"The Trojan Women"
By Euripides
Translated by Edith Hamilton
The wikipedia summary is here, if you are interested.
This play is, in part, fantastic. The anti-war images displayed are of impressive force and poignancy, especially the notion of the lack of victors in a war. It was a powerful move to view the aftereffects of war through the survivors. It was heartbreaking to listen to the women speak of their loss. Add on top of this their realization of the impending Grecian slavery, and it is a rather depressing play.
One thing that struck me was the revenge of the play. This wasn't an experiment or example of Non-violence, this was violence as revenge. Helen, at least in this play, was to be taken back to Greece (Sparta) and torn apart by those who had lost loved ones in the war. It's hard to turn a sympathetic eye to Helen. She's kind of the worst woman ever, in a way. You almost want to hate her. She blames everything that happened on other people... other deities in this case. But I'm not sure I could condemn her to being ripped apart. Maybe I could. I hate her quite a bit, especially for a fictional character. It brings about a good question, if someone's actions resulted in the deaths of thousands of men and women and children, a city's burning... should she face some punishment? My Catholic ethos prompts me to say that God will mete out the punishment, but I'm more willing to say that I'd like to punch her in the face. As I would Dick Cheney. Not a blog about politics, I will stop that there.
In the introduction, Ms. Hamilton says boldly, "The Greatest piece of anti-war literature there is in the world was written 2,350 years ago." Now, take that as you may. It (the introduction) was written in 1937, and certainly some excellent bits of anti-war literature emerged during and after the wars that happened in the latter half of the twentieth century, but I have to admit, "Trojan Women" presents a powerfully negative vision of the effects of war. Is it anti-war? I'm not sure. There are so many instances of revenge being exacted upon the Greeks in order that everyone loses. The opening of the play is a conversation between two Gods, Athena and Poseidon. During the Trojan War, Athena supported the Greeks and Poseidon, Troy. After the war, Athena, apparently, gets a little pissy that the marauding Greeks desecrated her temple, and now she wants Poseidon to promise to kill as many of the home sailing Greeks as possible. Hecuba (wife of Priam, king of Troy) spends quite a bit of time extolling the virtues her son, the Great Greek Killer, displayed, and mentions that, without the war, her son Hector might have passed into oblivion, the Troys never knowing his capabilities as a warrior.
At a time in history like this, when our culture is stuck in the middle of a conflict/war, it's important to attempt to understand the consequences of our actions, beyond the simple statistics. To remember that each person who dies leaves concentric rings of anger, hurt and pain. I think this play does a fantastic job of illuminating that without feeling like it's preaching. In that context, perhaps it is the best piece of anti-war literature available to Us.
1 comment:
I've always found it interesting that art pieces that preach the woes of war are not received as well those that deftly get their message across. It certainly comes down to truth. When a preachy play simply exclaims the truth, you are less likely to believe it than the work that made it a point to show you only the truth and to let you decide what exactly it means to you and the world. We don't necessarily trust the street corner preacher shouting of the end of days, but perhaps were they to have us read The Road by Cormac McCarthy we might be a little more frightened.
War is just so. I think war is a terrible thing, but were I to shout that at someone, they are not going to take my banner and run with it just because I shouted that at them. They would take up the same banner, because they have lost someone, they have seen the effects of war, the great leveling wounds that scar where war has been. The would understand the same truth, because I had shown them the pain of others.
Though in today's media age, it is easier than I care to mention for media to sway a person one way or another, just by stating a strong opinion. Cereal ads can become clever propaganda with only the slightest of touches and this fact scares me.
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