A Wise Doctor, a Final Word

Sophocles, Ajax 581-582

“Close it quickly: it is not a sign of a wise doctor
To chant spells over a wound that needs cutting.”

πύκαζε θᾶσσον. οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ σοφοῦ
θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς πρὸς τομῶντι πήματι.

691-2

“You, do what I advise and perhaps you will quickly learn
That even if I am unlucky, I have survived.”

ὑμεῖς δ᾿ ἃ φράζω δρᾶτε, καὶ τάχ᾿ ἄν μ᾿ ἴσως
πύθοισθε, κεἰ νῦν δυστυχῶ, σεσωμένον.

864-5

“This is the final word your Ajax ever says
I’ll tell the rest below in Hades to the dead.”

τοῦθ᾿ ὑμὶν Αἴας τοὔπος ὕστατον θροεῖ,
τὰ δ᾿ ἄλλ᾿ ἐν Ἅιδου τοῖς κάτω μυθήσομαι.

Ajax (Carstens).jpg
Asmus Jakob Carstens, Sorrowful Ajax with Termessa and Eurysakes

Love’s Pains and Worse

Anacreonta 29

“Not falling in love hurts.
Yet falling in love hurts too.
But more painful than everything
Is to fail at loving completely.

Family means nothing to love.
Wisdom, manner are crushed.
Only money matters.
I wish the first person who loved money
Would have died.

Because of it, no brother matters
Because of it, no parents matter.
Wars, murders–because of money.
And this is worse. Those of us who love
Lose because of money.”

χαλεπὸν τὸ μὴ φιλῆσαι,
χαλεπὸν δὲ καὶ φιλῆσαι,
χαλεπώτερον δὲ πάντων
ἀποτυγχάνειν φιλοῦντα.

γένος οὐδὲν εἰς Ἔρωτα·
σοφίη, τρόπος πατεῖται·
μόνον ἄργυρον βλέπουσιν.

διὰ τοῦτον οὐκ ἀδελφός,
διὰ τοῦτον οὐ τοκῆες·
πόλεμοι, φόνοι δι᾿ αὐτόν.
τὸ δὲ χεῖρον· ὀλλύμεσθα
διὰ τοῦτον οἱ φιλοῦντες

Anacreonta 30

“I imagined I was running in a dream,,
But on my shoulders wearing wings.
Love dragged lead somehow
On his pretty feet,
As he was pursuing, almost catching me.

What does this dream want to mean?
I imagine that while I
Have been wrapped up in many
Loves and have slipped away from some
I am caught, stuck, in this one.”

ἐδόκουν ὄναρ τροχάζειν
πτέρυγας φέρων ἐπ᾿ ὤμων·
ὁ δ᾿ Ἔρως ἔχων μόλιβδον
περὶ τοῖς καλοῖς ποδίσκοις
ἐδίωκε καὶ κίχανεν.

τί θέλει δ᾿ ὄναρ τόδ᾿ εἶναι;
δοκέω δ᾿ ἔγωγε πολλοῖς
ἐν ἔρωσί με πλακέντα
διολισθάνειν μὲν ἄλλους,
ἑνὶ τῷδε συνδεθῆναι.

Jacob Jordaens - A bearded man and a woman with a parrot, allegory of unrequited love
Jacob Jordaens, “A bearded man and a woman with a parrot: “Unrequited Love”” 1640 (?)

Dishonoring the Gods

Sophocles, Antigone 280–288

“Stop speaking before you fill me with rage!
And you’re revealed as a fool as well as an old man.

You speak of unendurable things, claiming that the gods
Have some plan for this corpse.
Did they do it to honor him so greatly for his fine work,
Concealing him, the man who came here
To burn their temples and their statutes,
To ruin their land and their laws?
Do you see the gods honoring evil people?”

παῦσαι, πρὶν ὀργῆς καί με μεστῶσαι λέγων,
μὴ ᾿φευρεθῇς ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων ἅμα.
λέγεις γὰρ οὐκ ἀνεκτὰ δαίμονας λέγων
πρόνοιαν ἴσχειν τοῦδε τοῦ νεκροῦ πέρι.
πότερον ὑπερτιμῶντες ὡς εὐεργέτην
285ἔκρυπτον αὐτόν, ὅστις ἀμφικίονας
ναοὺς πυρώσων ἦλθε κἀναθήματα
καὶ γῆν ἐκείνων καὶ νόμους διασκεδῶν;
ἢ τοὺς κακοὺς τιμῶντας εἰσορᾷς θεούς;

 Sophocles, Antigone 72–77

“It is noble for me to do this and then die.
I will lie with him because I belong to him, with him,
Once I have completed my sacred crimes. There’s more time
When I must please those below than those here,
Since I will lie there forever. You? Go head,
Dishonor what the gods honor if it seems right.”

… καλόν μοι τοῦτο ποιούσῃ θανεῖν.
φίλη μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ κείσομαι, φίλου μέτα,
ὅσια πανουργήσασ᾿· ἐπεὶ πλείων χρόνος
ὃν δεῖ μ᾿ ἀρέσκειν τοῖς κάτω τῶν ἐνθάδε·
ἐκεῖ γὰρ αἰεὶ κείσομαι. σὺ δ᾿ εἰ δοκεῖ
τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμ᾿ ἀτιμάσασ᾿ ἔχε.

Sébastien Norblin, Antigone donnant la sépulture à Polynice

Dishonoring the Gods

Sophocles, Antigone 280–288

“Stop speaking before you fill me with rage!
And you’re revealed as a fool as well as an old man.

You speak of unendurable things, claiming that the gods
Have some plan for this corpse.
Did they do it to honor him so greatly for his fine work,
Concealing him, the man who came here
To burn their temples and their statutes,
To ruin their land and their laws?
Do you see the gods honoring evil people?”

παῦσαι, πρὶν ὀργῆς καί με μεστῶσαι λέγων,
μὴ ᾿φευρεθῇς ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων ἅμα.
λέγεις γὰρ οὐκ ἀνεκτὰ δαίμονας λέγων
πρόνοιαν ἴσχειν τοῦδε τοῦ νεκροῦ πέρι.
πότερον ὑπερτιμῶντες ὡς εὐεργέτην
285ἔκρυπτον αὐτόν, ὅστις ἀμφικίονας
ναοὺς πυρώσων ἦλθε κἀναθήματα
καὶ γῆν ἐκείνων καὶ νόμους διασκεδῶν;
ἢ τοὺς κακοὺς τιμῶντας εἰσορᾷς θεούς;

 Sophocles, Antigone 72–77

“It is noble for me to do this and then die.
I will lie with him because I belong to him, with him,
Once I have completed my sacred crimes. There’s more time
When I must please those below than those here,
Since I will lie there forever. You? Go head,
Dishonor what the gods honor if it seems right.”

… καλόν μοι τοῦτο ποιούσῃ θανεῖν.
φίλη μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ κείσομαι, φίλου μέτα,
ὅσια πανουργήσασ᾿· ἐπεὶ πλείων χρόνος
ὃν δεῖ μ᾿ ἀρέσκειν τοῖς κάτω τῶν ἐνθάδε·
ἐκεῖ γὰρ αἰεὶ κείσομαι. σὺ δ᾿ εἰ δοκεῖ
τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμ᾿ ἀτιμάσασ᾿ ἔχε.

Sébastien Norblin, Antigone donnant la sépulture à Polynice

A Wise Doctor, a Final Word

Sophocles, Ajax 581-582

“Close it quickly: it is not a sign of a wise doctor
To chant spells over a wound that needs cutting.”

πύκαζε θᾶσσον. οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ σοφοῦ
θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς πρὸς τομῶντι πήματι.

691-2

“You, do what I advise and perhaps you will quickly learn
That even if I am unlucky, I have survived.”

ὑμεῖς δ᾿ ἃ φράζω δρᾶτε, καὶ τάχ᾿ ἄν μ᾿ ἴσως
πύθοισθε, κεἰ νῦν δυστυχῶ, σεσωμένον.

864-5

“This is the final word your Ajax ever says
I’ll tell the rest below in Hades to the dead.”

τοῦθ᾿ ὑμὶν Αἴας τοὔπος ὕστατον θροεῖ,
τὰ δ᾿ ἄλλ᾿ ἐν Ἅιδου τοῖς κάτω μυθήσομαι.

Ajax (Carstens).jpg
Asmus Jakob Carstens, Sorrowful Ajax with Termessa and Eurysakes

Electra On The Couch

Electra’s mother, and her mother’s lover, killed her father, Agamemnon. Her brother, Orestes, is in exile. She misses her father, and her relationship with her mother and stepfather isn’t good. As you’d imagine, Electra has the blues.

The question, though, is whether in Sophocles’ depiction of Electra’s grieving has tipped into pathology; whether melancholia has replaced mourning.

Based on Freud’s discussion of pathological grief in his essay “Mourning and Melancholia,” Electra might well need therapy:

Freud:

“The distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a profoundly painful dejection, abrogation of interest in the outside world, loss of capacity to love, inhibition of all activity, and a lowering of self-regarding feelings”

Electra in soliloquy (103-106):

I will not put an end to this bleak lament and weeping
While I gaze on the stars’ radiant twinklings
Or on the day.

Electra to Chorus (821-22):

It would be a kindness if someone killed me
And a pain if I were to live.
I have no appetite for life.

Freud:

“The inhibition of the melancholic [a loss of interest in life] seems puzzling because we cannot see what it is that absorbs him [or her] so entirely.”

Chorus to Electra (121-123):

O child, child of a miserable mother–
Electra, what unrelenting lamentation
Destroys you unendingly?

Freud:

“They [melancholics] give a great deal of trouble, perpetually taking offense and behaving as if they had been treated with great injustice.”

Clytemnestra to Electra (519-522):

Now that Aegisthus is away, you show me no respect.
To top it off, time and again you’ve told lots of people
Things about me–that I’m brash, I rule unjustly,
I mistreat you and the things that are yours.

Freud:

“…like mourning, melancholia is the reaction to a real loss of a loved object. . . The loss of a love-object constitutes an excellent opportunity for the ambivalence in love-relationships to make itself felt and come to the fore.”

Electra to Chorus on the subject of Orestes (164-172):

I waited for him without fail, childless,
Forever suffering through life, unmarried,
Wet with tears and doomed to endless misfortunes.

But he forgets what he suffered and what he learnt.
Isn’t that why no message arrives without dashing my hopes?
He’s always longing,
Longing, but does not think to appear.

103-106

ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μὲν δὴ
λήξω θρήνων στυγερῶν τε γόων,
ἔστ᾽ ἂν παμφεγγεῖς ἄστρων
ῥιπάς, λεύσσω δὲ τόδ᾽ ἦμαρ

821-822

ὡς χάρις μέν, ἢν κτάνῃ,
λύπη δ᾽, ἐὰν ζῶ: τοῦ βίου δ᾽ οὐδεὶς πόθος.

121-123

ὦ παῖ, παῖ δυστανοτάτας
Ἠλέκτρα ματρός, τίς ἀεὶ
τάκει ςε ὧδ᾽ ἀκόρεστος οἰμωγὰ. . .;

519-522

νῦν δ᾿ ὡς ἄπεστ᾿ ἐκεῖνος, οὐδὲν ἐντρέπῃ
ἐμοῦ γε· καίτοι πολλὰ πρὸς πολλούς με δὴ
ἐξεῖπας ὡς θρασεῖα καὶ πέρα δίκης
ἄρχω, καθυβρίζουσα καὶ σὲ καὶ τὰ σά.

164-172

ὅν γ᾿ ἐγὼ ἀκάματα προσμένουσ᾿ ἄτεκνος,
τάλαιν᾿ ἀνύμφευτος αἰὲν οἰχνῶ,
δάκρυσι μυδαλέα, τὸν ἀνήνυτον
οἶτον ἔχουσα κακῶν· ὁ δὲ λάθεται
ὧν τ᾿ ἔπαθ᾿ ὧν τ᾿ ἐδάη. τί γὰρ οὐκ ἐμοὶ
ἔρχεται ἀγγελίας ἀπατώμενον;
ἀεὶ μὲν γὰρ ποθεῖ,
ποθῶν δ᾿ οὐκ ἀξιοῖ φανῆναι.

Statue of a Mourning Woman. Terracotta. 
300-275 BC. Found in Canosa, Italy. 
Paul Getty Museum.)

Larry Benn has a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard College, an M.Phil in English Literature from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Making amends for a working life misspent in finance, he’s now a hobbyist in ancient languages and blogs at featsofgreek.blogspot.com.

A Day With the Dead: Introducting Chas Libretto’s “Laodamiad” for Reading Greek Tragedy Online

Euripides, Trojan Women, fr. 646a

“Follow me when I guide you”

ἕπου δὲ μοῦνον ἀμπρεύοντί μοι.

Today’s performance of Reading Greek Tragedy Online is a new play, The Laodamiad,  by Chas LiBretto based on the story of Euripides’ Protesilaus . Protesilaus is the first hero to die at Troy and who received cult rites at a few places in ancient Greece. Euripdiess’ play remains only in fragments.

Laodameia is the name of Protesilaus’ wife, according to the Euripidean tradition. Other traditions have him married to Polydora, a child of Meleager. IN the non-Homeric tradition, Protesilaus was permitted to leave the underworld to meet his wife for a single day. The action of the play seems to have centered around this event, following Laodameia’s grief and the reactions of her near and dear.

Chas Libretto brings us a new interpretation of this story, rooted in the fragments that have survived and imagining the pieces we have lost. In a way, this is as true to the theme of the tale as humanly possible, arranging the remains of the lives we lead around the absence of the people we’ve lost.

Special Guests

Erika Weiberg
Performers and Scenes
Music performed by Bettina Joy de Guzman
Actors
Jessie Cannizarro
Tamieka Chavis
Damian Jermaine Thompson
Rene Thornton Jr.
Laodamia – Female, 20s
Iolaus/Protesilaos/Podarces, her husband and his brother – Male, 20s
Acastus, her father – Male, 50s – 60s
Chorus – Male/Female, 30s – 60s
Odysseus – Male, 30s

Euripides, Protesilaus fr. 650

“Illogical hopes deceive mortals”

πόλλ᾿ ἐλπίδες ψεύδουσιν ἅλογοι βροτούς.

Euripides, Protesilaus fr. 654

“When two are speaking and one is enraged
the one who resists fighting with words is the wiser.”

δυοῖν λεγόντοιν, θατέρου θυμουμένου,
ὁ μὴ ἀντιτείνων τοῖς λόγοις σοφώτερος

Crew and Amazing People
Artistic Director: Paul O’Mahony (Out of Chaos Theatre)
Host and Faculty Consultant: Joel Christensen (Brandeis University)
Executive Producer: Lanah Koelle (Center for Hellenic Studies)
Producers: Keith DeStone (Center for Hellenic Studies), Hélène Emeriaud, Janet Ozsolak, and Sarah Scott (Kosmos Society)
Director of Outreach: Amy Pistone (Gonzaga University)
Poster Designer: Allie Marbry (Center for Hellenic Studies)
Poster Illustration Artist: John Koelle

Euripides, Protesilaus fr. 655

“I won’t betray someone I love even when they’re dead.”

οὐκ ἂν προδοίην καίπερ ἄψυχον φίλον.

Future episodes

All start times are 3pm ET unless otherwise noted. Live stream available at chs.harvard.edu and on YouTube.

December 15 An Ancient Cabaret

Euripides, Protesilaus fr. 657

“Anyone who lumps all women together in slander
Is unsubtle and unwise
For among the many women you will find one wicked
And another with a spirit as noble as this one”

ὅστις δὲ πάσας συντιθεὶς ψέγει λόγῳ
γυναῖκας ἑξῆς, σκαιός ἐστι κοὐ σοφός
πολλῶν γὰρ οὐσῶν τὴν μὲν εὑρήσεις κακήν
τὴν δ᾿ ὥσπερ ἥδε λῆμ᾿ ἔχουσαν εὐγενές

Dishonoring the Gods

Sophocles, Antigone 280–288

“Stop speaking before you fill me with rage!
And you’re revealed as a fool as well as an old man.

You speak of unendurable things, claiming that the gods
Have some plan for this corpse.
Did they do it to honor him so greatly for his fine work,
Concealing him, the man who came here
To burn their temples and their statutes,
To ruin their land and their laws?
Do you see the gods honoring evil people?”

παῦσαι, πρὶν ὀργῆς καί με μεστῶσαι λέγων,
μὴ ᾿φευρεθῇς ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων ἅμα.
λέγεις γὰρ οὐκ ἀνεκτὰ δαίμονας λέγων
πρόνοιαν ἴσχειν τοῦδε τοῦ νεκροῦ πέρι.
πότερον ὑπερτιμῶντες ὡς εὐεργέτην
285ἔκρυπτον αὐτόν, ὅστις ἀμφικίονας
ναοὺς πυρώσων ἦλθε κἀναθήματα
καὶ γῆν ἐκείνων καὶ νόμους διασκεδῶν;
ἢ τοὺς κακοὺς τιμῶντας εἰσορᾷς θεούς;

 Sophocles, Antigone 72–77

“It is noble for me to do this and then die.
I will lie with him because I belong to him, with him,
Once I have completed my sacred crimes. There’s more time
When I must please those below than those here,
Since I will lie there forever. You? Go head,
Dishonor what the gods honor if it seems right.”

… καλόν μοι τοῦτο ποιούσῃ θανεῖν.
φίλη μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ κείσομαι, φίλου μέτα,
ὅσια πανουργήσασ᾿· ἐπεὶ πλείων χρόνος
ὃν δεῖ μ᾿ ἀρέσκειν τοῖς κάτω τῶν ἐνθάδε·
ἐκεῖ γὰρ αἰεὶ κείσομαι. σὺ δ᾿ εἰ δοκεῖ
τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμ᾿ ἀτιμάσασ᾿ ἔχε.

Sébastien Norblin, Antigone donnant la sépulture à Polynice

Instructors of Evil

Euripides, Andromache 940-951

“I had great wealth and I was ruling my home.
I would have had noble children some day
And she would only give birth to half-slave bastards for them.
But never and I say it over and over, never
Should anyone who has any sense at all and a wife
Allow other women to come to visit them!

These women are instructors of evils.
One ruins a marriage because she hopes to gain something,
While another who’s afflicted wants someone to be sick with.
Many more act because of native vice—and this is how
The homes of men grow diseased.”

πολὺς μὲν ὄλβος, δωμάτων δ᾿ ἠνάσσομεν,
παῖδας δ᾿ ἐγὼ μὲν γνησίους ἔτικτον ἄν,
ἡ δ᾿ ἡμιδούλους τοῖς ἐμοῖς νοθαγενεῖς.
ἀλλ᾿ οὔποτ᾿ οὔποτ᾿ (οὐ γὰρ εἰσάπαξ ἐρῶ)
χρὴ τούς γε νοῦν ἔχοντας, οἷς ἔστιν γυνή,
πρὸς τὴν ἐν οἴκοις ἄλοχον ἐσφοιτᾶν ἐᾶν
γυναῖκας· αὗται γὰρ διδάσκαλοι κακῶν·
ἡ μέν τι κερδαίνουσα συμφθείρει λέχος,
ἡ δ᾿ ἀμπλακοῦσα συννοσεῖν αὑτῇ θέλει,
πολλαὶ δὲ μαργότητι· κἀντεῦθεν δόμοι
νοσοῦσιν ἀνδρῶν. …

954-6

“You’ve laid into your kindred with your tongue too much!
Such things are forgivable for you now, but still
Women must work to cover up women’s afflictions!”

ἄγαν ἐφῆκας γλῶσσαν ἐς τὸ σύμφυτον.
συγγνωστὰ μέν νυν σοὶ τάδ᾿, ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως χρεὼν
κοσμεῖν γυναῖκας τὰς γυναικείας νόσους.

Frederic Leighton, “Captive Andromache”

and here’s a performance of sections of this play from Reading Greek Tragedy Online:

 

A Wise Doctor, a Final Word

Sophocles, Ajax 581-582

“Close it quickly: it is not a sign of a wise doctor
To chant spells over a wound that needs cutting.”

πύκαζε θᾶσσον. οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ σοφοῦ
θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς πρὸς τομῶντι πήματι.

691-2

“You, do what I advise and perhaps you will quickly learn
That even if I am unlucky, I have survived.”

ὑμεῖς δ᾿ ἃ φράζω δρᾶτε, καὶ τάχ᾿ ἄν μ᾿ ἴσως
πύθοισθε, κεἰ νῦν δυστυχῶ, σεσωμένον.

864-5

“This is the final word your Ajax ever says
I’ll tell the rest below in Hades to the dead.”

τοῦθ᾿ ὑμὶν Αἴας τοὔπος ὕστατον θροεῖ,
τὰ δ᾿ ἄλλ᾿ ἐν Ἅιδου τοῖς κάτω μυθήσομαι.

Ajax (Carstens).jpg
Asmus Jakob Carstens, Sorrowful Ajax with Termessa and Eurysakes