Resilience and Euripides’ Heracles

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20249088
AutoresSonia Pertsinidis (0000-0003-2157-4735, Australian National University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen10
Número1
Páginas44
Fecha de publicación2021-03-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHumanities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/h10010044
OpenAlexW3135748338
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas29

In the midst of the current global health crisis, there is ongoing discussion about the need to cultivate resilience, that is, the ability to survive tragic events, adversity and prolonged stress. This paper engages in a reading of Euripides’ Heracles, a bold and disturbing tragedy in which the eponymous hero suffers several striking reversals of fortune. After being victimized by Hera and unwittingly destroying his family, Heracles resolves to commit suicide. Only two hundred lines later, he resolves to continue to live. This change in outlook is remarkable given the traumatic events that he has just suffered. How does Heracles find the strength to endure? What factors bring about this positive change in Heracles’ perspective? This paper will draw on findings from modern resilience research to shed light on Heracles’ decision. It will discuss the complex combination of internal and external factors that play into Heracles’ change of mind. I argue that the processes that Euripides portrays in his play dramatize many of the protective factors that are said to promote resilience in real life

Aesthetics · Art · Commit · Environmental ethics · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Psychological resilience · Sociology · Visual arts · Computer Science · History · Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Philosophy · Psychology · Resilience and Mental Health · Social Psychology

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