1 EURIPIDES' TROJAN WOMEN PREFACE, TRANSLATION, and ...

without all this speculation. Nietzsche condemned Euripides for these rational
interpolations, which he considered a debasement of the noble goals of tragedy.
Euripides sometimes has his characters speculate on how the future will view them. A
self-conscious view of the artist can be found in what both Cassandra and Hecuba claim,
namely that their sufferings were worth it because they will be remembered in times to
come, celebrated by the poets in song. Euripides was one of these poets, and he did
indeed make them immortal, or at least for the life of mankind.
In Aeschylus, god can confront god, and major questions are raised about conflicting
rights. Sophocles shows man confronting god and a world which can never be entirely
knowable. Euripides shows men and women forced to confront themselves, sometimes
becoming the source of their own defeat.
In Euripides’ universe, the gods could be actively hostile to man. If Sophocles presents us
with the hero, Euripides shows us the anti-hero. According to the later philosopher
Aristotle, Sophocles claimed he depicted men as they ought to be, but Euripides as they
were. Euripides, who chose to be isolated from an active citizen's life, saw things more
bleakly than did Sophocles. It is difficult to find or recognize any genuine heroes in
Euripides except a few brave women, or old men, or innocent children. Instead of the
heroism of the victor, Euripides emphasizes the heroism of the victim. The main recourse
man has in the chaotic Euripidean world is personal friendship, philia. Euripides has been
called the first psychological playwright. Longinus especially praised his telling
depiction of madness and love.
He is indeed a scientist of the emotions and focused often on unconventional, passionate
women. In the Women of Troy, he concentrates on all phases of women and shows them
heroic in their defeat.
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