Euripide

There are some lines in literature you know had to have been written, or at least touched, by a woman. There will be something in it’s core that rings so true, it defies what can be simply observed. It has to be lived. One of those lines, for me, was…

Since I had studied Greek in high school, I naively felt qualified to enroll in the Hellenic Traditions Seminar in my freshman year at Holy Cross (in 1968–69). The topic of this two-semester seminar was Aeschylus, probably the most difficult of the surviving Greek tragedians to read, and we were…

Aristotle taught that the essence of tragedy is hamartia — the tearing apart of the fabric of one’s existence. And then, hopefully, anagnorisis — Understanding, Wisdom, Enlightenment. Only then can the Euripidean challenge be answered: Who are we? and Why are we? I believe the basic answer to be: We are the beloved of our mothers, and so live accordingly.

One of the biggest problems with Social Media is an ironic one - so many of its billions of users don’t know what being sociable truly means. A simple Google search of the word ‘sociable’ gives the following definition: “Willing to talk and engage in activities with other people; friendly.” …

I recently joined Online Great Books, “an online community developing classically educated men and women using the Great Books of Western Civilization.” Thus far, we have read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Aeschylus, Euripides, and we’re about to start Plato. Each month we have a virtual seminar to discuss ideas that…

Euripides’ “Herakles” Premieres in New York — In Ancient Greek, with a Reconstructed Score for Aulos — “Of the remaining embellishments in drama, the most important is music.” Thus Aristotle has it in the Poetics (1450b), where the Greek word for music is μελοποιία, literally “melody-making.” The melody-makers in this year’s outstanding production of Euripides’ Herakles from Barnard Columbia Ancient Drama (BCAD) are Anna Conser, a Columbia…

by Dorothy Reik September 29, 2018 Last night I went to see Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae. As is almost always the case you can take Greek tragedy, written around 200 BC, and apply it directly to today. As Euripides tells it, Dionysus returns to his hometown of Thebes to get…

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” Euripides https://thejohnrobson.com/blog/2017/11/14/wish-id-said-that-november-14-2017