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    The Heracleidae
    The Heracleidae
    The Heracleidae
    Ebook52 pages2 hours

    The Heracleidae

    By Euripides

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    About this ebook

    Iolaus, Heracles’ nephew and his companion during his Twelve Labours but now an old man, is in hiding with Heracles’ fatherless children at the altar of the temple of Zeus at Marathon, near Athens. They have been moving from city to city, as Iolaus tries to protect them from the vengeful King Eurystheus of Argos, who has vowed to kill them. A herald from Eurystheus appears calling on them once more to return to Argos to face the consequences, and Iolaus begs the Chorus of aged Athenians to take pity and help them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSovereign
    Release dateOct 15, 2015
    ISBN9781911144038
    The Heracleidae
    Author

    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.  

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    • 5/5
      The 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

    HERACLEIDAE

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    IOLAUS, friend of Heracles

    COPREUS, herald of EURYSTHEUS

    DEMOPHON, King of Athens

    MACARIA, daughter of Heracles

    SERVANT, of Hyllus, son of Heracles

    ALCMENA, mother of Heracles

    MESSENGER

    EURYSTHEUS; King of Argos

    CHORUS OF AGED ATHENIANS

    Acamas, the brother of DEMOPHON, younger sons of Heracles,

    THE HERACLEIDAE

    SCENE

    Before the altar and temple of Zeus at Marathon. IOLAUS, an old man, and the children of Heracles are seen on the steps of the altar.

    IOLAUS

    I hold this true, and long have held: Nature hath made one man upright for his neighbours’ good, while another hath a dispositionwholly 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 drivingus 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 Hvllus and the elder of his brethren are seeking some place for us to find a refuge,

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