6 Autobots
allhailgrimlock

Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm a well read grad student who's bluntly honest about all things, although I try to be most honest about myself.   

Currently reading

Separate Orbits
Yael Mermelstein
Progress: 119/427pages
BATMAN #53 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman53, TomKingBatman53
BATMAN #54 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
MattWagnerBatman54, TomKingBatman54
BATMAN #52 ((DC REBIRTH)) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman52, TomKingBatman52
BATMAN #51 ((DC REBIRTH)) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman51, TomKingBatman51
Infinity Wars: Iron Hammer (2018) #1 (of 2)
Al Ewing, Humberto Ramos
Champions (2019-) #4
Jim Zub, Jacinto Benavente
SUICIDE SQUAD #46 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
JosLuisSS46, RobWilliamsSS46
SUICIDE SQUAD #45 ((SINK ATLANTIS)) ((DC REBIRTH )) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
JosLuisSuicideSquad45, RobWilliamsSuicideSquad45
Champions (2019-) #3
Jim Zub, Jacinto Benavente

Beautiful story, and the strangest of Euripides' plays

Alcestis - Euripides, Ted Hughes

Strange why?   It kind of works counter to the way his plays normally do, and the ending has always astounded me.   It's far from the first play I read - although I still have some I need to read - and it was far in enough that I was completely blown away because I never expected it. 

 

For those who know Greek mythology well, the story of Alcestis will be familiar.   She's dying to save her husbands life, as he's the king, and thus super-important.  He's also had a run of good luck, so his people want him to continue on so that his good luck will continue for him and for them.   But he asks his parents to die instead of him - which is occasionally possible in their mythology - and they refuse.   Only his wife accepts, although he finds her even more nobler, even greater, for this sacrifice.   As soon as she'd slated to die instead of him, he wants to die, as well.   

 

This is the general state, the general plot, and it doesn't do justice to the poetry of this play.   And it is poetry.  Nor does it do justice to Ted Hughes' translation, which is another layer of poetry itself.   Self-sacrifice is the central theme, a theme that continues in an unexpected way when Heracles comes to find room and board and finds a house of mourning, but is accepted as a guest anyway.  However, it's far from the only prevalent theme.  What life means without the person you love, is anyone more important the other - wife, husband, parent, child, king or servant.   This runs throughout the play.   Loyalty is yet another theme, and this plays heavily into the ending of the play in multiple ways.   

 

When reading Euripides, though, I always feel like I'm about to grab a loaded gun.   Because other than filling his writing with everything he can, and making everything count within his plays, he treads where others were fearful to go.   He gave women more of a voice than other playwrights, and although it might seem like he didn't, I believe he respected them a lot more than many of his peers.  He was also the one to have Medea kill her children, which it seems other writers of his time shied away from.   I have a healthy respect for his writing, partly because I just find it so lush and meaningful.  I also expect to encounter something uncomfortable, and I accept this: it pushes my boundaries.  

 

Why did I dock one star, then?   Despite kinda acknowledging other gods, whenever Hughes wrote God in there, I felt like it was talking about the 'one true' God, or the Judeo-Christian God, and that made me uncomfortable.   Not because I'm uncomfortable with religion, but because I'm uncomfortable imposing that on a play that was written for polytheists.   It just felt slightly disrespectful and very uncomfortable for me, and I can't really pinpoint why.   It's the way he uses the word, capitalizes it, and seems to underplay the other gods.   I'm docking only a half a star for it.   It's a gutsy move, and I feel like Euripides would want to take Hughes out for a beer for that kind of fearlessness.   That being said, I personally didn't like it, although it did make me think about what Euripides would have thought, and about the imposition of the modern world on old-world translations, so I'm not docking it too much.  

 

And even with that minor feeling of something wrong, this is a gorgeously lush translation. Just what Euripides deserves!   I would highly recommend this to any lover of Greek plays.