

Euripides – “The Trojan Women” (summary)

The tragedy "The Trojan Women" was written by Euripides around 415. Its action takes place on the second day after the capture of Troy in the camp of the victorious Hellenic army. The captives taken in Troy are distributed among the leaders of the victorious Greeks. Euripides depicts how Hecuba, the wife of the murdered Trojan king Priam, and Hector’s wife, Andromache, are preparing for the fate of slavery. The son of Hector and Andromache, the baby Astyanax, is thrown from the fortress wall by the Greeks. One daughter of Priam and Hecuba, the Trojan prophetess Cassandra, becomes the concubine of the Greek leader, Agamemnon, and in ecstatic madness makes predictions about the terrible fate that will soon befall most of the destroyers of Troy. Hecuba's other daughter, Polyxene, is to be sacrificed at Achilles' tomb.

The role of the chorus in this drama by Euripides is played by Trojan women captured by the Greeks. The finale of “The Trojan Women” is the scene of the burning of Troy by the Hellenes.

As in the case of "The Petitioners", "Andromache" and "Heraclides", the plot of "The Trojan Women" has a close connection with the events of that time. In 415 BC, the Athenians, on the advice of the ambitious adventurer Alcibiades, decided to sharply turn the tide of the Peloponnesian War and achieve pan-Greek hegemony through a military expedition to Sicily. This rash plan was condemned by many prominent people of Athens. Aristophanes wrote the comedy “The Birds” for this purpose, and Euripides wrote “The Trojan Woman,” where he vividly depicted the bloody disasters of war and expressed sympathy for the suffering captives. The idea that even with a successful completion of the campaign, its further consequences will be tragic for the victors who transgressed justice, was carried out very clearly by Euripides in The Trojan Women.

The Trojan Women, one of Euripides' best dramas, was not a success when it was first staged - around the time of the start of the Sicilian expedition. The “anti-war” meaning of “The Trojan Women” was not liked by the people excited by the demagogues. But when in the fall of 413 the entire Athenian army died in Sicily, their fellow citizens recognized that Euripides was right and instructed him to write a poetic epitaph on the tomb of his fellow countrymen who fell in Sicily.

Euripides – “Helen” (summary)

The content of the tragedy “Helen” is borrowed from the legend that the Trojan War was fought because of a ghost: in Troy there was only the ghost of Helen, and Helen herself was carried away by the gods to Egypt. The young king of Egypt, Theoclymenes, pursues Helen with his love; she runs away from him to the tomb of King Proteus. There she is found by her husband, Menelaus, brought to Egypt by storms after the capture of Troy, appearing in beggarly clothes, since all his ships were destroyed by a hurricane. To deceive Theoclymenes, Helen tells him that Menelaus supposedly died at Troy, and she, having now become a free woman, is ready to marry the king. Elena asks only to be allowed to go out to sea on a boat to perform the last memorial rites for her ex-husband. On this boat, Helen leaves with Menelaus in disguise. They are helped by the priestess girl Theonoya, the only noble person in the play. Theoclymenes, having discovered the deception, sends a chase after the fugitives, but she is stopped by the Dioscuri, who play the role of deus ex machina: they declare that everything that happened happened by the will of the gods. “Helen” is both in content and form one of the weakest tragedies of Euripides.

Euripides – “Iphigenia at Aulis” (summary)

Euripides also took themes for his tragedies from the legends about the Atrids - the descendants of the hero Atreus, among whom were the leaders of the Trojan War Agamemnon and Menelaus. The drama “Iphigenia in Aulis” is beautiful, but distorted by later additions, the content of which is the legend of the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia.

Before setting sail for Troy, the Greek army gathers in the harbor of Aulis. But the goddess Artemis stops the fair winds, since she was angered by the supreme leader of the Hellenes, Agamemnon. The famous soothsayer Calhant announces that Artemis’s anger can be softened by sacrificing Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia, to her. Agamemnon sends a letter to his wife Clytemnestra with a request to send Iphigenia to Aulis, since Achilles allegedly makes it a condition for his participation in the campaign to Troy that he receive Iphigenia as a wife. Iphigenia arrives in Aulis with her mother. Achilles, having learned that Agamemnon used his name for deceptive purposes, is terribly indignant and declares that he will not allow Iphigenia to be sacrificed, even if this means fighting with other Greek leaders. Iphigenia responds by saying that she does not want to become the cause of a fight between her compatriots and will gladly give her life for the good of Hellas. Iphigenia voluntarily goes to the sacrificial altar, but the messenger who appears at the end of Euripides’ tragedy reports that at the moment of the sacrifice the girl disappeared and instead a doe was under the knife.

The plot of “Iphigenia in Aulis” was borrowed by Euripides from the tales of the Trojan War, but he gives the legend such a form that a moral conclusion is drawn from it. In the confusion of the events of human life, agitated by passions, the only true path is the one along which a pure heart, capable of heroic self-sacrifice, leads. Euripides' Iphigenia selflessly offers to be sacrificed; by its free decision, the reconciliation of the heroes arguing among themselves is accomplished. Thus, this tragedy is free from the artificial method of arranging a denouement through the intervention of a deity, although here too this method is somewhat reminiscent of the appearance of the Messenger at the end of the action.

Euripides – “Iphigenia in Tauris” (summary)

“Iphigenia in Tauris” also has high artistic merit; its plan is good, its characters are noble and beautifully depicted. The content is borrowed from the legend that Iphigenia, who escaped the sacrifice in Aulis, subsequently became a priestess in Tauris (Crimea), but then ran away from there, taking with her the image of the goddess she served.

Artemis, who saved Iphigenia in Aulis, took her from there to Tauris on a wonderful cloud and made her her priestess there. The barbarians of Tauris sacrifice to their Artemis all the foreigners who fall into their hands, and Iphigenia is entrusted with performing a preliminary rite of purification over these unfortunates. Meanwhile, the Trojan War ended, and Iphigenia's father, Agamemnon, who returned to his homeland, was killed by his own wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Avenging his father, Iphigenia's brother, Orestes, kills his mother Clytemnestra and is then subjected to terrible torments of repentance, sent by the goddesses Erinyes. Apollo announces to Orestes that he will get rid of torment if he goes to Tauris and brings from there the idol of Artemis captured by the barbarians. Orestes arrives in Tauris with his friend Pylades, but the local savages capture them and condemn them to sacrifice. They are brought to the priestess Iphigenia, sister of Orestes. Euripides describes an exciting scene in which Iphigenia recognizes her brother. Under the pretext of performing a cleansing ritual, Iphigenia takes Orestes and Pylades to the seashore and runs with them to Greece, taking away the image of Artemis. The barbarians of Tauris give chase, but the goddess Athena (deus ex machina) forces them to stop.

Euripides’ Iphigenia is not as ideal a face as Goethe’s, but still she is a pious girl, faithful to her duties, passionately loving her homeland, so noble that even the barbarians respect her; she instills in them humane concepts. Although the barbarians sacrifice people to the goddess she serves, Iphigenia herself does not shed blood. The scene in which Orestes and Pylades each want to be sacrificed in order to save their friend from death is dramatic. Euripides managed to add touchingness to this dispute between friends without resorting to excessive sentimentality.

Euripides – “Orestes” (summary)

In both tragedies, with the title Iphigenia, the characters are energetic and noble, but about the tragedy “Orestes” one of the ancient scholiasts already said that all the characters in it are bad, with the exception of Pylades alone. And indeed, this is both in content and form one of the weakest works of Euripides.

According to the decision of the Argive court, Orestes should be stoned for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra, although she herself had previously nearly killed him along with his father, Agamemnon. The baby Orestes was then rescued by his sister, Electra. Now Electra is being tried together with Orestes, for she participated in the murder of their common mother. Orestes and Electra hope for the support of the brother of their father killed by Clytemnestra, the Spartan king Menelaus, who arrived in Argos during the trial. However, due to cowardice and selfishness, he does not want to save them. When the national assembly condemns Orestes to Euripides - “Heraclides” (summary) erti, he, together with his faithful friend Pylades, takes hostage the wife of Menelaus, the culprit of the Trojan War, Helen. But divine power carries her through the air. Orestes wants to kill Helen's daughter, Hermione. At the decisive moment, Deus ex machina appears - Apollo plays this role here - and orders everyone to reconcile. Orestes marries Hermione, whom he recently wanted to kill, Pylades on Electra.

The characters of the characters in this drama of Euripides are devoid of any mythical grandeur; these are ordinary people, without tragic dignity.

Euripides – “Electra” (summary)

Electra suffers from the same shortcoming, but even more so than Orestes, in which the sublime legend is remade so that it becomes like a parody.

Clytemnestra, in order to get rid of constant reminders of the murder of her husband, passes off her daughter, Electra, as a simple peasant. Electra lives in poverty, doing menial housework herself. For the same purposes, Clytemnestra expels Orestes as an infant from the capital of Agamemnon, Mycenae. Having matured in a foreign land, Orestes returns to his homeland and comes to his sister. Elektra recognizes him by the scar left from a bruise he received as a child. Having conspired with Electra, Orestes kills the lover of their common mother and the main culprit in the death of their father, Aegisthus, outside the city. Electra then lures Clytemnestra into her poor hut under a pretext. as if she had given birth to a child. In this hut, Orestes kills his mother. This terrible denouement plunges Electra and Orestes into insanity, but the Dioscuri, who miraculously appeared, excuse them by saying that they acted at the behest of Apollo. Electra marries Orestes' friend, Pylades. Orestes Dioskouri himself is sent to Athens, where he will be acquitted and cleansed of sin by the council of elders - the Areopagus.

Euripides – “Hercules” (summary)

"Hercules" (or "The Madness of Hercules"), a play designed for effects, has several scenes that make a strong impression. It combines two different actions. When Hercules goes into the underworld, the cruel Theban king Lycus wants to kill his wife, children and old father, Amphitryon, who remained in Thebes. Hercules, who unexpectedly returned, frees his relatives and kills Lik. But then he himself exposes them to the fate from which he saved them. Hera deprives Hercules of his sanity. He kills his wife and children, imagining that they are the wife and children of Eurystheus. He is tied to a fragment of a column. Athena restores his sanity. Hercules feels bitter remorse and wants to kill himself, but Theseus appears and keeps him from doing this, taking him to Athens. There Hercules is cleansed of sin by sacred rites.

Euripides – “Ion” (summary)

“Ion” is a wonderful play in terms of entertaining content and clear characterization of individuals, full of patriotism. There is neither greatness of passions nor greatness of character in it; the action is based on intrigue.

Ion, the son of Apollo and Creusa, the daughter of the Athenian king, was thrown into the Delphic temple by his mother, ashamed of the casual affair, as a baby. He is raised there, destined to be a servant of Apollo. Ion's mother, Creusa, marries Xuthus, who was chosen by the Athenian king for his heroism in the war. But they don't have children. Xuthus comes to Delphi to pray to Apollo for the birth of a descendant and receives an answer from the oracle that the first person he will meet at the exit from the temple is his son. Xuthus meets Ion first and greets him as a son. Meanwhile, secretly from Xuthus, Creusa also comes to Delphi. Hearing how Xuthus calls Ion and his son, she decides that Ion is the side offspring of her husband. Not wanting to accept a stranger into his family, Creusa sends a slave with a poisoned chalice to Ion. But Apollo keeps her from committing villainy. He also detains Ion, who, having learned about the insidious plan against him, wants to kill Creusa, not knowing that she is his mother. The priestess who raised Jonah comes out of the Delphic temple with the basket and swaddling clothes in which he was found. Creusa recognizes them. Apollo's son Ion becomes heir to the Athenian throne. Euripides' play ends with Athena confirming the truth of the story about the divine origin of Ion and promising power to his descendants - the Ionians. For the pride of the Athenians, the legend was pleasant that the ancestor of the Ionians came from the line of ancient Achaean kings and was not the son of a foreign stranger, the Aeolian Xuthus. The young priest Ion depicted by Euripides is sweet and innocent - an attractive face.

Euripides – “Phoenicians” (summary)

Later, “Jonah” was written by Euripides, the drama “The Phoenician Women”, and which has many beautiful passages. The name of the play comes from the fact that its chorus consists of captive citizens of Phoenician Tyre, who were sent to Delphi, but were delayed in Thebes along the way.

The content of The Phoenician Women is borrowed from the myth of the Theban king Oedipus, and the drama is replete with many different episodes from this cycle of legends. Euripides' reworking of the myth is limited to the fact that Oedipus and his mother and wife Jocasta are still alive during the campaign of the Seven against Thebes, when their sons Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other. Jocasta, who, together with her daughter Antigone, tried in vain to prevent the single combat of her two sons, kills herself in the camp over their dead bodies. Blind Oedipus, expelled from Thebes by Creon, is led by Antigone to Colon. Creon's son, Menoeceus, in fulfillment of the prophecy given by Tiresias of Thebes, throws himself from the Theban wall, sacrificing himself to reconcile the gods with Thebes.

Euripides – “The Bacchae” (summary)

The tragedy of The Bacchae probably dates back to an even later time. It was apparently written by Euripides in Macedonia. In Athens, The Bacchae was probably staged by the author's son or nephew, Euripides the Younger, who also staged Iphigenia at Aulis and Euripides' tragedy Alcmaeon, which has not reached us.

The content of “The Bacchae” is the legend of the Theban king Pentheus, who did not want to recognize as god his cousin Bacchus-Dionysus, who returned from Asia to Thebes. Pentheus saw in the ecstatic cult of Dionysus only deception and debauchery and began to strictly persecute his servants, the bacchantes, contrary to the opinion of his grandfather, the hero Cadmus, and the famous soothsayer Tiresias of Thebes. For this, Pentheus was torn to pieces by his mother Agave (sister of Dionysus's mother, Semele) and the maenads (Bacchantes) who accompanied her. Dionysus sent all the Theban women into a frenzy, and they, led by Agave, fled to the mountains to indulge in bacchanalia in deer skins, with thyrsus (staffs) and tympanums (tambourines) in their hands. Dionysus told Pentheus of an insane desire to see the Bacchantes and their service. Dressed in a woman's dress, he went to Kiferon, where it took place. But Agave and the other bacchantes, at the suggestion of Dionysus, mistook Pentheus for a lion and tore him to pieces. Agave triumphantly carried the bloody head of her own son to the palace, imagining that it was the head of a lion. Having sobered up, she was cured of madness and was struck by repentance. The end of Euripides' "The Bacchae" is poorly preserved, but, as far as can be understood, Agave was condemned to exile.

This tragedy is one of Euripides's best, although the verse in it is often careless. Its plan is excellent, the unity of action is strictly observed in it, consistently developing from one basic given, the scenes follow one after another in an orderly order, the excitement of passions is depicted very vividly. The tragedy is imbued with a deep religious feeling, and the choir’s songs especially breathe it. Euripides, hitherto a very free-thinking man, in his old age seems to have come to the conviction that religious traditions must be respected, that it is better to maintain piety among the people and not deprive them of respect for ancient beliefs by ridicule, that skepticism deprives the masses of the happiness that they find in religious feeling.

Euripides – “Cyclops” (summary)

In addition to these 18 tragedies, the satirical drama of Euripides “Cyclops” has reached us, the only surviving work of this branch of dramatic poetry. The content of “Cyclops” is an episode borrowed from the Odyssey about the blinding of Polyphemus. The tone of this play by Euripides is cheerful and humorous. Its chorus consists of satyrs with their leader, Silenus. During the course of the play, the Cyclops Polyphemus launches into confused but bloodthirsty reasoning, praising extreme immorality and selfishness in the spirit of the theories of the sophists. The satyrs subordinate to Polyphemus are eager to get rid of him, but out of cowardice they are afraid to help Odysseus, who is in danger of being killed by the Cyclops. At the end of this play by Euripides, Odysseus defeats the Cyclops without anyone else's assistance. Then Silenus and the satyrs, in a comic tone, attribute Odysseus’s merit to themselves and loudly glorify their “courage.”

Euripides' political views

Evaluation of Euripides' work by descendants

Euripides was the last great Greek tragedian, although he was inferior to Aeschylus and Sophocles. The generation that followed him was very pleased with the properties of his poetry and loved him more than his predecessors. The tragedians who followed him jealously studied his works, which is why they can be considered the “school” of Euripides. The poets of modern comedy also studied and highly respected Euripides. Philemon, the oldest representative of the new comedy, who lived around 330 BC, loved Euripides so much that in one of his comedies he said: “If the dead really live beyond the grave, as some people claim, then I would hang myself if only just to see Euripides." Until the last centuries of antiquity, the works of Euripides, thanks to the ease of form and abundance of practical maxims, were constantly read by educated people, as a result of which so many of his tragedies have come down to us.

Euripides. World of passions

Translations of Euripides into Russian

Euripides was translated into Russian by: Merzlyakov, Shestakov, P. Basistov, N. Kotelov, V. I. Vodovozov, V. Alekseev, D. S. Merezhkovsky.

Theater of Euripides. Per. I. F. Annensky. (Series “Monuments of World Literature”). M.: Sabashnikovs.

Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. Per. S. V. Shervinsky. M.: Khud. lit. 1969.

Euripides. Petitioners. Trojan women. Per. S. Apta. (Series “Ancient Drama”). M.: Art. 1980.

Euripides. Tragedies. Per. Inn. Annensky. (Series “Literary Monuments”). In 2 vols. M.: Ladomir-Science. 1999

Articles and books about Euripides

Orbinsky R.V. Euripides and his significance in the history of Greek tragedy. St. Petersburg, 1853

Belyaev D.F. On the question of Euripides’ worldview. Kazan, 1878

Belyaev D. F. Euripides’ views on classes and states, internal and foreign policy of Athens

Decharme. Euripides and the spirit of his theater. Paris, 1893

Kotelov N.P. Euripides and the significance of his “drama” in the history of literature. St. Petersburg, 1894

Gavrilov A.K. Theater of Euripides and the Athenian Enlightenment. St. Petersburg, 1995.

Gavrilov A.K. Signs and action - mantika in “Iphigenia Tauride” by Euripides

After some dates before the Nativity of Christ, our article also indicates dating according to the ancient Greek Olympics. For example: Ol. 75, 1 – means the first year of the 75th Olympiad

Euripides
The work “Hippolytus”

In ancient Athens, King Theseus ruled. Like Hercules, he had two fathers - the earthly one, King Aegeus, and the heavenly one, the god Poseidon. He accomplished his main feat on the island of Crete: he killed the monstrous Minotaur in the labyrinth and freed Athens from tribute to him. The Cretan princess Ariadne was his assistant: she gave him a thread, following which he came out of the labyrinth. He promised to take Ariadne as his wife, but the god Dionysus demanded her for himself, and for this Theseus was hated by the goddess of love Aphrodite.
Theseus's second wife was an Amazon warrior;

She died in battle, and left Theseus with her son Hippolytus. The son of an Amazon, he was not considered legitimate and was raised not in Athens, but in the neighboring city of Troezen. The Amazons did not want to know men; Hippolytus did not want to know women. He called himself a servant of the virgin goddess-hunter Artemis, initiated into the underground mysteries, which the singer Orpheus told people about: a person must be pure, and then he will find bliss beyond the grave. And for this, the goddess of love Aphrodite also hated him.
Theseus's third wife was Phaedra, also from Crete, the younger sister of Ariadne. Theseus took her as his wife in order to have legitimate children-heirs. And here Aphrodite's revenge begins. Phaedra saw her stepson Hippolytus and fell in mortal love with him. At first she overcame her passion: Hippolytus was not around, he was in Troezen. But it so happened that Theseus killed his relatives who rebelled against him and had to go into exile for a year; together with Phaedra he moved to the same Troezen. Here the stepmother's love for her stepson flared up again; Phaedra was distraught over her, fell ill, fell ill, and no one could understand what was wrong with the queen. Theseus went to the oracle; It was in his absence that the tragedy occurred.
In fact, Euripides wrote two tragedies about this. The first one has not survived. In it, Phaedra herself revealed her love to Hippolytus, Hippolytus rejected her in horror, and then Phaedra slandered Hippolytus to the returning Theseus: as if it were her stepson who fell in love with her and wanted to dishonor her. Hippolytus died, but the truth was revealed, and only then did Phaedra decide to commit suicide. It was this story that posterity remembered best. But the Athenians did not like him: Phaedra turned out to be too shameless and evil here. Then Euripides composed a second tragedy about Hippolytus - and it is before us.
The tragedy begins with a monologue from Aphrodite: the gods punish the proud, and she will punish the proud Hippolytus, who abhors love. Here he is, Hippolytus, with a song in honor of the virgin Artemis on his lips: he is joyful and does not know that today punishment will fall on him. Aphrodite disappears, Hippolytus comes out with a wreath in his hands and dedicates it to Artemis - “pure of pure.” “Why don’t you honor Aphrodite too?” - the old slave asks him. “I read it, but from a distance: the night gods are not to my heart,” answers Hippolytus. He leaves, and the slave prays to Aphrodite for him: “Forgive his youthful arrogance: that is why you, gods, are wise to forgive.” But Aphrodite will not forgive.
A chorus of Troezen women enters: they have heard a rumor that Queen Phaedra is sick and delirious. From what? Anger of the gods, evil jealousy, bad news? Phaedra is brought out to meet them, tossing about on her bed, with her old nurse with her. Phaedra raves: “Let’s go hunting in the mountains!” to the Artemidin flower meadow! to the coastal horse lists” - all these are Hippolytus’s places. The nurse persuades: “Wake up, open up, have pity, if not for yourself, then for the children: if you die, it will not be they who will reign, but Hippolytus.” Phaedra shudders: “Don’t say that name!” Word by word: “the cause of illness is love”; “the reason for love is Hippolytus”;
“There is only one salvation – death.” The nurse opposes: “Love is the universal law; to resist love is sterile pride; and for every disease there is a cure.” Phaedra takes this word literally: maybe the nurse knows some healing potion? The nurse leaves; the choir sings: “Oh, let Eros blow me!”
There is noise from behind the stage: Phaedra hears the voices of the nurse and Hippolytus. No, it wasn’t about the potion, it was about Hippolytus’s love: the nurse revealed everything to him - and in vain. So they go on stage, he is indignant, she begs for one thing: “Just don’t say a word to anyone, you swore an oath!” “My tongue swore, my soul had nothing to do with it,” answers Hippolyte. He utters a cruel denunciation of women: “Oh, if only it were possible to continue our 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 my oath of silence, but I curse you!” He's leaving; Phaedra, in despair, brands the nurse: “Curse you! I wanted to save myself from dishonor by death; Now I see that even death cannot escape him. There is only one thing left, the last resort,” and she leaves without naming him. This means is to blame Hippolytus before his father. The choir sings: “This world is terrible! I should run away from it, I should run away!”
From behind the stage - crying: Phaedra is in a noose, Phaedra has died! There is alarm on the stage: Theseus appears, he is horrified by the unexpected disaster. The palace swings open, a general cry begins over Phaedra's body, But why did she commit suicide? In her hand are writing tablets;
Theseus reads them, and his horror is even greater. It turns out that it was Hippolytus, the criminal stepson, who encroached on her bed, and she, unable to bear the dishonor, committed suicide. “Father Poseidon! - Theseus exclaims. “You once promised me to fulfill three of my wishes - here is the last of them: punish Hippolytus, let him not survive this day!”
Hippolytus appears; he is also struck by the sight of the dead Phaedra, but even more so by the reproaches that his father brings down on him. “Oh, why are we not able to recognize lies by sound! - Theseus shouts. - Sons are more deceitful than fathers, and grandchildren are more deceitful than sons; Soon there won’t be enough room on earth for criminals.” A lie is your holiness, a lie is your purity, and here is your accuser. Get out of my sight - go into exile! - “Gods and people know - I have always been pure; “Here is my oath to you, but I am silent about other excuses,” answers Ippolit. “Neither lust pushed me to Phaedra the stepmother, nor vanity to Phaedra the Queen. I see: the wrong one came out of the case clean, but the truth did not save the clean one. Execute me if you want.” - “No, death would be a mercy for you - go into exile!” - “Sorry, Artemis, sorry, Troezen, sorry, Athens! You didn’t have a person with a purer heart than me.” Hippolytus leaves; the choir sings: “Fate is changeable, life is scary; God forbid I know the cruel laws of the world!”
The curse comes true: a messenger arrives. Hippolytus rode out of Troezen in a chariot along a path between the rocks and the seashore. “I don’t want to live as a criminal,” he cried to the gods, “but I only want my father to know that he is wrong, and I am right, alive or dead.” Then the sea roared, a shaft rose above the horizon, a monster rose from the shaft, like a sea bull; the horses gave way and ran away, the chariot hit the rocks, and the young man was dragged along the stones. The dying man is carried back to the palace. “I am his father, and I am dishonored by him,” says Theseus, “let him not expect either sympathy or joy from me.”
And then Artemis, the goddess Hippolyta, appears above the stage. “He's right, you're wrong,” she says. “Phaedra was also wrong, but she was motivated by the evil Aphrodite. Weep, king; I share your sorrow with you.” Hippolytus is carried in on a stretcher, he groans and begs to be finished off; whose sins is he paying for? Artemis leans over him from above:
“This is the wrath of Aphrodite, it was she who destroyed Phaedra, and Phaedra Hippolytus, and Hippolytus leaves Theseus inconsolable: three victims, one more unfortunate than the other. Oh, what a pity that the gods do not pay for the fate of people! There will be grief for Aphrodite too - she also has a favorite hunter, Adonis, and he will fall from my, Artemidina’s, arrow. And you, Hippolytus, will have an eternal memory in Troezen, and every girl before marriage will sacrifice a strand of hair to you. Hippolytus dies, having forgiven his father;
The chorus ends the tragedy with the words: “Tears will flow in streams for him - / If fate has overthrown a great husband - / His death is unforgettable forever!”

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Euripides
Hippolytus
In ancient Athens, King Theseus ruled. Like Hercules, he had two fathers - the earthly one, King Aegeus, and the heavenly one, the god Poseidon. He accomplished his main feat on the island of Crete: he killed the monstrous Minotaur in the labyrinth and freed Athens from tribute to him. The Cretan princess Ariadne was his assistant: she gave him a thread, following which he came out of the labyrinth. He promised to take Ariadne as his wife, but the god Dionysus demanded her for himself, and for this Theseus was hated by the goddess of love Aphrodite.
Theseus's second wife was an Amazon warrior; she died in

Battle, and left Theseus with her son Hippolytus. The son of an Amazon, he was not considered legitimate and was raised not in Athens, but in the neighboring city of Troezen. The Amazons did not want to know men; Hippolytus did not want to know women. He called himself a servant of the virgin goddess-hunter Artemis, initiated into the underground mysteries, which the singer Orpheus told people about: a person must be pure, and then he will find bliss beyond the grave. And for this, the goddess of love Aphrodite also hated him.
Theseus's third wife was Phaedra, also from Crete, the younger sister of Ariadne. Theseus took her as his wife in order to have legitimate children-heirs. And here Aphrodite's revenge begins. Phaedra saw her stepson Hippolytus and fell in mortal love with him. At first she overcame her passion: Hippolytus was not around, he was in Troezen. But it so happened that Theseus killed his relatives who rebelled against him and had to go into exile for a year; together with Phaedra he moved to the same Troezen. Here the stepmother's love for her stepson flared up again; Phaedra was distraught over her, fell ill, fell ill, and no one could understand what was wrong with the queen. Theseus went to the oracle; It was in his absence that the tragedy occurred.
In fact, Euripides wrote two tragedies about this. The first one has not survived. In it, Phaedra herself revealed her love to Hippolytus, Hippolytus rejected her in horror, and then Phaedra slandered Hippolytus to the returning Theseus: as if it were her stepson who fell in love with her and wanted to dishonor her. Hippolytus died, but the truth was revealed, and only then did Phaedra decide to commit suicide. It was this story that posterity remembered best. But the Athenians did not like him: Phaedra turned out to be too shameless and evil here. Then Euripides composed a second tragedy about Hippolytus - and it is before us.
The tragedy begins with a monologue from Aphrodite: the gods punish the proud, and she will punish the proud Hippolytus, who abhors love. Here he is, Hippolytus, with a song in honor of the virgin Artemis on his lips: he is joyful and does not know that today punishment will fall on him. Aphrodite disappears, Hippolytus comes out with a wreath in his hands and dedicates it to Artemis - “pure of pure.” “Why don’t you honor Aphrodite too?” - the old slave asks him. “I read it, but from a distance: the night gods are not to my heart,” answers Hippolytus. He leaves, and the slave prays to Aphrodite for him: “Forgive his youthful arrogance: that is why you, gods, are wise to forgive.” But Aphrodite will not forgive.
A chorus of Troezen women enters: they have heard a rumor that Queen Phaedra is sick and delirious. From what? Anger of the gods, evil jealousy, bad news? Phaedra is brought out to meet them, tossing about on her bed, with her old nurse with her. Phaedra raves: “Let’s go hunting in the mountains!” to the Artemidin flower meadow! to the coastal horse lists” - all these are Hippolytus’s places. The nurse persuades: “Wake up, open up, have pity, if not for yourself, then for the children: if you die, it will not be they who will reign, but Hippolytus.” Phaedra shudders: “Don’t say that name!” Word by word: “the cause of illness is love”; “the reason for love is Hippolytus”;
“There is only one salvation – death.” The nurse opposes: “Love is the universal law; to resist love is sterile pride; and for every disease there is a cure.” Phaedra takes this word literally: maybe the nurse knows some healing potion? The nurse leaves; the choir sings: “Oh, let Eros blow me!”
There is noise from behind the stage: Phaedra hears the voices of the nurse and Hippolytus. No, it wasn’t about the potion, it was about Hippolytus’s love: the nurse revealed everything to him - and in vain. So they go on stage, he is indignant, she begs for one thing: “Just don’t say a word to anyone, you swore an oath!” “My tongue swore, my soul had nothing to do with it,” answers Hippolyte. He utters a cruel denunciation of women: “Oh, if only it were possible to continue our 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 my oath of silence, but I curse you!” He's leaving; Phaedra, in despair, brands the nurse: “Curse you! I wanted to save myself from dishonor by death; Now I see that even death cannot escape him. There is only one thing left, the last resort,” and she leaves without naming him. This means is to blame Hippolytus before his father. The choir sings: “This world is terrible! I should run away from it, I should run away!”
From behind the stage - crying: Phaedra is in a noose, Phaedra has died! There is alarm on the stage: Theseus appears, he is horrified by the unexpected disaster. The palace swings open, a general cry begins over Phaedra's body, But why did she commit suicide? In her hand are writing tablets;
Theseus reads them, and his horror is even greater. It turns out that it was Hippolytus, the criminal stepson, who encroached on her bed, and she, unable to bear the dishonor, committed suicide. “Father Poseidon! - Theseus exclaims. “You once promised me to fulfill three of my wishes - here is the last of them: punish Hippolytus, let him not survive this day!”
Hippolytus appears; he is also struck by the sight of the dead Phaedra, but even more so by the reproaches that his father brings down on him. “Oh, why are we not able to recognize lies by sound! - Theseus shouts. - Sons are more deceitful than fathers, and grandchildren are more deceitful than sons; Soon there won’t be enough room on earth for criminals.” A lie is your holiness, a lie is your purity, and here is your accuser. Get out of my sight - go into exile! - “Gods and people know - I have always been pure; “Here is my oath to you, but I am silent about other excuses,” answers Ippolit. “Neither lust pushed me to Phaedra the stepmother, nor vanity to Phaedra the Queen. I see: the wrong one came out of the case clean, but the truth did not save the clean one. Execute me if you want.” - “No, death would be a mercy for you - go into exile!” - “Sorry, Artemis, sorry, Troezen, sorry, Athens! You didn’t have a person with a purer heart than me.” Hippolytus leaves; the choir sings: “Fate is changeable, life is scary; God forbid I know the cruel laws of the world!”
The curse comes true: a messenger arrives. Hippolytus rode out of Troezen in a chariot along a path between the rocks and the seashore. “I don’t want to live as a criminal,” he cried to the gods, “but I only want my father to know that he is wrong, and I am right, alive or dead.” Then the sea roared, a shaft rose above the horizon, a monster rose from the shaft, like a sea bull; the horses gave way and ran away, the chariot hit the rocks, and the young man was dragged along the stones. The dying man is carried back to the palace. “I am his father, and I am dishonored by him,” says Theseus, “let him not expect either sympathy or joy from me.”
And then Artemis, the goddess Hippolyta, appears above the stage. “He's right, you're wrong,” she says. “Phaedra was also wrong, but she was motivated by the evil Aphrodite. Weep, king; I share your sorrow with you.” Hippolytus is carried in on a stretcher, he groans and begs to be finished off; whose sins is he paying for? Artemis leans over him from above:
“This is the wrath of Aphrodite, it was she who destroyed Phaedra, and Phaedra Hippolytus, and Hippolytus leaves Theseus inconsolable: three victims, one more unfortunate than the other. Oh, what a pity that the gods do not pay for the fate of people! There will be grief for Aphrodite too - she also has a favorite hunter, Adonis, and he will fall from my, Artemidina’s, arrow. And you, Hippolytus, will have an eternal memory in Troezen, and every girl before marriage will sacrifice a strand of hair to you. Hippolytus dies, having forgiven his father;
The chorus ends the tragedy with the words: “Tears will flow in streams for him - If fate has overthrown a great husband - His death is unforgettable forever!”

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Summary of Hippolytus Euripides