The Heracleidae
By Euripides
4/5
()
About this ebook
Euripides
Charles Martin is a poet, translator, and essayist. The author of seven books of poems and translator of Catullus and Ovid, he is the recipient of an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A.E. Stallings is an American poet and translator who lives in Athens, Greece. Her most recent books are LIKE: Poems and a translation of Hesiod’s Works and Days.
Read more from Euripides
Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trojan Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trojan Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alcestis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iphigenia in Aulis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hecuba Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Phœnician Virgins (Phoenician Virgins): (The Phoenician Women) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bacchae and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hippolytus; The Bacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIphigenia in Tauris Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Helen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Electra and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medea (NHB Classic Plays) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Heracleidae
Related ebooks
Orestes and Other Plays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heracleidae Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heraclidae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Heracleidæ (Heracleidae): (Herakles' Children) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heracles and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heracles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Suppliants Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Heraclidæ: "Nothing has more strength than dire necessity" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIphigenia Among the Taurians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeracles: "The greatest pleasure of life is love" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHecuba Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oedipus Rex Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Euripides Collection: 10 Classic Tragedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIphigenia in Tauris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oedipus at Colonos: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOedipus Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Three Theban Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Oedipus: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Libation Bearers: Unabridged Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Libation Bearers: from The Oresteia Trilogy. "Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tragedies of Sophocles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAndromache Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Libation Bearers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phœnician Virgins (Phoenician Virgins): (The Phoenician Women) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trachiniae Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus Rex, & Antigone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Liberation-Bearers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Oedipus Trilogy: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Performing Arts For You
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth (new classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky Dog Lessons: Train Your Dog in 7 Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Doll’s House: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Heracleidae
15 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The silent children of Herakles, under the care of a family retainer and harried from city to city by their hostile uncle, are cornered at a temple near Marathon and throw themselves on the mercy of Athens. The action develops rapidly - success, then reverse; threat, then reverse. Over and over again, the tables are turned, offering the audience a chance to judge what makes characters admirable: right action and equanimity, in good times and bad. The characters are cleanly drawn and offer strong contrasts with one another. The interpretive introduction by the translator is very helpful, offering vital context for understanding the meaning an ancient Greek audience would have attached to the various characters' speeches and actions. The introduction also suggests that, at the time it was first performed, (during the Pelopennesian War, with Athens locked in war with Sparta, whose rulers claimed descent from the children of Herakles) the play may have raised uncomfortable questions for Athenians of the extent to which the war had compromised Athenian values of hospitality and right conduct towards opponents. I'd love to see this play performed.
Book preview
The Heracleidae - Euripides
THE HERACLEIDAE
BY EURIPIDES
TRANSLATED BY E. P. COLERIDGE
A Digireads.com Book
Digireads.com Publishing
Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4423-5
Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-0416-1
This edition copyright © 2012
Please visit www.digireads.com
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
THE HERACLEIDAE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
IOLAUS
SERVANT, of hyllus
COPREUS
ALCMENA
DEMOPHON
MESSENGER
MACARIA
EURYSTHEUS
CHORUS OF AGED ATHENIANS
THE HERACLEIDAE
[Before the altar and temple of Zeus at Marathon. Enter IOLAUS with the children of Heracles.]
IOLAUS. I hold this true, and long have held: Nature hath made one man upright for his neighbours' good, while another hath a disposition wholly given over to gain, useless alike to the state and difficult to have dealings with, but for himself the best of men; and this I know, not from mere hearsay. For I, from pure regard and reverence for my kith and kin, though might have lived at peace in Argos, alone of all my race shared with Heracles his labours, while he was yet with us, and now that he dwells in heaven, I keep these his children safe beneath my wing, though myself need protection. For when their father passed from earth away, Eurystheus would first of all have slain us, but we escaped. And though our home is lost, our life was saved. But in exile we wander from city to city, ever forced to roam. For, added to our former wrongs, Eurystheus thought it fit to put this further outrage upon us: wheresoe'er he heard that we were settling, thither would he send heralds demanding our surrender and driving us from thence, holding out this threat, that Argos is no meal city to make a friend or foe, and furthermore pointing to his own prosperity. So they, seeing how weak my means, and these little ones left without a father, bow to his superior might and drive us from their land. And I share the exile of these children, and help them bear their evil lot by my sympathy, loth to betray them, lest someone say, Look you! now that the children's sire is dead, Iolaus no more protects them, kinsman though he is.
Not one corner left us in the whole of Hellas, we are come to Marathon and its neighbouring land, and here we sit as suppliants at the altars of the gods, and pray their aid; for 'tis said two sons of Theseus dwell upon these plains, the lot of their inheritance, scions of Pandion's stock, related to these children; this the reason we have come on this our way to the borders of glorious Athens. To lead the flight two aged guides are we; my care is centred on these boys, while she, I mean Alcmena, clasps her son's daughter in her arms, and bears her for safety within this shrine, for we shrink from letting tender maidens come anigh the crowd or stand as suppliants at the altar. Now Hyllus and the elder of his brethren are seeking some place for