The Changing Hero*

The Changing Hero*

When Euripides* is in full flower there is skepticism in the Greek air. Idealism is on the way out and expediency is the order of the day. The heroic, in the grand sense, is replaced by the common place. Euripides* is the debunker of his day. He is a socratic playwright, questioning the wisdom of the past, the truth of legends, the value of the gods. His choruses dwindle in importance to mere observers. An occasional irrelevant chant is the best they add to the play. He also needs to explain things before the main action starts and his prologues* are distinctive.

Many of his heroes are studies in madness and in extremities: Electra*, Hecuba*, Andromache*, Heracles*, the Trojan women*. Perhaps the most familiar character is Medea*, the sorceress who helps Jason steal the Golden Fleece by killing her own brother. She flees with him, gives him two sons, and then finds out he intends to dump her for a princess who can help his career. Not only that, but he expects to get total custody and take their two sons away with him. Madness is a rather mild term for this lady's passions.

As a hero, Medea* is not simply a woman scorned, she is the embodiment of all those who suffer the injustices of the world. Her virtues of loyalty and strength are discounted by Jason as so much trash. She has no country, no protector, no resources beyond her own cunning and determination. Her revenge is cruel and massive.

The Craftsman Of Theatrical Means The elaborate theatre spectacle now available serves Euripides* well and he sends on kings in

rags and a king's daughter in common clothes. He makes full use of the machinery of the theatre and comes to be known as the playwright who depends on the "deus ex machina*", rags and a king's daughter in common clothes. He makes full use of the machinery of the theatre and comes to be known as the playwright who depends on the "deus ex machina*",

It is interesting that we began this look at Greek tragic writers with Aeschylus*, whose early play Prometheus* dealt with a god as the hero, and we end Greek tragedy with the Bacchae*, produced after the author's death, which also features a god as a major character. For a man who is reported to have little use for gods it is hard to understand what Euripides is up to with this last play. It is true that the god seems surprisingly human and casually parades throughout the play disguised as a human, Perhaps this is a key to the playwright's intentions. He may be telling us that you never know who you are talking to.

There is an interesting emphasis on the helplessness of the people who get caught up in the "divine madness". There is also the craven and insatiable curiosity of the men, who are willing to stoop to any lengths, dressing up as women to spy on the revels.

The appalling ending when the mother comes in with head of her son on a pike, (thinking it a wild animal she has killed) is only surpassed in horror by her slow realization of what has really happened. The theme of helplessness and the loss of meaning about responsibility appeals to an audience caught in the clutches of forces beyond their ability to understand or deal with. The same social period sees a man who takes a very different view of disaster. Which leads us to the last great Greek dramatic writer, this time of comedy.