The Suppliants (also known as The Suppliant Women, /
Hiketides ), first performed in
423 BC-Persian empire:* Ochus, satrap of Hyrcania and son of Artaxerxes I and a Babylonian concubine, seizes the Persian throne from his half brother Secydianus , whom he has executed...
, is an ancient Greek play by
EuripidesEuripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
.
After
OedipusOedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
leaves Thebes, his sons fight for control of it. Polyneices lays siege to Thebes against his brother
EteoclesIn Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes , meaning "truly glorious". Tawaglawas is thought to be the Hittite rendition of the name. When Oedipus discovered that he had killed his father Laius and...
. Polyneices has married the daughter of Adrastus, King of Argos. And so Polyneices has on his side the Argive army, leaders of which help form the
Seven Against ThebesThe Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia...
.
The Suppliants (also known as The Suppliant Women, /
Hiketides ), first performed in
423 BC-Persian empire:* Ochus, satrap of Hyrcania and son of Artaxerxes I and a Babylonian concubine, seizes the Persian throne from his half brother Secydianus , whom he has executed...
, is an ancient Greek play by
EuripidesEuripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
.
Background
After
OedipusOedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
leaves Thebes, his sons fight for control of it. Polyneices lays siege to Thebes against his brother
EteoclesIn Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes , meaning "truly glorious". Tawaglawas is thought to be the Hittite rendition of the name. When Oedipus discovered that he had killed his father Laius and...
. Polyneices has married the daughter of Adrastus, King of Argos. And so Polyneices has on his side the Argive army, leaders of which help form the
Seven Against ThebesThe Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia...
. The invaders lose the battle, and Polyneices and Eteocles both die. Creon takes power in Thebes and decrees the invaders are not to be buried. The mothers of the dead seek someone to help reverse this, so their sons can be buried.
Story
The play begins with Adrastus and the Argive mothers seeking help from
AethraIn Greek mythology, Aethra or Aithra was a name applied to three individuals:-Mother of Theseus:...
and her son
TheseusFor other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the legendary founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with both of whom Aethra lay in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with...
within the Temple of
DemeterDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of grain and fertility, the pure...
. Theseus feels pity for them, and with the consent of the Athenian people decides to help. After it has become clear that Creon will not give up the bodies, the Athenian army must take them by force. In the end, the dead are finally laid to rest.
The same story had been mentioned years earlier in book 9 of
The HistoryThe Histories of Herodotus is considered one of the seminal works of history in Western literature. Written from the 450s to the 420s BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that...
by
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, in which the Athenians claimed the event as an example of their history of bravery.
Unburied Dead
Funeral rites are very important to people in ancient Greek literature. The
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
contains scenes of people fighting over corpses, such as that of
PatroclusIn Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and was Achilles’ beloved comrade.- Patroclus’ genealogy :...
. People are willing to fight and risk dying to obtain the bodies of the dead.
The Suppliants takes this concept even farther, showing a whole city willing to wage war to retrieve the bodies of these strangers. The theme of not allowing the bodies of the dead to be buried occurs many times throughout ancient Greek literature. Examples include the body of
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
as portrayed in the Iliad, the body of Ajax as portrayed in the play
AjaxAjax is a play by Sophocles. The date of its first performance is unknown, but most scholars regard it as an early work, about 450 BCE to 430 BCE . It chronicles the fate of the warrior Ajax after the events of the Iliad and the Trojan War. At the onset of the play, Ajax is enraged because...
by
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
, and the children of
NiobeNiobe was a daughter of Tantalus and the sister of Pelops, all of whom figure in Greek mythology.Her father was the ruler of a city called either under his name, as "Tantalis" or "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus at the foot of which his city was located and...
. For what happens to the body of Polyneices, see the play
AntigoneAntigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written before or in 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first...
by Sophocles.
Translations
- Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 - prose: full text
- Arthur S. Way, 1912 - verse
- Frank Jones
Frank Jones was a United States Representative from New Hampshire representing the 1st Congressional District from 1875 to 1879. He was the mayor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1868 and 1869.-Biography:...
, 1958 - verse
- Rosanna Warren
Rosanna Phelps Warren is an American poet and scholar.-Biography:Warren is the daughter of novelist, literary critic and Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren and writer Eleanor Clark. She graduated from Yale University in 1976, with a degree in painting, and then in 1980 received an MA from The...
and Stephen Scully, 1995 - verse