“Sing, O Muse, a new song about Ilium, a funeral dirge accompanied by tears.”

The glory of the Iliad is over. The Muses are being summoned to sing a funeral dirge, a new song of mourning for the city of Troy.

This tragedy takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Trojan War. The Greeks have gotten past the famous Trojan walls, not by force but by trickery. They’ve entered the city, killed the men and children, and taken the women as slaves.

In this period between the fall of Troy and the sailing back by the Greeks, these Trojan Women have become slaves and are being doled out to the Greek Warriors. Each Trojan Woman is paired to a Greek as a slave for the rest of their lives.

These women have just witnessed the brutal deaths of their loved ones and have seen the city they loved burned to the ground. Helen is amongst them. She is one of the Trojan captives. Helen of Troy.

At this point, everyone wants her dead, including her ex-husband, Menelaus.

In this episode of the podcast, I give a brief introduction to this tragedy play, talk about three characters who stuck out to me, and share the one thing I’m still thinking about after having read The Trojan Women by Euripides.

In one of the most tragic stories of Greek Mythology, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order to secure favorable winds from Artemis so that the Greek Army can sail to Troy and retrieve Helen. That sacrifice sets off a series of events that curse a family line and destroy Agamemnon himself.

It’d be fun to imagine an alternate ending. One that doesn’t involve the utterly tragic death of Iphigenia and a father being forced to kill his own daughter.

That’s what happens here. Euripides provides some Ancient Greek Fan Fiction, an alternate history. Iphigenia is saved at the last moment in a scenario similar to Abraham and Issac where another sacrifice is provided at the last moment.

Iphigenia is then whisked away by Artemis to Tauris where she becomes priestess at the temple of Artemis. One lovely job requirement is to sacrifice any Greeks who arrive in Tauris. Orestes, a Greek, and Iphegenia’s brother, arrives, setting up the remainder of this story.

In this episode, I give a brief overview of the play, talk about some major themes, ask some questions I hope you’ll help me answer below, and share the one thing I’m still thinking about after reading Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris.

Admetus can escape Hades if he can find someone to die in his place. His wife Alcestis agrees to die for him in the ultimate sacrifice. Is she in the right? Should she have been the person to take his place? Where does that leave him if she dies?

These tragic elements are balanced with comedic release in the arrival of Heracles amidst this tremendous household grief. It turns this play about Necessity, marriage, and hospitality into a satyr drama to lessen the blow of the questions raised.

In this episode, I give a brief overview of the play, talk about the key themes, and share the one thing I’m still thinking about after reading Alcestis by Euripides.

Hecabe has to be one of the most tragic figures in the canon. Wife and Queen of King Priam, she’s lost close to 50 sons and 50 daughters by the start of this tragedy play. Not only that, she’s lost her husband, Hector, Paris, and Troy where she was queen.

This play starts with one of her only surviving sons, Polydorus, appearing as a ghost and telling of his demise. Hecabe doesn’t know he’s dead yet, but we soon find out she has something else to lament. The ghost of Achilles has demanded the sacrifice of Polyxena, Hecabe’s daughter. Hecabe pleads with Odysseus to spare her daughter to no avail.

The fact that Agamemnon shows up in this play is quite striking. Ten years earlier, he had sacrificed his own daughter Iphegenia to ensure favorable winds to Troy for the Greek ships. Here, he’s present while another sacrifice, this time from the Trojan side, is required to bookend the Trojan War. The damning thing in these tragedies is that it’s the innocent who usually suffer the most.

It’s also fascinating that the last page provides a prophecy about Hecabe and Agamemnon. Hecabe is told (through Dionysus as told by Polymestor) that she will be transformed into a dog. It provides some insight into the effect of overwhelming grief on the mind. Agamemnon is told that his wife will kill him with an axe upon his return home (and that she will also kill Cassandra, another daughter of Hecabe). It makes you wonder if that was going through Agamemnon’s mind as he returned home to Clytemnestra.

In this episode, I give some backstory to Hecabe, share the themes and quotes that impacted me the most, and close with the One Thing I keep thinking about from this incredible tragedy by Euripides.

*Correction - in segment 1, I mistakenly say Priam killed Achilles. It was Paris that killed Achilles.

Medea kicks off right at the end of Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes. Medea has just assisted Jason in subduing the dragon so that he can take the Golden Fleece. As thanks, Jason promises to marry Medea but then takes a second wife (the King’s daughter) to try to smooth things over in their new home.

Unsurprisingly, Medea doesn’t take kindly to being scorned and she plots her revenge. But this isn’t Clytemnestra type revenge of killing the perpetrator. This is much darker. Her revenge will take away all things dear to Jason while leaving him to live in the aftermath. It’s next step cruelty.

Medea kills wife #2, the king, and then stabs her two sons (shown above in a chariot pulled by dragons (or snakes depending on the translation). Medea tells Jason “your sons are dead.” He responds:

“Dead? No! They live to haunt your life with vengeance”

It’s a powerful line. And it begs the question—can you kill someone? Physically, yes. But what about mentally, morally, spiritually? It’s a question Dostoevsky explores in Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov knows he can physically kill someone and get legally get away with it due to his superior intelligence. But the question is whether or not he can get away with it on another level. Can he look at himself in the mirror at night? Will he have Furies chasing after him? Paranoia? Depression? Mental degradation?

Can you truly kill someone?

I’m the business manager at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN. Our owner recently purchased this book for all staff members so that we could read and discuss it. I’m so glad he did. I loved this book and it reignited a deep love and passion for bookstores.

It also provided a number of ideas that I highlight in this episode. I share three things that stuck out to me and got me thinking and then talk about some of my favorite bookstores over the years.

I read an illustrated edition of Aesop’s Fables earlier this year and came away quite disappointed. I knew Aesop lived in the 7th century BC, but the book of fables contained elements from much later during the Roman period. I came away confused and wanting to know more.

Someone suggested I pick up the Loeb Classical Library version of Babrius and Phaedrus to dig deeper. I’m so glad I did.

We don’t have actual writings or fables from Aesop. We do have collections from 600+ years later from these two, Babrius and Phaedrus, who collected, added, and made innovations to Aesop’s Fables. Babrius wrote in Greek and Phaedrus in Latin. So, technically, this Loeb book should look like this:

Here’s my original episode covering the illustrated Aesop’s Fables:

This is my favorite tragedy play by Sophocles. It’s absolutely stunning and shows the brilliance of the playwright in ways his other tragedies don’t. This is a story about means vs ends. Odysseus believes the adage “by any means necessary.” Deception is a legitimate means to reach a desired end. However, deception is not in the nature of Neoptolemus, whom Odysseus needs to fulfill a role. How will this play out? Will Neoptolemus give Odysseus “one day of shamelessness” to achieve a fated end?

In this episode, I provide a brief overview of the play, highlight three fascinating themes, and conclude with a question on whether Odysseus or Neoptolemus is wiser.