Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow

Art, Gender, and Commemoration in "Alcestis," "Hippolytus," and "Hecuba

Bibliographic Data

ID9675632
AuthorsKarelisa Hartigan, Charles Segal, Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz
Year1996
Volume90
Issue1
Pages74
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Classical World (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-8418 • E-ISSN: 1558-9234
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/4351919
OpenAlexW567574336
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Where is the pleasure in tragedy? This question, how suffering and sorrow become the stuff of aesthetic delight, is at the center of Charles Segal's new book, which collects and expands his recent explorations of Euripides' art. Alcestis, Hippolytus , and Hecuba , the three early plays interpreted here, are linked by themes of violence, death, lamentation and mourning, and by their implicit definitions of male and female roles. Segal shows how these plays draw on ancient traditions of poetic and ritual commemoration, particularly epic song, and at the same time refashion these traditions into new forms. In place of the epic muse of martial glory, Euripides, Segal argues, evokes a muse of sorrows who transforms the suffering of individuals into a common grief for all the citizens, a community of shared feeling in the theater. Like his predecessors in tragedy, Euripides believes death, more than any other event, exposes the deepest truth of human nature. Segal examines the revealing final moments in Alcestis, Hippolytus , and Hecuba , and discusses the playwright's use of these deaths--especially those of women--to question traditional values and the familiar definitions of male heroism. Focusing on gender, the affective dimension of tragedy, and ritual mourning and commemoration, Segal develops and extends his earlier work on Greek drama. The result deepens our understanding of Euripides' art and of tragedy itself

Art · Literature · Poetics · Poetry · Sorrow · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Rhetoric and Communication Studies