Heracles (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Euripides
- First Published: 420
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Classical tragedy
- Time of Work: Remote antiquity
- Setting: Thebes
- Principal Characters: Amphitryon, Megara, Lycus, Herakles, Theseus, Iris, Madness, Chorus Of The Old Men Of Thebes
- Genres: Fable, Drama, Folklore, Tragedy
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Mental illness, Legends, Gods or goddesses, Fate or fatalism, Heroes or heroism, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Greece, ancient, Thebes, ancient
Critique:
HERAKLES MAD, one of the most puzzling of Euripides’ plays, begins with a stereotyped situation and weak characters, builds to a powerful climax in the mad scene of Herakles, and is followed by one of the most moving tragic reconciliations in all drama. Some critics see in Euripides’ treatment of Herakles the suggestion that he has been deluded all his life and has never really performed his twelve great labors; others have suggested that the madness comes not from Hera, but from Fate. In either case he reaches heroic and tragic stature when, after...
[The entire page is 1273 words long]
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