Rhesus, King of Thrace, came to the aid of Hector near the end of the Trojay War, claiming that he would destroy the Greeks in one day though the Trojans had failed to defeat them after ten years. Ironically, he was killed in his sleep on that same day by Odysseus and Diomedes, who spied on the Trojan camp and stole his precious horses. His death caused distrust and strife […]
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“Alcestis” by Euripides
Admetus was spared by Death on condition that he could find a substitute. No one, not even his own parents were willing to die in his stead, but only his wife, Alcestis, offered to die for him. It may be worth noting that the life of a woman was valued far less than that of a man in ancient Greek culture. I cannot fully sympathize with Admetus when he grieves […]
Read more“Cyclops” by Euripides
Life of a Satyr Just keep pouring the wine. Never mind the gold. I would like to drink down a single cup of this wine, giving all the Cyclopes’ flocks in exchange for it, and then to leap from the Leucadian cliff into the brine, good and drunk with my eyebrows smoothed out. The man who does not enjoy drinking is mad: in drink one can raise this to a […]
Read more“The Women of Trachis” by Sophocles
The Love That Kills Heracles loved Iole and because her father would not give her to him in marriage, he killed her father and other members of her family. His wife Deianira was afraid to lose him to the younger Iole, so she gave him a robe that she thought was a love charm but was in fact dipped in poison, causing Heracles to die in extreme agony. Quotes: Ah, […]
Read more“Philoctetes” by Sophocles
Perhaps this man is as well born as any, second to no son of an ancient house. Yet now his life lacks everything, and he makes his bed without neighbors or with spotted shaggy beasts for neighbors. His thoughts are set continually on pain and hunger. He cries out in his wretchedness; there is only a blabbering echo, that comes from the distance speeding from his bitter crying. There is […]
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“Ajax” by Sophocles
Quotes of Characters: Athena Who was more full of foresight than this man [Ajax], Or abler, do you think, to act with judgment? Odysseus None that I know of. Yet I pity His wretchedness, though he is my enemy, For the terrible yoke of blindness that is on him. I think of him, yet also of myself; For I see the true state of all us that live– We are […]
Read more“Iphigenia in Tauris” by Euripides
Iphigenia “From the beginning my fate was unhappy, from that first night of my mother’s marriage; from the beginning the Fates attendant on my birth directed a hard upbringing for me, wooed by Hellenes, the first-born child in the home, whom the unhappy daughter of Leda, by my father’s fault, bore as a victim and a sacrifice not joyful, she brought me up as an offering. … My father too, […]
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