#euripides — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from Gilbert Murray

It is a scheme which occurs again and again in Euripides, a study of oppression and revenge. Such a subject in the hands of a more ordinary writer would probably take the form of a triumph of oppressed virtue. But Euripides gives us nothing so sympathetic, nothing so cheap and unreal. If oppression usually made people virtuous, the problems of the world would be very different from what they are. Euripides seems at times to hate the revenge of the oppressed almost as much as the original cruelty of the oppressor; or, to put the same fact in a different light, he seems deliberately to dwell upon the twofold evil of cruelty, that it not only causes pain to the victim, but actually by means of the pain makes him a worse man, so that when his turn of triumph comes, it is no longer a triumph of justice or a thing to make men rejoice. This is a grim lesson; taught often enough by history, though seldom by the fables of the poets.

Gilbert Murray (1866–1957) Australian-British classical scholar and public intellectual
Essay (1912), "Introduction," Sophocles, Medea

More about this quote: wist.info/murray-gilbert/85828…

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A quotation from Euripides

JASON: The curse of children’s blood be on you!
   Avenging Justice, blast your being!
MEDEA: What god will hear your imprecation,
   Oath-breaker, guest-deceiver, liar?
 
[ἸΆΣΩΝ: ἀλλά σ᾽ Ἐρινὺς ὀλέσειε τέκνων
   φονία τε Δίκη.
ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: τίς δὲ κλύει σοῦ θεὸς ἢ δαίμων,
   τοῦ ψευδόρκου καὶ ξειναπάτου;]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1389ff (431 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1963)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/85172/

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A quotation from Euripides

ÆGEUS: All happiness to you Medea! Between old friends
   There is no better greeting.
 
[ΑἸΓΕΎΣ: Μήδεια, χαῖρε: τοῦδε γὰρ προοίμιον
   κάλλιον οὐδεὶς οἶδε προσφωνεῖν φίλους.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 663ff (431 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1963)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/82778/

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A quotation from Euripides

CHORUS: May I know the blessing of a heart that is not passion’s slave; no fairer gift can the gods bestow. But may the dread Cyprian never inflict upon me quarrelsome moods and insatiable strife, firing my heart with love for a stranger; may she rather show respect for marriages where peace reigns and judge with a shrewd eye the loves of women.
   
ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: στέργοι δέ με σωφροσύνα, δώρημα κάλλιστον θεῶν:
 μηδέ ποτ᾽ ἀμφιλόγους ὀργὰς ἀκόρεστά τε νείκη
 θυμὸν ἐκπλήξασ᾽ ἑτέροις ἐπὶ λέκτροις
 προσβάλοι δεινὰ Κύπρις, ἀπτολέμους δ᾽
 εὐνὰς σεβίζουσ᾽ ὀξύφρων
 κρίνοι λέχη γυναικῶν.

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 636ff, Second Stasimon, Antistrophe 1 (431 BC) [tr. Davie (1996)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/82632/

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A quotation from Euripides

NURSE: Terrible is the temperament of royalty,
   Who are rarely controlled, always imperious;
   It is hard for them to give up their wrath.
   To get used to living like everybody else
   Is better.
 
[ΤΡΟΦΌΣ: δεινὰ τυράννων λήματα καί πως
   ὀλίγ᾽ ἀρχόμενοι, πολλὰ κρατοῦντες
   χαλεπῶς ὀργὰς μεταβάλλουσιν.
   τὸ γὰρ εἰθίσθαι ζῆν ἐπ᾽ ἴσοισιν
   κρεῖσσον.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 119ff (431 BC) [tr. Podlecki (1989)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/80529/

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