'Expel the Barbarian from Your Heart': Intimations of the Cyclops in Euripides's Hecuba

Audiences find Euripides's Hecuba unremittingly bleak, and critics find its composition confused. I argue that the play has an aesthetic integrity throughout its composition that derives from Euripides's use of the Odyssey's Cyclops episode, and that a study of the several ways in whi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy and literature 2018-10, Vol.42 (2), p.403-415
Main Author: Planinc, Zdravko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atrocities
Audiences
Classical literature
Daughters
Euripides (c 485-406 BC)
Greek literature
Paganism & animism
Symbolism
Tragedies
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Audiences find Euripides's Hecuba unremittingly bleak, and critics find its composition confused. I argue that the play has an aesthetic integrity throughout its composition that derives from Euripides's use of the Odyssey's Cyclops episode, and that a study of the several ways in which Homer's symbolism is used reveals the play to be a profound examination of the nature of justice and injustice, vengeance and barbarism. Euripides exposes the "barbarian" in the heart of every character: it is the Cyclops within, a Cyclopean tendency in the soul that has brutal but also sophisticated expressions. He even indicts his audience.
ISSN:0190-0013
1086-329X
1086-329X
DOI:10.1353/phl.2018.0027